Activating the Advisory Mindset

Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining today. My name is Mike English. I'm an account executive here at Ignition. Wanna thank you all for attending the activating the advisory mindset webinar with Amy Vedder. So we're keeping things PG today. Today's session is being recorded. So, just look out for a copy of the recording to be sent to you alongside any materials or resources discussed today. Right side of your screen, we've got the live chat and the q and a, so please use the q and a function throughout. We also have some polls that are gonna be popping up throughout the webinar today, so highly encourage you to take part and and keep this interactive. Our conversation expert, today, we have the CEO of the b three Method Institute, Amy Vetter. Thank you for joining today. Thank you for having me. Now Amy's gonna take us through the majority of the webinar today. She's then gonna pass it over to me to give a quick flash demo of Ignition. At a high level, Ignition is a lead to payment software that helps firms package their services, ensure that they're priced appropriately relative to their peers, and outline things like their scope of work, billing schedule, price, any terms and conditions of their contract, and then the ability to execute a signature on that agreement, automate their billing and payment collection as a full, again, lead to payment solution. So I'm gonna be diving into that towards the end of the demo. But, Amy, I'll pass things over to you. Well, thank you so much and excited for the demo. I can tell everyone that's on today. I have worked with my coaching and consulting clients utilizing Ignition, and it has changed their practices. So, definitely stay tuned for that. So I wanna thank Ignition for putting on this webinar today and this very important topic. I think this is one of the most important things right now in this world of AI, and it's the one thing that isn't talked about enough is the human side of AI. And that is what today's session is about. Just a little background on me. I am a CPA. I am also a prior owner of it wasn't called CAS when I did it, but, I've had multiple CAS practices. I had them on my own. I started my own practice. I was a partner in a firm. I was a partner in a national firm as well doing this over time. And so what I'm here to talk about today has always been important in advisory, but it's even more important now that we really work on our human skills and not just focus on the technical because that is the value that we have to create with our clients and also our teams. So a little bit about the b three method. I am not just a CPA. I'm also a yoga teacher, and I brought that together to create the b three method, which is business plus balance equals bliss. And business part of it is the stressors that we have right now in transformation. There is so much transformation happening on the technology side, utilizing AI, trying to transform our processes, speed up work, but also on the human side of really learning how to uplevel the services that we have to offer, that technology can give us that boost to do that. The balance side is what I call our human toolbox. So it is the mindfulness and collaboration techniques that we have inside of us that offset those stressors that we are experiencing right now. And we're gonna get a little bit into that in today's session so that we can really understand the stressors that come up for us as we're going through this process of learning and innovation and transformation. Because what we wanna get to is bliss, and bliss is the maintenance of happiness. It is the little things that we can find in our day to create joy in our lives. And sometimes we forget about the joy or why we even started these practices in the first place because we get so busy. And it's important to get back to that, and we have that opportunity when technology can take away some of the nonvalue added tasks to a client where we can spend more time on what they need. So let's jump right into it and talk about this journey to advisory. This has been an evolution over time, and I think a lot of us in our practices, you know, want to be in this phase, but we get bogged down by the transactional work, the bookkeeping, the financial statement work prep. Maybe you do write up work, to help with tax returns and so forth. And when we continue to bog down, you know, the system with all of that, it is hard for us to free up the space and the time that we need in order to truly advise our clients. And what has always been true is that our advice is what creates value, and we really do have this belief system problem that has come up over time because, and I use the word time in there, is because what we have done internally in our practices is value ourself on our time. And it's very hard for us to understand that on the other side of this, the client does not value the time we spend on something. They value the advice that we are able to provide them. And so where I've seen a lot of practices losing money because AI is speeding up the, transactional work, it's because they're been missing this whole piece of advice and value that the client is just waiting for us to set some time aside for. So instead of looking at this as, you know, why should my price be less because I use AI and technology, This is our opportunity to step back and say, if we have the space to redesign our practice right now, how will this look in twelve months, in three years, in five years? And how can we create the boundaries and more space and take away these nonvalue added tasks so that our clients are truly getting the value that they want? And we're able to charge the amount that we're worth rather than looking at it by a time and billing perspective. So when we talk about sitting in the client's shoes, it is really important to think about what does a client value in a CFO or adviser. And when we talk to small business clients or medium sized clients, controllers, CFOs, CEOs. When they're hiring a fractional CFO or a fractional adviser, they really want the advice of not only the financials, but the operational side as well. So how does this affect my operations? In order for us to be able to give that advice, we do have to have the time to be getting deep into the organization, asking the