The CPA MOMS Podcast: Recent Episodes
Dawn Goldberg, CPA
This podcast is brought to you by CPA MOMS®. We provide business owners with an affordable solution by working exclusively with talented CPA's willing to exchange high salaries for flexibility.
We pride ourselves on being the "eHarmony" of the accounting world, supporting female accountants who want a career as well as a family.
If you are a busy female accountant who also happens to be a mom, struggling to have it all - a thriving career and a happy family - then this podcast is the resource you’ve been looking for.
This podcast will guide you on the journey to reduce mom guilt and overwhelm, how to feel better at your job and at home with your children, how to set goals and actually achieve them, why it's not your fault that you feel stressed trying to have it all and much, much more.
Each week, this podcast will bring you specific tools and resources to meet the challenges busy female accountant moms face.
Your well being is important to your career and to your family and this podcast will teach you how to show up as the best version of yourself.
You'll learn a whole new way of thinking that makes it possible to have the life balance you desire.
You'll discover how to gain the time and energy to take care of yourself in order to be fully present at work and with your family.
You'll learn why you may buffer with food, work, shopping or even technology and what to do about it.
You’ll learn to improve your relationships and to better deal with the difficult people in your life.
Every week you will learn new opportunities to have the life you want.
As a female accountant you are the future of accounting and as a mom you are raising the future. We all need support in our roles as female accountant and mom and that's what this podcast will provide.
Most importantly, by following this podcast you will feel better in all aspects of your life without anything or anyone else having to change.
Your host, Dawn Goldberg, CPA has been a CPA for over 30 years and a mom for over 26 years. You can contact her at dawn.goldberg@cpa-moms.us.
In this final episode of The CPA MOMS Podcast, founder Mayumi Young steps to the microphone to say thank you.
After nearly 400 episodes and almost 19 years of building a community for women in accounting, she reflects on what CPA MOMS became, what it meant to the women it served, and what comes next for both the community and for her. This may be the most exciting chapter yet in CPA MOMS history. Join us!
To follow Mayumi's personal journey going forward, visit https://mayumiyoung.com.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start.
Have you ever made a plan, felt great about it, and then just… didn't follow through? Not because you didn't care, but because something quietly broke down along the way.
In this episode, Nicole digs into the most overlooked piece of productivity: integrity. Not the moral kind, but the structural kind — the alignment between what you say you'll do and what you actually do. She shares why most productivity problems aren't really about time, they're about a lack of workability, and what starts to happen when you stop honoring your word to yourself.
If you've been feeling overwhelmed, stuck, or like your systems just aren't sticking, this one is for you.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
You're not lazy, unmotivated, or disorganized. If your to-do list keeps growing no matter how hard you work, the problem isn't you, it's your system.
In this episode, Nicole breaks down her layered planning framework, from a 5-year vision all the way down to daily execution, and explains why most planning fails before it even starts. You'll learn how to stop carrying everything in your head, start making better decisions about what actually gets your attention, and finally end your days feeling like you made real progress.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
Have you ever felt like no matter how many lists you make or how organized you get, you still can't catch up? The problem might not be your discipline or your planner. It might be that the productivity system you've been handed just wasn't built for your life.
In this episode, Nicole introduces the concept of rhythm as a more realistic and sustainable alternative to the myth of work-life balance. She breaks down the three layers of rhythm (daily, weekly, and seasonal) and walks through three practical steps to start designing a rhythm that actually fits your life.
If you've been feeling like you're failing, this episode will gently challenge that story and give you a new place to start.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
Productivity doesn't mean working more hours or grinding yourself into exhaustion.
In this week's episode, Nicole Kehl, CPA, challenges the deeply ingrained hustle culture of the accounting industry and offers a fresh framework for what productivity can actually look like.
She shares a personal story from the early days of building her firm as a stay-at-home mom, when staying up late to work left her nodding off at her desk and missing precious mornings with her kids. That wake-up call led her to discover a better way.
This episode kicks off a multi-part productivity series built around three key components: rhythm, planning systems (what Nicole calls "existence systems"), and integrity. If you're tired of the to-do list that never gets shorter, this series was made for you.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
This week, we're bringing back a powerful conversation with Nikki Bushaw, a CPA, entrepreneur, and mom who built her firm on her own terms.
In this episode, she shares the real, unfiltered lessons she's learned about confidence, navigating entrepreneurship, and redefining success beyond just numbers. From overcoming imposter syndrome to managing people and prioritizing relationships, Nikki's journey is both relatable and inspiring.
If you've ever questioned whether you can build a business that truly fits your life, this conversation is for you.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
Employee onboarding can make or break your firm, and many firm owners learn that lesson the hard way.
In this episode, Nicole shares what she has learned through trial and error about building an onboarding process that actually works.
She explains how clear workflows, training videos, and a structured 30-60-90 day plan can transform a new hire's experience, increase productivity faster, and strengthen your firm's culture.
If you want employees who feel confident, supported, and ready to contribute, this episode walks through the practical steps to make that happen.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
This week, we're revisiting one of our most powerful and thought-provoking conversations: a deep dive into what leadership really means for women in accounting and how to build a firm that truly works for you.
We're bringing this episode back because its message is just as relevant today. If you've ever struggled with people-pleasing, guilt, fear of making the wrong decision, or wondering whether you are "too emotional" to lead, this conversation will completely reframe what strong leadership looks like.
You'll hear why leadership is not the same as management, how balancing empathy and decisiveness changes everything, and how to retrain your brain so you can lead with clarity and confidence.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
In this episode, Nicole sits down with Rachel Martin from Finding Joy to talk about what it really means to cultivate joy in the middle of real life.
Rachel shares how Finding Joy began, why joy is not something we earn once everything is done, and how happiness and joy can actually work together.
You will hear practical ways to find joy in ordinary, repetitive days, plus simple tools to give yourself grace when you are in a hard season.
This conversation is a reminder that one small choice a day can shift your heart and your life over time.
To learn more about Rachel and her work, visit https://findingjoy.net or follow her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/findingjoyblog.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
*]:pointer-events-auto scroll-mt-[calc(var(--header-height)+min(200px,max(70px,20svh)))]" dir="auto" tabindex="-1" data-turn-id= "request-WEB:896785a7-0cf2-46fe-aa3a-2723cbf124fd-8" data-testid= "conversation-turn-8" data-scroll-anchor="true" data-turn= "assistant"> This week, we're revisiting one of our most resonant and requested episodes: a powerful conversation between CPA MOMS founder Mayumi Young and Brand Ambassador Nicole Kale about what work-life harmony really looks like and why the old idea of "balance" just doesn't work.
We're bringing this episode back because its message is more relevant than ever. If you've been feeling stretched thin, overwhelmed, or like you're falling short in every area, this is the reframe you didn't know you needed. You'll hear how harmony can replace guilt, how to ride life's waves instead of fighting them, and how to redefine success on your own terms.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
Burnout isn't just about being tired. It's about a slow erosion of energy, clarity, and joy. In this eye-opening episode, Lauren Baptiste, a burnout coach for professional women, breaks down what burnout really looks like and why it hits high-achieving moms so hard. We explore how mental load, poor boundaries, and perfectionism contribute to burnout and what small shifts can make a big difference.
Burnout Prevention Toolkit: https://www.aicpa-cima.com/resources/download/pcps-burnout-prevention-toolkit
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
About Lauren Baptiste
Lauren Baptiste is reshaping the future of work with a simple strategy: prioritize yourself to effectively meet your professional KPIs. With over 13 years of corporate experience, she founded Acheloa Wellness, a coaching and consulting firm helping professionals in accounting, bookkeeping, consulting, and finance overcome burnout and advance their careers without compromise.
Lauren's methodology supports clients in reducing burnout in six months or less while gaining more fulfillment at work and more time at home. As a sought-after speaker and consultant on burnout, mindfulness, and women in leadership, Lauren has worked with global organizations like IBM, EY, the NFL, Estee Lauder, and the United Nations. Her insights have been featured in Forbes, CNBC, Thrive Global, and more.
Website: https://www.acheloawellness.com
This week, we're revisiting one of our most impactful and requested episodes: a heartfelt conversation between CPA MOMS founder Mayumi Young and Brand Ambassador Nicole Kale about designing a career that truly supports your life. If you've ever felt like your job is running your life, this episode is your reminder that it doesn't have to be that way.
We're bringing this episode back because its message is timeless — and especially needed right now. You'll learn why knowing your values is essential, how to pause when you're overwhelmed, and how to reclaim the driver's seat in your life and career.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
This week, Nicole Kehl welcomes Amy Horner, CPA and academic director, for a powerful discussion on the future of accounting.
Together, they unpack the profession's outdated perceptions, the impact of AI, and the cultural shifts reshaping what it means to be a CPA today. From alternate licensure pathways to rethinking work hours and attracting new talent, this is a must-listen conversation for firm owners and accounting leaders.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
You're listening to a re-release of a past CPA MOMS podcast episode. We're resharing this conversation because the topic of confidence continues to come up for women in accounting, especially when stepping into leadership, growth, or ownership. If you missed this episode the first time, or if you need the reminder right now, it's worth another listen.
Confidence might not be the first skill that comes to mind in accounting, but it could be the most powerful one. In this episode, Nicole Kehl sits down with CPA MOMS founder Mayumi Young to explore the quiet epidemic of self-doubt among women in the profession.
They unpack how imposter syndrome, lack of representation, and perfectionism often hold women back—and what to do about it. If you've ever felt like you're not "ready enough" to step up, this episode is for you.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
In this episode, Nicole Kehl sits down with speaker Clinton Young to explore what it really means to reignite your human spirit.
Clinton opens up about his personal rock bottom after the 2008 recession and the transformational journey that followed. He shares his "Magical Success Formula" and the seven life-changing "Black Sheep Habits" that can help anyone step into a more vibrant, fulfilled life.
ree gift mentioned in the episode: www.blacksheephabits.com
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
As women, moms, and business owners, taking care of ourselves is often the first thing to fall off the list. In this episode, Nicole sits down with entrepreneur and investor Del Lewis for an honest conversation about self-care, hustle culture, and why your health is not optional if you want long-term success.
Del shares powerful insights on listening to your body, redefining productivity, and treating your energy as part of your job as a business owner. If you have ever felt exhausted, stuck, or guilty for slowing down, this episode will give you a new perspective.
You can also find more of Del's work and insights on building a business that fits your ideal lifestyle on his YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@4DelLewis
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
Relationships are at the heart of everything — our families, our careers, and our own sense of fulfillment.
In this episode, Nicole sits down with Dave and Yvette Ulloa, founders of Warriors and Queens, to explore what truly makes relationships thrive. From nearly divorcing to now guiding others toward lasting love and partnership, their story is packed with raw honesty, wisdom, and practical tools.
They share how understanding our differences, communicating with intention, and reclaiming your self-worth can completely transform how you show up in all areas of life.
Gifts from Warriors and Queens
Free Warriors and Queens Relationship Master Course Access the free course here: https://cpamoms.com/queens-course
2 Day Warriors and Queens Virtual Immersion Learn more and register here: https://cpamoms.com/queens-2day
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
This week, we're bringing you a heartwarming and hilarious holiday episode!
Host Nicole is joined by some very special guests, her sons and their friends, or a candid conversation about all things Christmas.
From decorating traditions and favorite foods to funny gift mix-ups and sweet moments of gratitude, this episode is filled with laughter, love and a big dose of holiday cheer.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
In this episode of The CPA MOMS Podcast, Nicole sits down with Alicia Katz Pollock, founder of Royal Wise Solutions, to unpack how technology is transforming the accounting profession.
From overcoming resistance to change, to building smarter tech stacks, Alicia shares powerful insights and real-world advice to help firm owners navigate AI, automation, and innovation with confidence.
Whether you're tech-curious or feeling tech-frazzled, this episode offers clarity and motivation to evolve your practice without losing your human touch.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
In this episode of The CPA MOMS Podcast, Nicole chats with Hannah Mobley, a children's minister and social‑work background parent, about the power of meaningful conversations with our kids. They explore how working moms can balance a busy career and motherhood by focusing on quality connection over quantity time.
You'll hear their honest take on teaching children about boundaries, body autonomy, safety, and faith in a way that feels natural, age‑appropriate, and rooted in love. If you've ever wondered when and how to start "the hard talks," this episode gives you grace, hope, and practical ideas.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like‑minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
In this episode, Amie Clark opens up about her journey from a family business to becoming a corporate controller, while raising a family along the way.
She shares how real-world experiences shaped her accounting career, why flexibility has been essential and what she's learned about leading both teams and kids with patience and purpose.
From launching payroll weeks after giving birth to redefining boundaries at home, Amie's story is a refreshing reminder that you can build a career and a family without losing yourself in the process.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
In this episode, Nicole Kehl sits down with her two sons and their friends for a candid conversation about what it's really like having a working mom.
From funny Zoom call interruptions to honest reflections about missing time together, these kids share their unfiltered thoughts on work-life balance, presence, and what makes their moms so special.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
In this episode, Nicole sits down with Bianca Weissman, a holistic healthcare practitioner who shares how she blends science, ancestral wisdom, and energy healing to help others heal from the inside out.
From her roots in Brazil to her journey through the Landmark Forum, Bianca offers a powerful look at what it means to truly align mind, body, and spirit. She also unpacks the science behind generational healing, insulin resistance, and how small daily practices can lead to major transformations.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
In this episode, Nicole Kehl sits down with Heather Spreduto, Vice President of Sales Operations at ADP, to explore the critical connection between employee engagement and firm profitability.
With over two decades of leadership experience, Heather shares what the data tells us about why people stay, how appreciation drives performance, and what small firms can do to compete with limited resources.
From practical tips on creating culture to the difference between managing and leading, this episode is full of real-world takeaways for firm owners and team leaders alike.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
In this episode, Nicole sits down with financial advisor Connie Williams of Edward Jones to explore what financial wellness really looks like for busy firm owners.
They discuss common behavioral money traps, how to build lasting financial security, and practical ways to prioritize your own financial health without neglecting your clients.
Whether you're just getting started or looking to optimize your retirement planning, this episode is packed with relatable insights and strategies.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
In this episode, Nicole speaks with occupational therapist Mya Zavaleta about the transformative impact of nature-based therapy on children and families.
With over 20 years of experience and a deeply personal connection to healing outdoors, Mya shares how nature, sensory rituals, and emotional safety can unlock calm, connection, and confidence in neurodivergent kids. You'll hear practical tools, real-life stories, and gentle ways parents can shift family energy by starting with themselves.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
In this episode, Nicole welcomes Stacy Scott, a nurse, mom, grandmother, and host of Mindful Living with Nurse Stacy. They explore the everyday challenges of nutrition on the go, feeding a busy family, and making holistic, healthy choices without falling into guilt.
Stacy shares her journey into whole food, plant-based living and how she empowers her family to make better choices through love, education, and small, sustainable changes.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
In this episode of The CPA MOMS Podcast, Nicole Kehl and Mayumi Young introduce a framework that every CPA mom should know: the Four F’s — Financial, Fitness, Firm, and Family.
Mayumi walks listeners through a reflective self-assessment to help identify which areas of life are thriving and which may need attention. Whether you're building a business or balancing motherhood, this episode invites you to define success on your own terms and take the first step toward holistic growth.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
In this interview, CPA and firm owner Cindy Halbert shares how she adapted from manual ledgers to modern-day client portals.
Cindy gets real about her path from burnout to business ownership, the challenge of embracing new technology, and the mindset shifts that made all the difference.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
Leadership doesn’t have to look like the old, rigid models we’ve seen before. In this inspiring conversation, Nicole Kehl sits down with Mayumi Young to talk about redefining leadership for women in accounting.
Together, they unpack the balance between feminine and masculine energy, why so many women hesitate to call themselves leaders, and how to build a practice that aligns with your values and strengths.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
In this inspiring episode, Nicole Kehl sits down with Nicole Hall, a CPA, homeschooling mom, and founder of her own accounting practice.
Nicole shares her journey from a surprise start in bookkeeping to building a 6-figure firm that supports her values and lifestyle. She opens up about overcoming imposter syndrome, redefining success, and how she makes business work around her life, not the other way around.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
In this episode, host Nicole Kehl sits down with CPA MOMS founder Mayumi Young to explore what it truly means to own your value.
Together, they unpack the mindset shifts and courageous actions that help women close the gap between how they feel and what they’re worth.
From redefining value beyond money to building cultures that honor working moms, this conversation is packed with insight, truth, and inspiration.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
In this episode, Nicole Kehl sits down with Frances Cortez, founder of Cortez Business Solutions, to explore her unexpected journey from corporate controller to empowering entrepreneur.
With over 30 years of experience and a business built on service, flexibility, and mentorship, Frances shares how she grew her team, leaned into her purpose, and built a career on her own terms. From mindset shifts to setting boundaries and building community, this episode is packed with wisdom for any CPA mom navigating her own professional path.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
Even in a room full of people, it’s possible to feel completely alone, especially as a woman in the accounting industry. In this episode, Nicole Kehl and CPA MOMS founder Mayumi Young unpack what it really means to belong, why women often feel isolated at work, and how authentic connection changes everything. You’ll hear personal stories, emotional insights, and tips for finding (or creating) the community you deserve.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
In this inspiring episode, Nicole chats with Sandy Payne, CPA and accomplished CFO, about her unique journey from Mary Kay sales to leading multi-location businesses through financial growth. Sandy shares how she balanced motherhood, military life, and a demanding career, offering wisdom on boundaries, mindset shifts, and the real meaning of success. Her story is a powerful reminder that accounting is about people as much as it is numbers.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
In this episode, Nicole Kehl sits down with CPA MOMS founder Mayumi Young to discuss what it truly means to design your career around your life, not the other way around. They explore how to reconnect with your values, create space for clarity, and shift from a default life to an invented one. Mayumi shares personal stories and tools that have helped hundreds of women find fulfillment on their own terms.
Special Offer: Want help discovering your values and vision? Access the CPA MOMS Personal Vision Course for free! This course is designed to help you create a clear, actionable vision for your life, aligned with your core values. Click here to purchase: https://checkout.teachable.com/secure/104092/checkout/order_cc5ps72h. Use code TRUENORTH to get free access.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
In this episode, Nicole Kehl chats with Lindsey Head, founder of Pulse Business Group and award-winning CFO, about her unconventional journey from hedge fund accounting to launching a thriving fractional CFO business.
Lindsey shares how early mentorship shaped her bold career decisions, how she overcame burnout, and what work-life harmony truly looks like as a mom and entrepreneur. If you've ever felt stuck or unsure about your next step, this conversation will reignite your passion and remind you of the power of saying yes.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
In this episode, Nicole Kehl sits down with CPA MOMS founder Mayumi Young to unpack the difference between work-life balance and work-life harmony. Mayumi shares why the traditional idea of "balance" sets women up to feel like failures, and how harmony offers a more realistic, joyful, and empowering approach. They explore how redefining success and embracing flow can change everything, especially for working moms in accounting.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
In this episode of our "What I’ve Learned" series, Nicole Kehl sits down with CPA and entrepreneur Nikki Bushaw to explore the twists and turns of her journey from regional firm accountant to founder of her own successful practice, Absolute Accountant.
Nikki shares the mindset shifts that fueled her leap into entrepreneurship, the challenges of managing a team, and how her definition of success has evolved over time. Her honest reflections on work-life harmony, personal growth, and building a life aligned with your values will resonate deeply with every CPA mom.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
Confidence might not be the first skill that comes to mind in accounting, but it could be the most powerful one. In this episode, Nicole Kehl sits down with CPA MOMS founder Mayumi Young to explore the quiet epidemic of self-doubt among women in the profession. They unpack how imposter syndrome, lack of representation, and perfectionism often hold women back—and what to do about it. If you've ever felt like you're not "ready enough" to step up, this episode is for you.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
In this episode of The CPA MOMS Podcast, Nicole Kehl sits down with Aubrey Cypert, to explore her journey from partner at a mid-sized accounting firm to becoming a CPA MOMS franchise owner.
With 17 years of experience in the industry, Aubrey opens up about what first drew her to accounting, the pivotal lessons she learned while rising through the ranks, and why she chose to shift paths to build a practice aligned with her values. From burnout and work-life tradeoffs to redefining success on her own terms, Aubrey offers honest insights that every woman in accounting needs to hear.
Whether you’re considering launching your own practice or just looking for inspiration from someone who’s walked the path, this episode will leave you feeling empowered and seen.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
Are you really burned out, or are you just boxed in by expectations, structures, and systems that no longer serve you?
In this episode, Nicole Kehl, CPA, sits down with CPA MOMS founder Mayumi Young to explore the powerful difference between true burnout and the feeling of being stuck. They unpack how to recognize each, why it matters, and what you can do to move forward with clarity and confidence.
If you’ve been feeling drained or disconnected, this conversation will help you name what’s really going on and take the first step toward something better.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at http://cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
Leaving a steady job to start your own practice can feel terrifying, especially when everyone around you calls it “safe.” In this episode, Nicole Kehl and Mayumi Young explore the truth behind that fear and challenge the belief that traditional employment offers more security than entrepreneurship.
If you’ve been thinking about starting your own firm but find yourself hesitating, this episode will give you a new perspective on what that fear really means and how it might actually be a signal that you’re ready to take the leap.
Tune in to hear:
- Why fear shows up when you're on the edge of something important
- How generational beliefs about job security shape our decisions
- A practical mindset shift to help you move forward with confidence
Whether you're still working full-time or standing at the edge of your next big step, this episode is for you.
Enjoyed this episode? Join a network of like-minded women at cpamoms.com/start and get the support you need to build the practice you want.
In this episode, we reflect on the evolution of CPA MOMS and the power of gratitude in both business and motherhood.
Host Nicole Kehl welcomes founder Mayumi Young to talk about the journey behind the brand, what’s next for the community, and how staying grounded through transition can unlock new levels of purpose and leadership.
Whether you’re in a season of growth or change, this episode offers a moment to pause, reflect, and reconnect with what matters most.
Connect with like-minded CPAs in our free Facebook Community. Ask questions, swap resources and share your wins → https://bit.ly/cpamomsfacebookcommunity
In this episode, we reflect on the evolution of CPA MOMS and the power of gratitude in both business and motherhood.
Host Nicole Kehl welcomes founder Mayumi Young to talk about the journey behind the brand, what’s next for the community, and how staying grounded through transition can unlock new levels of purpose and leadership.
Whether you’re in a season of growth or change, this episode offers a moment to pause, reflect, and reconnect with what matters most.
Connect with like-minded CPAs in our free Facebook Community. Ask questions, swap resources and share your wins → https://bit.ly/cpamomsfacebookcommunity
No matter how smart, hardworking, or experienced you are, there’s still that little voice in your head saying, "Who do you think you are?"
If you’ve ever felt like you’re just "lucky" to have your job or that one day, people will figure out you don’t really know what you’re doing, you’re not alone. This feeling has a name—imposter syndrome—and it’s way more common than you think.
It’s that sneaky doubt that makes you question if you’re actually good at what you do, even when all the evidence says you are. It shows up when you hesitate to raise your rates when you overwork to prove yourself, and when you second-guess decisions you’re more than qualified to make.
This week, I’m going to discuss why imposter syndrome is so common among accountant moms and how to overcome imposter syndrome.
You can read the full show notes HERE
In 2001, Lisa Druxman became a mom and an entrepreneur. She was looking for a way to blend her passion for fitness with motherhood. “I decided to create a workout that I could do with my baby,” she recalls.
“I didn’t want to miss a moment of his new life but also knew that I needed to take care of myself.” Lisa created an exercise routine for new moms and realized that other mothers would benefit from working together to restore their well-being.
Now she leads a business that brings exercise, companionship and support to tens of thousands of moms around the country. Stroller Strides grew over the years and added Fit4Baby (prenatal classes) and Body Well (habit-transformation program). All of the classes now make up the FIT4MOM brand.
Lisa Druxman and FIT4MOM have been featured numerous times on NBC’s Today Show, CNN, The Montel Williams Show, Access Hollywood and profiled in magazines such as Entrepreneur, Woman’s Day, Good Housekeeping, Self and more.
You can read the highlights of this episode HERE
Let’s talk about something that often gets overlooked when life gets busy—how your home feels. I don’t mean how clean or organized it is. I mean whether it feels like a soft place to land after a long day or just another place filled with demands and noise.
This matters because your home should be more than just a roof over your head or a place to crash. It should feel like the one space in the world where you can truly exhale. A place where you, and everyone you love, can let down their guard and recharge.
But if we’re honest, how often does your home actually feel that way? For so many of us, it feels like another to-do list we can’t keep up with or a space filled with chaos instead of calm.
What if your home could be something different? What if it could be a place where you and your family feel supported, safe, and ready to face the world again?
This week, I’m going to discuss when your home feels like another job and 5 small shifts to create a “safe place to fall.”
You can read the full show notes HERE
Life as a working mom can be nonstop, can’t it? There’s always another task, another deadline, another person who needs your attention.
Somewhere in the chaos, it’s easy to lose sight of what makes you feel good. Maybe you’ve thought about taking a break or even dreamed of a spa day or a quiet weekend, but the idea fades because it feels like too much effort—or too much to ask.
Here’s the thing: it’s not about the retreat being perfect or extravagant. It’s about creating a moment for yourself that feels meaningful. Something that lets you breathe, recharge, and reconnect with what you need. But how do you even begin to make that happen?
This week, I’m going to discuss why we rarely take time for ourselves as working moms and how to create a retreat that feels possible and perfect for you.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Here’s the thing—your son is always watching, even when it doesn’t seem like it. He’s noticing how you juggle work, family, and all the other responsibilities on your plate.
He’s paying attention to how you handle tough moments, how you celebrate wins, and how you show up every single day. What do you think he’s learning from all of that?
We often think about the messages we’re sending to our daughters, but our sons are soaking up just as much. Have you ever stopped to wonder what he’s learning about women by watching you? Or how seeing you work hard might shape the kind of partner or leader he’ll be one day?
And it’s not just about what you’re doing—it’s about what you’re showing him is possible. By pursuing your career while raising a family, you’re setting an example of strength and capability that he’ll carry with him for the rest of his life. How do you think that might change the way he sees the roles of men and women in the world?
This week, I’m going to discuss modeling respect, equality, and emotional intelligence for our sons as well as teaching resilience, work ethic, and the value of connection.
You can read the full show notes HERE
With Mother’s Day in a week, I decided that for the next two weeks I’m going to talk about the impact of working moms on daughters and on sons. This week I'm just focusing on daughters, but if you don’t have a daughter, I would still listen in because, let's face it, you are a daughter and you never know what you might discover.
And if you have a daughter like I do, I want to talk about something that’s probably crossed your mind as a working mom: how your career is impacting your daughter. It’s one of those things we think about in the quiet moments, wondering if what we’re doing is helping her or holding her back.
Maybe you’ve asked yourself, “Am I showing her the right example?” Or, “Does she feel like I’m not there enough?” These questions can feel heavy because, let’s be honest, being a mom comes with its own suitcase of guilt, and working just seems to add more to it.
But here’s the thing: the impact you’re having on your daughter might be more powerful than you realize. It’s not just about how many hours you’re home or how many soccer practices you make it to—it’s about what she’s seeing and learning from you every single day.
This week, I’m going to discuss how working moms shape ambition and confidence in daughters, and how to balance challenges and build a stronger connection.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Being a working mom can feel like a never-ending juggling act. When my children were younger, I remember that some days, it was like no matter how early I woke up or how much I planned, there was still too much to do and not enough time to do it.
I know I’m not the only one who’s felt this way. You start the day with the best intentions, but by the time it’s over, you’re wondering where all the hours went and why you still feel behind.
It’s exhausting. And let’s be honest—sometimes it feels like no matter how hard you try, you’re just barely keeping your head above water.
The problem isn’t that we’re not doing enough. The problem is that we’re doing too much of the wrong things and not enough of what actually helps.
This week, I’m going to discuss why it feels like there’s never enough time and the best time management habits for working moms.
You can read the full show notes HERE
What if you could wake up knowing exactly what needed to get done instead of feeling like you were already behind? What if you could make life run more smoothly without adding more to your plate?
The good news is, setting up better systems isn’t complicated. You don’t need fancy planners, expensive apps, or hours of extra time.
All you need is a simple way to organize things so that your brain isn’t working overtime trying to remember everything. Once you have that, life gets easier—without you having to work harder.
This week, I’m going to discuss why life feels disorganized and how to organize your life with better systems.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Think about the last time you laughed so hard with a friend that it felt like a weight was lifted off your shoulders. When was the last time you felt truly understood without having to explain yourself? These are the kinds of connections that can keep us grounded, even when life feels chaotic.
Yet, for so many moms, it feels like friendships belong in the “someday” pile—the pile of things we’ll get to once everything else is done. But let’s be honest: when is everything ever done?
What if finding your tribe isn’t about adding something else to your to-do list but about enriching the life you’re already living? What if it’s about realizing that connection doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming—it just has to be intentional?
Friendships aren’t just a luxury for when you have extra time (does that even exist?). They’re a lifeline, a source of energy and comfort, and they can help you be the best version of yourself—for you and everyone else who depends on you.
This week, I’m going to discuss why it feels so hard to maintain friendships when you’re a busy working mom and how building meaningful relationships doesn’t have to be complicated.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Have you ever left work at a reasonable time to pick up your kids and felt like you were being silently—or not so silently—judged? Maybe a coworker makes a snide comment, or you get that look from someone as if to say, “Must be nice to leave early.”
The thing is, juggling work and family is already hard enough without feeling like you’re under a microscope. You’re trying to do your best for your family and your career, but somehow, it never feels like enough. It’s exhausting, and it can leave you second-guessing yourself constantly.
Why is it that judgment from others, or even ourselves, can hit so hard? Why does one comment, one glance, or even one unspoken assumption stick with us for hours—or days? It’s almost like our brains are wired to take every criticism and use it as proof that we’re not doing enough.
This week, I’m going to discuss why judgment and criticism feel so heavy and how to take back control.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Let’s talk about what it’s like to feel stuck in a job you can’t quit. It’s one of those things that can weigh on you every single day, making it hard to focus on anything else.
You might feel like you’re just going through the motions, clocking in and out, while wishing things could be different. Maybe you’ve told yourself, “I have no choice,” or “It’s just how things are right now.”
If you’ve ever felt like this, you’re not alone. So many people, especially moms balancing work and family, feel trapped in a job because the idea of leaving isn’t even on the table.
But what does “stuck” really mean? Is it your circumstances that are keeping you there, or could it be something else entirely?
This week, I’m going to discuss why you feel stuck and how to empower yourself when you can’t quit right now.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Have you ever thought about all the things you’ve done in the past year alone? Not just the big milestones but the small victories that probably felt insignificant at the time but added up to something incredible.
Sometimes, we need a little nudge to stop and acknowledge ourselves. That’s where the idea of a Reverse Bucket List comes in—a simple way to see your life through a more compassionate and celebratory lens.
So, here’s my question for you: If you wrote down all the moments you’re proud of, what would you discover about yourself? Would you see a woman who’s been doing far more than she gives herself credit for?
This isn’t about adding one more thing to your to-do list or finding yet another way to measure your success. It’s about giving yourself the credit you deserve and feeling proud of the life you’ve built so far.
This week, I’m going to discuss the problem of forgetting to pause and reflect and the transformative power of a Reverse Bucket List.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Have you ever noticed how your brain can latch onto a single thought and refuse to let go? Maybe it’s replaying an awkward moment, overthinking something you said, or obsessing about what someone else might be thinking. It’s like a broken record, looping over and over, and no matter how hard you try, it just won’t stop.
This kind of mental replay can be exhausting. It’s not just draining your energy—it’s stealing your time and focus too.
You sit there, caught up in the loop, wishing your brain had an “off” switch. But the harder you try to push the thought away, the louder it seems to get.
Why does this happen? Why does your brain decide to cling so tightly to something, even when you don’t want it to?
This week, I’m going to discuss why thought loops happen, how to recognize and redirect thought loops, and my personal example of breaking a thought loop.
You can read the full show notes HERE
As moms and accountants, we often feel like we’re always running to keep up. There are deadlines to meet, kids to care for, and piles of things—both literal and figurative—demanding our attention. It’s easy to feel stretched thin and wonder if there’s another way.
What if simplifying your surroundings could make life feel more manageable? What if letting go of the unnecessary could give you more time, energy, and peace of mind?
Think about how much better you feel when you walk into a clean, organized room. Or how much more productive you are when your desk is free of distractions. Minimalism is about creating more of those moments—more calm, more focus, and more space for what truly matters.
