This episode is sponsored by Fishbowl. Learn more here: https://www.fishbowlinventory.com/
Seth Fineberg, the Editorial Manager & US Team Lead of AccountingWeb, joins Dawn to chat about the changes he’s seen in the accounting industry, solutions to solve pain points, and gives insight on how firms can better manage their time. Listen now!
Seth Fineberg is the Editorial Manager and US Team Lead for AccountingWeb. Seth briefly talks about his role, and explains that AccountingWeb is a brand dedicated to accounting professionals, specifically small to mid sized firms. Seth also remarks that behind every successful business is always a great accountant.
Dawn asks Seth about new changes he has seen in the industry, and how the pandemic really disrupted the way many accounting firms flowed. The pandemic reminded people they should be better connected and to focus on maintaining better work life balance.
Seth also talks about how many accountants tend to be understandably hesitant when it comes to implementing new technology and applications in their firm. However, many of these applications can help save accounting firms time and money, and help them achieve the desired level of work life balance they are looking for.
Dawn agrees and says she only implements applications that have proper integration, and through using these programs, she has been able to expand the revenue of her firm, and maintain work life balance.
Dawn asks Seth what pain points he currently sees in the industry, and he begins by talking about how hard it is for firms to maintain compliance. He has seen accountants at their breaking point; they are having to deal with new procedures due to the pandemic. He shares that many of these headaches can be solved by implementing the proper technology in your firm.
Seth also talks about the difficulties he’s seen when it comes to hiring new staff. Many practitioners are leaving their practice or retiring, and he says that it’s very important to make sure you hire the right staff to set your firm up for success.
Seth also talks about his experience as a baseball coach, and how he has found joy from coaching his two sons, and is glad baseball is something his whole family can enjoy together.
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Transcript
Dawn Brolin
Hello, everyone, my name is Dawn Brolin. I’m a certified public accountant, a Certified Fraud Examiner, the president of powerful accounting, Inc, and the author of the designated motivator for accounting professionals. And I’m here today just to talk to you briefly about an awesome inventory app called Fishbowl. What I love about fishbowl is its ability to sync seamlessly with QuickBooks Enterprise. And what’s even better about it is, we as accounting professionals don’t always have to be the best at everything. I find that you know, if you think about softball, which is what I always like to talk about. Not everybody is a great pitcher, not everybody’s a great outfielder. And so as accounting professionals, we all find those areas of accounting that we are really good at and that we are really passionate at and we love. I love my clients, but I’m not I don’t want to have to implement an inventory system for my clients. It’s not in my what I call wheelhouse, okay? But what’s great about fishbowl is they have someone on their team in Beverly Lang, and Beverly is an accounting professional. And so she’s able to make sure that the inventory system is set up properly, and that most importantly, the counting is done. And the integration from Fishbowl Inventory into the QuickBooks Enterprise system is seamless and accurate. So myself as the accounting professional, I want to make sure I’m referring the best of breed solutions for my clients, especially when I’m not I don’t have my hands in on that. And so I trust Beverly, and I trust Fishbowl that they’re going to do the job, right? I’ve seen it firsthand, if you want good inventory, great inventory, easy implementation, and have someone who knows the accounting side of it, Fishbowl is your solution. Thanks for listening.
Hey, thanks, everybody. And welcome to the DM disruption. We’re here to change and transform accounting practices and practitioners across the whole world, and helping them get their organization under control. And one of the things that we’re really excited about is just helping each person however we can. And we’re hoping with the podcast, that we’re going to give you great motivational information, what’s happening now those kinds of things. But most importantly, just to have a nice conversation with a guy like Seth Fineberg from accounting web. So Seth, thank you so much for coming today. But we were just kind of chit chat. We’re talking about the shirt, the jersey. It’s so fun, isn’t it? It’s a nice jersey, too. This is not a cheesy or cheap jersey. And so today, this episode is brought to you by Fishbowl in awesome. Oh, awesome inventory system. It’s like for me, my whole thing is my starting lineup is all about applications or solutions that actually provide a solution. And it’s not just hogwash, it’s listen, let’s get these people who have inventory issues, right? Either theft, loss whatever, or just keeping track of their inventories that they know what their asset value is. I mean, for goodness sakes, people were doing accounting so people can take the information and timely information not oh, we’ve got to enter stuff from two months ago. No, it’s real time integrated solutions that work for you as a firm or for your clients and solutions. Like I don’t have an inventory need. But that’s who I recommend when it comes to inventory. Because they’re I mean, they just got to figure it out. But Seth introduce yourself. Tell me about Seth Feinberg. I mean, I know you but other people may not.