questions that we need to ask, getting to know, you know, people in the warehouse if they have inventory and the accounts payable clerk and the salespeople and so forth, that this isn't a separate thing, that when we better understand the operational side of the business, we can unlock the advice that we can provide in order to affect those financials. And now they're going from credence good to experience good. Credence good being I pay my accountant a certain amount per month, and I get the numbers that I need in order to file my financial statements or keep up with loans or whatever I need to do. Instead of experience good, meaning I cannot imagine not having my accountant as part of my business because of the value that you create. That is a different experience with a client, and clients will pay whatever they can to have that advice in their business. So advisory in the future is that we have this opportunity to step back and think about how we differentiate ourselves from the person next door, you know, across the country, across the world, is that we want to be able to differentiate ourselves on industry or niche or how we operate that we're tech enabled and so efficient that we're able to really explain the value to a client or a prospect very easily. And we shift toward advisory services that compliance is just a byproduct and something that is you know, needs to happen for the client. But what is most important is that we can in our niche or in our differentiation that we take on in our practice, we can serve clients from anywhere. And I can tell you, I've got a son that is, finishing up school this year in accounting. And this type of work is what appeals to the younger generation, that it's so exciting to graduate in accounting today versus, you know, I graduated. I'm not even gonna say how many decades ago. However, when I graduated, it was basically tax or audit. And now we can specialize in so many different areas within technology, within, advisory work. Even the audit and the tax work that we do is so differentiated now, and we can really focus on the types of clients that excite us. So what that means is we do need to nurture that human connection and make time for it and set the boundaries that we need. So we're gonna open up our first poll. And our first poll is what best describes you today as a firm? So are you mostly compliance and have limited advisory work? Are you a mix of compliance and advisory? Are you building an advisory offering but still finding your feet with it, or advisory is already a core part of your business? Alright. So looks like we've got a lot of answers coming in. So far, the winner is building an advisory offering, but still finding your feet with it. We do have a good percentage, about even percentage of mostly compliance with limited advisory work, and advisory is already a core part of your business. So really important to just take note of where you are today. It isn't about judging yourself or feeling like you need to speed up faster. It's about realizing that there's so many other people in your shoes. So when you look at the result of this poll that so many of us are still on this journey, or even if we had it down, there's still always more to go, always more to iterate and change. So thank you very much for, participating in that poll. It's always good for me to see what's going on in your practice. So let's get started on this journey. And I've broken this up into five key traits of moving along this journey, and what I call it is the cherish adviser journey. This is a term that I came up with in a book that I wrote about six or seven years ago about moving into this advisory space. And the reason I chose Cherish was because forever, we've been called trusted advisers, and I really wanted to go deep into that and understand, is that the term that I was looking for when I think about advisory? Because I can tell you as a consultant to accounting firms that I find a lot of times people are already saying I am an adviser. But I look at the work that they're doing, and mostly they're doing compliance work. But that's because we've been called trusted advisers. When you look up the definition of trusted, what it means is regarded as honest and sincere. And what I would say is that that is table stakes to being an adviser and accountant to a client. That it is important that we are looking at that we are honest, that they can trust us. So if we're not that, then we probably shouldn't be in business. So I wanted to come up with a term that I felt from my years of doing this of what it really meant to be adviser, and that's where I came up with the word cherished. And the reason I came up with it was because it's something we have to earn. So there's a table stakes of being trusted, but cherished means is that we're treasured, we're highly valued, we're honored, we're respected. So we have to earn that with our clients. And the only way we learn that is through the conversations that we have with our clients. And over the years, I've surveyed, you know, all the sessions that I do and really have come up with, like, what I think are the key factors of being a cherished adviser. And number one is being able to attract and keep higher value advisory services. So it's not about the quantity of clients that you have. It's the quality of those clients and the work that you get to do and that you get to see the the effects of the advice that you provide. Also, you're able to scale, that you can focus on industries that you're passionate about and be able to scale in those industries without having to take on everybody. And which means that you align with your personal purpose, which we're gonna get into in a second. That, you know, if you could start over today, why is it that you come into work every day, and what gets you excited? You also are not hourly billing. That instead, you are offering true value and can offer a value price. This is something that I can tell you from working with firms that are on Ignition. This has been really helpful for them in thinking through their pricing packages and how this works and being able to offer that to their clients. So that is definitely something to look out for when you see the demo. They also leverage best in technology. So one of the things about a cherished adviser is that you're constantly