This week, I’m going to discuss when ‘more’ becomes too much and embracing minimalism for clarity and control.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Have you ever wished that self-doubt would disappear and you'd be able to do what you want, when you want? Well, what if self-confidence isn’t something you have to earn, but something you can create right now?
Many people wait for external validation—like a promotion or praise—before feeling confident, but that approach keeps confidence just out of reach. True self-confidence isn’t about knowing everything or proving yourself first; it’s about trusting your ability to figure things out along the way.
Instead of waiting to feel ready, consider that confidence is what helps you achieve your goals, not the other way around.
This week, I’m going to discuss the confidence trap: waiting for permission and shifting the focus: building confidence from within.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Have you ever stopped to think about the things you’re doing now that once felt completely out of reach? It’s amazing how often we achieve things we didn’t think we could—until we actually did.
Maybe it’s juggling work and motherhood when you used to wonder how anyone did both. Or maybe it’s tackling a job you once thought you weren’t qualified for, managing a household during chaotic weeks, or handling a tough situation you never imagined you’d get through.
But here’s the thing: how often do we stop to give ourselves credit for those wins? How often do we pause to think, “Wow, I did something I thought I couldn’t do”?
Most of us don’t. We just move on to the next challenge, the next to-do, or the next big goal.
This week, I’m going to discuss how doubt isn’t the obstacle to doing the impossible and how to believe in yourself, not just the goal.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Have you ever noticed how some thoughts just keep popping up, even when you’re not trying to think them? It’s like they’re on autopilot, running quietly in the background while you go about your day.
And it’s not just the good thoughts, either. It’s often the worries, the doubts, and those sneaky self-criticisms that feel like they’ve set up camp in our minds.
As moms, we juggle so much, and it can feel like our minds are always full. We’ve got thoughts about the kids, work, our relationships, and that never-ending list of things we feel we should be doing better. And even if we try to focus on the positive, those familiar thoughts seem to stick around, don’t they?
The good news is that we can change this. We can create new ways of thinking and start shifting our focus toward things that empower us rather than hold us back. But it does take a little intention and patience.
This week, I’m going to discuss why our thoughts keep us stuck and how to move toward new thoughts.
You can read the full show notes HERE
What if I told you there’s a hidden factor behind why some days feel productive while others feel like a constant battle? It’s not time management strategies or fancy apps—it’s your emotions.
Think about it—have you ever felt scattered, struggling to focus, only to realize later it was because of stress? Or felt guilty about work-life balance, and that guilt kept distracting you? These emotions steal our time and energy without us even noticing.
If we want to get more done in less time, we have to acknowledge the role emotions play. Time management tools are great, but they don’t stand a chance if we’re weighed down by stress.
This week, I’m going to discuss how unproductive emotions sabotage productivity and how to take control of unproductive emotions and get more done in less time.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Have you ever walked away from a conversation with someone and felt this weird mix of guilt, frustration, or even self-doubt, but you couldn’t quite put your finger on why? Maybe it was something subtle, like a comment that left you wondering if you’ve somehow let them down.
Or maybe they just hinted that you should be doing something differently, and suddenly, you’re questioning yourself. I think we’ve all been there – those moments when someone’s words stick with us in a way that doesn’t feel good but feels hard to shake off.
That’s what emotional manipulation can feel like. It’s sneaky, and most of us don’t realize what’s happening until we’ve been pulled into it.
This week, I’m going to discuss the hidden problem of emotional manipulation, taking back control and setting boundaries, and practical ways to strengthen your boundaries.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Have you ever wished you had just a little extra space in your life? Not more things to do, but more room to do them—more breathing room between tasks, more time to pause, and more energy left at the end of the day?
If that idea sounds like a distant dream, you’re in good company. For so many working moms, especially those of us in demanding professions like accounting, the concept of having space in your life can feel like a luxury you just don’t have.
But what if creating this kind of space—what I call creating “margin”—was actually within reach? What if it was more about small, intentional changes than a massive overhaul?
This week, I’m going to discuss the concept of “creating margin” and the 4 C’s for creating margin in your life.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Let’s talk about something we all think about as working moms—how our work life affects our kids. It’s one of those topics that can stir up a mix of emotions: guilt, worry, and maybe even a little pride. If you’ve ever wondered how to make things easier for your kids when you’re busy, you’re in good company.
The truth is, being a working mom is a balancing act that can feel impossible some days. You want to do your best at work and at home, but sometimes it feels like there just isn’t enough of you to go around. Does that sound familiar?
This is especially true as we head into the busiest season for accountants. You might already be looking at your schedule, trying to figure out how to fit it all in without shortchanging your kids. Maybe you’ve even caught yourself asking, “Am I doing enough for them?”
This week, I’m going to discuss when work feels like it’s getting in the way and finding ways to help your kids deal with having a working mom.
You can read the full show notes HERE
We’ve all been there: a day packed with tasks, meetings, and responsibilities, yet somehow, at the end of it, we’re left wondering, “What did I actually accomplish?” You’re putting out fires all day long, crossing items off your to-do list, but there’s still that nagging feeling that you didn’t touch the things that truly matter—those goals that feel just out of reach.
No matter how hard you work, the important things seem to keep getting pushed to tomorrow, next week, or even further down the road. And it’s exhausting.
The truth is, it’s not because you’re not working hard enough. It’s because the way we’ve been taught to think about goals and productivity is broken. Life is full of distractions—emails to answer, last-minute client needs, unexpected interruptions—all of which make it feel like you’re constantly on the go but never actually getting closer to where you want to be.
This week, I’m going to discuss why we’re stuck in the busyness trap, the difference between regular goals and “Do Goals,” and how to shift from busy to productive with "Do Goals."
You can read the full show notes HERE
If you’ve been following the CPA MOMS Podcast, you might know that I’ve interviewed Nicole Kehl twice - once as a new franchisee and once after her first year running her firm.
This week I had the pleasure of interviewing her in her very exciting new role - as the new CEO of CPA MOMS!
Nicole is a mom of two from Kentucky and became CPA MOMS' fourth founding franchisee, having previously struggled with building her own practice and having the support and training she needed
In this interview, we discuss her evolution from franchisee to CEO, what she believes accountant moms need, and how she plans to support them.
You can read the highlights of this interview HERE
As working moms, we juggle so much—careers, families, relationships, and personal goals. It’s easy to feel like real change is out of reach.
But here’s the thing: the problem isn’t that you’re not trying hard enough. It’s that most of us focus on what we do—our habits or routines—without addressing what’s driving them.
The truth is, lasting change doesn’t come from doing more. It comes from understanding the why behind your actions. Without addressing what’s happening beneath the surface, it’s like trying to fix a leaky faucet by mopping the floor.
So, as we start a new year, I want you to approach things differently. Forget just setting more goals. Let’s focus on the foundation—the thoughts, feelings, and actions that create real change. Once you understand how to manage those, everything else becomes easier.
This week, I’m going to why change feels so hard, how to change your life in 12 Months—one step at a time and a 12-month roadmap for lasting change.
You can read the full show notes HERE
You know how planning always sounds like a great idea? You picture yourself with this perfectly organized schedule, effortlessly gliding through your day, getting everything done, and still having time to relax.
But then reality hits, and it feels like no matter how hard you try, planning just doesn’t work the way you want it to.
Today, I want to let you in on five secrets that can completely change the way you think about planning. These aren’t the typical “plan your day the night before” tips you’ve heard a hundred times. These are the real game-changers—the things that make planning feel doable and, dare I say it, even fun.
This week, I’m going to discuss the 5 secrets to planning that actually work and how you can implement each one so that you have a better sense of control over your time.
You can read the full show notes HERE
As a working mom, it’s easy to feel like you’re juggling a million things at once—work deadlines, family obligations, holiday preparations, and somehow trying to squeeze in a little time for yourself.
It can often feel like no matter how much you do, there’s always something left on your to-do list, and with that comes the sneaky feeling that you should be doing more. Sound familiar?
But here’s the thing: as moms, we often forget to step back and recognize everything we’ve already accomplished. We can be so focused on what’s next—what needs to be done, where we need to go, who we need to help—that we rarely give ourselves credit for what we’ve already handled.
This week, I’m going to discuss why we struggle to feel proud of ourselves and how to start feeling proud right now.
You can download the full show notes HERE
e’ve all been there—whether it’s a coworker, a family member, or even a fellow parent, some people just seem to drain our energy. As a working mom, your plate is already overflowing, and dealing with people who constantly bring negativity or stress into your life can feel like the last straw.
It’s tempting to call these individuals “toxic” and hope that avoiding them will make things better. But have you ever noticed that even when you distance yourself, they still seem to occupy space in your mind?
The truth is that the term “toxic” gets thrown around a lot these days. We use it to describe people whose behavior makes us feel uncomfortable, angry, or even downright miserable.
But what if I told you there’s no such thing as a toxic person? Stay with me here—it might sound strange, but this perspective could actually make your life a whole lot easier.
This week, I’m going to answer the question, “Are they really toxic, or are you just triggered?” and discuss how to take back control and handle your reactions.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Have you ever caught yourself spiraling in thoughts that seem to go absolutely nowhere? You know what I mean—those moments when your brain is running a marathon, but you're stuck at the starting line, feeling overwhelmed and unsure.
One minute, you're thinking about something small, like forgetting to send an email, and the next thing you know, you've convinced yourself that your entire week is ruined. This, my friends, is what we call "mind drama."
When we typically talk about drama, we often picture people stirring up trouble—gossiping, making mountains out of molehills, or dragging everyone into some kind of unnecessary chaos. That's external drama, and while it's easy to spot, mind drama is a little sneakier.
Mind drama happens in your own head—it’s the endless spiral of thoughts and emotions that can make small issues feel overwhelming. It feels real because it’s in your brain, but it’s just your mind spinning stories without solving anything.
This week, I’m going to discuss identifying and dealing with mind drama as a working mom and how to untangle mind drama and take back control.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Have you ever really thought about whether your job defines who you are—or if it’s just one part of your life? It’s not something we usually stop to think about, but it’s a big question, isn’t it?
We spend so much of our time working that it’s easy to feel like our jobs are a huge part of our identity. But here’s the thing—are they really all there is to us?
Picture this for a second: if your job title disappeared tomorrow, who would you be? Would you feel lost, like a piece of you was missing? Or would you still know your worth, deep down?
These kinds of questions can feel a little uncomfortable, but they’re so important. They help us separate what we do from who we are. Because honestly, you’re so much more than just the tasks you check off your to-do list or the title on your business card.
This week, I’m going to look at whether you’re more than your job title, how to reconnect with the person behind your resume, and how to live authentically in all the roles you play.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Do you ever wake up and find your mind already running at full speed? Before you’ve even had your first sip of coffee, you’re already thinking about a million different things.
It’s like your brain hits the ground running the moment your eyes open. These early morning thoughts can set the tone for your entire day, whether you realize it or not.
We all have those mornings where, as soon as we wake up, our minds are flooded with worries, plans, or a running to-do list. Maybe you’re thinking about what needs to be done at work, a conversation you had yesterday, or even something as simple as what to make for dinner.
These thoughts often seem harmless, but they can actually create a ripple effect that influences your entire day.
This week, I’m going to discuss understanding the impact of morning thoughts and strategies to redirect and reprogram your morning thoughts.
You can download the full show notes HERE
Think about how often you’ve set a goal, like starting a new exercise routine or trying to eat healthier, only to find yourself slipping back into old patterns. It can feel frustrating, like you’re stuck in a loop, always wanting to improve but somehow ending up in the same place.
This is something most of us experience at one time or another, and it’s not about lacking the motivation to change—it’s about understanding the natural resistance that comes with trying to shift our habits.
So why is change so hard? The answer lies in how our brains are designed.
But the good news is that there are ways to outsmart your brain so that you can make any change you've decided on.
This week, I’m going to discuss the brain’s efficiency mode, why some habits are tougher to break, and using your brain to overcome resistance.
You can read the full show notes HERE
When you think about your daily habits, how many of them truly support the life you want? Many of us fall into patterns—rushing through the day, juggling work, family, and responsibilities—without stopping to consider whether those habits are actually helping us achieve the balance we’re after.
We get so used to running on autopilot, focused on getting things done, that we rarely take a step back to ask if the way we’re living is aligned with what we really want.
So the question then is - is there a simple daily habit that can help us transform our work-life balance? Yes, there is, and that's what I'm going to be covering in this episode.
This habit will do more for your work-life balance than all your other habits combined.
This week, I’m going to discuss the first step to this simple habit, shifting your mindset to incorporate this habit, and how it also leads to both professional and personal development.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Think about it. How many times have you replayed a situation in your mind, wishing you could have done something differently? How many times have you felt stuck because of something that happened long ago?
It’s like carrying around a heavy backpack filled with old, unnecessary things that only slow you down. And yet, many of us keep lugging it around, believing we have no choice.
But we do have a choice. Recognizing that the past is only one chapter in your story, you can choose to focus on the parts that empower you. It’s about learning from those experiences and releasing the grip of what no longer serves you.
It’s a part of your story, yes, but it doesn’t have to be the entire narrative. You can decide to focus on different parts of that story or even rewrite how you see those events. You can choose to take the lessons learned and let go of the rest.
This week, I’m going to discuss the trap of reliving your past and rewriting your story for freedom.
You can read the full show notes HERE
We all have things that matter deeply to us—our health, our relationships, our personal growth—but when we’re overwhelmed by our to-do lists, those things can easily get pushed to the side. It’s like trying to water a garden but only focusing on the weeds. The flowers, the things that actually bring beauty and value to our lives, get neglected.
That’s where priorities come in. Setting priorities is like deciding which flowers in your garden need the most care and attention.
When you know what’s most important to you, it becomes easier to say “yes” to the things that matter and “no” to the distractions. It’s not about doing more; it’s about doing what’s meaningful.
This week, I’m going to discuss why priorities get lost and how to set and align with your true priorities.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Have you ever had a day when someone’s words or actions left you feeling completely off balance like your entire mood was suddenly out of your control?
Or maybe you’ve found yourself stuck in a cycle of frustration and disappointment, wondering why certain situations always seem to trigger the same negative emotions.
What if the key to breaking free from these patterns wasn’t about changing other people but about changing something within yourself?
How would things be different if you could feel calm and in control no matter what was happening around you?
This week, I’m going to discuss the concepts of emotional childhood, emotional adulthood, and how to feel in control no matter what happens.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Jealousy is one of those emotions that can sneak up on us, leaving us feeling insecure or like we’re not enough. As working moms, we already have so much on our plates, so it's even easier to fall into that trap of comparing ourselves to others who seem to have it all together.
But here's something important to remember: jealousy is a completely normal feeling. It doesn’t define who we are. In fact, it’s more like a little signal telling us what we really want deep down.
And it’s totally okay to want more for yourself or feel a twinge of envy when you see someone with something you desire. The key is how we deal with that feeling.
This week, I’m going to discuss the root of the problem and how to shift gears from jealousy to abundance.
You can read the full show notes HERE
As working moms, we often face a unique blend of expectations and judgments, both from others and from ourselves. We juggle career demands, family responsibilities, and personal aspirations, all while trying to meet a set of standards that sometimes feel impossible.
It’s easy to get caught up in what others think about how we manage everything, from our parenting styles to our career choices.
Take a moment and think about how often you’ve asked yourself questions like, “Will they think I’m a good mom?” or “What will people think if I leave the office before everyone else to have dinner with my kids?” These thoughts can be so ingrained that we might not even realize how much they influence our decisions and behavior.
The truth is that worrying about others’ opinions can be exhausting and limiting. It can keep us from living authentically.
In other words, when we constantly try to mold ourselves into what we think others want us to be, we lose sight of who we really are and what we truly want.
This week, I’m going to discuss why we have a never-ending quest for approval and how to find freedom in being yourself.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Do you struggle with setting boundaries and sticking to them? You’re not alone!
This is a topic that many working moms find challenging - how to set and stick to boundaries.
The thing is, we often have this misconception that boundaries are about telling people what they can or can't do. In reality, boundaries are more about what you need to do than what others need to stop or start doing.
In other words, boundaries are less about changing someone else's behavior and more about defining how you will respond if your limits are crossed. They’re about taking responsibility for your own well-being rather than trying to control others.
Whether it's at work, with family, or in social situations, setting clear boundaries is key to avoiding burnout and finding balance as a working mom.
If you'd like to create time for yourself without guilt, communicate your limits confidently, and take control of your life, then this episode is for you.
This week, I’m going to discuss understanding boundaries and their importance, and how to set and stick to boundaries.
You can read the full show notes HERE
I was looking back at some of the things I’ve talked about on the podcast, and I realized there are a few topics that could really use a revisit. Especially the ones I covered early on, the ones that made a huge difference in my life and my coaching clients' lives. That’s why I decided to bring back the concept of “The Manual.”
This concept has literally been a game-changer in every single area of our lives and whether you've heard me talk about it before or not, it's still one of the most important tools I've ever used, both professionally and personally.
If you’re not sure what "The Manual" is, let me ask you something—have you ever been frustrated because someone isn’t doing what you want? Maybe it’s your spouse, your kids, or even someone at work. We’ve all been there, right?
In this episode I want to tell you (or maybe reintroduce) to something that could explain why you’re feeling that way. It’s called “The Manual.” It’s kind of like having an instruction book in your head for how other people should act.
This week, I’m going to discuss This week, I’m going to discuss the problem with “The Manual” and how to drop your Manuals.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Have you ever noticed how the questions you ask yourself can shape your entire day? It’s true! From the moment we wake up, we’re constantly asking ourselves questions, whether we realize it or not.
The problem is that we’re asking very disempowering questions without realizing it. For example, questions like “Why is this so hard?” or “Why aren’t there more hours in the day?” are just a few of the disempowering questions we ask ourselves.
On the flip side, empowering questions can be a game-changer. By asking ourselves better, more empowering questions, we can change the way we think, feel, and act.
By focusing on high-quality questions, we can tap into our inner wisdom and creativity. This isn't just about positive thinking—it’s about opening up possibilities and finding solutions that we might not have considered before.
This week, I’m going to discuss the importance of questions, reframing disempowering questions, and offer more examples of reframing disempowering questions to more empowering ones.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Although fear is very common, the truth is that a lot of us think about fear in the wrong way. We often see it as a valid reason to stop in our tracks. We say things like, "I'm scared, so I can't do this."
But here’s the thing - fear is often just a sign that our minds aren’t being managed. In other words, it’s the primitive part of our brain that’s taken over, not the higher, executive functioning part.
That's why it’s important to understand that fear doesn’t need to be a stop sign; it can be more like a blinking light saying, "Hey, pay attention to me!"
Thankfully, even though fear can make us freeze or avoid taking action, it doesn’t have to be that way.
It’s okay to feel afraid, but we can choose to move forward anyway. Whether it’s a job application, a new business venture, or any other challenge, we have the strength to overcome our fears and achieve our goals.
This week, I’m going to discuss understanding fear and its roots, mismanaging fear and its consequences, and practical strategies for overcoming fear.
You can read the full show notes HERE
This week I want to talk about something many accountant moms experience: your spouse might not really get what it’s like to be an accountant. They know you work hard, but they might not fully understand what your job really involves.
Maybe they see you sitting at your desk, typing away at spreadsheets, or taking calls from clients, but they don’t realize just how much pressure you’re under. They might not know about the tight deadlines, the need to be super accurate, or how draining it can be when work spills over into your personal life.
It’s not that your spouse doesn’t care—they probably just don’t see things from your perspective. Accounting can seem pretty straightforward to someone who isn’t in the field.
When your spouse doesn't get what it's like to be an accountant, it can add an extra layer of stress to an already demanding life. But with patience, communication, and a bit of effort, it's possible to bridge that gap and create a more supportive and understanding partnership.
This week, I’m going to discuss the unique challenges of being an accountant mom, common misunderstandings between spouses, and suggestions for getting your spouse on board.
You can read the full show notes HERE
One of the biggest challenges we face as working moms is the fear of being perceived as less committed or less capable because of our parenting responsibilities. This fear can often lead to under-communication, where we might hesitate to speak up about our needs or difficulties.
But here's the thing: not communicating these needs doesn't make them go away. Instead, it can lead to increased stress, burnout, and even resentment. On the other hand, clear and proactive communication can pave the way for a more supportive and understanding work environment.
I’ve been a CPA for almost as long as I’ve been a mom, so I know how important it is to have my employer on board with what I need to do my best, both at work and at home. That’s why I wanted to do this episode; to discuss why problems can arise, how they impact your work-life balance, and most importantly, what you can do to address them effectively.
This week, I’m going to discuss the typical problems you might experience and suggestions for effective communication with your employer.
You can read the full show notes HERE
As a working mom, mornings can often be the bane of our existence, especially when we have young ones. From getting the kids ready for school to preparing for a day full of accounting work, the morning hours can sometimes seem more like a chaotic race than a peaceful start to the day.
We've all been there—rushing through breakfast, hunting for missing shoes, and mentally juggling the day's to-do list before we've even had our first cup of coffee. But what if there was a way to transform this hectic time into a period of calm and control, setting the stage for a successful and productive day?
The good news is that creating a morning routine that works for you doesn't have to be complicated or time-consuming. It's about finding what works best for you and your family, and making small, manageable changes that can fit seamlessly into your lifestyle.
This week, I’m going to discuss why you’ll want a morning routine and suggestions for morning routines with examples.
You can read the full show notes HERE
In today’s world, the traditional family setup is changing fast. More women are stepping up as the main earners in their families, balancing demanding jobs with family responsibilities.
The truth is that being a breadwinning mom is a journey filled with both challenges and rewards that change how we think about work, family, and personal fulfillment.
Many women become the primary earners out of ambition, necessity, or a desire for financial independence. But whatever your reason, it can also be about breaking stereotypes and challenging the old idea that a woman’s place is solely in the home.
While it’s often rewarding to support your family financially, this role comes with unique challenges that can feel overwhelming. Society often expects mothers to be nurturing and present while also excelling in their careers.
Unfortunately, this dual expectation can create a lot of pressure, leading to feelings of guilt and stress.
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast, I’m going to discuss both the challenges and rewards of being a breadwinning mom.
You can read the full show notes HERE
As a working mom, you're most likely juggling responsibilities and striving to excel at work while ensuring your family gets the best of you. The daily grind can be overwhelming, and it's easy to get caught up in the stress and chaos, losing sight of the positive aspects of your life.
But what if there was a way to shift your perspective, find joy in the midst of the hustle, and improve your overall well-being? That’s where the concept of radical gratitude comes in.
Radical gratitude goes beyond the surface level of thankfulness and dives deep into a mindset of appreciation, even during tough times.
Radical gratitude is about more than just saying "thank you." It's a practice that encourages you to find and focus on the positives, no matter how small, in every situation.
It's about shifting your perspective from what’s going wrong to what’s going right. This
It doesn't mean ignoring challenges or pretending everything is perfect; it's about acknowledging difficulties and still finding something to be grateful for.
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast, I’m going to dive deeper into what radical gratitude is and share practical ways you can incorporate this powerful practice into your daily life.
You can read the full show notes HERE
I’ve been talking to several working moms lately and have been interested in the things they’re doing that are making it difficult for them to live their best lives. They’ve been sharing what’s working and what isn’t, but they’re also seeing their life from “inside their box.”
What I mean by this is that they can get so caught up in their daily routines and struggles that it's hard for them to see things objectively. It's like they're stuck in a "box" made up of their comfort zones, habits, societal expectations, and personal insecurities.
The truth is that we’re all inside our own box made up of our upbringing and beliefs we’ve accumulated over the years. But in order to make the most out of life, there are a few things you need to consider quitting.
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast, I’m going to discuss each of the 5 things to quit right now and what you can begin to do to live your best life.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Whether you’re currently in a leadership role, considering one, or aren’t sure, this episode will be incredibly helpful, especially because you’re going to be surprised at what I share about the most important thing.
The truth is that being a leader isn't just about having a fancy job title or being able to get people to do what you need them to do. It’s actually less about others and more about ourselves.
But, here’s what I really want you to understand - whether you’re a leader at work or not, you are a leader due to the fact that you’re a mom. The truth is that your role as a leader with your children is probably the most important leadership role you’ll ever have.
But to be the best leader you can be, you need to understand one crucial thing. What is that thing? Listen in and I'll explain.
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast, I’m going to discuss the most important thing you do as a leader, your brain’s role in being a female leader, and the #1 tool you need to be a better leader.
You can read the full show notes HERE
For this episode, I decided to look at the most downloaded episodes. It was so much fun to go down memory lane and see which episodes resonated with you all the most.
Once I had a list of the most popular episodes, I decided that listening to each episode was great, but if you don’t act on the information, it’s not as helpful as it could be. As I always tell my coaching clients, knowledge isn’t power; applied knowledge is power.
So today, I want to help you apply what you learn in each episode by offering you questions to consider for each of the most popular episodes. This is not an episode to just listen to; it’s an episode that will help you apply what you’re learning in a way you probably haven’t done before.
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast we summarize the most popular episodes and share questions for each episode so that you can explore what you learn further.
You can read the full show notes HERE
As working moms, we're no strangers to the struggle of balancing career, family, and personal life. Our days are packed from sunrise to sundown with meetings, deadlines, school runs, grocery shopping, meal prep – you name it.
But here's the problem – despite our best efforts, many of us find ourselves falling short when it comes to managing our time effectively. We set ambitious goals, create color-coded schedules, and download every productivity app under the sun, only to end up feeling like we're drowning in a sea of unfinished tasks and missed opportunities.
So, what's the deal? Why do we struggle so much to stay on top of our to-do lists and make the most of our precious time? The answer, my friends, lies in the often-overlooked factor of self-confidence.
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss how your self-confidence is affecting your time management and strategies to help you improve both.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Transitioning from full-time to part-time work is a big decision for many working moms. It’s a choice that can bring numerous benefits but also comes with its own set of challenges.
In our fast-paced world, balancing the demands of work and family life can feel like a juggling act. However, more and more moms are discovering that part-time work can be a great way to find that balance.
Did you know that the number of part-time workers has been steadily increasing? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 20% of employed women in the United States were working part-time as of 2022.
This trend is particularly common among moms with young children who want to spend more time with their families while still contributing to the household income and maintaining their careers. The flexibility of part-time work can be a game-changer for managing the many responsibilities of parenting.
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss issues that could come up, practical solutions if you are an employee, and solutions for self-employed moms.
You can read the full show notes HERE
In the whirlwind of tax deadlines, soccer practice, and bedtime stories, it's easy to lose sight of our own goals and dreams when we’re dealing with the demands of everyday life. But here's the truth: you deserve to create and live your dream life.
I understand that all your responsibilities can sometimes feel overwhelming. But amidst the chaos, there lies the opportunity to create the life you've always envisioned.
For example, a life where you wake up each morning feeling excited and energized, knowing that your day is filled with purpose and passion. A life where you have the freedom to pursue your career ambitions without sacrificing precious moments with your loved ones.
A life where you prioritize self-care and self-discovery, knowing that by nurturing yourself, you become a better accountant, a better mom, and most importantly, a better version of yourself.
But why, you may ask, is it so important to create our dream life? Countless studies have shown that individuals who align their lives with their values and passions experience greater levels of satisfaction and fulfillment.
Think about it this way - what is it that mothers typically say we want for our kids? We want them to be happy. Well, we need to want that for ourselves as well.
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss knowing what you want and planning and executing your dream life.
You can read the full show notes HERE
When you hear the word "ambition," what do you think of? It probably brings to mind images of unstoppable determination, a fierce drive, and the hunger to achieve big things.
Ambition is seen as a great quality, something that pushes people to aim high and go after their dreams. But if we stop and picture ambitious individuals, how often do we imagine women in that role?
The truth is that society has taught us to associate ambition more with men, suggesting that women belong more in supporting roles than in leadership positions or chasing big goals. Despite all the progress we've made towards gender equality, this idea still persists, clouding our perceptions of ambitious women.
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss why we have a double standard and normalizing ambition.
You can read the full show notes HERE
See if this sounds familiar - you went to college for accounting, started an accounting career, and began your professional journey. Your days are filled with meetings, deadlines, and the satisfying sense of accomplishment that comes with excelling in your career.
Then, you become a mom. Suddenly, your world shifts on its axis. Your days are no longer solely yours to command.
They're now filled with diaper changes, midnight feedings, and the overwhelming responsibility of nurturing a tiny human being. Amidst the chaos of motherhood, you may find yourself struggling with a sense of loss – not just of sleep or free time, but of your pre-motherhood identity.
This is when an identity crisis can begin for many working moms. It’s when the roles of career woman and mother collide, leaving us to navigate conflicting expectations and self-doubt.
If you can relate, you're not alone.
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss why we can go through an identity crisis after becoming a mom and what to do when you’re struggling.
You can read the full show notes HERE
How many times have you found yourself in the middle of a chaotic morning routine, juggling breakfast, backpacks, and briefcases, thinking, "It shouldn't be this difficult"?
Or maybe you've hit a snag at work, trying to meet a deadline while also coordinating pick-up times for soccer practice, and you're left wondering, "Why can't this be easier?"
I get it; I’ve definitely been there, and chances are, so have many of you. As working moms, we often carry this unspoken expectation that things should be smoother, simpler, and, well, just easier.
After all, isn’t that what we see on social media? The picture-perfect moms effortlessly managing their careers, their homes, and their sanity, all with a smile on their face and a latte in hand.
But let’s face it, that's not the reality for most of us.
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss why we think it should be easier, and how to embrace the hard and change our perspective.
You can read the full show notes HERE
How many times have you wanted something – whether it's advancing in your career, finding more time for self-care, or achieving a better work-life balance – but never quite followed through?
Wanting is easy. It's passive, comfortable, and safe. But it doesn't lead to results. It just leaves us stuck in a cycle of longing for something that never materializes.
Committing, on the other hand, is where the magic happens. When you make a true commitment to something, you become laser-focused on the result you want to achieve.
You take action, you overcome obstacles, and you keep pushing forward until you reach your goal. Committing is active, it's solution-focused, and, most importantly, it creates results.
So, how do we go from merely wanting something to fully committing to making it happen?
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss understanding wanting versus committing and the 5 steps to make a commitment.
You can read the full show notes HERE
It’s that time of year when it seems like our kids are involved in more extracurricular activities than ever, so I think it’s important to discuss balancing work with all the extra things going on.
Between managing work deadlines, keeping the house from descending into chaos, and making sure the kids are fed, clothed, and (somewhat) civilized, it sometimes feels like there just aren't enough hours in the day. And as if that weren't enough, one more thing adds an extra layer of complexity to the mix: kids' extracurricular activities.
Maybe you can relate – soccer practice on Mondays, piano lessons on Wednesdays, ballet on Fridays, and don't forget about the science fair project that's due next week. It's a never-ending whirlwind of rehearsals, recitals, games, and competitions, all of which seem to require your presence, your time, and your energy.
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the overwhelming reality and practical tips for balancing work and kids’ extracurricular activities.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Picture this: you're at your desk, 50 unanswered emails flooding your inbox, and your phone buzzing nonstop with reminders and notifications. Meanwhile, at home, there's a sink full of dishes, laundry waiting to be folded, and children wanting your attention.
Sound familiar? You're not alone.
Even though we feel like we need to tackle everything on our own, the truth is that we can delegate. We often just don't.
One of the toughest challenges we deal with is handing off tasks to others. Why is it such a struggle to let go and ask for help? It all boils down to a mix of things that influence how we think, feel, and act.
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss why delegating feels impossible for working moms and strategies to help you start delegating more.
You can read the full show notes HERE
So picture this: it's Monday morning, and your alarm clock jolts you awake after what feels like you just fell asleep. As you drag yourself out of bed, a nagging thought creeps into your mind: how will ever have the energy to tackle everything on your plate today?
If you can relate to some version of this scenario, you're not alone. For most of us, the daily juggle of professional obligations and family responsibilities can often leave us feeling drained, depleted, and downright exhausted.
Whether we're preparing tax returns in the office or putting together dinner in the kitchen, our ability to show up with energy and motivation directly impacts not only our own success at work but also the well-being of those we care for most. Whether you realize it or not, your energy, or lack of it, does affect those around you.
This week I’m going to explain why energy management is so important and what you can do to have more energy.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Have you ever found yourself questioning who you are, what led you to your current point in life, or what you’d like to be “when you grow up”? Maybe it’s because you’ve gone through a breakup, or your kids are grown and don’t need you as much, or you feel stagnant in your current job or career choice.