Seth Fineberg
Well, hello, I for those who don’t know me, or even for those who do, you’re gonna get a review. I’m Seth Fineberg. I am the Editorial Manager and US team lead for AccountingWeb. So which basically means you know, I oversee all of the words and all of the content. And everything we’re putting out on accounting web, you know, ultimately goes through me. AccountingWeb has been a brand dedicated to accounting professionals specifically. So you if you run a practice, or you’re a big cheese in a practice or you are making decisions within a practice, whether you’re a sole prac or particularly, you know, small firms, small to mid sized firms. You are our audience and have been for the last 20 years. I’ve been at the helm here for about six and a half years. Some of you may also know me from back in my day as a technology editor and accounting today. So I’ve been covering accounting for nearly 20 years now in my career as a as a business journalist, which spans a little over 30 years at this point. And you accountants a great, great bunch of people and you realize how much especially as a business journalists, you know, I’ve always been motivated and inspired by what makes business work. I’ve never had like a business background, I have more of a journalist side, but getting into the world of business, finding out what makes it work, you realize behind every good business is an accountant, or an accounting professional, they truly are in your corner. And, you know, if you’re not, um, you know, people like Dawn are here to help you with successful practices and tools that she had learned as a practitioner herself, to, you know, make things really work and help you you know, kind of keep pace, you don’t all have to be these big, you know, Rockstar superstars, superheroes, you might be to your clients, but you don’t have to necessarily be, you know, the most advanced accountant or bookkeeper in the world, you, most of you. And the folks that I talked to, they just want to get through the day they want to get through the season, they want to know, they’re doing things right. And they want to do right by their staff, and, of course, their clients. And you know, so they all know, they can be better. So they listen to podcasts like this, they read our pages, to get inspired to feel like there’s hope for them and some direction out there for them. And that’s, that’s what we do day in and day out. So thanks.
Dawn Brolin
Oh, my goodness, that’s a that’s such a perfect description of encapsulates maybe everything I’ve ever thought of in a great summary. That’s why you’re a journalist, you see, I can go out there, and I can pound the keyboard with the best of it. Right? Get out there, bang, bang, bang. But you just said that so eloquently. And it’s so true, Seth and, and you’re seeing obviously as as the man in charge, and AccoutingWeb and knowing and seeing practitioners, either commenting on articles that you’re putting out, or if you’re paying attention to social media, you see what the struggles are in the accounting profession. And especially right now we’ve talked to a few on the show, James Upton one is one for instance, there’s a couple of others that we’ve had on to just say, Hey, listen, what are you struggling with right now? And where are you at? Because we are seeing this struggle. So you know, the Designated Motivator for Accounting Professionals, which is coming soon, we’re focused 100% on exactly Seth, what you’re doing in the world of journalism, and getting out ongoing publications and articles from all kinds of amazing practitioners, right for you. So it’s not just like Fishbowl’s coming on. And they’re just, you know, talking about their product. But you’re having other professionals come in and write about people like Fishbowl to say, Listen, that’s they’re going to tell you what they understand about what they can do for your clients and solve for things. But the practitioners are the ones who say, Hey, listen, you’re going to start using this particular solution. It’s because I vetted this solution. I mean, they’re using it myself, because I’m a practitioner, I own a firm and I’m, I’m a business owner, just like my clients, which is what I love to say to them, right? And so, you know, what types of things current events are you seeing in the industry right now that you would say, pay attention to this or that?