looking at what could you do five percent better, ten percent better, that you are actually in an agile workplace and process where technology is the enabler for you to be able to offer the advice that you wanna provide the clients and have that relationship. And so anything that is able to help you get more and more efficient so you can scale is a top tier cherished adviser. And you understand how to market and sell your services and attract and retain the kind of clients that you love. So it's not any client. It's the clients that you're a best fit for, and you know how to continue to bring on more and more clients just like that. So the second key trait that I've seen over time is that you create this customer journey, and where it begins is your why. So why do you love what you do? How do you define success? And, hopefully, it's not utilization, realization, and so forth. It's also the feeling of success of being able to help a client and be able to achieve their goals and the profitability that you're able to get out of your business and the career paths that you're able to provide others if you have people working for you. And really important is how does each business decision align with your personal purpose? Your personal purpose is something that probably doesn't change. It's something that over time is what drives us. It's in our intuition when we're not aligned with our personal purpose and the work that we do that we start feeling it on our body. The energy might be negative that we start feeling or tired or exhausted because something is not congruent with the work that we wanna do. And so many times, we start from the business side rather than the purpose side. And the purpose being how we want to help, I'm sorry, how we want to help certain industries or a certain type of client. So we begin that journey by selecting a niche or an industry that we really enjoy. And for me, that's always been small businesses because in my background, my I grew up working in my mom's small business and really understanding the struggle of a small business owner and wanting them to succeed. And so all of my work, no matter what, is around that, even if I'm working with accountants, it's so that they can mobilize more small businesses to be successful and be able to do the things that they love and employ the people that they employ and help their clients. If I take that further into a niche, like I said before, I'm a yoga teacher. So health and wellness clients are something that are very important to me to help them stay in business. They're often the ones that aren't great business people and have a lot of issues in business, and so it's important to me as an adviser to help them. I wanna look at my strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in that industry before deciding on, yep, I wanna go all in on that niche to make sure that I've looked at that to say, do I have a proper plan to overcome the weaknesses that I may have in that industry, the threats that could happen, but also be able to mobilize on those opportunities that I see that are a possibility for me and not just focus on the threats. It's more that I wanna create goals and plans based on that brainstorming so that I can address each and be successful. So where I begin with finding that niche is understanding how I can love all the clients I have. So we all have clients that we don't love. And you know it because you get this ick factor that you see their name come across your email or they call you and you just get that feeling of I don't wanna pick up or I don't wanna respond, that's the feeling you don't wanna have. You want to make sure that most of your clients are the people you love spending time with because that is what advisory is about, is making sure that you are spending the most amount of time with your clients. And they are not just clients. They become friendships and people that you really wanna help. So making a list of your current clients and evaluating that list and evaluating that list by vertical to see where you might have a high concentration in any one vertical, but also thinking about the personality traits that you enjoy working with and the ones that you do not enjoy working with too are really important in evaluating your ideal client that's coming through the door. Because later on, that's gonna help you be able to consistently grow that client base of people that you really enjoy working with. So in the chat, and I'll come back to this chat when we do our poll, but I'd love to know what type of client takes up a disproportionate time in your firm. So maybe those clients that don't pay enough that, or are the ones complaining all the time and so forth. Like, explain what type of clients those are and why you keep them. Because I think that's important to we know it's like the stressor that happens, and this goes back to the b three model, but we often don't do anything about it. We allow ourselves to just continue on this client engagement without really thinking about if we were to eliminate a client that takes up too much time for the amount that they they spend with us, who could take their place that is more valuable? So let us know in the chat who those clients are for you, and it's an important piece of sharing where we all learn together. And I'll address that as we keep going and get to our next poll. So as you decide who your ideal client is, I want you to rethink what this customer journey looks like. That you are going to step back and say, if I could start this practice over today, what how is it that I'd want it to run? And really thinking about client experience either one to one or one to many. And where AI or technology come into the process too in each of these phases. So it begins all the way from awareness of really trying to understand the types of clients that we want, that ideal client, and those ideal clients are attracted to our practice and the work that we do. And we do that through marketing activities and sales activities, but also through the good work that we do of getting those referrals. And then once they find out about us, that discovery phase of how do we actually take them through a sales process, that it's not just about them evaluating us. It's us evaluating them that they are a right fit for our practice as well. And the third