Have you ever achieved a goal that you were going after or a level of success that you wanted, only to discover that they no longer bring the satisfaction they once did? Or maybe you’re at a crossroads, wondering what’s next?
While the concept of reinvention may sound exciting, the reality and process of transforming yourself can also be overwhelming, which might make you hesitate to do anything. Your brain might think it's safer to stick with what you know than to try something new and change how you see yourself.
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the power of reinventing yourself and 5 steps you can take to reinvent yourself.
You can read the full show notes HERE
In this time of more technological advancements than ever before, I think we all need to better grasp how technology can help working moms. Since our lives aren’t getting any simpler on their own, I think it’s important to embrace how technology can help us streamline and simplify our busy lives.
For example, imagine a typical day where you're rushing to get the kids ready for school, responding to work emails, planning meals, and somehow trying to find a moment for yourself. It's a familiar scenario for many of us, and it's during these hectic moments that technology can become a helping hand.
Since most of us cannot afford to hire a personal assistant but could probably benefit from having one, I want to explore some tech-savvy solutions designed to make your life easier, allowing you to focus on what matters most – your family and your well-being.
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss time management apps and tools, meal planning and grocery shopping apps, educational and entertainment apps for kids, and health and wellness apps for mom.
You can read the full show notes HERE
It's no secret that being a working mom is a challenge, and when you add a high-stress work environment to the mix, it can feel like you're navigating a storm with no umbrella.
I’m not just talking about the occasional stressful day; I’m talking about a persistent, high-pressure atmosphere that can take a toll on your mental and physical health.
The truth is that the impact of high-stress environments goes beyond frazzled nerves. It has a domino effect on various aspects of life.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the causes of stress at work and at home and strategies to thrive in high-stress environments.
You can also read the full show notes HERE
The truth is, it's easy to lose sight of joy in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Moments that could be filled with happiness and contentment can slip through the cracks, unnoticed and uncelebrated.
This is the crux of the problem faced by working moms—how to reclaim joy in the midst of deadlines, school runs, and household chores. When it seems like the best part of the day is when you crash into bed, how do you not feel like every day is a scene from the movie “Groundhog Day”?
Balancing work and family isn't just tiring physically—it messes with our minds, emotions, and our overall happiness. When stress never leaves your side, the fun stuff in life starts feeling dull.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss why the struggle is real and how to find joy in the everyday.
You can read the full show notes HERE
As accountant moms trying to make our way in a male-dominated profession, it can be a bit shocking when we begin to deal with ingrained stereotypes that cast doubt on our capabilities.
These stereotypes range from outdated beliefs about a woman's commitment to work after becoming a mother to misconceptions regarding our ability to handle the balancing act of accounting responsibilities.
The truth is that addressing stereotypes and unfair assumptions is crucial not only for the well-being of accountant moms but also for creating an environment that values diversity and recognizes the various strengths we each bring to the table.
Whether they realize it or not, the accounting profession needs us and is lucky to have us.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss overcoming stereotypes and challenges as well as standing up for yourself.
You can read the full show notes HERE
While we all probably want to raise healthy and happy children, many of us also have the goal to raise children who are not only confident but also independent – equipped with the skills and mindset to navigate what life throws at them.
Whether by choice or necessity, the children of working moms often don’t have the luxury of having things done for them like they would if we were stay-at-home moms, and I, for one, think that’s actually not a bad thing.
Honestly, I believe the importance of instilling confidence and independence in our kids cannot be overstated. As working moms, we understand that our absence during certain parts of the day doesn't diminish our role in shaping our children's character.
In fact, it requires a more intentional and focused approach to parenting. We don’t have the luxury of 16 hours a day to spend with our children.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss nurturing independence while being present, building confidence through positive reinforcement, and building a supportive environment.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Unfortunately, the societal expectations and stereotypes surrounding working moms haven’t gotten any better over the years. They just add an additional layer of pressure, often creating an environment where professional success is measured against traditional gender roles.
Because of this, the role of dads and partners is even more critical. It's not just about being a helping hand in managing household chores; it's about actively participating in changing the narrative and the societal expectations that burden working moms.
The truth is that the need for a supportive partner goes beyond just helping bring a child to a soccer game; it’s about creating an environment where both parents can pursue their ambitions without compromising the well-being of the family.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss understanding the challenges, the benefits of supportive dads and partners, and ways dads and partners can support working moms.
You can read the full show notes HERE
For many of us, the desire to excel at work and be present for our families often leads to a dangerous habit – overcommitting. Whether it's taking on extra projects at the office, volunteering for every school event, or attending social gatherings out of a sense of obligation, the result is the same: a calendar bursting at the seams and an overwhelming feeling of exhaustion.
The overcommitment issue isn't just about a packed schedule; it's about the toll it takes on our mental and physical well-being. Saying yes to everything might seem like the path to success, but it often leads to burnout and neglect of personal needs.
It's an issue that, when not managed carefully, can leave us working moms feeling like we're constantly falling short.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the power of saying no, evaluating professional and personal priorities, strategies for saying No, and overcoming guilt and FOMO (fear of missing out).
You can read the full show notes HERE
While the accounting profession can offer exciting opportunities for growth and development for working moms, it also presents unique challenges. In today’s episode, I want to discuss the everyday hurdles faced by accountant moms and explore practical strategies to overcome these challenges.
The reality for most of us is a dual role that requires a lot of effort. We might make it look like we’ve got it all figured out, but if we’re being honest, we’re often hanging by a thread trying to balance our work and our family commitments.
The journey of most accountant moms involves reconciling professional ambitions with the demands of motherhood.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss juggling a career and motherhood, overcoming gender bias and stereotypes, embracing flexibility, and the path to career advancement for accountant moms.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Have you ever heard someone talk about being more mindful? Or becoming a more mindful parent? I remember hearing that term and thinking it meant to make sure I knew what my kids were doing, as in “Be more mindful of where your kids are.”
The truth is that the concept of mindful parenting is so much more. It's about being fully present in each moment, paying attention to your thoughts and feelings without judgment.
It’s about managing your emotions so that you’re bringing your best self to work and at home. It's not about doing more or being perfect; it's about doing things with intention and being present in the midst of the chaos.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the concept of mindfulness, integrating mindfulness into your daily routine, and creating a mindful environment.
You can read the full show notes HERE
In the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, it's easy to lose sight of what truly matters — the connection we share with our kids. Amidst the chaos of schedules and to-do lists, the laughter, the small talks, and the shared moments can sometimes take a backseat.
But here's a gentle reminder: these connections are the glue that holds everything together.
Why is it so crucial? Because these connections are often the stories your kids will carry with them throughout their lives. It's the bedtime stories, the shared jokes, and the little everyday triumphs that create a bond stronger than any busy schedule.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss maximizing quality time, work-life integration, and mindful parenting and personal well-being.
You can read the full show notes HERE
In the fast-paced world we live in, instilling financial wisdom in our children is more crucial than ever. I want you to imagine your kids growing up not just understanding the concept of money but mastering it with confidence.
As accountant moms, you have a distinct advantage – a unique perspective that can make a significant impact on your children's financial education.
Honestly, I don’t think there’s enough taught about financial literacy to children. I think that’s part of the reason why we have young adults who are saddled with more debt than they can possibly afford.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss nurturing financial wisdom in kids, making money lessons fun, the role of technology in financial education, and addressing challenges.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Mentorship isn't just a buzzword; it can be the secret to overcoming many of the professional hurdles we face while managing the demands of motherhood.
I believe all accountants could benefit from mentorship, but particularly accountant moms. Why is that? Because society and our workplaces often have expectations that can be overwhelming.
The truth is that striking the right balance while meeting expectations is no small feat. That’s why it’s important to acknowledge the challenges you’re dealing with in order to better appreciate the impact of mentorship.
Mentorship, simply put, is having a seasoned guide in your corner. Someone who has not only walked the path you're on, but is willing to share their insights and can encourage you to take steps on your own unique journey.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss understanding the challenges that make mentorship important, the power of mentorship, how to find the right mentor, and the difference between unpaid mentors and paid coaches.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Balancing the demands of an accounting career with the joys and responsibilities of motherhood is a feat that many working moms undertake, and during certain times of the year, the challenge can feel particularly intense. For those of us in public accounting, tax season becomes a marathon of filing deadlines and client expectations.
Working during the busier times of the year, especially for moms, is truly like orchestrating a symphony – a harmonious blend of work commitments and family responsibilities. It's about embracing the challenges with a spirit of resilience, finding joy in the midst of deadlines, and celebrating the victories, big and small.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss work and family responsibilities, planning ahead, and work-life integration during tax season.
You can read the full show notes HERE
I'm really excited to be talking about a topic that might make some of you raise an eyebrow – the idea of being selfish.
Now, I know what you're probably thinking. "Selfish? Isn't that a word we were told to avoid, like the plague? Isn’t being selfish a bad thing, especially for mothers?"
In this episode, I’m not talking about the kind of selfishness that leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Instead, I’m exploring a concept that might just revolutionize the way you approach your daily life, your family, and, most importantly, yourself.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the stigma around selfishness, self-care versus selfishness, and practicing healthy selfishness.
You can read the full show notes HERE
During this time after the holidays, you might feel like your to-do list has grown out of nowhere. That's totally normal. But here's the good part: now is the perfect time for all of us to take a pause, regroup, and start thinking about how to get back on track.
Getting back on track means more than just catching up on work stuff. It's about finding balance in our lives, setting goals for ourselves, and getting ready for the challenges that are coming. It's like getting our ducks in a row so we're prepared and organized for what's ahead.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss setting clear goals for the New Year, organizing your workspace, creating a realistic schedule, and getting back on track with self-care.
You can read the full show notes HERE
How many times have you felt that you need to be flawless in every aspect of your life to be valued? How often have you hesitated to share your work or ideas because they didn't meet the elusive standards of perfection?
Here’s the thing: we need to give ourselves permission to be human. Unfortunately, perfectionism is like a sneaky intruder that creeps into our lives, whispering that anything less than perfect is a failure.
Let's be honest: the pursuit of perfection can rob us of joy, time with our loved ones, and the chance to celebrate our wins – big and small.
I want us all to break free from the shackles of perfection, redefine success on our terms, and cultivate a work environment that values progress over perfection.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss understanding the root of perfectionism, the power of B+ work, and strategies for embracing B+work
You can read the full show notes HERE
In the life of a working mom, overscheduling can often be compared to trying to fit a hundred puzzle pieces into a fifty-piece puzzle. It's an everyday dilemma that leaves many of us feeling stretched to the limit.
The truth is that overscheduling becomes evident when there's hardly a moment to catch your breath, let alone savor the precious time with your loved ones. The result? Stress, exhaustion, and a sense that life is slipping away while you're frantically trying to keep up.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the overwhelming juggling act, understanding what’s behind overscheduling, and how to stop overscheduling.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Have you ever had that frustrating feeling when you have big goals, ambitious projects, and endless to-do lists, but somehow, you just can't seem to get the motivation to get going? It happens to most of us.
For example, maybe you've got a project at work or in your business that you're passionate about, but you find yourself stuck in a cycle of procrastination and inaction.
Or maybe it's those never-ending home improvement projects that keep getting pushed to the bottom of your list.
If you've ever wondered why it's challenging to take action when you know you should, this episode will be your guiding light. I want to empower you to change that "I'll do it later" into a resounding "I'm doing it now."
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the seven barriers to taking action and what you can do about each of them.
You can read the full show notes HERE.
As we know all too well, being a working mom is a multifaceted role. It involves transitioning seamlessly between being a career professional, household manager, and caregiver, often in the span of a single day. The challenges are immense, but so are the rewards.
For those of you who are thinking of a flexible work arrangement or who are already in one, it’s essential to understand that the concept of flexible work arrangements has transformed from a buzzword into a lifeline for working moms. Whether you're a seasoned professional or a newcomer to the workforce, the flexibility to choose when, where, and how you work can be a game-changer.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the benefits of flexible work arrangements, types of flexible work arrangements for accountant moms, and how to navigate challenges.
You can read the full show notes HERE
In a world where the demands of work and personal life often seem like a balancing act, work-life integration offers a fresh perspective. Unlike the traditional idea of work-life balance, which suggests keeping professional and personal lives separate, work-life integration encourages a more fluid and harmonious approach.
Imagine your life as a symphony, where the notes of work and personal life come together to create a beautiful melody. Instead of striving for a perfect balance like a scale, work-life integration allows these notes to blend naturally, finding a rhythm that suits your unique circumstances.
For many of us, achieving a traditional work-life balance can feel like an uphill battle, especially in professions with tight deadlines and high expectations. This is where work-life integration becomes a game-changer. It empowers individuals to adapt to the ever-changing demands of their careers while still being present for their personal lives.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss getting clear on defining work-life integration for yourself, navigating the accounting profession, strategies for successful integration, and building a support system.
You can read the full show notes HERE
In an era where we're perpetually bombarded with demands, distractions, and an ever-expanding to-do list, the concept of "time management" takes on profound significance. It's no longer a mere skill but a life philosophy—an approach that can make the difference between barely keeping up and thriving in the face of constant change.
The urgency of time management goes beyond mere productivity. It touches every aspect of our lives, from personal growth and professional success to our overall well-being and the quality of our relationships.
It's about more than getting things done; it's about designing a life that aligns with your values, aspirations, and the authentic version of yourself.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the seven time management strategies that will help you take control of your day and an example of these strategies put together in the life of an accountant mom.
You can read the full show notes HERE
As accountant moms, we understand that the balancing act of managing a demanding accounting career alongside the joys and responsibilities of motherhood is nothing short of a superhero feat.
But even with our busy schedules, sometimes we just feel the pull to start a side hustle – something that will add an extra layer of fulfillment, financial security, or even career flexibility to our already dynamic lives.
It's that entrepreneurial spirit within us, eager to explore new opportunities while maintaining the crucial work-life balance that keeps our families thriving.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss why a side hustle might matter to you, identifying your passions and skills, and time management and prioritization.
You can read the full show notes HERE
In today's fast-paced world, as working moms we're often chasing a dream: the dream of "having it all."
That dream is a bit like trying to balance on a tightrope.
It's about excelling in your career, nurturing your family and personal life, following your passions, and taking care of yourself, all at once.
Sounds wonderful, right? But it can also seem incredibly elusive.
So, here's the big question: Is it even possible, or is it just a beautiful idea that's impossible to make real?
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the myth of “having it all,” the hidden costs of “having it all,” and how to craft a balanced reality.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Being a working mom is like juggling multiple full-time jobs at once - you're managing your career, nurturing your family, maintaining friendships, and attempting to squeeze in some self-care along the way. Amidst this chaotic juggling act, we often fall into the trap of people-pleasing.
It's that constant urge to say "yes" when we really want to say "no," the pressure to meet everyone's expectations, the need to become a chameleon so that we’ll be well thought of, and the relentless quest to be the superhero in every aspect of our lives.
But I want you to take a minute and ask yourself - what's the true cost of all this people-pleasing? That's what we're going to uncover today.
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the roots of people-pleasing and how to break free.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Imagine this: You're juggling a career, a family, and countless responsibilities, all while striving to carve out a bit of time for your personal growth and well-being. I know you don’t even have to imagine it because you’re probably living it.
The daily hustle and bustle can often feel like an overwhelming whirlwind, leaving you with little room to breathe, let alone work on your goals. It's in these moments that the power of self-discipline becomes your secret weapon, your guiding star.
Believe me, I understand the unique challenges you face, and I’m here to provide you with practical, easy-to-understand strategies that will help you harness the incredible potential of self-discipline in your everyday life.
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss what self-discipline is, why working moms need it, and practical strategies for improving your self-discipline.
You can read the full show notes HERE
As accountant moms, we often navigate a unique landscape, trying to seamlessly transition from crunching numbers to caring for our loved ones. The challenges we deal with are distinctive, requiring skills that extend beyond the realm of traditional accounting.
This is precisely why I think it’s important to explore and improve our problem-solving skills. I want to help you have a resourceful toolkit that has the potential to elevate you, both professionally and personally.
The truth is that I've seen it time and time again. Whether it's someone serving me at a local establishment, a friend of mine, or even a stranger nearby, people often encounter a problem or face a "no" once, and then they just settle into that problem as if it's something they must accept.
But here's the thing - that doesn't have to be the case. In fact, I want to offer you a different perspective.
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the five-step process for effectively solving problems and offer examples of how to put it into action.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Every CPA has a story - we all have a journey we’ve taken to get us to where we are. Every entrepreneur also has a story and journey as well.
This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Charlotte Ruemke, CPA. Charlotte is a mom of three and lives in Texas.
Charlotte has over ten years of experience in public accounting providing tax services to clients in a wide variety of industries. She is experienced in federal and state tax compliance and planning for individual, corporate, partnership, and trust entities.
Throughout her career, Charlotte has brought value to her clients through forward thinking tax advice and planning. She specializes in closely-held small and medium sized businesses. Charlotte prides herself in assisting clients taking complex tax situations and breaking them down in a way business owners can easily understand, empowering entrepreneurs to make decisions that best fit their business.
You can read the show notes HERE
If you're interested in becoming a CPA MOMS franchisee, you can book a discovery call HERE
The truth is that, as working moms, we are often faced with critical decisions that shape our lives and the lives of our families. There can be pivotal moments when we find ourselves at a crossroads, pondering decisions that could redefine our paths, whether it's a career shift, a relationship change, or any other major life choice.
In the hustle and bustle of modern life, juggling professional responsibilities, family commitments, and personal aspirations, we can often find ourselves caught between competing priorities. Today, I want to create a space where we can openly discuss the tough decisions that working mothers face and offer insights, perspectives, and a supportive community to help navigate these uncertain waters.
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss redefining what it means to quit, making a decision regarding your career, making a decision regarding a relationship, and how to make empowering choices.
You can read the full show notes HERE.
As working moms, we all understand that life can be a whirlwind of responsibilities, deadlines, and the delicate balancing act between our careers and family life. From managing work projects to ensuring our children's well-being and happiness, we wear multiple hats with grace and determination.
We have high hopes, dreams, and meticulously crafted plans to make it all work seamlessly. But, let's be honest, life has its way of throwing curveballs that can disrupt even the most carefully laid-out path.
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the reality of being a working mom, the importance of flexibility and having coping strategies, and learning from setbacks.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Let’s be honest, it's no surprise that we sometimes feel overwhelmed and stretched thin. We’re trying to do our best both at work and in our personal lives.
Over commitment can manifest in various ways. It could be saying "yes" to every work project that comes your way, volunteering for countless school events, or constantly trying to meet everyone's expectations.
Whether you’re an employee or an entrepreneur, there are things you can start implementing in order to stop overcommitting. Whether you’re trying to prevent yourself from overcommitting or you’re already overcommitted, I’ve got you covered.
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss how to recognize the problem, setting priorities, time management and delegation, and how to say no.
You can read the full show notes HERE.
As we all know, the demands of being an accountant mom can be intense. On one hand, you have clients relying on your expertise and precision, while on the other hand, your children are eagerly vying for your attention and support.
The pressure to win in both roles can leave you feeling stretched thin, with little time left for yourself. As accountants, we tend to be overachievers, but when it comes to being both an accountant and a mom, our overachieving ways can come at a cost, mainly to us.
As an accountant mom, you know that time is of the essence, and efficiency is key. That's where creating better routines comes into play.
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the importance of assessing your current routines and strategies for creating and implementing better routines.
You can read the full show notes HERE
As an accountant and a mom myself, I understand the unique challenges that come with balancing a demanding career and family responsibilities. Our calendars can often feel overwhelming, with deadlines, meetings, school activities, and personal commitments vying for our attention.
It's easy to feel like we're constantly racing against the clock, trying to fit everything into our schedules. But in our attempt to manage our time, our lives can often become unmanageable.
The truth is that time is our most precious asset, and when we use our calendar against ourselves, we devalue that asset. We need to learn how to appreciate time more by being more intentional.
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the ways you use your calendar against yourself and what you can do instead.
You can read the full show notes HERE
For those of us that are CPAs, it’s a yearly requirement to have a particular number of hours to maintain our CPA license. However, there's a catch. Sometimes, in our quest to be the perfect mom, accountant, and CPA, we fall into the trap of misusing this valuable resource.
We live in a society that places immense pressure on women to excel in all areas simultaneously. The supermom archetype weighs heavily on us, expecting us to effortlessly juggle all aspects of our lives without missing a beat.
And both accountants and moms, the pressure to prove our competence can be even more intense. Continuing education becomes an opportunity to demonstrate our expertise, to validate ourselves as capable professionals, and to quiet that nagging voice of self-doubt.
But here's the thing - in our pursuit of perfection, we often over-commit ourselves. We sign up for every continuing education course that catches our eye, attending endless webinars and adding more certifications to our already impressive resumes.
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the pressure of perfection, the misuse of continuing education, and what you can do about it.
You can read the full show notes HERE
The constant struggle to balance work and family can often make it seem impossible to achieve a sense of control and peace of mind. Just when you breathe a sigh of relief that everything seems to have gotten done, there’s a whole new list of things just waiting for us.
That's where the concept of "To-Do List Zero" comes in—a game-changing approach to task management that can help you regain control, boost productivity, and find a sense of balance. To-Do List Zero offers a glimmer of hope in the midst of the chaos, promising not only an empty to-do list but also a greater sense of accomplishment and well-being.
Imagine starting each day with a clean slate, a clear plan of action, and a fresh perspective that allows you to approach your tasks and responsibilities with clarity and confidence. Imagine a to-do list that is not an endless abyss, but a manageable roadmap guiding you towards your goals.
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the concept of To-Do List Zero, the detrimental effects of overwhelming to-do lists, and how to achieve To-Do List Zero.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Whether you’re in your 20s, just starting your journey as an accountant and a mom, or you’re in your 60s, ready for retirement, today, we're going to have a real talk about something that affects all of us: our relationship with aging.
Did you ever stop to think that you actually have a relationship with aging? It's not just this thing that happens to everyone—it's a whole mix of thoughts, emotions, and perspectives.
The truth is that how you view aging can shape your experience of growing older, both in your personal life and in your career. How you view aging can bring you stress and worry, or it can open doors to new possibilities and bring you curiosity and energy.
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss your current relationship with aging and how to improve it no matter what your age currently is.
You can read the full show notes HERE
In the world of finance and family chaos, effective organization is one of the secret ingredients to a successful accounting career as a working mom. Without some level of organization, you’ll, unfortunately, be more prone to stress, overwhelm, and eventually burnout.
But this isn't just about color-coded calendars and filing cabinets (although they certainly help!). It's about finding practical solutions to navigate the challenges of being an accountant mom, where time management, task prioritization, and streamlined workflows become your allies.
This week on the podcast we discuss the power of planning, streamlining your workspace, efficient time management, and overcoming common pitfalls.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Imagine this scenario: You're a driven and ambitious woman with a flourishing career. You've worked hard to climb the corporate ladder, but there's another significant role in your life—motherhood.
You probably don’t have to imagine it because you’re most likely living it, especially if you’re listening to this podcast.
The truth is that juggling the demands of advancing your accounting career while being a dedicated mom can feel like an overwhelming challenge. How do you balance your professional aspirations with the joys and responsibilities of raising children?
For countless women, the pursuit of career growth and the desire to nurture their families are not mutually exclusive. In fact, a growing number of working moms are actively seeking opportunities to excel in their professions while maintaining a fulfilling family life.
This week on the podcast we discuss the reality of motherhood and career aspirations, some inspiring success stories, and some strategies you can implement in order to juggle career advancement with motherhood.
You can read the full show notes HERE
When was the last time you experienced a feeling of disappointment? That sinking feeling in your stomach when things didn't go as planned, you didn't get what you were hoping for, or someone behaves in a way you weren’t expecting?
Disappointment might be a normal part of life, but it’s still tough to deal with. Whether it’s a disappointment for ourselves or for someone else, it can manifest in various feelings like sadness, frustration, or even anger.
Depending on the level of disappointment, it can be mild or severe and can last for a short or long time. Situations like not getting a job you applied for, your child failing an exam they studied hard for, or being rejected by someone you care about can all lead to varying degrees of disappointment.
This week on the podcast we discuss why we get disappointed, our brain’s role, and how to better handle disappointment.
You can read the full show notes HERE
As both an accountant and a mom, effective calendar management is not only important for success in your profession, but it's also a vital aspect of maintaining a healthy work-life balance.
From meetings with clients and colleagues to kid’s activities and family obligations, your calendar likely plays a central role in your daily routine.
Unfortunately, despite the importance of using a calendar to organize your time and your life, it's easy to fall into common calendar mistakes. These mistakes can lead to wasted time, missed opportunities, and, ultimately, a lack of productivity and success.
This week on the podcast we discuss the top calendar mistakes that are holding you back and what to do about them.
You can read the full show notes HERE
As a mom, you’ve most likely heard the term “mommy brain” used to describe being more forgetful or more emotional once you’ve had your first child. It can sometimes wreak havoc for accountant moms who are ordinarily organized and even-tempered.
Neurologically your female brain goes through many changes during pregnancy, but as a modern woman with a career, this can be very challenging. Think about it - just a century ago, most women were responsible for giving birth and raising children, not working outside the home to support them economically as well.
Unfortunately, terms like “mommy brain” add to the preconception that pregnancy makes someone less capable. While women do go through various changes, it’s also important not to assume that a soon-to-be or current accountant mom is any less capable than anyone else; in fact, she might now be more capable than before.
This week on the podcast we discuss 3 things you should know about your accountant mom’s brain and why they’re important.
When it comes to being an accountant and a mom, how well are you managing your time? If you’re like most of the women I speak to and coach, your answer is probably, “Not as well as I’d like.”
If you can relate, it might seem like there’s never enough time and that you have no control over your time. It can be frustrating when you’re trying to do your best, both at work and home, yet there aren’t enough hours in the day to accomplish what you want and need to.
Maybe you find yourself having to work late to meet deadlines or stay up late to get housework done. Perhaps you feel so busy that you miss time with your kids, or you find yourself not getting the amount of sleep that you’d like.
This week on the podcast we discuss the top tangible time management skills you need to know and the top intangible skills that will make a huge difference.
You can read the full show notes HERE
As an accountant and a mom, it would be nice to just flip a switch or turn on a faucet and drink from a fountain of motivation, especially when we have a lot to do and not much time to do it.
When that long to-do list is just waiting for our attention, it would be nice to be able to quickly drink a warm cup of motivation and have the energy to plow through things.
Obviously, it’s not necessary to be “on” all the time, but it’s helpful to have a better understanding of where motivation comes from.
It’s great to give yourself a break and not feed into the need to be busy all the time, but when you’re feeling unmotivated, it’s nice to know that when you need it, you have options. This week I’m going to discuss why we often become unmotivated and how to overcome unmotivation.
This week on the podcast we discuss why we often become unmotivated and how to overcome unmotivation.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Have you ever tried to tackle something on your to-do list but had no idea how long it was going to take? Or have you wanted to finish something soon rather than later but found yourself waiting until the last minute to have it done?
One of the main reasons this happens is because we are unaware of how Parkinson’s Law affects our time management.
Understanding Parkinson’s Law will make it possible to see how much control you actually have over your time. It will make it easier to get more done in less time and help you to create more time for the things and the people you love.
This week on the podcast we're going to discuss what Parkinson's Law is and how to use it.
You can read the full show notes HERE
While our brain is the best piece of machinery on the planet, most of us have no idea that we have over 60,000 thoughts a day and that those thoughts are running our lives. Not only are we not aware of most of those thoughts, and that our brains make us believe those thoughts are factual, but we're also not aware of the "add-ons" that our brains create.
In other words, we often have thoughts after our thoughts that we also believe are factual, but they’re not that obvious. We have thoughts in parentheses after our thoughts.
This week on the podcast we're going to discuss the concept of thought parentheses and how to identify them.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Every CPA has a story - we all have a journey we’ve taken to get us to where we are. Every entrepreneur also has a story and journey as well.
This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Jessica Buskirk, CPA, about her first year as a CPA MOMS franchisee.
Jessica is a CPA with over 14 years of finance and accounting experience. She has worked with a variety of industries, such as healthcare, real estate, construction, nonprofits, and government. Jessica has a passion for helping clients meet their financial goals.
She believes in building strong relationships with her clients and working hard to find practical solutions for their specific financial needs. In her free time, Jessica loves cooking, running, and spending time with her family. She is a mother of two and currently lives in sunny South Florida.
When was the last time you said to yourself, “There’s never enough time?” If you’re like most busy accountant moms, you’ve probably said something similar in the past 24 hours.
The funny thing is that despite having so much information, suggestions, and technology available to us and despite trying every time management technique and productivity strategy we could imagine, we still find it impossible to shake the feeling that time is slipping away.
It seems that the more we focus on managing our time, the less we have of it to manage.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss time anxiety and what to do when you feel like there’s never enough time.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Motherhood is often seen as one of the most fulfilling and rewarding experiences of a woman's life. However, it is also a complex and multifaceted concept that can be as unique as the woman who is called a mother.
For many of us, the idea of mothering is tied to traditional notions of caretaking, nurturing, and sacrifice. However, the reality is that there is no one "right" way to be a mother, and the expectations and pressures placed on us can often be unrealistic and damaging.
Whether you’re a mother or stepmother, a first-time mother or a seasoned pro, have a young child or an entire house full, or you’re an empty nester, your definition of mothering matters. We need to have more conversations about what it means to redefine motherhood and find a path that feels right for you.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we explore the subjectivity of motherhood, the societal expectations placed on mothers, and the importance of redefining motherhood for yourself.
You can read the full show notes HERE
From our work as accountants and maintaining our households to raising our children and trying to balance it all, we need to be keenly aware of how we utilize the 24 hours a day we’re each given. Think about it - time truly is the great equalizer because whether you’re a billionaire CEO or a stay-at-home mom, we all have the same amount of time to manage.
What if there was a way to manage your time that gave you a sense of fulfillment, peace, and happiness? What if you’ve been dealing with time management from a masculine perspective rather than a feminine one?
What would change for you if you approached time management with a feminine approach? What would be different about how you planned, executed, and experienced time?
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss what a feminist approach to time management is and how you can begin to implement it.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Every CPA has a story - we all have a journey we’ve taken to get us to where we are. Every entrepreneur also has a story and journey as well.
This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Laurie Dunlop, CPA, about her first year as a CPA MOMS franchisee. Laurie is a single mom to two children. Laurie is an experienced Certified Public Accountant with 25+ years in auditing, finance, and accounting, which includes 18 years as a Chief Financial Officer and a broad managerial role with a private commercial lending company, where she remains a Limited Partner.
You can read the highlights of our interview HERE
As both an accountant and a mom, let’s be honest, we truly do have two full-time jobs. It’s no wonder it can feel like there’s never enough time or that we don’t have control over our time.
While it’s completely normal to be struggling with time management, getting a better handle on it is crucial for success. With the combination of tight deadlines and complex projects at work, as well as the never-ending list of things that need to be done at home, it can be difficult to stay on top of everything.
But here’s the thing - effective time management isn't just about getting more done - it's about learning how to win your day. But what does it mean to win your day?
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss what it takes to win your day and some steps you can take.
You can read the full show notes HERE
The issue when it comes to the productivity-driven work of accounting is that it doesn’t take into account the person doing the producing.
It doesn’t question if you feel dread or stressed versus motivated and fulfilled when you’re doing all that producing.
Obviously, we all have to get things done at work and home, but isn’t there an easier way?
Isn’t there a way to be productive without burning out in the process?
I believe that’s where peaceful productivity comes in.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss what peaceful productivity is and how you can achieve it.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Have you ever set a goal or wanted to improve something in your life, but it got to be so challenging that you wanted to give up? Or have there been times when you were trying to make something better in your personal or professional life, and it felt too overwhelming?
While many of us want more out of life, we want to achieve things, set goals, make resolutions, provide the best life we can for our families, and we’re excited about possibilities, unfortunately, when we realize it’s going to be hard, we want to give up. We hit our first few obstacles. and we want to postpone the journey.
Thankfully, there is a way to have what we want and not give up before we get it. But first, we have to go through the River of Misery.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss what the River of Misery is and how you can use the concept for your journey.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Corinne Crabree is a Master Certified Weight and Life Coach with a mission to help every woman break generational curses in order to improve their personal health and wealth.
Corinne lost 100lbs 15 years ago and ever since, she has dedicated her life to teaching women how to do the same. Corinne Crabtree is one of the leading voices in the weightloss and business Industry.