Seth Fineberg
There’s, there’s really so much, you know, right now going on, I don’t want to beat a dead horse over, you know, just the the true disruption that the pandemic has, has had. But I think even before that, I think really what it did was it just brought to light, how better connected we could all be, how much of a work life balance that practitioners could and should really have. And, and also that there’s, there’s tools out there to just, again, not make you like, you know, the you know, the biggest, you know, rock star in the world, but to just deal with your every day problems and issues that you’re facing from onboarding and staffing to just, you know, dealing with, you know, basic cash flow and dealing with, you know, just your basic work that you’re you’re your own workflow and your own firm. And, you know, handling client issues. I mean, it’s, you know, you’ve what I’ve seen over particularly the past year and a half is is accountants and bookkeepers, even the smallest of them out there, which, by the way, is very much the, you know, everyone’s talking about the Big Four, the big 10, the big 50, the big 500, this or that, then there’s everybody else. There is the small practitioner, the sole practitioner, the folks that are in the corner of individuals and businesses every single day. And they’re the ones that were hurting the most and we’re looking mostly to their accountant. So there has been a large call, I’d say over the last five or six years to you know, to be better, do better, be more all these things and I don’t think it’s really resonated as well ss you know, the you know, those who are delivering the message would would prefer and a lot of is because a lot of that message, nooffense to the vendors, but a lot of it was coming from them, or folks who were paid by them to to have this message and practitioners, as you know, we’re they’re very, you know, and accountants by nature, they’re very skeptical. Sure, they’re paid to have that level of skepticism that, you know, that analytical nature that’s in every accountant, every good accountant. And you’re just it’s like, You’re not telling me why. And you’re also not telling anyhow, as much. And so that all of that over the last five years, I think has bubbled to a head to where we were in kind of a national emergency, for, particularly for small businesses who were like, this is my life, like, I want to, I want to be able to pay my employees, I want to be able to stay in business, how do I do that, and accountants were right there, you know, they were, they were like, kind of, you know, they were like the emergency room doctors, they have your financials, they have your charts, they have, you know, everything out there at their fingertips. But you know, some of them, you know, maybe didn’t have all of the right tools to stay connected with their staff to stay connected with their, their, their clients in real time. And so the things that were kind of getting pushed off over the, you know, the few years because maybe the narrative was just a little more to like, beat me over the head versus right on your side. And that’s what we try to do every day too. And by having a lot of our tone, sort of come from other practitioners and people in the know, people who are doing and living it every day by saying, look, we’re on your side here, and I think vendors are starting to get that message more too. But, yeah, too much of a tangent, but I think there’s several things that kind of bubbled into one, and it’s that there are tools available now and have been available for seven, several years already that have been vetted, that have been proven that are there to help, right, you just do get it done everything to get it done. And then you know, also, yeah, maybe maybe be a rock star, be a savior in the eyes of your clients. And, you know, I’m sorry, that it took, you know, a bit of a crisis to for that, to, to motivate to push, you know, practitioners to, you know, to do this, but they still need help on their own too. So you’re doing great work on that front door. But let’s get real for a minute here. And just, you know, this is also a process to you don’t have to do everything yesterday.
Dawn Brolin
Yeah. And it’s been fire-hosey.
Seth Fineberg
Yeah!
Dawn Brolin
It’s like, it’s like, there’s so it’s too much. There’s so many apps that are out there, there are a ton of great apps, what I found to be what my laser focus was, I want to make sure that my apps integrate. I don’t want to do double work. I didn’t want to enter things twice. I don’t want to, oh, did I put it over here? Did I put it in this system? No. When I put it in one, it sends it to everybody. And then everybody knows who that person is or that client?
Seth Fineberg
Just push a button.
Dawn Brolin
Just push a button!
Seth Fineberg
I don’t want to know from an API, what?
Dawn Brolin
Exactly like, it’s like anybody that has, I’ll call it fragmented application usage , fragmented, of course, right? Meaning just, I’ve got this over here, and this is over here. But this doesn’t talk to this. So we got to put it in. But like that those things are so far gone, right ?
Seth Fineberg
He’d call that chunkification!