phase is once we do decide that they are a fit and they become a client in our practice, how do we nurture that relationship from a one to many standpoint? And really think about this from a team approach. And when we think about this from human and AI, what activities could AI take off our plates in the long term relationship cultivation so that we can spend more time with the client creating that connection that we need to create, but also delivering the value that we promised in the discovery phase. And if we do that right and figure out the steps in that process, we should be having our clients advocating for us. That those those, clients that we love should be telling other clients just like them because those would be their friends or colleagues about us as well, about the experience that they have with us that is so different and how they cherish that relationship. And lastly, constantly rethinking the service side of this. So how do we utilize technology and humans to automate responses or be able to respond to people at any time of day, but that not have to be a human? And what does that process look like? And what can be taken care of that we don't even have to know about? That's when AI is autonomous that we can look at processes where we never even have to the human doesn't have to be in the loop. And then where are the best places for the humans be in the loop and to have those conversations, and who has those conversations so that you can stay focused on the work that is in front of you and the deadlines in front of you and have that service along the way. So we are going to put up the second poll, and that poll is up. How are you currently managing client engagements and getting paid? So are you using manual documents, emails, payment follow-up? Are you using templates or esignature tools, but payments are separate? You have a process, but it still creates too much admin. And this is a great place where Ignition can help streamline that process as well. So that poll is launched. I see people already putting in their answers to this poll. And so far, it looks like we use templates or esignature tools, but payments are separate. Is the majority of the people responding here. And so these are the types of non value added process. Like, you have to have the process. You have to be able to quickly jump on sales meetings and be able to bring people to contract and have payments set up with your client. But if it takes up too much manual time, it's taking away from the value that you wanna add as an adviser. So really important to continue to think that through in your process as part of your journey to advisory. Alright. Let's move to our third key trait. And our third key trait is knowing your value as an adviser. And, again, this is a journey for us because we haven't necessarily thought of ourselves as value driven in the past. So here's the myth, is that to be a successful adviser, all you need is financial expertise. The thing is, what I've seen over time is the most successful advisers understand people. They know how to communicate. They have a long term relationship. They know what to do when there's conflict, that they can address it and not ignore it or hide from it or send it through emails, that they know how to have that conversation. And that financial experience is something that you have to have as a prerequisite, but you also understand the operational side of the business as well. So I'm gonna put up the third poll right now to see where we stand on this is what is your biggest barrier to doing more advisory work today? I don't have enough time outside my compliance work. I'm unsure how to lead advisory conversations. I struggle to package and price advisory services, or our processes and technology are too manual. Alright. We've got those answers coming in right now. So so far, it looks like building an advisory offering, but still oh, sorry. I'm looking at the wrong poll. That I struggle to package and price advisory services. Right. Because a lot of us are still doing hourly billing, which we have to move away from that. Second that came up was I'm unsure of how to lead advisory conversations. And this is the hard part, but also the exciting part of advisory is that there is no checklist for this. We actually can create standardized checklists in our business of how a month in the life goes as doing that advisory work, but it's our own IP. It's our own way of doing things. That's why we really don't have competition as an adviser because the way that we do advisory is gonna be different than the person next door. And it's important that when we do those things that we come up with a way that is most authentic to who we are. So it is valuable, and it is relatable to the type of client that we are attracting in our business. We don't have to worry that the account next door is selling the same thing because they should, if their true advisory practice, have a differentiated practice on who their ideal client is and also what type of relationship that they create with that client and the time that they put aside for it. So in order to have that advisory mindset, it's important for us to be flexible and creative and innovative. What it means is that we are really taking it in, all the information that the client is prepared to give us, that we are asking a ton of questions as an adviser. Really, our advice comes much later in the process. To be a good adviser, we just have to be a really good question asker so that we can get as much information as possible and peel back the onion. Because a lot of times, whatever the client thinks is the issues, it's usually three levels deeper. And really being future focused because all the tech that you're learning for your practice also helps you to learn the tech for the industries that that client is in. And you then become the central resource of staying ahead with that as well. I know when I was studying to be an accountant, I didn't realize how important it was for me to understand technology and be able to consult on that. And that's been the majority of what I've done in the career in my career because it helps unlock the information that I need in order to give the advice that I give. I also have to be comfortable with risk and discomfort, and that's something that we aren't always comfortable with