She’s the host of the wildly successful podcast, Losing 100lbs with Corinne, which has been downloaded over 50 million times in 160 countries. Over 1 Million women have taken her free weightloss course and Corinne now serves over 14,000 paid members in the No BS Weightloss Program.
To hear Corinne's tips for working moms to lose weight and improve their health, check out this week's episode.
You can read the show note highlights HERE
If you stopped and asked any accountant how they’re doing, the typical answer would be something like, “It’s crazy busy right now,” “I’m just so busy,” or “You know it’s busy season, right?” I’m going to bet you probably say something along those lines when someone asks how you’re doing as if throwing the word busy into your reply tells them everything they need to know.
To be honest, It’s not our fault that we constantly describe ourselves as busy because the fact is we operate under tight deadlines with many deliverables at work. We have a lot we are responsible for producing in any given week, but especially during certain times of the year, like tax season.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss why we wear busy as a badge of honor and what to do when you’re stuck feeling busy.
You can read the full show notes HERE
When you hear the term “dream team,” what comes up for you? Do you think of it in terms of people at work? Or do you think about it in regard to sports? Maybe you think about it in terms of managing your own life, like the supportive people who make it possible for you to be a working mom.
Whether it’s professionally or personally, without a well-managed team, it can be difficult to meet various goals. Each person on your team has the ability to bring their unique skills and talent to the table, but teamwork is required to truly take advantage of that.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the roles of the 3 people on your time management Dream Team and how to best utilize them.
You can read the full show notes HERE
As a female accountant, you have an impressive level of intelligence, whether you realize it or want to admit it. It doesn’t matter how challenging school may have been for you; if you are in any area of accounting, you are a smart woman.
Now be honest - how difficult is it to admit or say out loud that you are a smart woman? Does it feel wrong to admit it? Does it feel boastful? Does it feel like a lie? Do you ever feel like you have to “dumb it down”? Are you afraid of being judged for being smart?
Unfortunately, there continue to be many biases toward smart women, creating many smart women problems. Hopefully, after listening to this podcast, you’ll have a different perspective.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss some smart women problems and some solutions to those problems.
You can read the full show notes HERE
In honor of Women's History Month, we interviewed a working mom who is changing the way women are taken care of before, during, and after their pregnancy.
Meghan Doyle is the CEO & co-founder of Partum Health, a company offering families a combination of expert support that's right for you - from birth and postpartum doulas, mental health providers, lactation consultants, physical therapists, night nannies and more — all in one place, all designed around you.
After her own issues with giving birth to her two children, she decided something needed to be done and she did it!
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss everything you need to know about partum health and how to get the help you deserve.
You can read the show highlights HERE
If you struggle with better time management, feel like your to-do list is running your life, find yourself stressed and overwhelmed, or just want to regain control, a time audit can be an important first step.
It can help you create more hours in your day, allow you to get more done in less time, and help you get some balance back in your life.
An added bonus is that a time audit can improve your relationships, health, and finances. It can help you live a more purposeful, intentional life.
A time audit can show you why you feel burned out and help you extinguish the fire. Since time is our most precious asset, a time audit can help you preserve that valuable asset.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss what a time audit is and how you can do one.
You can read the show notes HERE
As mentioned on the podcast - The Time Management Personality Quiz can be taken HERE
While I'm all for expressing more love in the world, I also want to empower you to become better at self-love. Why? Because it gives you all your power back.
When you learn how to improve your self-love, February 14th is lovely, but it’s just a single cherry on top of a beautiful cake that’s been created over the previous 364 days of the year. The truth is that self-love makes life easier, more enjoyable, and more fulfilling.
Self-love helps us make better choices - healthier choices. It allows us to set boundaries and manage our time better. Self-love makes it easier to stop people-pleasing and to go after goals.
Self-love makes it easier to take action, to take chances, and to take on new opportunities. It makes it possible to write that book, ask for that raise, say no, and leave that job to go out on your own.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss what creates self-love and how you can improve yours.
You can read the full show notes HERE
The Right Questions by NY Times bestselling author, Debbie Ford, explains, “Our ability to make choices implies certain rights and freedoms. If we can choose, then we can determine which decisions we will make about our bodies, our health, our relationships, our finances, our careers, our social lives, and our spiritual beliefs.
Choice allows us to pick, to select, and to decide between paths. What makes each of us special and distinguishes us from all other forms of life is our capacity to weigh our options and make conscious, deliberate choices.
Our today’s are based on the choices we made yesterday, and the ones we made three days ago, three months ago, and three years ago. It’s really quite simple: if we want our lives to be different, all we have to do is make different choices.”
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the 10 “Right Questions” and explore each one and its importance for all of us to consider as women and mothers.
You can read the full show notes here -> https://cpamoms.com/asking-the-right-10-questions/
Think about the first week of school - your teachers typically made the rules of engagement in the classroom clear. There was the rule of raising your hand instead of blurting out, asking permission to go to the bathroom, keeping your hands to yourself, and being respectful of other people’s things.
These rules of engagement made it easier for the teacher to manage the students' various personalities and energy levels and made it simpler to provide redirection or consequences when someone broke the rules. These parameters made everyone feel safe and that there was a sense of control.
The same thing goes for creating your personal rules of engagement. They can help you have a sense of control, especially when things might seem out of control.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss why personal rules of engagement are important and how to choose your own.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Time is one of our most precious assets as a busy accountant and mom. As you are well aware, we have 24 hours in a day that are typically divided among working, taking care of our family, and trying to squeeze in some sleep.
How many of you could benefit from looking at the impact of your choices when it comes to how you spend your time? How many of you feel like there’s never enough time, that time is in short supply, and that there’s nothing you can do about it?
Whether you realize it or not, your calendar tells me a lot - some of it good, and some of it not so good. That’s why it’s important to understand not only what your calendar says about you but also what you can do to have much more control over your time.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss what your calendar tells me and how to use your calendar to better manage your time and your life
You can read the full show notes HERE
As accountants, we’re all about numbers and metrics. Accounting metrics and KPIs are critical components of business management, and a proper record of the cash flows, expenses, and gains is incredibly valuable to the companies we serve.
Some metrics and KPIs we measure include Operating Cash Flow, Working Capital, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Gross Profit Margins, and Net Profit. These metrics help businesses decide what’s working, what’s not, and what needs to change.
Unfortunately, as women we often use many metrics against ourselves without even realizing we’re doing it professionally and personally. More often than not, there are mental metrics we use against ourselves.
These mental metrics make it even more challenging to have a successful accounting career and the happy life we deserve. These metrics are sneaky, so stay tuned so you can gain some awareness and stop using metrics against yourself.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss why we use metrics against ourselves and what to do instead.
You can read the full show notes HERE
How many of us are racing from one thing to the next, unknowingly speeding up time as we manage day after day? How often do we try to get from one deadline to another, from one holiday to another, or from one difficult situation to another?
How many of us have ever learned how to pause? To take it easy? To stop what we’re doing and what we’re thinking and just be? To press the pause button on the video of our days and not do anything other than listen? To interrupt what we’re about to do that might not be useful or helpful?
It can be scary to slow down, especially for accountant moms. Many of us feel we have to prove ourselves, our value, and our worth at every turn. In this era of instantaneous communication, maximized efficiency, and constant reminders to “operate with a sense of urgency,” taking a pause can seem like a problem, both professionally and personally.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss what it means to pause on purpose and offer suggestions on how to do it.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Whether you are in public or private accounting, there’s no denying that deadlines are a normal part of the accounting profession. But it’s not just our accounting work that has deadlines - our personal life also has plenty of deadlines.
For example, not only are there filing deadlines for work projects like tax returns or financial reports but there are also plenty of deadlines like bills that need to be paid or discounts we want to take advantage of before they expire. As far as deadlines go, being both an accountant and a mom typically comes with many deadlines throughout the year.
It doesn’t matter where you fall in the spectrum of your relationship with deadlines; this episode will be super helpful. The truth is that if you want to manage your time better, get more done in less time, and feel better about the work you do, you need to put some effort into improving your relationship with deadlines.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss how your relationship with deadlines is developed and how to improve it.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Typically the start of the new year is when we take inventory of what’s working, what’s not, and what we’d like to do differently in the upcoming year. The 12 months ahead offer us a symbol of hope that we will have set and accomplished various goals by this same time next year.
While it sounds so promising, how many of us find ourselves setting the same unmet goal year after year? How many of us, with all good intentions, have yet to break some bad habits and finally create better ones?
If you think advice like doing something for 21 days will automatically create a new habit, think again. Happily, there has been an increase in grounded findings based on neuroscience that has helped clear up the process for breaking bad habits and creating better ones.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss why it's challenging to break bad habits and how to create better ones.
You can read the full show notes HERE
As the end of the holiday season typically leads to thoughts about the new year, I thought it would be a great idea to do something different this year. Instead of sitting down and doing a family budget or setting personal goals, I thought it would be a great time to consider creating a family mission statement.
If you think about it, as a mom, you and your children are not traveling this life alone. You are making your way through the world connected as part of a family.
So why does that matter? Because it gives you the opportunity to not only know your own purpose - who you are and where you want to go - but to also determine the purpose of your family unit. Why does your family exist? What does it stand for? Where are you going together? What matters to you? Why this combination of personalities, likes, and dislikes?
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast, we discuss why you should consider creating a family mission statement and how to create one.
If you would like help with this topic, you can schedule a FREE 20-minute coaching session HERE
Have you heard about the term “quiet quitting”? It’s believed to have started on TikTok but has gained popularity in all forms of social and mainstream media.
Since so much has already been discussed on this topic, we weren't planning on doing an episode on it, but then realized we have a lot to talk about when it comes to the subject of quiet quitting, especially as it pertains to accountant moms.
Even if you’re tired of hearing about quiet quitting, I suggest you listen because I might surprise you with my perspective.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast, I discuss why the concept of quiet quitting is problematic for accountant moms and what you should be calling it instead.
You can read the full show notes HERE
If you would like help with this topic, you can schedule a FREE 20-minute coaching session HERE
While working moms have the herculean task of managing their careers and families throughout the year, the holidays can bring an added layer of pressure that makes even the most organized accountant mom want to hide.
For this episode, we're not going to give you a bunch of tips and suggestions for navigating the holiday season. Instead, we're going to help you deal with the feeling of anxiety.
If you’ve been listening to this podcast for a while, you already know how to say no, set boundaries, and better manage your time. This episode is about what to do when you’re dreading or in the middle of feeling holiday anxiety.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss why we experience anxiety and what to do about it.
You can read the full show notes HERE
If you would like help with this topic, you can schedule a FREE 20-minute coaching session HERE
Whether it's a manager, supervisor, director, owner, or partner, it’s unfortunate that many of us will have to deal with bad leadership at some point in our accounting career.
Research shows that bad leaders are often promoted for their confidence but lack actual leadership competence. So what does that mean for you? It means there’s an increased likelihood of having to work for a bad leader at some point in your career.
While it might seem like you’re either stuck dealing with bad leadership or that you’ll have to find another place to work, that’s not true. There are steps you can take to handle bad leadership that will give you back a sense of control.
This week on The CPA MOMS podcast we discuss 3 types of bad leadership and specifically how to handle the most challenging type of bad leader.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Do you find yourself unable to let go of small mistakes you made at work, believing you can’t do anything right? If you’re running late in the morning trying to get yourself and the kids out the door, do you question whether you’ve got the whole working mom thing down? Have you ever woken up to find a sink with dirty dishes and asked what’s wrong with you that you can’t do the simplest tasks to take care of your home?
You’re not alone if you’ve had similar versions of these scenarios. But you’re also probably dealing with all-or-nothing thinking, which if left unaddressed, can lead to slipping into the all-or-nothing trap.
This week on The CPA MOMS podcast we discuss what causes all-or-nothing thinking and how to stay out of the trap.
You can read the full show notes HERE
If you would like help with this topic, you can schedule a FREE 20-minute coaching session HERE
Whether you realize it or not, we all possess both feminine and masculine energy, whether you identify as a woman, man, or non-binary. To varying degrees, we all have the yin and the yang, and the balance of these energies is used in many different aspects of our lives.
When it comes to being a female accountant in a male-dominated profession like accounting, it is easy to lean more toward masculine energy to fit in and get ahead. For years in business, masculine energy has typically been revered as being more powerful and effective, and the number-crunching, logical work that we do as accountants also lends itself towards masculine energy.
But it’s also important to understand that our feminine or yin energy includes a more collaborative, empathetic, creative, and receptive nature. If you think about it, these qualities lend themselves to much better leadership at work or home.
This week on The CPA MOMS podcast we discuss the difference between masculine and feminine energy and how to balance the two as a female accountant.
You can read the full show notes HERE
If you would like help with this topic, you can schedule a FREE 20-minute coaching session HERE
I have yet to meet an accountant that isn’t dealing with productivity issues in one form or another. I see it time and time again - accountants trying to tackle their never-ending to-do lists and working too many hours.
The problem for most accountants is that we tend to have a love/hate relationship with time. We’d love to have more of it, especially when there’s a deadline looming, but we hate how much time seems to be in control.
If you want to improve your productivity and have more time for the people and things you love, what I’m going to share will be incredibly helpful. I promise you can improve your relationship with time by adopting my fool-proof time blocking process.
This week on The CPA MOMS podcast we discuss the importance of time blocking and share the simple time blocking process for getting more done in less time.
You can read the full show notes HERE
If you would like help with time blocking, you can schedule a FREE 20-minute coaching session HERE
In this episode I’m actually going to help you use some of your perfectionist tendencies for good when it comes to managing your time. There are ways to leverage perfectionism when it comes to time management, and I want to help you see how.
In other words, instead of completely fighting against your brain’s tendency, I want to teach you how to work with it a little bit. I’ve noticed in my own time management that sometimes my perfectionist tendencies aren’t always that bad, so I want to help you learn some ways to balance your brain so you can better manage your time.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss signs of perfectionism and some helpful time management tips for perfectionists.
You can read the full show notes HERE
If you would like help with time management as a perfectionist, you can schedule a FREE 20-minute coaching session HERE
The issue for many mompreneurs is that while their businesses grow, so does their mom guilt. As they tackle all the challenges of becoming an entrepreneur, they also tackle their angst about being a mompreneur.
This episode is dedicated to all the accountant mompreneurs who struggle with having a business and being a mom.
Not only should you not have to decide between having a career OR having a family, but you also shouldn’t have to feel guilty when you decide you want to have your own business. The truth is that there is so much support available for you that you should never feel like you’re alone.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss 9 reasons why being a business owner can make you a better mom.
You can read the full show notes HERE
If you would like help with being a mompreneur, you can schedule a FREE 20-minute coaching session HERE
While we typically interview accountants and moms for the podcast, this episode is slightly different. In this episode, we interviewed the spouse of a CPA and a mother of 3 with a baby on the way. Lara Johnson has developed a successful career over the last decade while marrying a busy CPA and raising her 3 (soon to be 4) kids.
After seeing the unique challenges moms face while “juggling it all,” she became a Certified Life Coach to help moms navigate the emotional, mental, and physical load they carry of their home and family.
Hundreds of moms have used the skills and techniques she has developed to create success at home and with their families so they can thrive at work. In an effort to better serve the motherhood community, Ms. Johnson launched the “Mom on Purpose” podcast earlier this year. As a coach, podcast host, consultant, writer, and speaker, Ms. Johnson is an advocate and educator for moms that are ready to stop living reactively and start living on purpose.
You can read the full show notes for this episode HERE
If you would like help with learning how to stop yelling at your kids, you can schedule a FREE 20-minute coaching session HERE
The interesting thing about our desire to get things done is that we’ve become a society obsessed with productivity and efficiency, yet we all feel like we’re hamsters on a wheel that aren’t getting anywhere. We’ve become bogged down with ever-growing to-do lists that make it seem impossible to get anything done.
We’ve got plenty of how-to books, TV shows, and classes to teach us, yet the irony is that we’re still struggling more than ever actually to get things done. Even with all the information we have at our fingertips, we still haven’t quite figured out how to make it simpler to get anything done.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss 3 pillars you need to address in order to get things done and the 3 simple steps to get anything done.
You can read the full show notes HERE
If you would like help with getting things done and with time management, you can schedule a FREE 20-minute coaching session HERE
We all have things we want that require someone to say yes. For example, if you’re seeking a job, you need to interviewer to say yes, you’ve got the job; if you’re a parent, you often need to advocate for your children in various ways; if you are a spouse, you probably need your partner to say yes to certain things.
It doesn’t matter how strong or independent you are; there are just certain things you need someone else’s agreement on. Thankfully, you don’t have to give up or become aggressive or manipulative to get what you want without a fight.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the biggest mistake people make when trying to get what they want and how to turn it around so you get what you want without a fight.
You can read the full show notes HERE
If you would like help with getting what you want without a fight, you can schedule a FREE 20-minute coaching session HERE
What additional skills do you need to acquire to improve your odds of career success? Do you need to take an advanced Intuit course? Should you go for a Master’s Degree in Taxation? Should you become a CPA? How do you make yourself more valuable?
How do you gain a competitive advantage in a competitive field like accounting? What skills are valuable to the current marketplace? These are questions I hear from many accountants, not just accountant moms.
Honestly, these are important questions to consider because, in essence, they truly are million-dollar questions. If you think about an average salary of, say, $100k per year over a 40-year career, that’s at least 4 million dollars!
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the 5 skills you should consider stacking so that you can add more value as an accountant.
You can listen to this week's episode HERE
If you would like help with building your skill stack, you can schedule a FREE 20-minute coaching session HERE
As busy, intelligent accountants and moms, we know all about doing what it takes to have a career and a family, but we’re often told at an early age that our worth is tied to how much we can get done. We’re rewarded by parents, teachers, and employers for all we can accomplish.
We’re also told that we must work harder if we want more money. If we want that promotion, we must show how good we are at getting more done than anyone else. To be good working moms, we must take on the herculean task of balancing a career and a family but not complain about how challenging it can be and how much there is to do.
The funny thing is that we rarely talk about doing less. We tend to consider someone who does less lazy or incompetent.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss why it’s important to do less, and I’m going to share some ways you can start subtracting instead of adding.
You can read the full show notes HERE
If you would like help with doing less without the guilt, you can schedule a FREE 20-minute coaching session HERE
Most accountants are familiar with the term S.A.L.Y. (same as last year). It’s an indicator that this item doesn’t necessarily need to be looked at because, at a minimum, it’s the same as the previous year, if not for numerous prior years.
For example, the cost basis of the common stock of an S Corporation would be marked as S.A.L.Y. after the year of inception forward unless there was some change. With a simple compilation, there would be no need to show the backup for the stock basis since that’s typically in the permanent file and the current year’s work papers show more of the current year’s activity.
If you think about it, those S.A.L.Y. amounts also make our accounting work a little easier because it’s one less account that needs to be analyzed. It takes less effort because nothing has changed, sometimes for years and years.
While that might be helpful in our accounting work, for many accountants, S.A.L.Y. is also how they live their lives. Day after day, year after year, they are in a rinse and repeat cycle with their professional careers and their personal lives.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss why S.A.L.Y. can be a problem and what you can do instead.
You can read the full show notes HERE
If you would like help with S.A.L.Y. in your career or in your personal life, you can schedule a FREE 20-minute coaching session HERE
In the competitive field of accounting, we have a lot of intelligent people doing very smart things. It’s no surprise that the accounting profession often attracts the brightest and the best.
The issue with all that intelligence is that it can be difficult to tell the difference between confidence and arrogance, whether within ourselves or others. While arrogance and confidence share similar characteristics, including assertiveness and a willingness to speak one’s mind, confidence can also be misread as arrogance.
The interesting thing about intelligent women is that often they can be considered arrogant when their behavior conflicts with stereotypes or the preconceived notions of others. For example, confidence can be assumed to be arrogance in groups of people stereotypically perceived as demure, such as women or young people.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the difference between confidence and arrogance and how to build more confidence.
You can read the full show notes HERE
If you would like help with building confidence, you can schedule a FREE 20-minute coaching session HERE
As a mother, you’ve probably had to deal with your children’s issues with transitions; I know I certainly did as my two children were growing up. It’s actually quite common to see young children having meltdowns due to the fact that their day is filled with one transition after another, especially as a new school year starts.
Think about it - they transition from sleeping to waking up, from wearing pajamas to having to put on clothes, from being home to school and back home again, from playtime to mealtime, from being quiet to being loud, and from one activity to another. It’s exhausting just to think about all the transitions that these little humans must deal with on a daily basis.
But the little humans aren’t the only ones that struggle with transitions; the big humans have difficulty as well, especially us working moms. We’ve got the transition of waking up, going from alone time to everyone’s uptime, from pajamas to clothes, from drop-off time to pick-up time, from work to home, from accountant to mom, and from kid time to grown-up time.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss why we have such difficulty dealing with transitions and how you can deal with them better.
You can read the full show notes HERE
As a mother, you’ve probably had to deal with your children’s issues with transitions; I know I certainly did as my two children were growing up. It’s actually quite common to see young children having meltdowns due to the fact that their day is filled with one transition after another, especially as a new school year starts.
Think about it - they transition from sleeping to waking up, from wearing pajamas to having to put on clothes, from being home to school and back home again, from playtime to mealtime, from being quiet to being loud, and from one activity to another. It’s exhausting just to think about all the transitions that these little humans must deal with on a daily basis.
But the little humans aren’t the only ones that struggle with transitions; the big humans have difficulty as well, especially us working moms. We’ve got the transition of waking up, going from alone time to everyone’s uptime, from pajamas to clothes, from drop-off time to pick-up time, from work to home, from accountant to mom, and from kid time to grown-up time.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss why we have such difficulty dealing with transitions and how you can deal with them better.
You can read the full show notes HERE
When was the last time you were frustrated with someone or something? Last week, yesterday, 10 minutes ago? Can you remember the last time you were disappointed or angry about something someone did or didn’t do? At work, at home, or out in the world?
When were you last hurt by something someone said? How often do you wish other people would behave differently so that you could feel better? I’m going to guess it’s pretty often.
The truth is that we all have a list of the people and things we wish were different so we could feel different. But to be honest, blaming others is typically a copout - it’s easier to blame someone else than to take full responsibility for how you’re feeling.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the problem with blame and what to do instead.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Whether you’re aware of it or not, a sense of urgency is just hard-wired in us. As humans, our brain is programmed to act on a sense of urgency making it super uncomfortable to fight an urge to buy that infomercial product or eat those cookies that are sitting in the cabinet.
The truth is that we will choose what our brain considers urgent even though it’s low-value, and complete important tasks later. All because of the Mere Urgency Effect.
This is important to understand, especially for accountants and time management. Unless you get a better understanding of how the urgency effect influences how you manage your time, you’ll always struggle with better time management.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the Mere Urgency Effect and how it influences your time management, as well as what to do about it.
You can read the full show notes HERE
As accountants, we obviously know that meetings are necessary amongst ourselves, other professionals, and our clients, but if we’re being completely honest, they aren’t always as necessary as we make them out to be. With technology making it easier to have meetings with anyone, anywhere, we have become “meeting crazy,” but unfortunately, this creates a lot of productivity and time management issues.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the reasons why we schedule and attend too many meetings and how to handle meeting overload.
You can read the full show notes HERE
John C. Maxwell, the #1 New York Times bestselling author, coach, and speaker, has sold more than thirty million books and has been identified as the #1 leader in business by the American Management Association and the world’s most influential leadership expert by Business Insider and Inc. magazines.
His message for leaders is as important for working mothers as it is for world leaders. If you think about it, we are all leaders in some capacity or another; whether you’re an accounting employee and a mom or an accounting entrepreneur with a team, others look to you for guidance and support. John encourages us all to make 6 changes that I believe every accountant and mom should consider making sooner rather than later.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the 6 changes you need to make soon, why they are so crucial for you as an accountant and as a mother, and some questions you can consider as you make these changes.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Until someone creates a time machine or technology that allows us to slow down time, we all deal with having 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. The interesting thing about time is that it appears to be the great equalizer - it doesn’t matter whether you make a billion dollars or live in a mud hut on a remote island; we all have the same amount of time to do what we do.
The issue for most of us is that time never seems to be within our control. It seems you either have it or don’t, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss what you can do to create a 26-hour day, typical time-wasters, and some time creators you will want to start implementing.
You can read the full show notes HERE
To find out more about The Balanced Accountant Program, book a call HERE
To celebrate the 200th episode of The CPA MOMS Podcast, we interviewed our very own CPA MOMS founder and CEO, Mayumi Young.
It’s been two years since we discussed the launch of the CPA MOMS franchise opportunity, and Mayumi is back to discuss why CPA MOMS matters, why she believes the franchise business model is the best option for accountant moms to have a firm and a family, and some exciting things that are happening. From a new e-book to the announcement of the 1st annual CPA MOMS Cares Conference, there are even more things in the works for the CPA MOMS Community.
You can read the full show notes HERE
You can get a copy of the new e-book HERE
You can find out more about the annual CPA MOMS Cares Conference HERE
The issue when it comes to regret about a decision that's already been made is that it can often lead to feelings of shame, anger, and, frequently, depression. When this happens, there's typically the initial regret about the decision, but then there's the added layer of other negative emotions that can create a spiral of negativity.
Unfortunately, most of us have not been taught how to deal with decision regret in a helpful way. As women, we tend to hide the shame of making a decision we regret, fearful of someone finding out or shining a light on it, making it incredibly uncomfortable even to admit a possible mistake or regret making a particular decision.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss 3 steps you can take before making a decision and what you can do if you've already made a decision you regret.
You can read the full show notes HERE
If you would like some help with decision regret, you can book a FREE mini-coaching session HERE
Time management is one of those topics that accountants often love to hate. They know time is incredibly important and wish there were more of it to get everything done and have a semblance of life afterward, but managing it can seem daunting, if not impossible.
The issue is that you want to manage your time better, but the fear of failure and of once again not being able to do what you set out to do initially can keep you from being open to learning a new way to manage your time better. You can become so afraid of repeating past failures that you stop yourself from listening to a different way that could actually solve all your time management issues.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the concept of escape fails versus worthy fails and how they relate to the best way to deal with time management failure.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Do you find yourself having to justify buying new things that you really don’t need? Or do you find yourself getting easily bored and needing something to grab your attention? Well, you’re not alone in this tendency to be distracted by new things, but you’ve also probably got shiny object syndrome.
Shiny object syndrome is the tendency to chase something new, be it a new idea, trend, goal, or anything else, rather than stay focused on what you’re doing or already have. You’ve probably seen this with your children and animals, but don’t be fooled - adults are struggling with shiny object syndrome more than ever.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss what causes shiny object syndrome and how to manage it better.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Every CPA has a story - we all have a journey we’ve taken to get us to where we are. Every entrepreneur also has a story and journey as well.
This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Nissa Savage, CPA. Nissa is a mom of two boys and lives in Alaska. She comes from a background in private medical practice, medical groups, attorneys, and real estate investment industries.
Before becoming an accountant, Nissa was a professional mariner on vessels sailing in many regions of the world and is conversationally fluent in German.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Since my coaching specialty is time management for accountants, one of the most significant issues I see for many of my time management coaching clients is overcommitting. This is especially common among accountant moms and is often one of the biggest obstacles to better time management.
I see it time and time again where a coaching client doesn’t recognize that the problem isn’t time; the problem is what leads them to overcommit themselves and their time in the first place. They believe they just need a better time management system or process, and then everything will be able to be managed properly.
The issue is that we often don’t see the problem until we’re being crushed by the weight of everything we committed to. Most accountants I coach have normalized their commitments and don’t recognize that they’re overcommitted until we start addressing their time management needs.
You can read the full show notes to this episode HERE
If you'd like some help with overcommitting, you can book a FREE 20 minute coaching session HERE
When someone is struggling with a challenge, what do we often say to them? Don’t give up hope! It’s important to have hope in our lives because otherwise we’d be living pretty dreary lives.
But when it comes to time management, hope is not helpful. Hope is not a time management strategy that you want to use, especially if you’re serious about learning how to manage your time so that you can create more time for the people and the things that you love.
By all means be hopeful that the world becomes a peaceful place and that you and your family have healthy, happy lives; just don’t use hope as a time management strategy, especially if you want to create more of it.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the reason why hope is not a time management strategy and what to do instead.
You can listen to this week's episode HERE
If you'd like some help with a better time management strategy, you can book a FREE 20 minute coaching session HERE
As you probably know all too well, as accountants and moms we make a lot of decisions all day, every day. From how to handle our client’s needs, to how much screen time our kids can have, to where to go to dinner on date night with our partner, there are a lot of big and small decisions that typically fall on our shoulders.
The truth is that there’s a domino effect that happens when you make certain wise decisions. It’s as if that one domino decision is able to knock down so many of the others that were lined up behind it, just waiting to drain you with decision fatigue.
If you haven’t made the 3 decisions that I’m going to discuss, let me give you the advice my mentor gave - if you’re not taking the time to make intentional, conscious decisions about your life, don’t be surprised when your life isn’t what you want it to be. If you’re going to be in control of anything, let it be these 3 decisions.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss each of the 3 decisions you need to make wisely and why they matter.
You can read the full show notes to this week's episode HERE
If you'd like some help with these 3 decisions, you can book a FREE 20 minute coaching session HERE
Every CPA has a story - we all have a journey we’ve taken to get us to where we are. This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Chi Nguyen-George.
Chi is a CPA, a working mom of 2, and a military spouse. After spending 5 years in public accounting she switched to government accounting and currently works as a government auditor.
During this time she created a blog, sharing how she passed the CPA exam as a working mom, titled Organized CPA. She also provides resources for military spouse accountants.
You can read the full show notes HERE
If you haven’t already noticed, the accounting industry is struggling, big time. Unfortunately though, our profession also normalizes the struggles - stress, overwhelm, frustration, not enough time, too many demands, not being valued, overcommitting - I could go on but you get the drift.
But here’s the tricky thing that I’ve noticed with accountants - we have a hard time asking for help. It’s as if we see our intelligence as a sign that we should be able to figure things out so there’s no need to get support.
The issue is that this “I’m smart - I’ve got this” attitude is actually not very smart and can lead to more problems than necessary. Our intelligence is both a gift and a curse because we have the tendency to make very intelligent excuses for why things are the way they are, or even worse, we normalize our problems because everyone else in the industry is experiencing them too.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss what it means to be coachable so that you can deal with your struggles and have what you want in your career and your personal life
You can read the full show for this week's episode HERE
Are you ready to figure out if you're coachable or not? You can book a FREE 20 minute coaching session HERE
How much time and effort does it take to be successful at something? And how do you know you’re not wasting that time and effort on something that just isn’t meant to be? How do you know when to walk away or when to keep going?
It might sound a bit harsh, but it’s true - there is one skill that separates the successful from the unsuccessful. It’s the thing that can make that happy marriage possible, have you reaching your financial goals, help you create more hours in the day, and have you fitting into that pretty dress.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the only skill needed in order to be successful and 4 steps you can use to apply it.
You can read the full show notes for this week's episode HERE
Every working mom would love to have a crystal ball in order to see how their choices today will eventually affect their children in the future. Well thankfully I can offer you that crystal ball!
I had the pleasure of interviewing my two young-adult children, Kelly Goldberg and Brendan Goldberg, about what it’s been like having a working mom, how my choice to work has affected each of them, and the advice they would give to working moms who might be struggling with mom guilt.
You can read the show notes for this episode HERE
Need some help with parenting or mom guilt? You can book a FREE 20 minute coaching session HERE
Now that tax season is over, are you feeling less overwhelmed? Even as I’m asking this question, I already know the answer - there might be less on your to-do list, but I’m going to bet that you probably deal with overwhelm on a daily basis, not just during tax season or busier times during the year.
If you’re anything like the accountant moms that I coach, overwhelm is like a constant hum that sometimes gets ear-piercingly loud, but never completely goes away. On a scale of 1 to 10, it can seem to reach a 10 when you’re dealing with demands coming at you from a million directions, but it can also often feel like it never actually gets below a 5.
Does this sound like you: You’ve just normalized overwhelm to the point that a level of 5 on the overwhelm scale of 1 to 10 is a welcomed relief? Where you can’t even remember your life ever being below a level of 5, especially as an accountant and a mom?
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss why overwhelm is such an issue for accountants and how to make it easier to reduce overwhelm on a daily basis.
You can read the full show notes for this week's episode HERE
Whether you’re a new mom, or your last child has finally left the nest, most of us at some point are going to be empty nest accountant moms. It can be hard to fathom, especially when your children are young, but there’s going to come a time when they will leave to start their own lives and empty nest syndrome might set in.