Dawn Brolin
He did call a chunkification! And you know what? I didn’t buy into that word in the beginning. I’m like, Doug, what are you talking about? Man? You know what, that’s what he was right? It was right. That’s what it was. And it’s just like, it’s so I like the way I’ve been trying to structure this whole concept of, you know, the Designated Motivator and saying, listen, number one, like you said, Seth, and it is totally key. These smaller firms there be their sole props there, or they’ve got, you know, four or five staff or five to ten. A lot of times those are the practitioners who don’t have a partner, typically. So they’re running their own.
Seth Fineberg
They got one.
Dawn Brolin
Yeah, maybe they got one. And it’s like they do rely on each other. But sometimes I just find that listen, I knew I needed to go out there and listen to the people who I knew were actually in there doing stuff. People like Heather Satterley, People like Hector Garcia, people like Stacey Kildall you know, Liz Scott, Marissa Martinez, I mean, all these people. So what really what’s happened is there’s those of us who have fallen on our faces, but we’re determined to get back up and say, You know what, I tried that app. It didn’t work for me. I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing. We said, No, we’re not gonna do that we found an app. We we’ve tried to make it work. We tried it, you know, we’re the kings and queens of workarounds. Right. And so we tried to do that. And it was like, You know what, as the technology grew, we didn’t have to do that anymore. We knew we could go to an application, say, does it work with this, and don’t say it works with it. This was one of the misconceptions. Oh, I work with QBO. Or I work with QuickBooks Desktop, and then at the end of the day, didn’t work for crap. So it’s like, you know,
Seth Fineberg
It didn’t flow in in the right way. And you’re like, wait a man, I’ve got stuff over here. I got stuff over here, right? Like this isn’t making I was a big thing that I would hear was just when you push that button to everything flow in, and it’s just like, what just happened? Like, I don’t want your or I don’t want to have to go over? Yeah. You know…
Dawn Brolin
You know, yeah. And then that was, that was all thing. So like, I was just trying to tell people listen, listen, it’s just like that. It’s like, you know, people who like history or don’t like history, it’s irrelevant. But if you watch people who have gone from, you know, I’ve been in this for 23 years, Stacy killed off, same thing. Like a Mariette Martinez, all those people were out there figuring it out. So why try to recreate what we know works. And we know it works, because we use it. You know, I always say, You know what my big thing is…
Seth Fineberg
If you are paid by some vendor, like you have a practice all these all individuals that you mentioned, like, guess what they’re in business for themselves to their they have practices that they’re trying to run, and they have other mouths that they’re trying to feed, and they’re trying to have businesses that they’re trying to help to.
Dawn Brolin
Absolutely, yeah. And I think, you know, one of the biggest things for me, and I would just say this to just as a broad common, is that the most important thing to me when it comes to an application is their customer service. And their customer service sucks, I am out out because I and it’s not even like I don’t even it’s more of Oh, something glitchy happened, which does happen. And I’m like, I don’t want to wait in line, I don’t want to be the 700 person, I need to get this off. So I can move on with whatever it is I’m doing. And so you know, we’ve gone through and just pounded the vendors, pounded them, give me what I want, give me what I want, and they are getting it. They’re getting it. It’s not just about that application that you’re providing. That’s wonderful. But listen, we’re gonna be your biggest cheerleaders, if you’re doing it the right way, and you’re giving us service that we deserve and need. Right. And I think, you know, that’s a lot of that stuff. So, so let’s shift just for a hot second. So I’m thinking about just as you’re seeing on social media, kind of the activity that’s out there. If you were to pick two major pain points that you see practitioners having today, what would those two pain points be? I like to because it’s smaller than three case you don’t know.
Seth Fineberg
That’s good. I’ll go with that. I’ll go with that.
Dawn Brolin
Always trying to educate!