because we live in a very compliance based world. And so being comfortable with taking risks or trying new things in our business is something that we really have to change our energy around and our mindset around to do that. And lastly, it is really important that we have an entrepreneurial mindset of, like, creation. That even if we're in an accounting firm running one of these practices, we don't have to do it like it's always been done. That it is our opportunity to really ask our clients what are the things that they want from us, and then how do we build out those programs around it? So the way I see this is the key difference between accounting and advisory is the ability to leverage our financial skills, our acumen, our mindset for higher level deliverables and conversations. So it's not just about the financial statements and compliance. It's about translating the financial statements and the operational results, bringing those together to create the planning and the forecasting and the budgeting and the key metrics that a client needs to evaluate their business on on a monthly basis so that they stay on course and not only meet their goals, but hopefully exceed them because you've been involved. The other thing I wanna say too is a lot of times in this conversation, we talk about being a CEO or CFO. Sorry. However, I think it's really important to assess why we're utilizing that title because business owners don't care about your title. They're looking for someone that can solve their problems. And so it's really important that we're using terminology that they understand. FP and A is not a term that they necessarily understand. So if that's on your website or that's what you say you offer, not necessarily something that a small business owner, CEO understands what that means. And the CFO can bring an impression of an expensive, person or someone that the client's gonna have to relinquish control to. We want this to be a collaborative relationship. So really getting creative with the title that you use is really important. And instead of title, what we wanna do is set expectations around how we deliver value. Your credibility is in the work that you've done with others and the work that you will do with this client. So creating that connection and being relatable to your client is so important. So really important to give people enough of your experience to show them you've been there, done that before. You've been there with clients just like them. And what is the value that you have created for other people like them? And that is how we communicate value, and this drives into value billing. So instead of talking about hourly rates and your price, you wanna start with why someone would even work with you, and what is your total solution that meets all the things that are their issues on a monthly basis. So that's why a lot of questions are really important before you're communicating anything, is you really have to understand what their pain points are, what technology tools they use, what technology tools they're not using, and how to make them more efficient. And not just talking about what tools you're certified in because that's just the tools in your toolbox, but the value that you've been able to create for other clients like them to turn around their businesses, to help them launch new service lines, to turn around their companies, whatever it is, and making sure that when you're developing this long term relationship, that you're consistently coming in, following up with communication, and making sure that they know the value you're creating. Like, too many times we do the work and just throw the financial statements over the fence, but we're not actually having a defined meeting with them to tell them the things that you noticed, the KPIs that are tracking or not tracking, the observations you've had with conversations amongst people in the organization to understand why those fluctuations are happening, and what are some of the actions that they could do. So this is how we go about it is we need to define that advisory role to create that success as our key trait number four. So understand the company's pain points. Your role is not to solve their problems, and I think that's really important. Is so many times we get scared off by doing advisory work because we think that we have to know everything. That is not what we're trying to do in advisory. What we're trying to do is create a framework. We are defining, we're prioritizing, and communicating the problems that we hear in the organization back to them and being able to bring the insights that we have from working with other clients like them, having the same type of KPIs, but also utilizing the technology that we have to unlock those insights for them quicker. Scoping that work is so important. So your job to be cherished with your client is to have the resources, the skills, the bandwidth to have the conversations and support that they need to solve those problems. And that's why you're value billing because what happens with hourly billing is they get afraid to contact you because they don't want to be billed for it instead of having that value conversation that you wanna have. And to do that, we have to practice active listening. Active listening is about asking open ended questions and layering those questions. So even when they want to give you an answer, your answer back is, I need more time in order to give you an answer and research to do that. In order for me to be able to get the answers that I need, it's really important that I understand who the stakeholders are that want my advice at this client. So depending on what the vertical is, I need to be talking to anyone that is a stakeholder in this business to get their insights, to be able to understand the detail and the perspective that they're looking at the business at. So that includes the business owner, but it also includes people that operate the business, the managers, the department heads, the finance leaders or teams that are in the business. If there's outside stakeholders, like investment firms or board of directors or other consultants that are helping with other projects at the business, it's important to get to know them so that you understand what is it that they're doing to evaluate the success of this business beyond what that