When the time comes, not only is there confusion about what’s next for your child, your relationship with your child, your relationship with your spouse, and your relationship with yourself, but there can also be a big question about what’s next for you professionally as well. What does it look like for your accounting career, to now be an empty nester? What’s possible now, that might not have been possible before?
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss how to deal with an empty nest in regards to your children and how to deal with it in regards to your accounting career.
You can read the full show notes for this week's episode HERE
You can take advantage of the FREE 20 minute session mentioned in this podcast HERE
When looking at the stories of some of the most successful entrepreneurs in modern history, you’ll often find a quote about the part that intuition played in their success. For example, in a NY Times article, Steve Jobs is quoted saying, “Intuition is a very powerful thing; more powerful than intellect in my opinion”.
However, that special intuition that we believe makes successful people successful, isn’t as mysterious or elusive as we may believe it to be, nor is it as powerful and random as we may assume it to be.
When it comes to accountants and intuition, it can be incredibly beneficial to use intuition in business, however, while many accountants and business owners may have attributed at least some of their success to intuition, this cannot exist in isolation.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss what intuition really is and how to know when to act on your intuition
You can read the full show notes HERE
As mentioned on the podcast, you can book a FREE 20 minute call to deal with your time management issues HERE
If you’ve been in the accounting profession for awhile, you’ve probably experienced those “OMG, there’s not enough time” moments where you might have felt like you had a semblance of control over everything and then something gets thrown into the mix and it seems like the weight of it all will just crush you.
Maybe you’ve taken a time management course or you’ve read some articles or books on the subject, yet you’re still struggling with how to manage your time better or how to get a better sense of control over your time. The reason it's important to deal with time drama is because if you don’t get a better handle on it, it’s going to kill your productivity and efficiency, creating even more problems with your time.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss how to spot time drama and what to do about it.
You can read the full show notes HERE
You can schedule a FREE 20 minute call to diagnose your specific time management issue HERE
Have you ever been confused about which courses to take for continuing education or not known where you rate in regards to certain knowledge and skills? Well if you're interested in a more personalized approach to continuing education, then Illumeo is the answer.
Illumeo has been named "Top Innovators in EdTech" year after year, offering expert-led courses, CPE tracking tools, live webinars, an enterprise platform, and on demand training courses.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we Faith Adams about the self-assessment driven continuing education courses and certifications offered by Illumeo as well as how important user satisfaction is to the instructors they choose and the courses they offer.
You can read the full show notes HERE
If you are interested in the 20% discount that Illumeo offers to the members of the CPA MOMS Community, you can join our free community HERE
If you feel like your time is not your own and you’re constantly wishing there were more hours in the day, time boundaries might be just the thing you need. Not only will you have much better control over your time, but you’ll also be able to get more done in less time, making it possible to add even more hours to your day.
By learning how to set and commit to your time boundaries you make it much easier to have a balanced day, week, or year, and you lessen the fatigue that comes with making too many decisions about how you spend your time. And one of the best benefits is that you also improve your relationship with yourself, because when you honor your commitments to yourself, you strengthen your self-confidence.
This week on The CPA MOM Podcast we discuss what time boundaries are, how to set them, how to commit to them, and why it’s important to honor other people’s time boundaries as well.
If you have challenges with setting time boundaries, I can help. Email me at dawn.goldberg@cpamoms.com and we can discuss how.
You can read the full show notes HERE
With everything we have going on in our lives, it can seem like things just keep piling up on us so much that one day we wake up and realize that we’ve been in a bad mood for what seems like years.
This realization can be jarring and uncomfortable, especially if someone else points it out to you. It can also be confusing - you’re not exactly sure when or how it started, but your negative attitude has become a normal part of your day, week, month, or longer.
The issue is that once a negative attitude finds a warm, comfortable place to settle into, it can be challenging to vacate it and get rid of it. Unfortunately, the more your negative attitude persists, the more you’ll look for others who think and feel the same way, making it even more challenging to see things differently.
This week on The CPA MOM Podcast we discuss the reason why it's so easy to have a negative attitude and how you can lose it.
You can read the full show notes HERE
If you’re like a lot of accountants and moms, you’ve probably got a running to-do list either nearby or easily reachable. You most likely have work things, family things, house things, and tons of other things on that to-do list.
Most accountants couldn’t even fathom not having a to-do list in order to get everything done, without having something fall through the cracks. Believe me, I get it - we have a lot to do and so how in the world are we supposed to keep track of everything if we don’t have a running to-do list?
Unfortunately, that beloved to-do list of yours is actually not helping you in the way you think it is. That running list of items to get done is actually one of the biggest problems with getting more done in less time.
This week on The CPA MOM Podcast we discuss why to-do lists are an issue and what to do instead of keeping a running to-do list.
You can read the full show notes HERE
If you have an issue with how to rip up your to-do list and what to do instead, I can help. You contact me at dawn.goldberg@cpamoms.com and we can talk about how you can get more done in less time WITHOUT a to-do list.
While there are many industries that have felt the effects of the “Great Resignation”, this trend has had a significant impact on the accounting profession.
The truth is that, although people are leaving their jobs in record numbers, there’s also an even greater sense of job insecurity than ever before. If you think about it, the days of having a “job for life” are over - that might have been the case for our grandparents or parent’s generation, but that’s not the world we live in today.
It doesn’t matter whether you are just starting out in your accounting career or whether you are a seasoned employee, job security is unfortunately a thing of the past. As private companies and public accounting firms merge, evolve, and grow, the fact that’s never going to go away is that change is inevitable - the type of change that will most likely affect your belief in job security and what that holds for your future.
This week on The CPA MOM Podcast we discuss why leaving can be so challenging and why the concept of security is so enticing.
You can read the full show notes HERE
You can find out more about the CPA MOMS franchise opportunity HERE
Do you find it challenging, or even impossible, to stick to what’s on your schedule? Join the club! So many of us, especially busy accountant moms, have a hard time not only managing our time, but actually following through with what we schedule, or what we plan to do.
It often seems like no matter how hard you try and no matter how many pretty planners, detailed to-do lists, or apps you use, you often end up feeling like you’re behind at the end of the day. When this happens it can feel like an impossible problem and as if there’s something wrong with you - that you just can’t seem to follow through, or that you’re just missing the punctuality gene.
This week on The CPA MOM Podcast we discuss why it’s so challenging for us to follow through and the best way to make sure you follow through.
You can read the full show notes for this week's episode HERE
As a mother, you probably know all about mothering a child, whether you would consider yourself a good mom or not. You most likely know the do’s and don’ts, the basic expectations for taking care of a child, and have a general idea of the ongoing things you need to learn as your children go through various stages of development.
But here's what research found - when well educated mothers were asked who gives the same type of mothering support to them, for too many, the answer is nobody, at least on a regular basis. These highly intelligent mothers were tending to everyone else’s needs, spreading themselves incredibly thin, and unfortunately they were rarely asking for, or getting, others to tend to their needs.
This week on The CPA MOM Podcast we discuss why it’s challenging for mothers to allow themselves to be taken care of and how to find the balance of prioritizing your own needs with everyone else’s.
You can read the full show notes HERE
The term “intrapreneur” is a relatively new term used to describe individuals inside an organization who are employees, but who are also entrepreneurial. They’re not just good employees, they also have a way of viewing things differently and seeing beyond what they’ve been tasked with, embodying an entrepreneur mindset even though they’re not one yet.
If you’ve ever watched the show Undercover Boss, you’ve probably seen intrapreneurs in action. The highlight of an episode is when the undercover boss discovers a diamond in the ruff - someone who shows incredible care for the job they’re tasked with, but also shows the potential to take on much more than they’re currently doing for the company.
What about you? Are you one of those employees with an entrepreneurial spirit? Are you someone who sees the world through a different lens at work, looking for ways to not only improve yourself, but also the processes, services, and people in your company? Do you wish there was an undercover boss who would disguise themselves and discover that you too are a diamond in the ruff?
This week on The CPA MOM Podcast we discuss the qualities of an intrapreneur, how they differ from typical employees, and why we need to talk if you are an intrapreneur.
You can read the full show notes HERE
So did you set any goals for this year? Did you join the gym, start a new diet, or set a financial goal? Each year we are encouraged to take time in December to reflect on the previous year, and to decide to set goals in January for the upcoming year, but unfortunately we’re often frustrated about our goals by mid-February and ready to give up. Has that ever happened to you?
Whatever your situation is, the feeling of impatience can truly dominate your emotions, making you incredibly frustrated at the lack of forward momentum towards achieving your goals. It can often feel like you’re standing in quicksand, being stuck here when what you really want is to go there.
This week on The CPA MOM Podcast we discuss why patience can be such an issue, especially when working on achieving a goal, and what you can do to deal with goal impatience.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Do you feel like you’d have more time or get what you want done if you could just focus? Well, you’re not alone because most of the accountant moms I work with, myself included, often struggle with the ability to focus, especially when we have so much on our to-do list and we’re surrounded by so many distractions.
The truth is that one of our greatest assets is our attention, but unfortunately we’re often doing ourselves a disservice by not understanding how much of our inability to focus has to do with us, and not necessarily our environment. Although there are many things you can do to set up your work life and your personal life in order to improve your ability to focus, we're going to share something that we know can be a huge game changer.
This week on The CPA MOM Podcast we discuss why focusing is a problem and what you can do to improve your ability to focus.
You can read the full show notes HERE
As we roll into a new year, and those of us in public accounting roll into a new tax year, we thought it would be a great time to talk about your calendar. It doesn’t matter whether you have a super organized calendar or you’re a hot mess, understanding how to get your calendar to work FOR you, instead of against you, will be helpful this year.
The thing when it comes to using a calendar, is that even though you may have your favorite type of calendar, whether it’s digital or paper, we promise you that you probably aren’t using your calendar in the best way possible. A lot of us are using our calendar against ourselves, trying to be organized, but ironically still feeling overwhelmed in the process of getting a sense of control and having things become simpler.
This week on The CPA MOM Podcast we discuss 4 ways to get your calendar to work FOR you instead of against you, hopefully helping you to be able to spend more time doing what you love as well.
You can read the full show notes HERE
When you add the pressure that accountants in general have, to the pressure that working mothers have, especially since the pandemic, it’s no wonder so many of us are buckling under it all. It’s a common sentiment among accountants that “It’s just too much”.
But just like there’s a healthy range for your blood pressure, in reality the pressure being too low is as concerning for a doctor as the pressure being too high. Low blood pressure can cause dizziness, fainting, fatigue, and loss of concentration, all due to the blood not flowing at the optimal range of momentum that your body needs to function properly.
The same thing goes for you - a healthy range of pressure is what can keep you balanced and moving forward, allowing your life to function properly. The question then becomes - how can you make the switch from unhealthy to healthy pressure? What’s really within your control when it comes to pressure?
This week on The CPA MOM Podcast we discuss the warning signs of unhealthy pressure, the root cause of unhealthy pressure. and how you switch from unhealthy to healthy pressure.
You can read the full show notes HERE
A lot of us like the idea of possibly doubling our income, being able to be home when our kids get home from school, or being in control of our career advancement, but as soon as there’s a flicker of hope in the possibility, that light quickly gets extinguished. Either the “But how?” question, or the thought that life is just too overwhelming as it is, just stops us in our tracks.
Here's the truth - you are not meant to be here, as both an accountant and a mom, and just settling for your overwhelmed, overworked, and overstressed life.
You are here to challenge yourself, to push past what’s been possible in the past, and to create possibilities for your future. You are also meant to be an example of what’s possible for your children when you stop believing the lie your brain is telling you about what’s possible.
This week on The CPA MOM Podcast we discuss why the idea of possibilities is an issue for a lot of us and how you can create possibilities for yourself, your career, and your life.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Is it just me, or are you also hearing a lot more about having a personal brand?
When you think of the word “brand” what comes to mind? Do you think of big brands like Amazon, Apple, or McDonalds? Or do you think of smaller things like the brand of toothpaste your family likes or the brand of mechanical pencils you can’t live without at work?
The interesting thing when it comes to having a personal brand is that, whether you realize it or not, you already have a personal brand. You may not agree, but you actually do have a personal brand which is why it’s also important to understand what it is and how you might want to mold or shape it.
This week on The CPA MOM Podcast we discuss what a personal brand is and an important way to approach reshaping or creating yours.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Have you ever had something happen and you weren't able to get closure around the situation? Where something ended, like a relationship or a job, or maybe something changed in some way, and you were left trying to move forward without being stuck in the past?
If you've ever struggled with getting closure, we're here to tell you that it’s not only possible, but that it’s also incredibly powerful. You no longer have to feel conflicted or distracted, because there is a way to get closure so that you can move forward.
This week we're going to discuss why closure is an issue for a lot of us and how to get closure if you’ve been struggling.
You can read the full show notes HERE
As accountants, we live in an exceptionally data-driven world, surrounded by facts and figures all day, every day. We are the compilers, synthesizers, and analyzers of our company and client’s data, helping to make sense of it all so that decisions can be made today and in the future.
Unfortunately, because of the data-driven work that accountants do, we can frequently get caught in the trap of not being able to delineate between data versus drama. That accountant brain of ours is great for analyzing and processing lots of data, but it’s not so great at separating out the data from our beliefs about that data.
Here’s why that’s so important for us as accountants - because until you understand how your accountant brain works, you will overwhelm yourself with problems, not being able to truly understand what’s true data and what’s just drama.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast a better way to understand the difference between data and drama, and a much better way to handle drama.
You can read the full show notes HERE
While excuses can often be considered a polite way of getting out of doing something you don’t want to do, like bowing out of the invitation for dinner by saying you can’t get a babysitter when you really just don’t want to go, sometimes excuses are actually getting in your way more than you realize. Sometimes your excuses keep you stuck, have you doing things that aren’t in your best interest, or create results that you’re not happy with.
The truth is that we ALL make excuses at various times about various things, but just because it’s normal doesn’t mean it’s helpful. Just because we can all come up with reasons for why we didn’t, couldn’t, or shouldn’t do something, doesn’t mean they’re good enough reasons or that we should keep using them.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss why your brain is so good at coming up with excuses and how to stop your excuses.
You can read the full show notes HERE
What actually makes a good leader? If you ask 100 people what they think makes a good leader, you’re going to typically have very different definitions, often depending on the person’s experience with good and bad leadership.
The simple, but powerful truth is that leadership operates from one of two places - above the line or below the line - but not in the way that an accountant would assume:
- Above the line leadership is open, curious, and committed to learning
- Below the line leadership is closed, defensive, and committed to being right
In order to be a good leader, both at work and at home, you need to become more aware of where you are operating from and what to do instead.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss each of the 15 commitments of conscious leadership so that you might be able to implement them into your own approach and grow in your leadership role, both as a leader at work and at home.
You can read the full show notes HERE
If you were to Google “accountants and time management”, you’d see over 80 million hits, ranging from workshops, to templates and products, to articles promising to give you the BEST time management tips for accountants. It’s as if the whole world knows an accountant’s achilles heel - time and time management.
While some of the suggestions work temporarily, the best time management system or software cannot outrun one very important thing - time scarcity.
Time scarcity is a term that describes the feeling that you’re racing against a clock that somehow ticks faster every day. The tricky thing about time scarcity is that it might feel like it’s motivating you or pushing you out of procrastination, but it’s actually sabotaging you more than you realize.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss what causes time scarcity, and what you can do to get out of it.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Have you ever worried about what a particular person, or other people, think of you? Join the club!
Of course it’s natural to like it when people respect, admire, or like us, but have you ever considered the cost? Think about it for a minute - how much effort have you put into managing how other people think about you, whether it’s socially, personally, or professionally?
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the reason why we worry about what other people think about us and how to let people be wrong about you.
You can read the full show notes HERE
Every CPA has a story - we all have a journey we’ve taken to get us to where we are. Every entrepreneur also has a story and journey as well. This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Lauren Hale, CPA.
Lauren is a mom of two-year-old twins with another baby on the way in a few weeks!
Lauren worked for various public accounting firms before deciding to become a franchisee and shares that it was the best decision she ever made for her career and her family.
Find out how the pandemic shifted her thinking, why she decided to reach out to CPA MOMS, and what she's learned since making the transition from employee to entrepreneur.
You can read the full show notes HERE
You can find out more about becoming a CPA MOMS franchisee HERE
If you've ever considered working with a coach, we've got a treat for you! This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we count down the top 5 things one of our CPA MOMS coaches learned from being coached as an accountant and a mom, and how coaching might also help you.
Here are the highlights from this episode:
- What I discovered working with a coach is that I was trying to solve my problems with an unmanaged, accountant brain and that I was creating a lot of unnecessary stress, wasting a lot of my time, and was missing the best investment I could possibly make in myself as an accountant and as a mom.
- As hard working women, I think we owe it to each other to be honest and vulnerable about the struggles we’ve had, and if we find something that helps, we should share it.
- Being coached has improved my relationships, my health, my finances, my time management, my self-confidence, and especially my level of happiness.
You can read the full shows notes HERE
If you're interested in working with a coach, you can book a free 20-minute session HERE
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss what really creates our relationships and how to improve yours.
Here are the highlights from this episode:
- If you want to have fewer health problems, get more work done, as well as experience less stress, addressing your relationships can be a great place to start.
- Thankfully, no matter who the relationship is with or what you believe the problem is, learning a better way to handle any relationship is an incredibly important skill you can learn and apply.
- The funny thing is that as accountants, we’re so used to focusing on better time management from the perspective of our calendars, but you might be interested to know that your relationships are affecting your ability to get more done in less time, more than you might realize.
You can read the full show notes HERE
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss how to get clear about what you want for your career, how to tap into your talents, the key to networking and how to take care of your introvert needs.
Here are the highlights from this episode:
- While your introvert nature has many benefits, it isn’t necessarily going to help you succeed in your accounting career without some guidance.
- When you combine your high intelligence and introverted problem-solving skills with something you are passionate about, you can create exciting new opportunities.
- With some awareness and preparation, you can make networking a more enjoyable part of your accounting career journey.
- Your career and your family will benefit tremendously when you give yourself permission to have your introvert needs met.
You can find the full show notes HERE
Are you still trading time for dollars? Well Dominique Molina, CPA, found a way to charge 30x what other accountants charge and to have clients on a waiting list for her services.
Not only did she discover a much better way to service her clients and still have boundaries around her time, but when she had other accountants clambering to know her secret, she co-founded The American Institute Of Certified Tax Planners so that she could teach accountants how to become tax planners, as opposed to tax preparers.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the struggles that most accountant moms go through, balancing their career and financial aspirations, with also being a mom, as well as how Dominique discovered the "holy grail" that gave her back her time.
Make sure you listen until the end where she offers the CPA MOMS Podcast audience a free copy of her book "Getting Paid What You're Worth"
You can read the show notes HERE
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss some of the misperceptions about boundaries and how to set better boundaries.
Here are the highlights from this episode:
- As women’s issues are thankfully coming to the forefront of many social injustice movements, and more and more women are empowered to stand up for themselves, we’re also left with a lot of questions around the subject of boundaries.
- If you’re confused about setting boundaries, join the club! As a working mom it can be challenging to know when and how to set a boundary, especially when you might be getting so many mixed messages.
- Once you understand the way I’ve been taught to set boundaries, it might help you to get clearer on how you too can start to set better boundaries.
You can read the full show notes HERE
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss why you should love your job before you leave it, and an exercise you can use to love it before you leave it.
Here are the highlights from this episode:
- No matter what your reason is for wanting to leave your job, I promise you that learning how to love it before you leave it, is going to be helpful no matter what your next chapter is.
- The truth is that if you hate your job, or just dislike it a lot, you will naturally wind up finding things you hate or dislike a lot in the next thing you do because of one very important factor - you are bringing your brain with you.
- Unless you uplevel your accountant brain, you are very likely to wind up with the same job and career dissatisfaction again in the future.
You can get the full show notes for this episode HERE
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss 3 reasons why it’s important to be more effective and the 7 habits of highly effective accountant moms.
Here are the highlights from this episode:
- The issue for a lot of women is that once you’ve gotten a rhythm going that makes it possible for you to do everything you do, you might just be on a rinse and repeat cycle, not stopping to take a look to see how you could be more effective.
- When you learn how to be more effective, you get clear about what you want and you’re willing to figure out how to get there; you don’t spin in indecision, confusion and overwhelm.
- It’s like discovering that you had your parking brake on the entire time and that’s why your car wasn’t driving faster. You want to be more effective so you can uncover what’s been slowing you down.
You can read the full show notes HERE
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss where our comfort zone comes from and why it exists, as well as why it’s important to step out of your comfort zone and how.
Here are the highlights from this episode:
- What happens for a lot of accountants is that we gravitate towards, and can often get stuck in, comfort zones that can make it challenging to grow and evolve.
- The issue is that, if you don’t take an honest look at your comfort zones every now and then, consider how they might be holding you back, and how to step out of them, you are going to wake up 5, 10 or 20 years from now and wish you had done something differently.
- When we’re not growing, we wind up being grumpy, dissatisfied, and discontent because we’re actually not tapping into our full potential.
You can find the full show notes HERE
Every CPA has a story and this week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we had the pleasure of interviewing Bridget Kaigler, CPA, CGMA, CMA, MBA. She is a seasoned professional with more than twenty years of experience in tax and financial analyses.
Bridget’s humble beginnings and non-traditional path to becoming a CPA was the foundation and encouragement to begin her own company, Bringing Leadership Back, LLC. The company was founded to help aspiring leaders grow.
Bridget is the recipient of the 2021 Society of Louisiana CPAs Distinguished Public Service Award and is a frequent speaker and freelance writer on the topic of leadership and career strategy. She was featured by Career Mastered Magazine, Accounting Today, Journal of Accountancy, and was the cover story “Bringing Leadership Back: Perspectives in helping aspiring leaders grow” in Lagniappe Magazine.
You can read the show notes HERE
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss why we tend to struggle so much with disagreements, as well as two strategies to help you handle disagreements.
Here are the highlights from this episode:
- For a lot of women, we often don’t want to disagree with others out loud because we’re afraid of what they will think of us, often making us go along with other people’s differing opinions in order to “keep the peace”.
- Another interesting thing is that most of us enter a disagreement feeling bad about something and then try to defend our right to feel bad.
- The problem is that when we believe our assumptions, or our ways of interpreting situations, are the only way to interpret them, we open the door for disagreements and we make anyone that doesn’t see things our way wrong.
You can read the full show notes HERE
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss what causes us to constantly feel emotionally focused on work and easier ways to disconnect at the end of the day.
Here are the highlights from this episode:
- Because of the pressure accountant moms can often feel to be high performers in our careers, it can be challenging to not check our work email while we’re making dinner or to glance at our phone and be tempted to answer a Slack message while we’re watching TV with our family.
- There have been many studies done on Psychological Detachment From Work and the research has shown that employees who experience more detachment from work during off-hours are more satisfied with their lives and experience few symptoms of stress, without being less engaged while at work.
- If you think about how much we rely on our brains for the complicated, analytical work we do as accountants, we especially need our brains to “dry out” before asking it to soak up and process more and more information.
You can read the full show notes HERE
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the things that might be causing you to be an insecure overachiever and what you can do about it.
Here are the highlights from this episode:
- The bigger reason why so many accountants work so hard, don’t set clear boundaries, and don’t feel fulfilled, is because we are an industry of insecure overachievers.
- Unfortunately, being in an industry of insecure overachievers like accounting, you wind up setting the bar higher and higher for each other, eventually making success exhausting and unattainable.
- The key is understanding that most insecure overachievers are just trying to feel better about themselves, but they’re using actions and performance to create a better feeling.
You can schedule a free 20 minute session HERE.
You can read the full show notes HERE
This week we had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Elana Roumell, MD. Dr. Elana is a Naturopathic Doctor with a passion for pediatrics. She initially founded Nourish Medical Center in San Diego, CA providing holistic care to the whole family, and later created Med School for Moms.
Dr. Elana is also a co-host of the popular “Doctor Mom” Podcast, nearing one million downloads!
Podcast episodes air weekly which give her the opportunity to share her knowledge, stay up to date with new health topics, and interview experts in the health field. Her intention is to empower parents with knowledge so they are well informed to make the best decisions for the health of their children.
She loves to teach parents how to care for their children at home and equip them with the most effective, tried and true natural remedies available.
You can find the show notes and a link to the free pdf mentioned in this episode HERE
This week we discuss what “having what it takes” means and how to overcome what’s holding you back.
Here are some of the highlights:
- Just know that you’re not alone with your concerns about whether you have what it takes to go out on your own. While it’s normal, it’s also important to know that there’s a reason you’re feeling that way, and it has nothing to do with whether you’re capable or not.
- It’s important to understand that your doubts are just your brain’s way of trying to protect you from what it fears the most - things like change, possible failure, and the dread of disappointment.
- If you really think about it, having what it takes could mean a whole host of things, but I think the most important thing to consider when it comes to having what it takes to go out on your own, comes down to one thing - willingness.
- In order to overcome what’s holding you back, one of the best questions you can possibly ask yourself when you have a limiting belief is “What if I’m wrong about that?”.
You can find the full show notes HERE
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast, we discuss the difference between jealousy and envy, the connection between self-confidence, jealousy and envy, and a better way to handle them both.
Here are some of the highlights:
- It seems like wherever you turn, there’s someone that has something that you want, or you have something that you’re afraid they want.
- Jealousy and envy can apply to where you live, your intelligence, where you went to school, how successful your children are in school, where you go on vacation, how many friends you have; you name it and women are faced with a never ending barrage of competition, jealousy, and envy towards themselves and towards others.
- Remember, the only reason you feel jealous is because you’re worried that something you have might be taken away from you and that you need that thing in order to feel happy. Additionally, the only reason you feel envy is because you don’t have something and you believe that having it will make you feel happy.
- If jealousy and envy have been getting in your way, there is something you can do to mitigate them.
You can find the full show notes HERE
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast, we discuss why being resourceful is important for accountant moms and how you can become more resourceful.
Here are some of the highlights:
- I don’t believe you need to be quick or clever in order to be resourceful; I believe that being resourceful means you just need to be willing to solve your own problems.
- When you’re not resourceful, you tend to think a lot about how you have a problem, complain about the problem, worry about the problem, but don’t believe you can do anything to solve it.
- If you’re not being resourceful, your initial instinct will be to assume that you don’t know anything, that you can’t do anything, and that you need someone else to tell you what to do.
- We’ve become so accustomed to quickly being able to get answers to questions, that we’ve become incredibly dependent on others, believing it’s the best way to get past the uncomfortability of a problem.
- I want to empower you all to stand up taller, trust yourself more, and be an example of what’s possible for your children because when you become more resourceful, you show them how to be as well.
You can find the full show notes HERE
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast, we discuss the surprising reason why you feel unfulfilled, as well as what you can do about it.
Here are some of the highlights:
- I speak to and coach so many accountant moms who have done their best during these trying times, but now that there seems to be some light at the end of the tunnel, they’re left feeling dissatisfied, unhappy, or disillusioned and understandably not knowing what to do about it.
- The first thing I want you to know is that it’s not your fault if you feel unfulfilled and you shouldn’t be ashamed to admit it, no matter what your life situation is, professionally or personally.
- Secondly, as a high achieving woman, you’ve most likely got the misconception that external things cause how you feel, or that your actions cause how you feel, but here’s the thing - you actually have it backwards.
- When it comes to fulfillment, most accountants are focused on taking action to feel more fulfilled like setting career and financial goals and hustling to get to some end result that they believe will be the answer to fulfillment.
You can find the full show notes HERE
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast, CPA MOMS Franchisees Lori Hinelsey and Nicole Kehl are back to discuss what their first year experiences have been being a franchisee. They share what it was like, what surprised them, and how much they grossed in their first year.
Here are some of the questions we discussed:
- What do they wish they knew in the beginning of their career, that they know now?
- What the first year of a franchisee entails? What kind of training, mentoring, and coaching did they receive?
- Did anything surprise them the first year as a franchisee and what was it?
- How much did they gross, or are targeted to gross, their first year?
- What has been the greatest benefit of being a franchisee versus going out on your own alone?
- What next year’s vision is for their firm and for their family?
- What advice they had for anyone who might be on the fence about leaving their job and becoming a franchisee?
You can find the full show notes HERE
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss what emotional intelligence actually is and how to improve your emotional intelligence.
Here are the highlights:
- Although our industry was warned years ago about the need to tap into the skill set of emotional intelligence, most practitioners and educational programs ignored the warnings.
- The truth is that emotional intelligence isn’t only crucial for you as an accountant, but it’s also something you will want to master as a mother.
- Since the introduction of the concept of emotional intelligence, numerous studies have been done, pointing to the fact that EQ is becoming a better predictor of professional success than someone’s IQ.
- As you learn how to manage your emotions, become better at being proactive instead of reactive, as well as understanding why others may feel and behave the way they do, you show your children this same skill.
- While your IQ is fixed and doesn’t really deviate to any significant degree, your EQ is able to continually grow and improve, making it a much more important “hard skill” than most accountants have been led to believe.
You can find out the full show notes HERE
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss where self-esteem comes from and 4 steps to take to boost your self-esteem.
Here are the highlights:
- Unfortunately, when it comes to accountants and self-esteem, it's often assumed that it’s not an issue because of our intelligence and the challenging work that we do.
- For accountant moms, having healthy self-esteem is something worth exploring because of one very important factor - the healthier your self-esteem, the less vulnerable you are to anxiety and stress.
- The reason that self-esteem matters is that it’s so essential for having a successful career, healthy relationships, and feeling fulfilled in any aspect of life.
- Just know that you are worth the investment in yourself and that your self-esteem is 100% within your power to build and boost.
You can find the full show notes HERE
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss why it’s challenging for women to say Yes less and how you can start.
Here are the highlights:
- Are you the person who says Yes more often than you’d like to? Does saying No feel uncomfortable to you? Do you cringe at the thought of other people being disappointed or unhappy with you? Do you worry about what other people will think or say if you said Yes less? You’re not alone.
- You’ve been getting messages and programming that your brain has stored your entire life, culminating into a lot of your habits, especially the habit of saying Yes.
- You just need to look at the #METOO movement and you can see how challenging it can be for women to say No, and how strongly we’ve been conditioned to say Yes, especially to those in power.
- Being a good person doesn’t mean saying Yes when you really want to say No, because if you think about it, you’re actually lying.
- No matter how long you’ve been saying Yes to others and No to yourself, you can learn how to choose you.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I discuss the three habits that create issues for your inbox and how to take back control.
Here are the highlights:
- Unfortunately, when you don’t have control of your inbox, not only does decision fatigue set in when it comes to email, but it also affects how well you can do your job.
- Whether you realize it or not, there are so many things associated with email and email notifications that are incredibly draining to your brain.
- The problem is that when you let your lower, reactionary brain dictate when you should check and send emails, you are basically allowing a toddler to rule your day.
- For most of the accountants I work with and know, there is a FOMO-type (fear of missing out) relationship with their email, where they’re so afraid of missing out on some important piece of information, that they don’t even consider how much their oversubscribed email inbox is detrimentally affecting them.
- If you think about it, you wouldn’t put notes to yourself, reminders, people’s contact information, pictures, or your to-do list in your actual home mailbox, so why are you using your email inbox for these things?
You know the old adage about “all work and no play”, but for a lot of accountant moms, all work can often become an identity. When this happens, the lines become blurred between being an accountant versus being a mom, and can create real problems when trying to have a career as well as a family.
While the struggle with work/life balance is not unique to the accounting profession, it is a huge struggle, especially for accountant moms who are working on average. in one capacity or another, 18 hours a day, 7 days a week. For a lot of working moms, the issue can then become feeling guilty at work for having to balance it all, so you wind up becoming a work martyr, wanting to prove that you can do it all.
Work martyrdom can show up in various ways like taking work home so that you can get a jump start on everyone else, not taking all your paid time off because you’re afraid it will look bad, or not being able to delegate because you’re worried that no one else can do the work as good as you. Work martyrdom is also sneaky because it’s often perceived to be normal, necessary, or even worse, rewarded.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I discuss why work martyrdom is a problem, signs to look out for, and how to stop.
Rachel Schmidt has been with ADP for over 3 years and during that time has earned the designations of President’s Club Performer as well as Accountant Specialist.
As a hard-earned ADP Accountant specialist, Rachel strictly partners with accountants and the CPA community, making sure they, and their clients, get the highest level of support at ADP.
From hiring to retiring, and everything in between, ADP provides a host of services that even seasoned CPA’s might be surprised to discover.