Seth Fineberg
One big thing. And this is, you know, because you know, bookkeepers also work with the tax pros or some, you know, some are CPAs. And they do, you know, they have a bookkeeper in their practice. And they also do a lot of tax, right, either way, you both have to keep up with, you know, the compliance environment. And again, over the past year, I’m not saying every, every year, it’s always something’s always something with the tax code, or the way you file something, or there’s a new form, there’s a change to a form, something, you know, what now with all of the loans that the government in particular has put out to help out businesses and individuals over the past year and a half. Now, all of a sudden, it’s time to account for all of that keeping pace has really kind of come to a head and it’s and then the guidance, the guidance itself just keeps changing. And they’re like, I feel for these practitioners who are literally ready to pull their hair out, or like, just like look, and they’re trying it, they’re on the phone with the IRS for hours, just trying to get through, just give me something and I got my clients in my ear just going I don’t know, this, I see constantly. And I and you feel for people, they’re really in tears, the rain, just go into a hole and cry and never come out. Like, it’s that it’s that painful. It’s that real because they’re just there, you’re in charge of other people’s lives too. And they’re, you know, and you’re trying to also run your own practice and do you notice people paying me money and, and and putting their time in and I’m putting extra hours in. And if only I had the tools for that job to do it. Now. I’m not saying technology’s as everything. But there’s a lot out there, you might not know that’s going to make a lot of that pain go away. 100% It takes care of it. And my God, if you were in the world of sales tax, God bless you for being in that world. That living hell. Oh, keeping track of every little thing that you know. So say you have a retailer in any, you know, doing business in I don’t know, handful of states, they’re not, you know, we sell into maybe a dozen states, something like that. You have to be on top of everything in those states because of the beauty of economic Nexus. Absolutely. Oh, it’s such a wonderful world economic Nexus. And, and these are things to that, you know, eventually, you know, you know, bookkeepers who are in the financials and they know, sort of what, you know, how the business is going like, this is another area where tools can sort of take a lot of that that pain away, but this is probably the biggest. And then I guess, if you want to put in, in a third, and you know, there’s been tons of reports already recently released about this to staff, staffing, how do you get the right people to deal with all this, this is something that, you know, we’ve we’ve talked about it coming, it’s coming, there’s going to be natural aging out aging out of the profession, guess what?
Dawn Brolin
It’s even worse.
Seth Fineberg
It’s here! Over the next five years Dawn, there are going to be this isn’t our generation, this is the ones who are just above us. The Boomers. Yeah, the folks who are ready to sign out. And and just, you know, they’re just ready to lock it up, throw away the keys, they haven’t, they haven’t built any value in their practice. They’re like, they can’t sell it. What are you gonna do? Maybe sell your client base? Okay, fine. Now, you got to deal with onboarding these new clients, and you need staff who are, you know, maybe have skills that are outside that maybe you haven’t grown up been brought up as an accountant, maybe you right, you’re another profession? Maybe you know, marketing? Well, you know, how do I deal with that, even as a small firm? You know, and I’m growing. And then there’s a lot of folks too, that kind of jumped ship from the, you know, people maybe who are around our age bracket or even a little younger, that did their time already at a large regional or big firm jumped out on their own a lot of these entrepreneurial accountants and they’re trying to grow their practice, how do I hire that talent, and get the right people and get them to stay? So that’s kind of those are the three biggies right now.
Dawn Brolin
You absolutely nailed it.
Seth Fineberg
Hiring the right people. And just knowing even just what tools are right for me, like because you have plenty of the professional who maybe poo pooed it five years ago, they’re now going Yeah, I’m ready to listen. But I don’t know where to start.
Dawn Brolin
Yeah, well, and that’s one of the things in the book that’s going to be really awesome is we have a full assessment, no matter where you are, whether you’re just getting started, I’ve been in this for 20 years, I’ve been in it for 10, you’ve been in it for 30, like you said, You’ve been at a big corporate, you’re leaving, I see a lot of that. Join a bunch of Facebook groups, and I’ve read through them regularly to just see what’s going on out there. And you’re right, we’re seeing people starting up new firms of their own and yeah, trying to hire people, like where do you even start when you’ve got the HR package and all that. And I it’s so so important. IRS, okay, like you were saying, trying to get through. And I know there’s a big mixed bag of emotions out on social media about and Q. Colin Q. And I’m just gonna tell you right now I use it, I’m not ashamed to use it. Do you know why? Because is it right or wrong to get into the queue, and, you know, hold up the queue and all this other stuff? I don’t know enough about that. But I can tell you, what I have to do, is I need to get my crap done for my clients. And if it means using a service like that, to get me through faster, so I can get my job done, then I’m doing it.