small business owner might be thinking it is. So in order for us to do this work, we have to scope it right. And these are some of the questions, and you do have a handout in here, so, you will have this, to refer back to. But what are the objectives of that client? What what kind of help do they want, and who are those stakeholders? Really important for you to find out who those are. And then being able to ask what the objectives are to everybody that is a stakeholder in that business so that you are addressing that in the advice that you give and what kind of insight that they're looking for. Besides the insight that you think you can provide, it's really important to understand what keeps them up at night about this business so that you can address that as an adviser. And then when we are ready to give our advice, it's important that when we're presenting our advice, that we're communicating the value that we have as an adviser based on the pain points that we heard. So when we relate it to, I heard you say this, and this is the needs that you have, and this is what I've learned through talking to this person, that person, and this person, now I have been able to show that I've done enough of that background work to be able to give them the advice that they need. And it's really important that we don't overwhelm our clients with too much advice Because when we do that, they blow out because they don't really understand everything we're talking about. It takes a moment to be able to have the insights that they need and be able to get on a cadence of those so that they know what's coming. The other thing is making sure you're setting collaborative agendas, creating regular check ins that, you know, this comes back to an ideal client, that you're telling them upfront that this is what you expect, that you have regular check ins, that you're delivering based on the deadlines that they agreed to. You find time for the personal conversations so that you're creating that relationship that you want, and you're asking them what do they want out of the meeting too. So getting the most out of your advisory meetings means creating an agenda. And it should be a joint agenda that you're asking them, here are the things that I have that I wanna go over during our meeting. Is there anything that you would like to talk about? This helps us to not be Google like I have on there. We're now, you know, chat GPT, is that we can then come prepared with some of the questions that they have or concerns that they have before that meeting, and that's why an agenda is so important. And then when anything happens with communication, it's important that we're sending a follow-up message after that meeting to let them know this is what we talked about. These were some actions that you were going to take before next month. This is the next time that we're meeting. Did I get anything wrong, or did I miss anything? Because a lot of times when people are in verbal communication, we have different perspectives. We don't necessarily think the same way, and so they might have not taken in everything that you did. So having written communication back helps with making sure that that communication is continuous. So managing that ongoing relationship is making sure that you have that personal relationship because a lot of the personal things that they share with you end up helping you from the advisory side as well. So whether you're in the same geography and you can do lunches or coffee or virtual coffees, I like to call them, where maybe you even send a Starbucks card, so that you can do that. But having a general monthly or quarterly check-in beyond the work is really, really important in increasing that advisory relationship and making sure that it is a long term relationship. And the last key trade I wanna go over is breaking our old patterns. Because when I'm talking about all of this, you might be getting a little bit of angst that this isn't normally the way that you do a conversation. So in the chat, I would love for you to answer this question. What is one habit, belief, or pattern that keeps pulling you back into compliance work? So a lot of times, we don't move into advisory even though we want to because we're so stuck in the compliance work that we're doing, or we get scared that if we let that go, that it will actually harm our business or we won't replace the revenue. So it's really important to do this internal evaluation of ourselves and try to understand what might be holding us back. And the thing is about change is that we don't wanna create a huge amount of change right away. We wanna think about where we might wanna be in twelve months or twenty four months or three years from now. And then we've gotta think about what is one small change I can make today in order to create the big change overall. And each small change starts adding up where we start seeing that evolution of, wow. I've come so far, and I didn't even realize it because I did the little things over time, and I stayed present in that as I went through that. So this is the thing as a coach and a consultant that I see all the time is outwardly, we see people's behaviors or that they put their heels in the sand, don't wanna learn that the new technology, don't want to change from the work that they're doing. But there's actually just like clients, when we peel back the onion, there's a belief system that drove that, you know, over time to our expertise that became our identity to the behavior that we're seeing today. And that belief gives us a sense of security. You know? So that can be time and billing. Let's just use that. That that is the only way to be able to know if our staff is doing well. Well, a lot of times, that's the belief system that I understand people feel. However, is it true? Well, what happens over time is the more and more we say that and the more people that say it with us, it then that becomes a group decision, and everybody can say, yeah. We have to have that time and billing in order to know how our business is doing. That becomes our identity of what we value, and we it's hard for us to pull off of that. So when we're trying to pull off of time and billing, it becomes really hard. So I think it's really important, as we put up this next poll, that you think about how do you create more time and capacity