Rachel has been the National ADP representative for CPA MOMS and has supported our community members, as well as the CPA MOMS franchisees.
To receive the CPA MOMS 30% discount with ADP and find out more about working with Rachel, you can go to https://cpamoms.wufoo.com/forms/qe7y70o0k3vquv/
This line is too long, traffic is out of hand, my daughter spends too much money, my mother-in-law needs to get out of our personal business, and the IRS keeps making it more difficult for accountants to do their job. Does any of this sound familiar?
I’m sure you could come up with a whole lot more to complain about, especially as an accountant and a mom. As far as daily professional and personal challenges go, you’re dealing with more than the average person.
While we all complain about various circumstances in our lives from time to time, or get frustrated with the constant complainers in our lives, you should also know that complaining is actually affecting your intelligence, which can affect your accounting career. The reason complaining affects your intelligence is because it affects your brain.
Research from Stanford University has shown that complaining shrinks the hippocampus, which is an area of the brain that’s critical to problem-solving and intelligent thought. For accountants, this can become a big problem since our intelligence and problem-solving skills are what makes it possible for us to do what we do.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I discuss why we complain, why it’s such a problem and how to stop
You can book a free 20 minute call to discuss The Better Time Management Program at http://go.scheduleyou.in/X7xcdpc
As a woman and a mother in a profession like accounting, it can be challenging to own your feelings and not make them a problem. With a limited number of women in leadership roles and the messaging that women often get about not being “too emotional”, it can seem like the formula for success is to sweep your feelings under the rug.
The unfortunate thing about the assumption that feelings have no place in business, or that having feelings or emotions make you “weak”, is that it’s incredibly short sighted and actually creates an unnecessary struggle for a lot of working women. In a data-focused, analytical profession like accounting, allowing yourself to own how you feel can often be frowned upon.
Of course the job of an accountant focuses on numbers and analytics, but if you want to achieve more success and have more balance as both an accountant and a mom, your feelings are hugely important. While your male colleagues might dismiss feelings as having no place in a business setting, I want to help accountant moms to see how to make your feelings a powerful fuel to help you achieve whatever you want in your career and in your life.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I discuss why your feelings matter and how to use the information you get from your feelings in order to get what you want.
For a helpful list of feelings that I discussed in this episode, you can go to https://www.hoffmaninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/Practices-FeelingsSensations.pdf
This week I had the pleasure of interviewing business and strategist coach for CPA's, Geraldine Carter.
Geraldine is the founder of She Thinks Big Coaching, where she helps CPAs get out of the accounting rut. Her clients routinely double their margins in 6 months or less while working fewer hours. Geraldine holds a BS in Engineering from Cornell University, is the co-founder and CFO of a company where her cashflow forecasting models resulted in millions of dollars for climate change efforts.
In addition to her coaching practice, She Thinks Big Coaching, she is also the podcast host of “Smart Strategy For CPA’s”.
In her free time, she can be found mountain biking forested trails or running after her two small children in her hometown of Ketchum, ID.
In this episode Geraldine shares some of the biggest issues that CPA's face when starting and growing a business, as well as the solutions she recommends to her clients.
If you are like so many of the accountant moms I talk to, you might be at the point of exhaustion, wishing there was a better way to have the career you desire, to support your family financially, to be there for your children, but also to not be so frustrated, stressed and overwhelmed so much of the time. Unfortunately, as accountants we often get the message to just “suck it up” and keep pressing on.
I also know that so many of you are at a crossroads, where you are so overwhelmed and stressed that you either want to quit, run away or a combination of both. You know first hand that the struggle is real and probably have the common belief that there’s nothing that can be done to have a more balanced life and reduce your burnout.
There is no shame in the fact that you are experiencing burnout, but I also want you to know that it doesn’t have to be as normal as you may have been led to believe. There is a way to reduce burnout so you can live the happy, balanced life that you desire and deserve, without having to give up on the career you’ve worked so hard for.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I explain where burnout comes from, especially for accountant moms, and what you can do to reduce your accountant mom burnout.
You can find out more about The Balanced Accountant Program at https://cpamoms-academy.com/p/the-balanced-accountant
When you hear the word “minimalism”, what comes to mind? Do you see a bare, sterile environment that seems boring? Do you envision Tibetan monks with just a cot to sleep on and one pair of sandals to wear on their feet? Do you think of people who don’t make a lot of money and who need to be frugal by necessity?
For accountants the idea of minimalism is especially challenging because we tend to place importance and value on everything we touch. As a profession, we’re told to keep things like the financial and tax return backup for minimum periods of time, making it challenging to let go of things not only professionally, but personally as well.
Since we’re educated and trained to fear making a mistake, we often have a false sense of comfort in holding on to things even when we’re not instructed to. Even those accountants that have adopted a mostly paperless office still feel the need to hold on to things “just in case”, just adding more space to their cloud based storage when their “just in case” items are reaching the current max.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I explain what new minimalism for accountant moms is and how to achieve a more simplistic, peaceful life when it comes to the practical side of being an accountant and the sentimental side of being a mom.
When it comes to delegating, especially for working moms, it can seem like a great idea, but can often be challenging when faced with actually doing it. While it would be amazing to be Supermom and be able to do it all, you’re actually not doing yourself any favors, both personally or professionally, by not addressing the idea of delegating more.
Whether you could use more time, experience less stress, or improve your work/life balance, it’s probably time to readdress the topic of delegating if you haven’t done it in a while. Fortunately, you can still keep your Supermom cape even if you let others take over tasks that you believe are solely your responsibility.
The truth is that there is a better way to start giving up control, a little bit at a time, so that you can free yourself up to do the things that matter most. There is no shame in acknowledging that you could use some help and, if you think about it, it just might be the thing you need in order to pursue a goal, to grow your business, or to manage your family.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I discuss delegating tools for work and home as well as examples of things to delegate and automate.
You can find out more about the franchise opportunity with CPA MOMS at https://cpa-moms.com/franchise/
Every female CPA has a story and every entrepreneur has one as well. This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Twyla Verhelst, CPA. Twyla is the head of Freshbooks Account Channel and the leader of the Accounting Professionals program with Freshbooks. She was recognized as one of the Top 50 Women in Accounting.
Twyla is known for leading the charge when it comes to advocacy, change and community. She is an experienced CPA and a tech entrepreneur with a passion for helping women build their confidence.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast Twyla and I discuss her accountant and entrepreneur journey as well as what it means to be a progressive accountant.
Do you fall into the Dominant, Inspiring, Supportive or Cautious category per the DISC personality assessment? Do you know if you’re an ISTJ or an INFJ in the Myers-Briggs assessment? Or are you considered a Blue in the Color Personality Test?
When it comes to personality assessments, a lot of people seem to look for ways to understand themselves and others better, by taking a personality or strengths finder-type test, hoping to understand the motivations, thoughts, feelings and actions that lead us to do what we do. It can be comforting to come across a grid or diagram that promises to explain where you fall in the scheme of things compared to other humans, and how to best utilize your innate gifts and talents.
While tests like DISC and Myers-Briggs are interesting in order to see what you tend to do or what you’re strong in, they’re also just a snapshot in time, not an identity. Unfortunately, while they are intended to give you information, they can also keep you stuck, believing that you are what the test or assessment says you are and there’s not much you can do about it.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I explain how your personality is shaped and how you can choose to be the architect of it.
As a working mom, you’ve also probably got a lot of other things in your personal life that are requiring extra attention like the health, safety and well-being of you and your family as well as your children’s educational needs and much more. What was once a struggle to achieve some semblance of balance, might feel like a complete impossibility with everything you have on your plate.
The interesting thing is that somewhere along the evolution of women in the workplace there was this underlying assumption that if you wanted to work outside the home, that’s fine, but that doesn’t mean that your responsibilities at home are going to be less. You might have the desire for a career or the economic need for a job, but be prepared to keep doing almost everything you would do if you were a stay at home mom and much more.
With so many things that you are responsible for as a working mom, it’s no wonder that, despite your best efforts, there are times when you feel like you just can’t keep up. If you feel frustrated, overwhelmed or on the verge of burnout, then this episode is for you.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I discuss the reality of “doing it all” and what to do when you just can’t seem to keep up.
You can check out more about The Balanced Accountant Program at https://cpamoms-academy.com/p/the-balanced-accountant
As we are all living in uncertain times, it can be challenging, especially as a mom, to deal with all the things that are known and unknown right now. When someone asks you, “How are you doing? Is everything okay?”, it can often feel like you’re a dam about to burst with things that are weighing on you and challenges you’re having to deal with.
As a smart, capable woman it can be difficult to deal with the roller coaster of ups and downs that come with being an accountant and a mom. You’re not just responsible for doing your job and servicing your clients or the company you work for, but you’re also in charge of the health and welfare of your children while helping to support your family financially as well.
When you have all that on your shoulders and then add something like a job loss or a loved one’s diagnosis, it can often feel like you’re at your breaking point. It’s as if one more thing will literally break you into a million pieces.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I discuss why it’s okay to not be okay and the steps for handling how you feel when life isn’t going the way you want.
You can check out the CPA MOMS Podcast Roadmap at https://cpa-moms.com/the-cpa-moms-podcast-roadmap/
Every CPA has a story - we all have a journey we’ve taken to get us to where we are. Every entrepreneur also has a story and journey as well. This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Nicole Kehl, CPA. Nicole is a mom of two from Kentucky and became CPA MOMS fourth founding franchisee, having previously struggled with building her own practice and having the support and training she needed.
Listen in as Nicole shares how she started out in the United States Marine Corp, worked in private accounting after college, but after having her second child, she knew she needed to make a change.
Although Nicole had started her own firm with the help of CPA MOMS previous Fast Start Program, she realized that she needed more support in order to create the vision she had for herself and her family.
If there’s one topic that accountant moms want to discuss more than any other, it’s how to have a more balanced life. They intellectually understand that there are just 24 hours in a day in order to get work done and take care of their family, but emotionally they’re overwhelmed with the weight they feel on their shoulders to balance it all.
The interesting thing is that it’s actually more challenging for accountants to have a balanced life because of one important, very common trait that most accountants possess - seriousness. Due to the innate heaviness and gravity that accompanies accounting work, this can make it more challenging for accountants to lighten up and help the momentum needed to have a more balanced life.
While this underlying seriousness of the accounting profession might make it easier to gain the public’s trust when dealing with their finances, it also unfortunately makes it more difficult for accountants to achieve the balance they desire. Thankfully, the one piece that is missing from having a balanced life is simpler than you might think.
That one piece that is missing is actually natural for human beings, but can often be covered over with layers of expectations, education, and indoctrination. The one piece missing from having a balanced life is fun.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I explain the secret to what actually makes things fun and share some things you can try in order to make anything you’re doing more fun for you.
As we flip our calendars over each month after the start of the new year, a lot of accountant moms might be experiencing a wave of stress and anxiety, especially those in public accounting. Once January is over, we all know that tax season is just waiting to pounce on us like a lion waiting in the brush.
On the one hand, as a modern working woman living in the time of technology, you fortunately have the incredible ability to use that technology to help you in so many ways, especially in the work you do as an accountant. But on the other hand, with all the benefits you have with technology, you are also living in a time of information overload and information disorganization.
Just know that time actually is on your side when you learn how to work better with it. Learning the skill of how to take back control of your time is a gift you give to yourself professionally, but it’s also a gift you give to yourself and your family personally because it allows you to be less stressed and enjoy your time.
From one working mom to another, learning how to take back control of your time is a career and life changer. It allows you to be incredibly efficient and to create the balanced life that you really want and deserve.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I discuss the power of being proactive and how to use that power to get more done in less time.
For information about The Balanced Accountant Program, you can check it out at https://cpamoms-academy.com/p/the-balanced-accountant
While being an accountant comes with its own set of unique challenges, being an accountant AND a mom can be a very difficult balancing act, both physically, mentally and emotionally. There are so many expectations placed on you professionally, often making your energy and patience dwindle considerably when you are home with your family.
When you’ve been spending so much mental energy at work, it can be tough to come home and deal with the demands of raising children while also creating a home environment that offers you a “soft place to fall” at the end of the day. I’ve yet to meet a mother that didn’t yell at her children at various times, for various reasons.
But let me be clear - you are NOT a bad mom if you yell at your children; you just might want to consider the effects it’s having on you and on them. If you are looking to understand why yelling has become a habit for you and how to break that habit, then this episode is going to be helpful
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I discuss the reasons why yelling can become such a powerful habit and how to begin to break the habit of yelling at your children.
This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Alexandra Ferman and Allison Adams-Jones. For both of my guests, being a woman of color in accounting has been a challenge, both culturally and professionally.
Alexandra lives in California (born and raised), she is working on passing the CPA exam to obtain her license and is hoping to be licensed by the end of this year. Alexandra worked in public accounting for about 6 years and recently transitioned to private a few months ago. She has three children, two girls and a boy, who are 17, 7 and 5.
Allison lives in Cincinnati, OH, is a practicing CPA, works in public accounting and has been with her firm for 12 years, 6 ½ of which she has worked remotely, Allison just got out of the Navy Reserve, which she served in for 11 ½ years. She is a single parent to a 20-month old girl.
During this interview, we not only talk about the normal struggles that accountant moms face, but the particular struggles that women of color in accounting face as well.
Whether you are an accounting employee or an accounting entrepreneur, it’s nice to be considered the person that other people can count on. When others know that you can be relied on to do great work in a timely fashion, that definitely helps you get noticed, whether you are looking to move up in your company or you are looking for client referrals.
Unfortunately, saying yes to every request might make you the “go to” person, but it can also make you incredibly stressed, overwhelmed and burned out. For a hardworking mom like yourself, it can be tricky to push back when requests from bosses, coworkers or clients start messing with your schedule and making you feel like you’re being pulled in too many directions.
Learning how to push back in a way that doesn’t jeopardize your career, your business, or your relationships, offers you the opportunity for a discussion as opposed to a disagreement, and gives you the ability to set boundaries around your time. If you want to have more autonomy over your schedule, and decrease your overwhelm, while still maintaining healthy relationships, you need to learn a better way to push back.
If you’ve ever found yourself in a meeting getting defensive about requests being made of you, hanging up from a client call with a feeling of dread, or battling with your children because of their demands, then this episode is going to be really helpful. There is a better way to be an amazing working mom, but not lose yourself in the process.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I discuss a method for how to push back and give you examples of when and how to put this method to use.
If you'd like to discuss anything you've heard on the podcast, you can book a 20 minute free coaching session at http://go.scheduleyou.in/X7xcdpc
Have you ever set a goal and then gotten a burst of energy or been so excited about taking on some new challenge that you set another goal, and another? Before you know it, you’re feeling overwhelmed, your free time is non-existent and you realize that you haven’t actually gotten much headway on anything; or that you’re still paying for a subscription for that meditation app that you haven’t used in 2 months and that you haven’t actually sat on the stationary bike in weeks.
This is what usually happens to a lot of women after the excitement of New Year’s resolutions where off and you realize your goals like losing weight, learning how to crochet, reading every night to your kids, and joining that virtual book club are nice ideas, but unrealistic. It doesn’t even have to be a New Year’s thing; it can happen at any time during the year where you get the urge to set a bunch of goals.
Loving the sense of accomplishment when you set and achieve a goal is great, but the problem is when just setting one goal at a time isn’t enough; when you feel a sense of urgency and impatience with yourself, your career, or anything else in your life. Not only do you wind up spreading yourself too thin, but you also decrease your ability to succeed at your goals.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I discuss the importance of constraint and how to use it to achieve whatever goals you have both personally and professionally.
You can book a 20 minute free coaching session at http://go.scheduleyou.in/X7xcdpc
You already know that being an accountant is tough, and being an accountant and a mom is tougher, but being an accountant and single mom should seriously come with its own awards ceremony! As a single working mom, you probably feel like you’re running a marathon every single day, while only being trained to walk a 5k at best.
If you’re like most single working moms, you’ve probably experienced loneliness, fear about supporting your family, and not being sure whether you can do all this on your own. With the current pandemic, these issues and more are even more stressful and overwhelming.
With less people you’re able to be around, more restrictions to adhere to, and the added complications of either co-parenting or having no other parent around, more and more single working moms are finding it challenging to balance it all. What was already difficult before the pandemic, has now become even more demanding and exhausting.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I discuss the importance of getting support, being honest about what you need, tweaking your priorities and dropping the guilt.
It doesn’t matter whether you are in public or private accounting, we all have busy seasons throughout the course of the year. In private accounting you probably struggle with quarterly deadlines and in public accounting you’re most likely faced with busy times like tax season; times where there is more work to get done than at other times during the year.
Now obviously stress is not unique to the accounting profession, but when you add the demands of an accounting career to the demands of being a mom, it can pretty much guarantee that you’ll experience stress trying to balance it all. Before you know it, you’re overwhelmed, frustrated and confused about how to handle everything you have to do.
Unfortunately, as a profession, accountants have normalized stress in our lives because everyone around us seems to be stressed as well. We find it hard to believe that things can be different since it seems like it’s just a normal part of the work culture; as if stress is a given, or possibly even a badge of honor.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I discuss where stress comes from and my 3 secrets for having a stress-free busy season.
To find out more about The Balanced Accountant Program HERE
A few months ago in episode #79 of The CPA MOMS Podcast, I had the pleasure of interviewing Heather Satterley, CPA, a second generation CPA mompreneur. In addition to not giving up on her dream to become a CPA, Heather was named one of the Top 50 Women in Accounting 2019 by Practice Ignition.
She has a 100% virtual consulting company as well as a YouTube channel called the “Appy Hour”. She and her co-host have free webinars, discussing various technology apps and programs available for accountants, helping them to feel competent and confident with the ever-growing technologies available.
After asking our CPA MOMS Facebook Community what they’d like to learn more about in regards to technologies for accountants, I interviewed Heather about best practices for document storage, filing structure and retention as well as the best cloud based accounting programs and more.
Heather is a wealth of information that you won't want to miss!
This fun episode of The CPA MOMS Podcast shares the highlights from the most popular and thought provoking episodes over the past two plus years.
The whole premise for this podcast is to show you that you can have the thriving accounting career as well as the happy family you desire, by learning some of the tools that I, the podcast host, Dawn Goldberg, CPA, have learned along the way in my 30+ year career in public accounting. I just knew that what I was learning in my own personal studies wasn’t taught in any accounting classroom or any continuing education seminar.
I wanted to make everything that made my life so balanced and manageable, available to you so it can help you as much as it’s helped me. To be able to have a career in public accounting, as well as be there for my children, without the stress and overwhelm that most accountants experience, was something that I knew other accountant moms would want to know and should be able to know how to do.
This episode discusses some of the highlights from the past two plus years, and how this podcast can help you be the balanced accountant and mom that you deserve to be.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I break down the most popular podcasts into three categories - how to manage stress like a pro, how to confidently own your worth, and how to boost your time management and productivity.
For The CPA MOMS Podcast Roadmap you can get a copy HERE
At some point in everyone’s life and career, you’re going to make a mistake. Whether it’s choosing the wrong size when buying pants for your son, entering the wrong date on a check in Quickbooks which completely throws off the opening Trial Balance, or putting cinnamon instead of cumin into that taco dish (been there, done that), as accountants and moms we are no stranger to making mistakes.
It happens to everyone, even the most conscientious and organized working moms. Just by virtue of the fact that you have a very busy life, balancing an accounting career with a family, all while trying to do your best in all areas of your life, can often lead to mistakes as you try to keep all the balls you’re juggling up in the air.
In order to be both the accountant and mother you want to be, you need to get out from under the weight of a mistake so you can bounce back and keep doing what you are here to do. The world doesn’t need you to be perfect, it needs you to know how to handle mistakes when they happen and not let them derail your progress forward.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I discuss why we make mistakes and how to bounce back after making one.
Whether you are an accounting employee or entrepreneur, there’s no avoiding the fact that interviews are a necessary part of the hiring, advancement, and growth of your career and business. While most accountants would rather discuss numbers than themselves, when it comes to interviews, it can be challenging to know what to say, what to do, and how to maneuver during these often awkward social interactions.
Whether you are the interviewer or interviewee, you are still being sized up by someone else and deciding whether there’s a good fit. As the interviewee, you should be as concerned about whether you want to work for a potential employer, as they are concerned about whether they want you to work for them.
But one of the most important things that I think is missing from you nailing that job interview is less about the resume and more about you, your self-confidence and your self-awareness. Without a better understanding of how you think and feel, and how to manage your mind as well as the mind of the interviewer, you’re probably not as prepared as you can be.
In order to nail that job interview, you need to spend as much time understanding yourself as you do trying to figure out which font looks more professional for your resume. While there are definitely things you can do to get your resume to the top of the pile, the interview is where you are no longer your credentials on a piece of paper, but instead a working mom with hopes, dreams, fears and hangups.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I explain what you need to do in preparation for a job interview and then how to nail it when the time comes.
From the tragedy of losing both of her parents in a car crash a few years ago, Sallome Hralima she has devoted her time to give back to society some of the very valuable life lessons she learned in order to prevent unnecessary hardship for families who don't have their estate plans complete.
She isn’t an accountant or an attorney, but has taken her experience and used it to help others.
Sallome facilitates and encourages dialogue among family members about the subject of estate and end of life planning. She is an advisor at After, the organization she helped create in order to turn her personal tragedy into a gift for others.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast we discuss the importance of end of life planning and how to have those difficult conversations as well as how to design your life and your legacy.
You can find out more about After at https://www.after.community/
As the year comes to a close and year end planning is on the minds of all accountants, it’s more important than ever to get a handle on procrastination so that deadlines aren’t missed, and so that you’ll also be able to enjoy the holiday season with your family. There’s nothing worse than having to work frantically the last few weeks in December because you’ve procrastinated for so long that everything has piled up into an insurmountable mountain of overwhelm.
The problem though when it comes to procrastination, is that you fool yourself into believing that that’s just what you do; that you are the type of person who needs to wait until the pressure is high or the deadline is looming. You may have even labeled yourself as a procrastinator, believing that that’s just part of your identity and there’s nothing you can really do about it.
You may even think that it’s how accountants get things done, letting looming deadlines hang over your head like a guillotine, excited by narrowly escaping beheading each time and priding yourself on finally getting it all done in the nick of time. But have you ever asked yourself, what are the costs of procrastination to you, your family, your health, or your productivity and efficiency?
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I discuss 5 causes of procrastination and the best way I have found to overcome procrastination.
It doesn’t matter whether you are in public or private accounting, or how long you’ve been an accountant, having a professional development plan is key if you want to have a successful accounting career with a deeper level of satisfaction. Let’s face it, even though being an accounting professional has taken a lot of hard work on your part up until this point, now is not the time to drop the ball.
While it may be cliche, it’s also very true - your future is really what you make of it. Taking charge of and developing a professional development plan enables you to start, or continue, on a chosen path, set reasonable goals, and take the steps necessary to achieve those goals.
Honestly, no one will ever be as invested in your career as you are, which is why it’s so important to understand what might be getting in the way of taking charge of your professional development and what you can do about it. In this episode I want to help you overcome the typical hurdles that a lot of accountant moms face so that you can have the accounting career that you really want.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I explain the reasons why it can be challenging for accountant moms to take charge of their professional development and an exercise you can do to help you take charge.
You can schedule a free 20 minute coaching discovery call HERE
The holidays are quickly approaching, and although 2020 may not be quite as “normal” as it’s been in the past, there are always going to be family gatherings, company or client parties, or other holiday and social events to varying degrees. Unfortunately, whether it’s getting together in person or virtually, so many women experience social anxiety no matter what time of year, or how many people are in attendance.
Unfortunately, so many of us will spend time in social settings, both personally and professionally in our accounting careers, painfully aware of ourselves and worried about how we’re being perceived by others. As women we are even more susceptible to social anxiety because of the undue pressure put on us to look a certain way and act a certain way, in order to be approved of, accepted, and appreciated.
If this resonates with you, it’s important to understand what actually causes social anxiety so you can lessen its effects on you. You don’t have to plan on living alone in a cabin in the woods or saying no to every social request, when you learn how to deal with social anxiety in a way that empowers you, rather than robs you of your ability to handle any social situation.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I discuss the cause of social anxiety and a better way of dealing with it.
Connie Benjamin is the #1 International Best Selling Author of the book “Women With Fire”, international speaker, and podcast host of My Fire Within Radio. After nearly losing her marriage and almost giving up the entrepreneurial journey, she and her husband Andy began a quest to live their mission without losing their family. They developed the My Fire Within System that helped them to fall in love again, replace their day job income, and love being stay at home parents with their three daughters.
Using their proprietary My Fire Within System, they are now on a mission to empower other entrepreneurs who have lost passion for their purpose within their relationships and business to re-light their fire within themselves, their marriage, and their business connections.
Their mission is to empower entrepreneurs to fulfill their Divine purpose so they can uplift their family and humanity through socially responsible business.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I had the pleasure of interviewing Connie and learning more about what led her to write her book and her mission to help more women follow their calling without losing what they love in the process.
All working moms have experienced the “Sunday blues” to varying degrees, where you dread having to go to work on Monday and wish you had more vacation time. Or maybe it’s Wednesdays that are challenging for you because they promise the weekend, and it never seems to come soon enough.
While we’ve all had times where we have a love/hate relationship with our job, unfortunately it's becoming more mainstream for people to be complaining about working in toxic work environments. 50 years ago a toxic work environment meant working in a space where there were literally toxic chemicals or harmful substances, however today, a toxic work environment could mean an unlimited number of issues.
Unfortunately, the issue with working in a toxic work environment is that it breeds unrest, constant stressors, and often low morale. It’s as if a dense fog creeps in and covers everyone affected, with a dark cloud of overwhelm, frustration, and distraction.
Before you know it, you’re bringing your toxic work environment issues home with you. When this happens, it begins to take over your conversations with loved ones, robs you of much needed rest, and causes more burnout, stress and overwhelm.
Fortunately, for those non-extreme situations, where you don’t have an HR department to handle your issues, or maybe you do and they’re ineffective, or where you aren’t quitting anytime soon, there is a way to handle working in a toxic work environment. You don’t need to feel hopeless and suffer with the daily blues any longer.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I discuss why you might be dreading your job and what to do when you work in a toxic work environment.
If you’ve ever taken a train, there is often a reminder written on the platform, or a recorded message, telling you to “mind the gap”, ensuring your safety as you take a step off the platform and into the train. This safety measure was first introduced in 1968, long before the overly distracted times that we currently live in, offering us a measure of awareness when we might have other things we’re focused on.
Thankfully minding and bridging the gap between where you are and where you want to be doesn’t have to be impossible or dream-stealing. Crossing that bridge just takes some awareness of what makes change so difficult and how to transition your goals from an impossibility to a possibility.
If like a lot of working moms, you aren’t living your best life and want to do something about it, you first need to understand the concept of cognitive dissonance and how it’s making it so challenging for you to bridge any gap you find yourself facing. Just know that If you have a desire, you also have the ability to make that desire a reality when you understand what’s getting in your way and how to use this awareness to have what you want.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I discuss what cognitive dissonance is, why it’s a problem and how you can successfully bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be.
As a podcast for busy accountant moms, you might think the topic of boredom would be irrelevant since you are probably living a hectic life and trying to balance your career with being a mom, but I promise you that this will be of interest to you. No matter how frantic your life may seem, boredom is something that you need to understand better in order to have the balanced life you desire.
To be honest, I had other topics lined up to discuss, but decided that this is the perfect time of the year to discuss boredom with accountants. Since tax season is finally over and there’s a small respite before you kick back into full gear again, this is often when boredom can sneak in, especially if you had a very stressful year both personally and professionally.
Whether you realize it or not, your relationship with boredom is something you should take a look at, especially as a mother. Knowing how to deal with boredom will not only benefit you, but will also benefit your children as their developing brains are incredibly susceptible to issues with boredom and the instant gratification world they live in.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I discuss what boredom actually is, whether it is a problem or not, and how you can handle it.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could stretch the number of hours in a day to fit your needs as both an accountant and a mom? Where the horrible days that your children are out of control or your spouse is super demanding could end in just a few hours, and the times where more work needs to get done, like tax season or quarterly deadlines, could extend past 24 hours?
Like most working moms you’ve probably said a few of the following:
- I don’t have enough time
- There aren’t enough hours in the day
- I wish I had more time
- There’s too many things on my to-do list
- Time just seems to get away from me
The truth is that in order to create more time, you also have to understand how you are wasting it. By learning the reasons why it seems like there’s never enough time, you can then take back control and create more of it.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I discuss the two main causes of wasted time and how to create more time.
If you are interested in finding out how to work with me, you can find me at https://cpamoms-academy.com/p/coach-dawn-goldberg
Every CPA has a story - we all have a journey we’ve taken to get us to where we are. Every entrepreneur also has a story and journey as well. This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Shauna Breeden, CPA. Shauna is a mom of two from Kentucky and became CPA MOMS second founding franchisee, having previously struggled with building her own practice and having the support and training she needed.
During the interview, Shauna discusses:
- She worked in the healthcare industry for 15 years
- Like most accountant moms, she felt that if she needed to do things outside of work for her children, it was a burden to the company
- She didn’t feel that she had the support from other women in her company, often feeling the competitiveness that happens in corporate environments
- She experienced the typical “walk of shame” issues where she had to leave to pick up her children at 6 pm and was looked at as not as committed to her job as others
- It was a hard balance between being a mom and being a good employee
- She had been connected with CPA MOMS for a few years and once she heard about the franchise opportunity, she knew it was what she was looking for
- After watching the franchise webinar, she resonated with issues like not charging enough, not having systems in place, not having support, not having work-life balance, etc.
Check out this week's episode to learn more about how Shauna transitioned from employee to entrepreneur.
I think it would be fair to say that we live in a very divisive time right now. Not only do so many people have opposing opinions about a lot of topics, from anything like childrearing to face masks to politics, but due to our technology based world, those opinions are easily shared in ways that have never been possible before.
Of course it’s important to be able to express yourself and to have your preferences, but unfortunately instead of bringing us together or just being interesting, the barrage of opinions are tearing a lot of people apart instead. Children are suffering with bullying, teenagers are being ostracized, and adults are lashing out or ending relationships, all in response to other people’s opinions.
Thankfully, just because you are more aware of other people’s opinions, doesn’t mean they have to be so challenging. There is a much better way to navigate the tricky waters we’re all in, where other people’s points of view are much more visible, and in our own line of sight.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I discuss how to handle other people’s opinions of you, as well as how to handle other people’s opinions of everything else.
It’s understandable that with the current pandemic and the increasing pressure that everyone is under, that more and more accountant moms are dealing with avoidance on an even bigger scale than ever. With so much else going on around you, something like decluttering the attic, making that checkup appointment, or starting that new exercise routine can seem like a reasonable thing to put off for now.
The issue though is that if your relationship with avoidance isn’t addressed, you are actually adding layers of unwanted stress into your life without being aware of it. The pressure you probably feel trying to balance your career with your family will only be exacerbated when you don’t deal with the issue of avoidance and learn how to overcome it.
By having a better understanding of avoidance, why it’s an issue for you, and how to handle it, you will be able to reduce an incredible amount of stress and overwhelm in your life. Thankfully the ability to overcome avoidance for working moms can not only benefit you, but your family as well.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I discuss what make you avoid things and how to overcome avoidance.
To schedule a free Discovery Coaching Call, you can book one at https://cpamoms-academy.com/p/manage-your-mind-program.
As a working mom, it can be challenging to hear advice like “Just know your worth” or hollow statements like “Of course you are valuable”. When society’s suggestions and sentiments don’t translate to helping you feel empowered and able to own who you are and what you do, it’s probably time to take a deeper look at what’s going on for you.
Whether you are an employee, an entrepreneur, or a working mom just getting back into the workforce after staying home with your children, you most likely have some cleanup to do around your work and its value. It doesn’t matter whether you are requesting a promotion from your boss, pitching to a potential client, or even discussing your role at home with your partner, your thinking around your work and its value will definitely affect how you negotiate for yourself.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I discuss the importance of understanding your inherent value as a woman as well as how to own your financial value and worth.
If there's a topic you'd like discussed on the podcast, please feel free to contact me at dawn.goldberg@cpa-mom.us
Every CPA has a story - we all have a journey we’ve taken to get us to where we are. Every entrepreneur also has a story and journey as well. This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Lori Hinesley, CPA. Lori is a mother of 3 under the age of 6, who transitioned from employee to entrepreneur and became CPA MOMS first founding franchisee.