Seth Fineberg
Do you not have like, you know, TSA PreCheck, do you not have clear do not have these things? Priority check in whatever? Here we are. And guess what, you’re just trying to get a job done. It’s not, you’re not gonna say cutting anyone off? You’re like, I’m a practitioner, I have one question I need clarity on, I’m going to get in, I’m going to get out. That’s what I need. I don’t need to wait an hour and a half.
Dawn Brolin
Exactly. Not doing it. So at CallENQ choose one than the other one, I want to talk about what actually there’s two solutions and people, you know, like one versus the other, or whatever doesn’t matter, for pulling transcripts, because it sucks online, go into E services, it’s archaic dinosaurs still live there. I don’t understand it. So, you know, I use a Tax Help Software and Canopy. Those are two great solutions for pulling transcripts. As a matter of fact, some people some people think, you know, I don’t know, if my clients given me all their income documents from you know, 2020 Well, if you wait till about mid May, you can go and pull their training their wage and income transcripts and make sure that whatever they’ve given you for documents, you have missed something. Because the last thing you want is for your clients to be like, Oh, you didn’t, you know, I got a notice because you didn’t there was a you know, some getting, you know, maybe some stock transactions, whatever. And they didn’t give me the paperwork because that happens all the time. Because they don’t pay attention, which is fine. That’s what I’m there for. But I can pull the transcript at least say Oh, looks like you AmeriTrade, hey, where are your AmeriTrade statements? I need bases and stuff like that maybe it wasn’t reported the IRS, it’s not on the transcript. So it’s like set yourself up for success to make your job easier. You know, and so transcript solutions, and Call ENQ, that’s dude, I can get I, and I charge my clients for all that stuff. I’m sorry, the IRS doesn’t pay me. Right. And it’s not my fault, the refund got held up.
Seth Fineberg
So value of of you, this is what you pay, you know, when you put it in as fee or subscription or whatever. Yeah, this is what you’re getting from Powerful Accounting.
Dawn Brolin
And Iv make calls for you. You’re all set. And yeah, so I think that there’s what I love, I love this conversation, because it’s really what the whole point of the Designated Motivator for accounting professionals book, it’s what it’s about, it’s about giving you solutions. Listen, I know, my roadmap works. I know, my roadmap has allowed us to do where $500,000 in 10 1/2 months.
Seth Fineberg
Cause you drove that road. You mapped it out!
Dawn Brolin
I mapped it. I wrote it all out. And I said, Oh, wow, I think I know what I’m doing. Maybe I could share this with other people. That’s the whole point. And I think just like, you know, you’re doing regular, ongoing, I mean, we’re doing content too. But you know, you’re telling the story and throw it out there stuff. And that’s what I think’s most important. But so we try to keep this between 20 and 30 minutes. So I guess I’ll just I want to get just kind of a little bit about Seth, you know, a little bit about Seth. You know, I know you’re coaching your son in baseball, and he’s kicking butt, you guys are doing two sons. That’s awesome. So just tell us a little bit about that. So people could get a little get the fields from set binder? Come on? Well, sure.
Seth Fineberg
I mean, look, I was never much of a jock. You know, growing up, I was kind of a loner kid, you know, what have you. But you know, growing up in kind of a suburban town, sooner or later, you just do what your friends are doing. And baseball was a big deal, you know, growing up in my town in New Jersey. And so I got into it, I got into little league, and I just, you know, I became a fan of the game, I collected cards and what have you. And it’s just something that always, always stuck with me. And then you know, even later than life in life, I just, you know, I was never like a sports fan. I don’t follow very much other sports other than baseball. And so I became a father. And I, you know, eventually had two boys. And even if I had two girls, whatever, it never mattered to me, I had kids. And I just wanted to see what they were into. And but they always knew mom and dad. And you know, my wife is is also an enormous baseball fan as much as I am particularly. Particularly the Yankees, I’m sorry, this is where I grew up in New York. She’s from the she was born. She was born 11 blocks from the stadium.
Dawn Brolin
Oh, whatever.