for this human stuff that we need to unlock within us. That we in order to create the capacity to learn and to grow and to change our belief system so that we can create a different behavior, we actually need to think about what it is that we need to do to create more capacity for this advisory work. What are the things that we need to do in our business to be able to do that? Because at the end of the day, when we are uncomfortable, that's when we learn and grow the most. And it's really important that we understand that uncomfortable feeling is okay and to switch the thought in our head to say we're growing. We're learning. And that's how we know from that feeling inside of us. So with that, I would love for Ignition to be able to give a demo of what it is that Ignition does and can help with along the way. That's great. Thanks so much, Amy, for for taking us through that presentation. Lots of stuff there to dive into on on the demo I'm gonna take you through now. One of the key points I wanted to hit on is that hourly versus value billing model. Because you mentioned there's a lot of folks. If if you position advisory as an hourly service, then they're scared to call you, but shoe shoe on the other foot. I've also spoken with a lot of folks who maybe don't position advisory as a service at all, and then they get hit with that five minute phone call that turns into an hour conversation and the feeling that maybe your services aren't aren't necessarily being valued. So I think on either case, you're left with the question of I'm just gonna share my screen here. Where do I position my pricing, or where do I land in terms of pricing? Now as we dive into the Ignition platform here, as you can see, we have a specific service here that that we've dove into, advisory services, more of a general advisory one. And to Amy's point, we've clearly defined our scope of work here. And as we tailor this to our clients, we can fine tune it a little bit better. But the question of where do I price my services for a lot of folks that maybe are struggling to package or price their services in the poll today, we have an AI price insights tool where you can compare your services directly to other Ignition customers and what they're charging their clients for similar services. So as you're moving towards advisory services and more of a fixed pricing model, there's some great data driven insights directly in Ignition that you can leverage. Now, again, for those folks, whether you're finding your footing or you have existing advisory services to alleviate that problem of scope creep where that five minute conversation turns into that hour should have been advisory session, Ignition also allows you to package your services and layer in some of those advisory based services to your packages here. Now what's that gonna do for your business? Either upfront, you're gonna capture more revenue and create a better relationship where your clients can call you or you've agreed to quarterly, annual, or even monthly meetings. But, alternatively, it communicates to your clients that your time isn't free and that, you know, your time is valuable. So down the down the road, if they sign up for more basic services and they want advisory services down the line, they're at least aware that your services, you know, are are valuable and do come at a cost. So as we unpack the ignition per proposal here, it's a basic tax advisory services here. We have three different packages that you can easily build build out. I know a lot of you are maybe frustrated at the manual admin that goes into putting together these agreements. Others maybe have a disjointed process towards billing. Ignition kinda solves for both here because if I select this middle package here, I'm outlining my scope of work. So your you and your clients are on the same page about your deliverables. The scope of works or scopes of work here are relatively generic. But to Amy's point, as you identify things like KPIs you wanna cover and and get a little bit more granular about your scope of work, this is fully customizable as well. Now as for the folks who may be handling billing in a separate, you know, solution or separate tool, Ignition puts it all together because we can communicate things like your price and your billing schedule all in the same agreement so your clients know how much they're gonna be charged, when, and how frequently. But more importantly, we can also tie this into our billing system so you don't have to go into yet another tool to actually execute invoicing and payment processing. So Ignition will automate the invoice creation, the sending of that invoice, and even turn this into a monthly recurring schedule, if you will, where you can capture a payment method upfront, and the billing and payment collection is put on autopilot on the back end. Finally, we have the fun stuff. Any other legal terms and conditions here, we don't wanna leave that out, but Ignition allows you to lay all this out, capture an esignature here in order to stay compliant. And then from there, the process is complete. You have your signed agreement. You have the payment method on file. You're in alignment about what your deliverables are with with your client. You know, you're offering advisory service. You're on your way to becoming that cherished adviser, as Amy pointed out. And on the last page here, we can hyperlink them to other resources like your calendar link and so on. Now that concludes the demo for today. Thanks so much for for joining. And we have Well, thank Yeah. We have one more one more poll there that we can have you guys fill out. But, Amy, thank you so much for for your time today. Really appreciate your insight and expertise. Thank you. And I really appreciate, being on today and for the engagement as well during this. For those of you, that want access to the mindfulness tools that we do at the b three method, feel free to scan this QR code, and, we will get that to you and also our virtual yoga library. But, this is really a huge game changer in taking some of this non value added work away with Ignition and making sure that you can be able to focus on the value and the advice that you wanna provide to your clients. Alrighty. Well, thank you again for attending, everyone, and thank you again, Amy. We'll, we'll see you next time. Thank you.