Listen to Lori share that:
- Just like most of you, Lori struggled with balancing her career with her family
- After having her third child and experiencing mom guilt, as well as work guilt, she knew she needed to make a change
- Lori not only made the transition from private to public accounting, but also from employee to entrepreneur
- She had looked into other bookkeeping franchise opportunities but realized they didn't provide what she needed
- She chose to franchise with CPA MOMS, not only for the support, the sales training, the systems, the mentoring and the "done for you" platform, but also for the guidance on how to create a long-term vision for her business and her life
Listen to this week's episode of The CPA MOMS Podcast where Lori shares her best advice for accountant moms who are struggling to have a career and a family.
When it comes to the day to day life of a working accountant and mom, you’re probably doing your best to support your family, raise your children, and have a successful accounting career. You also most likely have dreams as well, like having better health, improving your relationships, making more money, and overall having a better, happier, more balanced life.
The interesting thing is that since so many of us are home now more than ever due to the pandemic, our self-sabotaging patterns are becoming more evident. Maybe you’re now noticing unhelpful behaviors like not scheduling focused work time, not sticking to your healthy diet, spending more time watching Netflix, or staying up later than you should, to name just a few.
So the question is - is self-sabotage happening more or are we just having the space to notice it now?
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I discuss where self-sabotage comes from and how you can end the struggle with it.
From the time you were young, you probably were given different aptitude tests to help your teachers and your parents figure out what your strengths were and how to guide you toward reaching your full potential. Depending on where you grew up, the school system you attended, and the family you grew up in, you may have gotten a lot of opinions about what you should become in the future.
As a woman and a mother, you most likely also have a lot of limiting beliefs about your potential. In addition, depending on your race, your culture and where you grew up, you probably have added layer upon layer of restrictions and limitations on the prospects for your future when it comes to things like how much money you can make, how far you can advance in your career, and what you’re capable of achieving.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I discuss what potential really is and what might be blocking you from reaching your full potential.
Every CPA has a story - we all have a journey we’ve taken to get us to where we are. Every successful entrepreneur also has a story and a journey as well.
This week I had the pleasure of interviewing CPA MOMS Founder and CEO, Mayumi Young, CPA. Mayumi’s CPA and entrepreneur journey is fascinating and inspiring for any accountant and mom who wants to create a better future for herself and her family.
Listen in as Mayumi shares a pivotal moment in her career and her life, where an innocent question asked by a mother of a young girl in an airport changed the trajectory of Mayumi's life, and started her on her entrepreneur path.
For anyone wanting to understand how to create a vision for their future, this episode is for you!
As a professional woman, you probably know all about the statistics for the wage gap between working men, women and minorities, as well as issues for the advancement of women, especially in the accounting profession. Although there has been an effort to focus on closing the various gaps, you might still be experiencing issues around your earning potential and career advancement.
Although some of what working moms in the accounting profession face, in regard to these issues, are not necessarily within your control, there actually is something that is within your control, whether you realize it or not. What you do have more influence over, is the issue around underearning.
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast, I discuss what causes underearning so you can recognize it and what to do to stop it.
When it comes to the complicated world of being an accountant in 2020, it would seem like there’s enough to have to deal with, with PPP loans, the ever changing Tax Code and economic uncertainty. It doesn’t seem fair to also have to deal with difficult clients on top of everything else, but in a service based industry like accounting, there’s really no way to avoid it.
Unfortunately, no matter how well you screen potential clients or how long you’ve had a pleasant relationship with them, clients can be difficult at times. It doesn’t matter how big or small your practice is, or what types of businesses you provide your services to, there is no guarantee that you’re not going to have to deal with difficult clients along the way.
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast, I discuss the major categories of difficult clients, the main causes of stress around difficult clients and a tool to help you deal with them.
As a profession, accountants have historically been pretty general in their knowledge, providing general accounting, consulting and tax services to as many clients as possible. As an accountant, you might also value a wide range of knowledge and expertise, taking varied CPE courses and webinars to further your general knowledge and value as a professional.
But in this time of technological advancement and Covid-related economic struggles, choosing an accounting niche might be exactly what you need, whether you are starting out or have years of professional experience. In an ever changing world, choosing a specialty or a particular industry to service can help alleviate the overwhelm and confusion that often comes with trying to be everything, for everyone.
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast, I discuss the advantages of choosing an accounting niche and suggestions on how to choose one.
As a smart, hard-working accountant and mom, you’re probably no stranger to getting things done. You most likely have more on your to-do list than most of your male colleagues, and have done your best to balance your professional ambitions with your personal goals as well.
Maybe you have some big dreams about going out on your own, working with your own clients, hiring other accountant moms. and supporting your family financially. Or perhaps you would like to train to run a 5k, learn to crochet a baby blanket or get over a fear of heights.
Stop for a second and answer this question - what would be an amazing outcome for you in a year? You’ve probably had certain dreams for a number of years but haven’t been able to achieve them because you haven’t known how or are afraid of failing.
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast, I discuss the difference between passive and massive action, and how you can use massive action to change your relationship with failure as well as eliminate doubt and fear so you can have what you want.
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the word “Quit”? It’s probably something big like quitting a job or quitting a bad habit like smoking.
Like most people you probably see quitting as drawing a line in the sand and deciding it’s over, this is the end. But as many people have experienced, quitting isn’t as easy as it sounds.
Unfortunately, whether you want to stop doing something like smoking or overdrinking, or you want to start doing something like exercising more or going out on your own and starting a solo accounting practice, your brain is actually a saboteur. It can easily, and sneakily, rip the rug right out from underneath you without you even realizing it.
The reason this happens is because your female brain is hard-wired to see change as threatening to your survival, whether it’s stopping something bad, or starting something good. Anytime you try to do something out of your norm, the “Quit Voice” will offer you thoughts that create the feeling of resistance, fear, doubt and uncertainty, to name just a few.
The interesting thing is that it isn’t the LOUD Quit Voice that is the biggest problem. It’s the small, soft Quit Voice that is often the most insidious and damaging to achieving that goal or having the career, the business and the life you really want.
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast, I discuss what the soft Quit Voice is, why it’s a problem and how to neutralize it.
Have you noticed yourself getting angrier, less focused, feeling more anxious or giving in to junk food for the kids and yourself more often? Maybe you’ve been clicking those Facebook ads promising the longest eyelashes ever or you’ve been on the verge of tears at the grocery store and not known why.
As working moms, we are no stranger to making a lot of decisions, but this current pandemic has brought a tsunami of decisions we weren’t prepared for:
- Do I wear a mask to walk the dog?
- Should I bring the kids to the grocery store?
- Which sanitizer is best?
- Am I supposed to get in the elevator or wait?
- Should the kids be allowed to play with a friend?
It’s no longer about what to wear or what to have for dinner. We are being tasked with making more decisions that have bigger implications for ourselves and our families, than ever before.
If any of this sounds like you, you are probably experiencing decision fatigue. With being faced with so many choices, options and decisions, it’s no wonder you want to stay home and binge Netflix alone or dread Monday mornings more than usual.
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast, I discuss what causes decision fatigue and ways to help you manage it.
This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Rick Grossman. Rick has been involved in the franchise industry since 1994. He franchised his first company and grew to 49 franchised locations in 19 states during the mid to late 90's. He served as the CEO and primary trainer focusing on franchisee relations and creating tools and technologies to increase franchisee success.
During the interview we discuss the 4 biggest challenges that accounting entrepreneurs face:
- Not enough time - one of the biggest struggles that entrepreneurs face is the feelings of stress and overwhelm; whether you are just starting out or have been doing this for awhile. We all have 24 hours but how you manage those hours is the key to your entrepreneur success.
- Not enough support - feeling isolated is a big challenge that many entrepreneurs face today. Having a supportive community, offering you the right tools, systems, coaching, mentorship and support is what sets entrepreneurs up for success.
- Not enough quality clients - the key with building any accounting practice is clients, specifically quality clients. This is a challenge for a lot of accountants who were never taught the skills of marketing and sales. You want to do high quality work and service clients who need your expertise, but it’s not easy to find those quality clients to fill your book.
- Not enough confidence - Uncertainty, confusion and doubt are par for the course when being an entrepreneur. A lack of confidence can be the thing that stops you from even taking the leap to have your own practice or from growing your current practice. When you don’t have confidence, you don’t have a strong foundation on which to build.
Listen in as Rick and I discuss these 4 challenges and how to solve for them.
Among the countless number of things that the pandemic of 2020 has changed, one of the biggest shifts is where people now get their work done. If you can get your work done remotely, a lot of companies are not only happy about it, but are requiring it.
Due to everything happening in the world, working from home may become the new normal for more people than ever before, whether you like it or not. To add to the push for more remote work, more employers are being given the opportunity to see that productivity isn’t suffering and that the overhead costs for large offices might be unnecessary now and in the future.
There really is no way to know how long this pandemic will be around, whether we will be quarantined again or whether remote work will be the new norm. But what we do have control over is how we show up to do our jobs and how we can lead the people we employ.
This week on the CPA MOMS Podcast, I discuss remote work tips if you are an accounting employee and how to manage remote workers if you are an accounting employer.
No matter where you live, the subject of shame is being addressed in a more global way than ever before. Social movements like #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter, have had us all facing situations from our past that we may have wanted to keep hidden and the unconscious beliefs that we may now need to address.
Since shame is having such a global moment, it’s also time to take a look at it on a personal level, as a woman and a mother. It’s important to understand shame better and to learn how to manage it so that it doesn’t derail the hopes and dreams you may have for you and your family.
This week I discuss where shame comes from, my own issues around shame and how to take back control of shame.
Every CPA has a story - we all have a journey we’ve taken to get us to where we are.
This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Caroline Van Wassenhove, CPA, a member of CPA MOMS for over 3 years.
Caroline reached out to CPA MOMS CEO, Mayumi Young, CPA for some guidance on expanding her small practice and never anticipated how much she and her business would be able to grow in such a short amount of time.
Take a listen to Caroline's story, the most important shift she made in her business with the guidance of CPA MOMS, and her advice for other accountant moms.
Have you ever noticed that you gravitate towards articles, stories or shows that promise to teach you how to do something. You may not know this, but when creating a title for a blog, podcast or anything else that you want to capture people’s attention, using “How” in the title is highly recommended.
The reason is because we all have the desire for more, especially more knowledge when it comes to being an accountant. We value expertise, how to service our clients and businesses at the highest level possible and how to achieve professional success.
As working moms we also have the desire for more for ourselves and our families, and we want clear cut instructions on getting the results we want. Seeing a picture on Pinterest of a beautiful water feature in someone’s yard is interesting, but add the title “How to create this in a day” and we are hooked.
From the desire to be a solopreneur, to wanting to finally get all the family photos digitized, it all sounds exciting and compelling, but then comes the question of “But how?”. That one question can seem like a big letdown, taking the wind out of your sails and making it seem too big and complicated, so you end up saying “Why bother”.
The tricky thing about wanting to know how, is that your brain will automatically resist any idea it’s unfamiliar with and will transfer responsibility for the “How” to someone or something outside of you. Even with clear cut steps on how to do something, it's important to understand what will actually gets you the results you really want.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I discuss why we have such a strong need to know how and the 4 step process to help you when you want to know how.
I don’t know one person who isn’t being affected in some way or another by the current social and economic challenges we are facing. As the saying goes, the one constant in our lives is change, and it seems like we have all been thrust into a giant wave of change lately.
On the one hand, I don’t think any of us were truly prepared for such immediate, drastic and unwanted changes. On the other hand, I also think that change can be a good thing when you understand how to manage it.
As working moms, we are all facing a lot of challenges that are being forced upon us, adding to our overwhelm and constant struggle with balance. Just when you think you’ve got a good handle on having a career and being a mom, a massive wave of change comes crashing into your life like a tsunami.
Even though it may seem like things are just too much to handle, when you learn how to manage unwanted change and how to create wanted change, life just gets easier. When you have the right knowledge and tools, there’s nothing stopping you from building the career and the life you truly want.
This week on The CPA MOMS Podcast I discuss how to handle unwanted change, and the process to make a wanted change.
If you have a desire to leave your job and be your own boss, you are at the right place and time in history. Never before have there been so many opportunities to go out on your own, especially as an accounting professional and working mom.
Just the thought of not having to deal with a difficult boss, having your own clients to service and being able to make your financial goals a reality can be exciting. But, there’s also a harsh reality that you might want to consider - most of your formal education has prepared you to be an employee, not to be self-employed.
One of the most important factors when making the transition from employee to self-employed is brain management. Brain management is the key when you:
- Are afraid to make a big leap
- Need to quit your current job
- Are afraid of what other people will think
- Don’t know how to manage your time
- Are overwhelmed with all the decisions that need to be made
- Miss having coworkers to bounce off issues with
- Don’t believe you can do it
- Need to get work done and your child is home sick
- Are suffering with imposter syndrome
- Have an unhappy client
- Aren’t making enough money
- Are afraid to ask for more money
- Want to give up
This week on the podcast I discuss what brain management is, why it’s so important if you want to be self-employed, and the best way to make the transition from employee to self-employed.
Do any of the following sound familiar?
- It’s probably not going to happen, so why bother
- I don’t know if I can do it
- I just can’t take the risk
- I can’t handle the disappointment if it doesn’t work out
- What will people think?
- I’m going to wait to see what happens before I do anything
- Things like this just typically don’t work out for me
For busy, often perfectionist, accountants like us, it can be very challenging to do things outside of our comfort zone. There are often, what appears to be, very valid reasons in our minds for not making a change, being vulnerable or believing that something big or new is possible.
It’s as if there’s a valve in our minds that allows just so much possibility to drip out, before the handle is quickly shut closed. There seems to be this general resistance by women to accept that something great could happen, so instead we wind up psyching ourselves out, all in the name of protecting ourselves from disappointment.
We are smart, capable women but unfortunately we tend to have such a collective fear when it comes to failure, that we actually wind up failing ahead of time.
This week on the podcast I discuss why women have a tendency to fail ahead of time, why there’s no upside to it and some tips to help you stop.
If I asked you what you want right now, how easy would it be to give me an answer? Would it be easier for you to tell me things you want for your children, for your family, for others or for the world?
When we become mothers, we are so strongly conditioned to make sure our children are taken care of physically and emotionally, that we can wind up one day having no idea what we want for ourselves. When this happens, we have an even harder time allowing ourselves to want more.
Unfortunately there is also so much added shame for working mothers when it comes to wanting more; whether it’s more career success, more money, more prestige, more time alone or more love. The idea of women wanting more is frowned upon by society and sadly, we get the message loud and clear.
The issue is that if this message is not addressed, it can become an issue of worthiness that gets passed down, from generation to generation. I truly believe that we can want more, and that we owe it to ourselves and our children to live our lives as an example of what’s possible, especially as working mothers.
This week on the podcast I discuss why you should want more, figuring out what you want and how to get it.
How’s your bank account balances right now? Have you looked at your 401k lately? Are your clients freaking out, scrambling for help with loan options?
Right now many people are understandably experiencing a lot of fear around money. The economy is going up, down and all around, like a vomit-inducing roller coaster that we never asked to get on.
We are all looking at our 401k’s, investment accounts and bank balances and experiencing a range of emotions from low level concern to full-blown panic. For most of us, life was moving along relatively smoothly before this worldwide pandemic came sweeping in, like a cold fog covering everything in sight.
The issue with times like these is that no matter what your money beliefs were before the pandemic, the volume is being turned up. If you felt a lot of fear and scarcity around money before, then you will experience those feelings now more than ever.
Even those who felt fine around the subject of money may be triggered with money insecurity with the current economic climate. Depending on what you read, who you speak to and how you handle the challenges you’re being faced with, no one is immune to money insecurity at this moment in time.
This week I’m going to discuss the cause of money insecurity and what to do about it.
What happens when you become the main breadwinner in the family whether by choice or not? How is this current pandemic affecting the typical roles of caregiver and breadwinner?
In this fascinating interview with award-winning journalist, Jennifer Barrett, we discuss the shift in the role of breadwinner, how mom guilt needs to be addressed more than ever and how we can redefine what being a "good mom" means to us.
Jennifer Barrett has been the Personal Finance Editor at CNBC, Senior Vice President and Editor in Chief at Daily Worth as well as General manager at Hearst Digital, overseeing the magazine sites for Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Good Housekeeping and Seventeen. She is currently writing a book about women and breadwinning that will be released next Spring.
She recently wrote an article featured in Forbes titled "How Economic Fallout From The Coronavirus May Disproportionately Affect Women"
This week on the podcast I have the pleasure of talking with Jennifer about being the breadwinner in the family and the gender role shifts that will hopefully come out of this current pandemic.
As a CPA in public accounting for over 30 years, I have lived through many financial crises; some were blamed on accountants, while others were helped by accountants. However, this current health and financial crisis is like nothing many of us have ever seen during our accounting careers.
This pandemic is being felt by everyone, no matter where you live on this planet, or what you do for a living. As accountants, we are needed more than ever to help keep the ship steady during this perfect storm of financial and emotional upheaval.
However, if being an accountant during a financial crisis wasn’t enough, many of us are also mothers concerned with the safety, health and well-being of our children and families. As mothers, we already have these priorities to consider, but add a world-wide pandemic into the mix, and we can all be stretched pretty thin.
When tough times like these are thrust upon us, we have two options - fall apart or get stronger. I hope you choose the latter because the businesses you work for, the clients you serve and the family you support, need you to steer the ship through these rough waters right now.
This week I’m going to discuss what’s within your control as an accountant and a mom and how to take back control.
How’s your level of anxiety right now? If you are like most people, this COVID-19 pandemic is not making it easy to keep calm, feel safe, take care of your family or get your accounting work done.
Everywhere we turn, we are being updated with statistics of people getting sick and dying, of businesses closing and of stricter precautions to take in order to keep our families safe. The planet is being affected by a virus that those in healthcare are struggling to manage, understandably creating a lot of fear and anxiety.
Right now I want to help you, my fellow female accountants, to not be completely burned out once this pandemic is over. As accountants we are already susceptible to burnout on a good day, especially during tax season, but throw a worldwide crisis into the mix, and you could have the recipe for a total breakdown.
Author and successful business strategist, Dan Sullivan, has lived through his fair share of difficulties during his 75 years, but after the attack on the Twin Towers on September 11th, he decided to create The “Scary Times” Success Manual for his entrepreneur clients at the time. It was so helpful that word spread, and businesses were asking for millions of copies to pass along to their clients.
What began as a way to help his entrepreneur clients to deal with fear and uncertainty after September 11th, has now become a manual for anyone during challenging times. Although these tips were written almost 20 years ago, they are as relevant today as they were then; maybe even more so.
This week I’m going to discuss the 10 tips from The “Scary Times” Success Manual and how you can apply them, personally and professionally.
Why does it seem like some people can take life’s challenges in stride, while others are brought to their knees? Life can seem like a series of blindsides, but what makes it possible for one person to cope calmly and rationally, and another person freak out over the same situation?
The key is resiliency and it’s never too late to learn the skill. No matter what challenges you're facing, resiliency has the answer for coming out the other side with your mental, emotional and physical health intact.
You will always face challenges both professionally and personally, but how you handle those challenges will make all the difference for your future and your family’s future.
Normally, most people fall somewhere in the middle between reactivity and resiliency. However, since what we are experiencing right now is not “normal”, it’s even more important to know where you gravitate towards and to get clear about how to shift towards resilience.
Join me for this very important topic where I discuss the difference between reactivity and resilience and how to build emotional resilience.
What’s it like to be a 2nd generation CPA mompreneur? What does it take to never give up on getting the designation of CPA, even if it means achieving it 15 years after you passed the CPA exam?
Every female CPA has a story and Heather’s is fascinating. This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Heather Satterley, CPA. Heather is a second generation CPA mompreneur and shares her unique journey to becoming a CPA as well as how she supports CPAs in understanding the technology that is available to make their jobs easier and provide essential value to their clients.
Heather was also recently named one of the Top 50 Women in Accounting 2019 by Practice Ignition.
In addition to her 100% virtual consulting company, Heather has a YouTube channel called the “Appy Hour”. She and her co-host have free webinars, discussing various technology apps and programs available for accountants, helping them to feel competent and confident with the ever-growing technologies available.
Join me for a fascinating interview with Heather and her wonderful words of wisdom for all working moms.
You can find out more about Heather at https://satterleyconsulting.com/ or at https://www.theappyhour.com/
Whether you feel stuck in your current job, your marriage or in indecision about a host of other things, feeling stuck is a very common problem, especially for working moms. The struggle to make the right decision for yourself and your family can create an overwhelming sense of pressure, confusion and frustration.
Saying things like “I don’t know what to do” or “I’m not sure about this” is so common, that it can seem like the only possible way to respond to life’s situations. It can often feel like you’re standing in quicksand, unable to do anything to get out of the stuckness.
Unfortunately, feeling stuck can then appear to put a dark, ominous cloud over so many unrelated things in your life. It’s as if being stuck can leave sticky residue on everything you touch.
Learning what’s really going on when you feel stuck and what to do about it, is some of the most freeing lessons to learn. When you know how to get unstuck, there’s no telling what could be possible for you and for your future.
This week I’m going to discuss the truth about being stuck and the secret to getting unstuck.
If you are interested in attending the webinar on the opportunity to franchise with CPA MOMS, please click HERE
Have you ever woken up and just felt off? Or you’ve woken up in a fine mood and then all of a sudden you’re feeling blah, and you can’t put your finger on it other than to describe it as being in a funk?
As working moms, we all go through funks now and again. Sometimes you start off the day feeling tired, checking your phone and seeing 20 emails waiting for you and the kids aren’t being cooperative; other times your clients are badgering you, traffic was insane and your husband didn’t empty the dishwasher like he promised.
It’s easy for working moms to get into a funk because we tend to neglect our own needs for the needs of others. When you are more concerned with making everyone else happy, the string of days and weeks where your needs went unmet, can eventually turn into a never-ending funk.
It doesn’t even have to be when something isn’t going your way; it can also happen after some big goal is accomplished or a special occasion has passed. When you are no longer focused on something exciting like achieving a promotion, your child graduating from college or taking that dream vacation, you may find yourself in a funk afterwards.
This week I’m going to discuss what causes a funk and three simple things to do to get out of one.
As accountants we know all about managing other people’s money, as well as how to help them make more and keep more of it. But what about you? Would you like to make more money?
That’s not a trick question - do you honestly want to make more money? The reason I’m asking is because I can show you how to make more money, but you first have to be clear about why you have the money you currently have, and how you really feel about making more money.
What do you believe about what it will take to make more money? Do you believe you need to make sacrifices to make more? Do you have the ability to HAVE money, as opposed to spending money?
There are three shifts that need to happen in order for you to make more money, but once you make these shifts, you will understand how to have a much better relationship with money from now on. After making these shifts you’ll discover that making more money is easier than you think, especially when you learn how to change the way you think.
This week I’m going to discuss the three shifts that are necessary to make more money - your money beliefs, time versus value, and learning how to ask.
If you are interested in attending the live, informative webinar on the franchise opportunity with CPA MOMS, please use this LINK
Have you ever noticed that your female brain likes to talk A LOT! The constant conversations going on in your brain are mostly unconscious, but are as busy and noisy as Grand Central Station in Manhattan at rush hour.
On the one hand, there’s nothing wrong with having an inner dialogue because it’s just your brain’s way of interpreting and processing your daily experiences. It’s the way your brain makes sense of your unique life, making it possible for you to function in your world.
On the other hand, if it goes unnoticed and unsupervised, it can be like mindlessly getting on a bus everyday, not knowing where the bus is going, and winding up in undesirable destinations. This is when self-talk and an unmanaged mind can hurt your accounting career as well as keep you from being the mom you want to be.
Although relationship experts suggest that it’s important to learn to listen more and talk less, when it comes to self-talk, the opposite is true. In order to have what you want in your life, you need to learn how to take charge of your self-talk by consciously rewriting and directing the conversation.
This week I’m going to discuss why you should talk more and listen less when it comes to your female brain, and how to take charge of your self-talk.
If you are interested in attending the FIRST EVER Live Webinar about the opportunity to franchise with CPA MOMS, click this LINK. Even if you can't attend live, we will be sending the recording to those registered for the webinar.
Every female CPA has a story - we all have a journey we’ve taken to get us to where we are now. Not only is Jen’s CPA journey fascinating, but she has a lot to share about how CPA MOMS® works and how it can help talented CPA’s as well as the businesses that want to work with them.
Jen didn't have a "typical" road as a CPA. She didn't start out thinking she wanted to be an accountant and didn't initially go to school for it. But somewhere along the way, all that changed.
Her unique CPA story took her from the United States to Australia, to Mexico and back to the United States, eventually ending up at CPA MOMS®.
This week on the podcast Jen and I discuss how she came to be a CPA, what she's learned along the way, what she wishes schools would integrate into educational programs and all the amazing things she does as Placement Manager at CPA MOMS®.
You can check out all the pathways to become a part of CPA MOMS® by going to www.cpa-moms.com
Jen Bastian, CPA can also be contacted at jen.bastian@cpa-moms.us
On the surface it would appear that self-confidence shouldn’t be an issue for accountants; the inherent combination of intelligence, respect and professionalism, should make self-confidence a non-issue. As an accountant and a mom, you should have even more to be confident and proud of, and should be strutting around like a proud peacock.
So, since on the surface it would appear that self-confidence wouldn’t be an issue for you as a hard-working accountant and mom, then what’s the problem?
Learning how to build self-confidence is some of the most life-changing and career-changing work you can do as a working mom. Unlocking the secret to building self-confidence means there’s nothing standing in the way of creating and having the life you want.
This week on the podcast I discuss how self-confidence works, and the key to building it.
As mentioned in the podcast, CPA MOMS is franchising! If you want to have an entire community at your side to support you as you build your own practice, and you want an experienced team to build a bridge from where you are to wherever you want to go, then fill out the 1 minute interest form to learn more about franchising opportunities at CPA MOMS (click HERE)
Is it just me or does it seem like wherever we turn, there’s another story of tragedy or loss? Whether it’s news of accidents, children being mistreated or animals being abused, my mind seems to be having a battle between finding gratitude and allowing gut-wrenching sadness.
Unfortunately, no matter how positive you may try to be, pain is just part of the human experience. There are going to be breakups, endings and losses no matter how hard you try to bubble-wrap yourself and your family.
By understanding the difference between clean pain and dirty pain, you will no longer be at the mercy of the natural ebb and flow of your life. Marriages end, jobs are eliminated and good people die; being able to distinguish between clean pain and dirty pain will help you navigate those storms.
This week I’m going to discuss what clean pain is, what dirty pain is, and how to deal with both.
As mentioned on the podcast, we are excited to announce that CPA MOMS is franchising to meet the ever-growing demand for our talented CPA mompreneurs.
We are seeking individuals that desire to own their own practice or want grow their existing practice by leveraging our entire eco-system and joining forces with our CPA MOMS brand, proven business building systems, marketing services, technology platforms, and other industry specific resources.
We are currently working with a small group of hand-picked candidates to become our early adopters. Please let us know if you are interested in attending a confidential overview live webinar with Founder & CEO, Mayumi Young, by clicking HERE. (link to short registration form)
For accountants, busyness seems like a necessary part of the job; like having a computer and a calculator. An accountant who isn’t describing themselves as busy is looked upon as either lazy or in trouble.
A typical busy day as an accountant and a mom often starts with waking up and already dreading the busy day ahead, walking into the office and getting hit with other people battling busyness and then working through it all in order to get home to keep being busy. It’s no wonder working moms experience burnout at such a high rate!
But somewhere along the way, accountants seemed to agree to believe that busyness was a fact and that stress was the fuel necessary to get everything done. If you believe in the formula “accountant + mom = busyness”, then I have a much better way to help you battle busyness, to feel much better and to be more effective.
The heavy weight associated with busyness for accountants and for working moms doesn’t need to be “just the way it is”. You have more power than you realize to win the battle with busyness, without sacrificing anything in the process.
This week I’m going to share what busyness really is, why it’s a problem and what to do instead.
If you’ve ever been told that you think too much, but not in a good way, there’s a reason for that. Your female brain is significantly more active than a male brain, especially in the areas involved in impulse control, focus, mood and anxiety.
So it’s not just your roles as an accountant and a mom that causes you to overthink; your female brain is wired for it. This can make it difficult to recognize when you are spiraling, because your brain may convince you that worrying and ruminating is helpful.
In this age of information overload, it can seem normal, and even necessary, to overthink. Plus, the field of accounting demands thoroughness, thinking through all possibilities and avoiding mistakes.
While everyone overthinks in certain situations, chronic overthinking may be hurting you and your accounting career more than you realize. Here’s a simple equation for how:
Overthinking -> Pressure -> Stress -> Mistakes/Anxiety/Thought Loops/Unhappiness
This week I’m going to discuss what it means to overthink, symptoms of overthinking and how to get control over it.
As an accountant you deal with risk and uncertainty every day as part of doing your job. You are called on by bosses and clients to make predictions about how various trends will affect their financial success, based on constantly changing information, in an ever-changing world.
As a mom taking care of your family’s needs 24/7, you also have to deal with countless things that you are unsure of. With every new stage in your children’s development, comes even more uncertainty about how to handle your role as mom.
It’s not just death and taxes that are certain; uncertainty is also a certainty. Since you will always be challenged by things outside of your control, I suggest that you learn how to master uncertainty, in order to bulletproof your career and manage your life.
This week I’m going to discuss why your CPA Mom brain hates uncertainty, what creates uncertainty and how to master it.
Last week I discussed the increase in women-owned businesses and some challenges for CPA Mom entrepreneurs. Many smart, driven CPA Moms are choosing to go out on their own for various reasons and creating businesses that are a reflection of who they are and how they want to be of value to their clients.
But even with the growth of CPA mompreneurs, the vast majority of CPA Moms are employees, myself included, working for public accounting firms or private companies. If you are one, and feel like you don’t have much control since you are an employee, I’m hopefully going to help you see things differently.
You are much more valuable than you realize, especially as a highly intelligent and professionally trained woman. By taking a more intentional approach towards your accounting career, you can improve your skill set, add even more value and advance in whatever way you choose.
Modern-day businesses need supportive accountants and you are an important part of a company’s growth. Don’t underestimate the significant part you play, as an accounting employee, as a working woman and as a mother.
This week I’m going to discuss 6 ways to advance your accounting career as an employee that will benefit you as much as your employer.
Have you seen the latest statistics for women-owned businesses?
- The US has 12.3 million women-owned businesses.
- US women-owned businesses generate $1.8 trillion a year.
- 40% of US businesses are women-owned.
- There are 114% more women entrepreneurs than there were 20 years ago.
Over the years the growing trend of hard-working female entrepreneurs, who also happen to be moms, has warranted the phrase “mompreneur”. Entrepreneur Magazine’s website even has a dedicated section just for mompreneurs.
Since this growing trend is found in the accounting profession as well, you may be considering being a CPA mompreneur or perhaps, you already are one. As a smart, driven CPA, choosing to go out on your own may make sense for various reasons.
With all the advice out there vying for your attention to help you market and grow your business, it can be difficult to figure out how to successfully navigate entrepreneurship. Even if you’re in the early stages of considering leaving your job and going out on your own, there are some challenges that CPA mom entrepreneurs need to consider.
This week I’m going to discuss three challenges for CPA mom entrepreneurs - failure to launch, failure to lead and failure to look up.
Whether you are in public or private accounting the accountant’s mantra is ”Get more done in a shorter amount of time”, whether it’s busy season or not. When you add your accounting career to your job as a mom, having a 26-hour day would be super helpful in order to get everything on your to-do list done.
When I practice what I’m about to share with you, this is my typical day - wake up early, sit with a cup of coffee, research my next blog, reach out to at least 20 CPA moms on Linkedin and Facebook, read a chapter of a marketing book, make lunch for my husband and myself, feed the dogs, get ready for work, write more for the blog, go to my accounting job for 6 hours, run errands, relax with dogs, check Facebook and Linkedin, make dinner, answer client’s emails, coach clients, spend time with husband and go to bed by 9:00 pm.
I’m not sharing this to brag; I’m sharing it because I know how to maximize my productivity and I want to help you as well. By mastering the secret to productivity you will get more done in less time so you can do those things you love rather than being chained to your desk.
This week I’m going to discuss the secret to productivity and how to get better at doing it.
As a CPA and a mom, you have a lot on your plate both at work and at home.
Unfortunately we aren’t taught how to create a system that makes it easier to get it all done and are often tossed into the deep end of the pool with other working moms, struggling to stay above water. Without an easy to use system, you can become stressed, overwhelmed and easily experience burnout.