Seth Fineberg
Grew up in Detroit. What anyways, that’s got my kids into the, into the game. You know, to me, it’s baseball, Yankees, everything else. So baseball first. But as my team, your team is your team, you got, you know, sort of what went right, at any rate. So that’s, that’s how I got into it. And then, you know, the kids, I figured, all right, you know, just like any parent would want to do. It’s all volunteer around around here. You know, this is just a local Little League team. And all the parents just they pitch in their time. And they’re helping their kids as well as, you know, whatever, you know, 10 or 11 other kids who are on the team too. And I just, I have a head for it. I understand the game. I know. You know, I feel like I can just be like a parent out there and a coach, and my older kid, he needs it. You know, last you know, I work with him individually. But he’s got other coaches that work with him. My younger one is not he just turned nine. So he’s kind of right in that zone, where he’s just like, still needs dad in his corner. And, and I just, you know, I just love it. I love the feeling of just sort of being on the side with the kids. Now, I’m not one of those. Not one of those baseball, dads are baseball parents and like loses their mind. Like, kids game like I see it happen. And I’m like, What are you into? What are you doing? Not moms and dads…
Dawn Brolin
Oh no, 100%.
Seth Fineberg
And I’m like, I’ve just never I’ve never yelled at a kid. In my life. It’s just not and I’ve been I’ve been coaching now for I’m going into my eighth year of coaching. And I just that’s just not how I do. So talk about designated motivator. You know, I always had two rules on my team. Like your own coach that has teamed up with Coach Seth has two rules. You know, one is have fun. This is a game, why are you playing a game? This is to me, the greatest game of the World. Whatever your opinions on baseball are, I think it’s the greatest game in the world. You’re here your parents, you know spent money and time they put you here you want to be a part of a team. Second is pay attention. Pay attention to your coaches. Listen to us. We know what we’re talking about. Listen to us and pay it and listen to your team. teammates to, because they’re on the field, we’re not always on the field, they’re there to help you. You listen, you pay attention because it’s going to keep you safe. Because you know, things happen in an instant you spend 90% of the time waiting around. Yeah, absolutely. Kinda like the IRS, but you gotta be ready. Ready to go have the glove ready, you’re in ready position, your baseball ready, as we call it, you know, and you’re ready to make your move as soon as it happens, because you don’t know when that’s gonna be, I don’t care if you’re playing the deepest outfield, or you’re right up front. You know what bases loaded, you have to be ready. And so that’s what, that’s why I have those tools. And I have since the beginning. And I love that.
Dawn Brolin
That’s such good stuff. You don’t relate that to the accounting professional, it’s the same thing. We have to always be ready. We never know what’s coming next. We’ve always got to be ready. But I love that about, hey, you’re here. Take the moment. And now we talked about in the book, what’s important, is be in the moment be and we always tell the kids when softball and baseball same thing. Be in your shoes, you see because you got to be where you are, and be ready to take make a shift and do something different.
Seth Fineberg
Don’t go looking at that other game over there. Don’t be looking down. You know..
Dawn Brolin
It don’t matter what the other team score is. That’s irrelevant. And actually, in a we always tell our kids hey, listen, focus on us focus on our eastern softball, focus on Eastern, we don’t care what the other dugout is doing. We don’t care what they think they have their sand wherever they do. It’s about what we’re doing together. And so I think that that’s the whole I guess that’s a great message for the accounting community. We want to be together be where we are, know that you have there are coaches and mentors and people out there that will put their hand down, pull you up and help you through this process. Because we all had those mentors together. Just like Seth, as you’re doing coaching with the kids. You’re their mentor right now. Right? And they’ll remember you forever. That’s, you know, those stories will come much later in life. But they’re coming, and they will. But Seth, thank you so much for coming on to on today, except Fineberg,
Seth Fineberg
Thanks for having me!
Dawn Brolin
This was awesome. We’ll do this again, for sure, at least 100 more times, I’m sure because I got so many more things I want to talk to you about but we like to keep it short. We want people to be motivated. Thanks again for listening to the DM Disruption. And we’re gonna come to you next week with some more good stuff and we’re gonna keep on just trying to teach you reach out to us, Don brolin.com That’s what we’re here for. Happy to help everybody out. Thank you again, Seth. You’re the best buddy.