If your current system consists of post-it notes, scraps of paper or a running mental list, there’s a much better way. Managing your workflow and your lifeflow just takes a minimal amount of effort in the set up stage, but will pay huge dividends, giving you back your most precious commodities - time and peace of mind.
This week I’m going to discuss why having a system is important and how to create one that makes it easier to get it all done with less effort and more productivity.
If you work in the corporate world, you are probably no stranger to receiving and possibly giving year-end reviews. If you are a mom, you are also no stranger to molding and shaping your children with expectations, feedback and critiques.
Whether you are on the giving end or the receiving end, feedback and criticism are unavoidable whether it’s personally or professionally. Hearing potentially negative things about yourself or telling someone else how they need to improve can be awkward at anytime of the year.
No matter how hard you work, it’s uncomfortable to be evaluated by others as the reviewee or to have to assess someone else as the reviewer. It puts you in a vulnerable state and can often create a “vulnerability hangover” where you are completely drained emotionally and physically.
Even if you consider yourself someone with a “thick skin”, the subtle art of giving and receiving criticism is still a skill that’s worth learning. Whether you’re on the receiving end in a formal review from your Tax Manager or on the giving end trying to help your child edit their English paper, knowing how to be the giver and receiver is helpful.
This week I’m going to discuss the difference between feedback and criticism and the subtle art of being on both the receiving end and the giving end.
So before you ask your family for their holiday wish list and start trying to squeeze trips to the mall into your hectic schedule, I first want to help you out with the best gift you can give them this year. This gift is what they want and need more than anything else but probably don’t realize it.
What your family wants and needs is a mom:
- who knows how to be happy
- who loves herself and her body
- who loves her life even if it’s not perfect
- who knows how to be present
- who allows herself and others to make mistakes
- who is emotionally balanced
- who knows how to handle stress and drama
- who sets healthy boundaries
- who knows how to manage her mind so she can manage everything else
This is the best gift you can give them and yourself. It doesn’t require wrapping and the minimal investment will pay huge dividends in the short and long-term.
This week I’m going to discuss the best gift you can give your family, what they really want and need and how to get it.
Did you know you that you can be a perfectionist and not have a perfect life?
It's true!
If you know the difference between a debit and a credit, you just might be a perfectionist.
This week you'll learn that:
- The accounting profession is a breeding ground for perfectionism.
- Perfectionism isn’t about arrogance or a lack of humility, it’s about the fear of not doing enough or being enough.
- Whether it shows up in your tendency to procrastinate, your lack of self-confidence or the feeling of burnout, striving for perfection as a female accountant mom is a much bigger issue than you may realize.
- Taming perfectionism doesn’t mean giving up on success or settling for mediocrity.
- The key in taming perfectionism is understanding how your negative-focused brain has been judging you like a drill sergeant who never has anything nice to say about you because they think that’s the way it will motivate you.
- The best thing you can do is to manage your mind, take back control of the script and write a story that feels better to tell yourself and share with others.
Did you know that you can actually misuse gratitude? I didn't either.
Because of the self-help movement as well as the science to backup the power of gratitude, more and more people are becoming aware of the impact that gratitude can have on them professionally and personally.
However, with all the wonderful ways that gratitude can be used to create a happier life, it can also be misused. Gratitude can unknowingly be used in a way that is actually more harmful than it is helpful.
This week I’m going to discuss how gratitude is used as an asset, how it is used as a liability and how to stop misusing gratitude.
Author Richard Bach famously said “Argue for your limitations, and sure enough they’re yours”. Repeatedly saying “I can’t” can create such a strong habit of thought, even when faced with the possibility of “Maybe I can”.
The more you practice believing that things ARE what you believe them to be, the more evidence you will find to back up that belief. Before you know it, you are in a cycle of arguing for your limitations and believing you are just a victim to the circumstances in your life, or worse, that those beliefs are true.
This week I’m going to discuss why it’s so easy for you to argue for your limitations and how to stop.
While the conversation about mental health is becoming less and less taboo, it’s still an issue for many people, especially in the accounting profession. The subject of workplace well-being is being addressed more because it’s becoming an even bigger issue in the accounting and finance professions.
In one study, 30.4% of accountants admitted to suffering from mental health issues and 51% admitted that depression and anxiety leaves them dreading going to work. When you add the anxiety accountants feel in their professional life to the guilt, anxiety and exhaustion most working mothers experience, you have a recipe for disaster for female accountant moms that is often suffered in silence.
Since there can be a lot of confusion and shame when dealing with anxiety, it’s important for you to understand why you feel this way. There is nothing wrong with you if you feel anxious or overwhelmed, you just haven’t been aware of how your problem-solving brain has been creating your life.
This week I’m going to discuss how your accountant’s brain causes a lot of your anxiety and what you can do about it.
Women have made incredible strides professionally and personally in the past century. We are all benefiting from the positive changes women before us fought for, whether it’s the right to vote, to be educated or to work outside the home, among many other things.
As a female accountant in the 21st century you are among the most educated and skilled women on the planet yet…
You may still be settling for:
- Unfulfilling relationships
- Less pay or advancement
- General feeling of stress and overwhelm
- Less self-confidence
- Unmet goals
- Lack of self-care
If the women who came before us fought so hard to have the right to have the life they desired, then why do we still settle for less than we want or deserve? Why is settling still such a problem for working mothers?
This week I’m going to discuss what settling is, why you settle and how to stop.
Someone dying too young, senseless crimes and innocent victim’s stories are in the headlines on a daily basis. It appears to be getting more and more difficult to stay positive in a world that seems so out of control.
When bad things happen to good people it can make you question why things seem to be so unfair. Even seeing someone get an advantage over someone else can trigger a reaction that “life’s just not fair”.
Although something might seem unfair and you may have many people who would agree with you, you always have a choice. You can’t predict or control situations but you can decide what to think about them by learning how your mind works, how to manage it and how managing it puts you in control.
This week I’m going to discuss why things seem unfair and how to change that.
As a woman balancing your work life with your family life, you probably have your hands full with many different relationships to nurture and manage. But whether it’s with a romantic partner, your mother, your child, or someone you work with, relationships can be challenging.
Between movie scenes where you get the message that someone is supposed to “complete” you, the pressures of the modern-day parent/child relationship and issues with working in “toxic” work environments, it’s no wonder you may be confused about navigating relationships. Unfortunately this confusion can often add just another layer of overwhelm to your life.
This week I’m going to discuss what actually makes relationships challenging and how to improve any relationship.
One of my favorite authors, Eckhart Tolle, is quoted saying “Worry pretends to be necessary but serves no useful purpose”. The first time I read that statement I was confused and excited at the same time thinking things like:
- As a mother, isn’t part of my job to worry?
- Isn’t it naïve to assume everything will be fine and that there’s no need to worry?
- If it’s true that worry isn’t necessary then why am I doing it all the time?
- How will problems be solved if I don’t worry first?
- How can I learn to stop worrying?
First, it’s important to understand that the human mind is a problem-solving machine. Every invention you have the privilege of living with was created by the power of someone’s problem-solving mind.
However, there is a big difference between problem-solving and worrying. Problem-solving invites answers and solutions to questions and worrying invites pain and discomfort in addition to more questions.
Second, worry is focused on things that could happen in the future. For mothers, worry is one of those emotions that we tell one another we should experience without realizing the ramifications.
This week I’m going to discuss what worry really is, why you worry and how to stop.
If I put a bubble on top of your head so everyone could read the thoughts you have about yourself, what would we see? If you are like most women, your inner critic probably says things like:
- You really have everyone fooled, don’t you
- Here you go again, not following through with what you said you were going to do
- Honestly, when are you ever going to figure this out
- No wonder he/she behaves that way towards you
Like most women you probably compare yourself to others and beat yourself up with self-judgment. It just doesn’t seem like anything you do is good enough or once you have achieved some goal you are on to the next thing that is lacking and needs improvement.
Wanting to improve your life is a wonderful thing; I’m all about self-growth, setting goals and wanting to become a better version of yourself. The issue is when you believe that you need to beat yourself up in order to feel motivated to take action.
This week I’m going to discuss why you beat yourself up and how to stop.
It’s almost unavoidable - there are going to be times when you need to have difficult conversations. Even though it’s unavoidable you still may be tempted to dance around something or avoid it altogether because you are uncomfortable with confrontation or conflict.
Whether you have to deliver some unpleasant news, discuss a delicate subject or talk about something that’s gone wrong, almost everyone dreads having these types of conversations. It seems better to put it off or ruminate some more before taking the leap to discuss something that makes you feel dread.
If you are someone who is uncomfortable having a difficult conversation it’s because you were never taught the skill of how to have a difficult conversation. It doesn’t require you to be negative, forceful or dramatic; it only requires you to be open to learning a new way of communicating and managing your mind.
This week I’m going to discuss the steps to having a difficult conversation and share examples so that, no matter what the outcome of the conversation, you will feel better for having learned this new skill.
Since you spend so much of your time at work it seems like a good idea to try to work in the best environment possible. You most likely spend at least 40 hours a week at work so it makes sense that you would want to make it a place that inspires and nurtures you, that makes you feel valued and happy.
However, what can you do if you aren’t happy with your current work environment?
If you are a boss/leader, you may want to create a better work environment because you noticed employees not getting along, complaining a lot lately or gossiping about you and each other; maybe you feel frustrated with the lack of productivity in the office or the lack of professionalism.
Or maybe you are an employee and not in charge so what can you do to create a better work environment? What if the workload, your boss, your coworkers, the commute or anything else is making it difficult to be at your best?
This week I’m going to discuss how to create a better work environment when you are the boss/leader and when you are an employee.
Do you ever feel like the day just got away from you and feel even more frustrated and overwhelmed than you did the day before?
Distractions could be the culprit.
When you are constantly being driven by distractions it feels like you are the adorable dog named Doug in the 2009 Disney movie “Up”. Whenever Doug saw a squirrel, regardless of what he was chasing, he’d immediately be distracted and go after the squirrel.
Your “squirrel” is usually anything new because new always seems better. Whether it’s a new book, a new exercise routine or a new outfit from online shopping website you were looking at, you can be driven to distraction and chasing squirrels in your professional and personal life all day long.
This week I’m going to discuss why you get distracted and how to get back on track.
As humans we all desire to have the feeling of hope sometimes. Like when there’s been a tragedy somewhere in the world and you hope everyone affected will be ok, then hope can be comforting.
The word hope has such a nice ring to it. So if the feeling of hope indicates something positive, then when is it not helpful? Aren’t we taught at a young age to wish upon a star and hope for things?
The issue with being hopeful is that it is not a strategy that gets you what you want and really negates your power. The feeling of hope can be a problem because it’s passive and doesn’t inspire action. It’s often masking a negative emotion that you want to feel better about in the future.
By hoping and wishing, you don’t have to challenge yourself to face things like fear, doubt and uncertainty. Instead you put hope out into your world and you sit back and wait.
This week I’m going to discuss why being hopeful isn’t always helpful and a better alternative.
Many women believe they need to either hire an accountability coach or partner with someone in order to take certain actions.
They have a certain goal in mind that they haven’t yet achieved, they don’t feel motivated and they look to work with someone else to hold them accountable for reaching their goal.
In essence, if it wasn’t for someone or something else in the equation, they would feel less committed to take action.
If this rings true for you, it’s not your fault. It’s the message that a lot of women get when it comes to making changes or improvements in your life.
This week I’m going to discuss the mistake most women make with accountability, a new way to look at accountability, and how to get the power of personal accountability.
This is an empowering episode...enjoy!
While the term Attention Deficit Disorder or ADD may be familiar, the less familiar term Intention Deficit is something I believe we all suffer with to certain degrees without knowing it. Intention Deficit is when you are living your life unconsciously as opposed to living on purpose; when you aren’t clear on the direction you want to go and are stuck focusing on what you don’t want rather than on what you do want.
Living with intention can show up in “big picture” decisions like what you want your career to look like in 5 years and taking steps to make that happen as well as “small picture” decisions like getting clear about your intention before calling that friend to complain to them about something they did.
Living with intention means the difference between blaming people, places and things for your life versus taking responsibility for your life; it puts you in the driver’s seat of a beautiful Italian sports car with the top down as opposed to a rusty old mini-van.
This week I’m going to discuss what it means to live with intention, why it matters and how to get better at it.
In the last few decades more employers see the idea of offering to meet their employees need for more work-life balance as a win/win situation. They believe that if they create an environment that their employees are happy working in, they will stay longer and be more productive.
It sounds like a no-brainer from the employee’s and employer’s point of view. Achieving balance seems simple – the employee negotiates spending X amount of hours at work and Y amount of hours at home and wha-lah! They are happy, fulfilled and living their best life.
If only it were that simple! I’ve worked with women who changed their work situation by getting a different job which would allow them more flexibility yet they still didn’t feel the balance they were seeking. I’ve also worked with women who work 60+ hours a week, only see their children on the weekends and have no issue with work-life balance.
So why is there a disparity? If it’s not about the number of hours you spend in each area of your life then what is it that creates balance? What’s the “magic formula”?
This week I’m going to discuss what you really want when seeking balance, what balance looks like and the best way to achieve it.
Why is that you can make certain decisions all day, every day yet agonize over making other decisions? Some decisions are a no-brainer like deciding to not roll through stop signs on your way to work but then some decisions seem tortuous like whether to eat what you brought for lunch or order in with everyone else.
Have you ever gotten so caught up in the fear of making the wrong decision that you made no decision at all? Most people experience this trap, agonizing over what to do or not do, and then ultimately doing nothing other than spinning in confusion and fear.
What I often see when coaching clients is that decision making issues come in “before and after” stages. The before stage is the period when indecision and hesitation take over and you can’t decide what to decide. The after stage happens once the decision is made and you experience doubt and possibly regret.
This week I’m going to discuss where confusion comes from, how to make decisions in the before stage and how to not regret decisions once they are made in the after stage.
One of the most challenging and rewarding roles you can have in life is being a parent. I have yet to meet a parent who wasn’t surprised at what parenthood required of them.
With each new stage in your child’s life it seems like you have to learn a whole new language. There’s the language of early childhood, of toddlers and adolescents, of the teenage years and of adulthood. Each stage offers its own unique opportunities to learn and grow along with your child.
In order to successfully parent your children it’s important for you to manage your own mind first. Parenting with a managed mind means the difference between stress and peace, control and acceptance as well as fear and courage.
This week I’m going to discuss parenting with a managed mind at various stages of your child’s life and offer examples of what a managed mind looks like at each stage.
According to Wikipedia the definition of the term compare and despair is “to distress oneself by comparing one’s own situation with others who are more successful” however I believe it’s more far reaching than that. When you compare and despair you can be judging yourself, your situation, your choices or your worth as a woman, mother, employee, friend, spouse, etc.
The tendency to compare yourself to others and then despair about the comparison can come in the form of believing you aren’t as (fill in the blank) as someone else like when you look at a high school friend’s Facebook page and feel horrible because their house is so much nicer. It can also come in the form of comparing your past to your present and wishing you could go back in time like when you leave your job and start regretting the decision because the new job is more challenging than the last.
On the flip side, sometimes you may compare yourself or your situation in order to feel better like when you hear about someone struggling with their child’s grades and you silently think “At least my kid isn’t getting grades as bad as hers”. You may believe there’s no harm in comparison when it gives you a fleeting sense of validation but it is still part of the same problem.
Both sides of the comparison coin are an issue because you are still criticizing yourself and looking for relief in the form of more comparisons. You start by comparing yourself or your situation and feeling bad which then leads you to compare yourself or your situation to feel better.
This week I’m going to discuss why you compare and despair, why it’s a problem and how you can learn to stop.
In 2013 the Chartered Accountants Benevolent Association (CABA) reported survey results showing that around 30% of accountant participants admitted to a drinking problem. The key is the word “admitted”; if 30% admitted to having an issue, imagine how many were unwilling to.
Unfortunately this isn’t just an issue for accountants. In a 2016 study of lawyers, nearly 3 out of 4 participants reported problematic use of alcohol and drugs to cope with stress starting as early as law school.
It doesn’t matter whether you are an accountant, a lawyer or in any other field of work, stress, long working hours and imbalance between work life and family life can be a breeding ground for overusing things to cope. It could come in the form of sitting with a pint of ice cream once everyone’s gone to bed or needing that second glass of wine after dinner; the inability to handle stress has become a bigger issue than ever.
This week I’m going to discuss what contributes to you overeating or overdrinking and how to manage the desire to overeat or overdrink.
Before I explain why believing new things is important, I would like you to consider something for just a minute:
- Everything that we have created in the history of human existence started with a thought
- Nothing has been shipped from another planet
- All the materials for everything we have has always been here
- Really consider that
Whether it’s a candle or a lightbulb, a piece of paper or an iPhone, everything that surrounds us, other than nature, has come into existence because of a thought. First comes the thought then comes the thing.
Whether you realize it or not, you are also a creator. Your brain is filled with sentences that are creating how you feel, fueling the things you do which then culminates into your experience of life. You are the inventor creating your life.
This week I’m going to discuss why believing new things is important and the process that makes it possible.
As a working mother you are probably juggling more balls up in the air than most circus clowns. If you’ve ever done a Google Search on how to multi task you probably discovered over 6 million hits offering to help you figure out how to get everything on your to-do list done.
If only there was a way to focus on one thing at a time that would actually shrink your to-do list. It would be great to have a way to know exactly what to do in each moment that would create a domino effect and help alleviate overwhelm and stress while increasing productivity.
The NY Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling book “The One Thing” by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan teaches just that. It teaches you that when everything feels urgent and important, everything seems equally necessary.
The authors explain that multitasking is a lie that has become a strange badge of honor and is actually a quality that employers mistakenly target. Of course humans are capable of doing two things at the same time like walking and talking, but you actually aren’t capable of focusing on two things at the same time which is costing you more than you realize.
This week I’m going to discuss how to decrease your to-do list by asking a powerful focusing question and how to apply it to any area of your life.
However, sometimes the idea of feeling justified or offering a justification isn’t as dramatic, as in the example of laying on the horn of your car when someone cuts you off. No matter what comes to mind when you hear or use the term justified, it’s a pretty common feeling.
When I work with clients, I often get asked “Is that normal?” when they are trying to justify a negative thought, feeling or action. This question comes up in many different situations like “I have too much work, too much responsibility at home and I just want to run away; is that normal?” or “My children aren’t following the rules and I just feel like screaming all the time; is that normal?”
What you may be looking for when you ask “Is that normal?” is justification for what you are thinking, how you are feeling or how you are acting. Often you are experiencing something negative and want to know that it’s ok to think and feel that way.
On the one hand it’s understandable to want to justify and to feel that it’s normal to do so because your brain is offering you over 60,000 thoughts a day. You are often looking for a legitimate reason why your brain is thinking a certain way in order to be ok with feeling less than great.
On the other hand just because its “normal” doesn’t mean it’s helpful. Taking a look at what you’ve been justifying in your life is some of the most powerful work you can do.
This week I’m going to discuss the problem with feeling justified, the powerful question that you should be asking yourself and how that question can change everything.
Whether it’s to raise your children, to be the caregiver for aging parents or any host of reasons, hitting the “pause” button on your career may be something you’ve considered. The concept of pausing the trajectory of your career by working a reduced schedule or leaving your career entirely with the plan to return at some later point can come with a lot of questions and concerns.
Thankfully things have changed over the years for women looking to pause their careers and for those looking to re-enter the workforce after pausing. More women than ever are exploring the fact that their career doesn’t have to be a linear path; that a non-linear path is an option and can actually be optimal.
This week I’m going to discuss the questions and concerns you may have about pausing your career and how to make the decision to pause your career or re-enter after a pause.
For women, money is one of the last taboos. Women are often more comfortable talking about personal details of their sex life than they are talking about money.
In order to eliminate shame and build confidence around money you have to be willing to take a look at your beliefs. The results you currently have in your relationship with money are due to some unconscious programming that needs to be acknowledged if you want to create different results.
This week I’m going to discuss why women experience so much shame around money and how to start improving your relationship with money.
I’m sure we can all agree that rejection doesn’t feel great. In fact most of the time, it sucks. Whether it’s in your professional or personal life, rejection can destroy your self-esteem, create anger and fear, as well as take up precious brain space.
If only there was a way to be willing to experience rejection without it stopping you from being, doing or having what you want; a way to be self-confident and give yourself all the approval you need.
Sound good? Then I have a secret to share.
This week I’m going to discuss where the fear of rejection comes from and the secret to dealing with it in a way that empowers you rather than paralyzes you.
So many women wear the badge of “people pleaser”, especially mothers. On the surface using the term people pleaser seems so nice. It seems like all you want to do is make people happy and what’s wrong with that?
You may not even label yourself as a people pleaser, you just consider yourself a nice person. Doing for others allows you to feel loved and valuable. You also may believe that pleasing others is what a good mother, wife and friend does.
What if you are actually attempting to manipulate people into liking you or thinking positively about you at the expense of your truth?
This week I’m going to explore the truth about people pleasing and how to recover from the need to people please and begin to, more importantly, please yourself.
If you are a high achieving woman and feel you need to always be producing at a high level, then it’s safe to say you may not know how to enjoy time off.
If you can’t stop thinking of work when you are off, you are not alone. Many hard working moms, and accountants in general, have the same pattern of thinking.
This week I’m going to explore why you may be resisting enjoying time off and what you can do to change that.
Have you ever experienced that insidious feeling that you’re out of your league, not good enough, that you are only in your position because you got lucky or that sooner or later you will be found out?
It doesn’t matter if it has to do with your profession, with your ability as a mother or any other area of your life, imposter syndrome can creep in at any time.
This week I’m going to discuss what imposter syndrome is, where it comes from and how to cure it.
I have to admit that my inner judge and jury is quite a bitch! How about yours?
The issue is between making judgments and being judgmental. One is discerning and feels empowering and the other feels defensive, fearful and often justified. One gets you the results you desire and the other gets you a whole lot of emotional pain.
This week I’m going to discuss why you are judgmental, how it’s hurting you and how to stop being the judge and jury in your life.
By learning that the results you create in your life are within your control, you can create the awareness that “problems” are just neutral Circumstances that you get to solve with your thoughts about it.
This week I’m going to discuss the Manage Your Mind Model and how to use it to solve any problem.
Is there something you need from someone else in order to feel better? If you have unmet needs at work or in your relationship with a partner or your children then I’ve got some great information to share with you.
This week I’m going to discuss the issue with wanting others to meet your needs and the secret to ending that struggle.
Becoming aware of the questions you ask, how you phrase those questions and looking at the default answers you’ve been getting, is how you can start making some big changes in your life.
This week I’m going to discuss the problem with dead end questions and how to ask better questions so you can get better results.
Drama has become somewhat of an addiction just like the overuse of alcohol to numb your feelings or the overuse of social media to escape your life.
If you identified with any of these statements, you may want to keep reading. Even if you don’t think you are full-blown addicted to drama, you may be affecting your children without even realizing it.
This week I’m going to discuss why drama is enticing, how that could be affecting your children and how to stop.
The issue isn’t that you feel good when you are paid a compliment from others; the issue is when you desperately need other people’s positive opinions to create your own self-confidence. You want other people to compliment, approve of or validate you because you haven’t been able to provide it for yourself.
This week I’m going to discuss why you may be seeking validation and how to create self-confidence so you can have your own back.
This week I'm answering Jackie's question about feeling better when her husband isn't acting the way she wants...
If you are like me, overwhelm can become, well…overwhelming. It can feel like being on the proverbial hamster wheel with no relief in sight. Your feeling of anxiety seems to be playing tag with your feeling of overwhelm and you can’t make those feelings take a time out and watch TV instead.
This week I’m going to discuss what causes overwhelm and how to overcome it so it so you can get back to having the life you want.
A listener asks about the podcast on difficult people and wants to know how to deal with a coworker that drives her crazy...
There’s a story about a man riding a horse, galloping quickly. It appears that he’s going somewhere very important. A man standing along the roadside shouts, “Where are you going?” The rider replies, “I don’t know. Ask the horse!” This is the story of most people’s lives; you’re riding the horse of your habits, with no idea where you’re headed.
The results you have in your life are created by the actions you take so if you don’t like the results, you have to start looking at the cause. Your habits are an important place to start.
This week I’m going to discuss habits that help, habits that hurt and the process of changing a habit.
As a female accountant you can probably relate to struggling with different areas of your professional life. This week is all about improving your time management and productivity, improving your analytical skills and improving your confidence.
Sound good? Great....come join me!
Imagine how different life would be if it wasn’t possible to take things personally. Your mother-in-law’s comments about your house wouldn’t affect you, your co-workers not mentioning they were going out for drinks wouldn’t be an issue and your child’s teacher sending home a note encouraging parents to send healthier snacks into school wouldn’t be a personal attack.
It would be great if you could take a sip of some magic potion and not react to people’s words and actions in a self-deprecating way. You could go through life knowing that other people’s opinions are interesting but cannot affect you.
This week I’m going to discuss other people’s opinions, being a juicy peach (you’ll understand in a minute) and how to stop taking things personally.
Let’s face it, life would be so much easier if you could hand everyone instructions on what you need from them in order for you to be happy. If only there was an instruction manual that you could give your significant other, your boss or your children that would tell them in detail what to do so you can feel better.
This week I’m going to discuss how you already have instruction manuals for the people in your life, why you may want to throw them away and what to do instead.
I’m sure you would agree that finding out about the latest celebrity drama and sharing it with a friend or a coworker is just part of our culture today. It may not feel like such a big deal to let a trusted friend know what you heard about that difficult mother in the PTA. Gossip can be a little exciting at first and maybe you feel a little bad afterwards but in the grand scheme of things it’s no big deal right?
What if I told you that gossip is harmful to your brain and can hurt you in the long term if it goes unchecked? Once I learned about how our brains work and how we experience life, I realized how harmful gossip is to the lives we say we want to have.
This week I’m going to discuss why we gossip, how gossip affects your brain and how to curtail it.
As a working woman there can be many layers of comparisons that can lead to questioning whether you are good enough. You may feel the pressure to do well in all areas of your life and exhaust yourself with trying to figure out where you fall on the ladder of “enough-ness".
In trying to balance it all, the area that is often the greatest struggle is being a good mom. There are so many opinions and suggestions that bombard moms with beliefs about child rearing, financial planning, discipline, education and wellness that it’s no wonder you question whether you are doing a good enough job.
This week I’m going to discuss what is “good enough”, what it means to be a good mom and the importance of creating your own definition.
As a working mom with an accounting career you know a lot about hard work and trying to balance your career with your family. Sometimes it can seem like it’s just not possible to do it all and especially to do it successfully.
There may come a point where you want to consider working a reduced schedule but aren’t sure how it will affect your career. You want to be successful in your career but you also want to be happy in other areas of your life. You begin to question whether working part time and being successful is possible.
In an article titled “5 Habits of Highly Successful Part-Time Professionals” the author describes helpful tips like being organized, staying connecting, using your voice, etc.
What articles like this don’t discuss is the idea of what success actually means and how to add value to your job in a way that makes working part-time a win/win for both you and your company
This week I’m going to discuss what success means to you, how to add value as a part-time employee and my own journey with being successful and working part-time throughout my career.
To find out more about how to create a successful CPA career with confidence, check out http://cpa-moms-coach.com/
The wisdom of people who have lived a life that’s full tells you to not leave yourself open to saying on your deathbed, “I wish I had…”
But what if regret can be the impetus for changed behavior? What if there is an upside to regret? Regret doesn’t sound so bad if it can be used to shine a light on future desired action. There’s always an opportunity to flip regret and change the future.
This week I’m going to discuss the downside to regret, the upside to regret and how to live a life that’s full.
To find out more about how to create a successful CPA career with confidence, check out http://cpa-moms-coach.com/
From an early age your parents most likely taught you right from wrong. They taught you how to treat others as you would want to be treated. You learned what was considered appropriate and were reprimanded when you weren’t following the rules. You were taught to not question authority, to respect your elders and how to behave.
Basically from a young age you were taught what to believe about the world. Those programmed thoughts have been running in the background of your mind and if you aren’t careful, you may assume that everything you’ve been told is true.
This week I’m going to discuss two lies, two truths and how to help your children not repeat the cycle.
To find out more about how to create a successful CPA career with confidence, check out http://cpa-moms-coach.com/
No matter what profession you are in, the concept of burnout is all too familiar to working women. As working moms we have an added layer of challenges, expectations, judgments and time constraints that can take the feeling of stress to the next level. Many women hit the proverbial wall and surrender by announcing that burnout has beaten them; they just can’t do it all.
This week I’m going to discuss the signs of burnout and how to beat it at its own game.
To find out more about how to create a successful CPA career with confidence, check out http://cpa-moms-coach.com/
As a working mom I’m sure you’ve said out loud (more than a few times) “There’s just not enough time in the day!” With everything we have going on in our lives, it seems like a reasonable thing to exclaim. But what if you could actually create more time?
This week I’m going to share three secrets to creating more time which include our greatest ally, honoring the plan and the gift of constraint.
To find out more about how to create a successful CPA career with confidence, check out http://cpa-moms-coach.com/
In the past ten years, the awareness of Eastern philosophies and ways of healing our minds and bodies has become part of our normal conversation. What used to be considered “hippie-ish” is now more mainstream. People are looking for ways to be more “zen” and less stressed.
It’s not unheard of for someone to learn yoga, practice meditation with the help of a phone app, burn candles or play spa-like music to help slow down their hurried lives.
One of the Eastern traditions that have become popular is using a mantra.
This week I’m going to share some working mom mantras, why you may want to start using one and how to create your own.
To find out more about how to create a successful CPA career with confidence, check out http://cpa-moms-coach.com/
It’s important to shine a light on the beliefs that are no longer serving us and replace them with ones that do.
With a deeper understanding of how our brain works and the power of creating new neural pathways, I have decided to do something different for this coming New Year. I have decided to do a Year of “No More”.
Each month I will be tackling a limiting belief that has been taking up space in my life. Listen in as I explain what I will be working on each month and what I will be doing instead of practicing that limiting belief.
I'm super excited to see what this next year will bring when I say "no more" to what is no longer serving me.
To find out more about how to create a successful CPA career with confidence, check out http://cpa-moms-coach.com/
The idea particularly relevant to achieving goals is perfectionism. In the book Finish - Give Yourself the Gift of Done the author explains that perfectionism offers us two distinct distractions – Hiding Places and Noble Obstacles. A Hiding Place is where you go when you have a fear of messing up and a Noble Obstacle is the “Very Good Reason” you cannot pursue your goal.
This week I’m going to shine a light on our Hiding Places, uncover our Noble Obstacles and provide tips on how to finish what you started.
To find out more about how to create a successful CPA career with confidence, check out http://cpa-moms-coach.com/
Have you ever heard of the saying “If you want to know how enlightened you are, spend a weekend with your family”? Well the message that I want to teach about goal setting is “If you want to know what’s been creating the life you currently have, set a goal.” Your mind will show you everything you need to know about your failed New Year’s resolutions and much, much more.
This week I’m going to discuss why we shy away from setting goals, how we can uncover “gold” when we set a goal and steps to take before, during and after setting a goal.
To find out more about how to create a successful CPA career with confidence, check out http://cpa-moms-coach.com/
Of all the things clients want to be coached on, fear is the most common. They’ve taken fear to an extreme that doesn’t serve them. It makes them play small. Things like the fear of imperfection, of judgment, of success or failure, not being good enough, losing control or fear of what might happen in the future are just some of the fears that we carry around like a super heavy backpack.
The feeling of fear has become a mental “Warning!” sign to our brains that we just take for granted is trying to protect us. We don’t stop to question if the fear is logical or necessary.
This week I’m going to discuss the truth about fear, how it affects us personally and professionally and an exercise to take control when fear shows up.
To find out more about how to create a successful CPA career with confidence, check out http://cpa-moms-coach.com/
As adults we understand that being happy all the time is not feasible but we also can’t help just wanting to feel better
The holiday season is upon us which means the giving and getting of gifts. As children we can’t wait to get that special toy we’ve been waiting all year for. We feel the thrill of anticipation. We may feel excited, happy and loved believing that getting that desired present is the cause of our happiness. No matter what holiday we celebrate or what age we are, we often wish those great feelings could last throughout the year.
Most of us are taught at a very early age to want something outside of ourselves in order to feel better. As we grow up the desire grows bigger, the programming gets stronger and the worse we feel when we don’t get what we think we want.
This week I’m going to discuss why we feel the way we do, how to feel better and share an exercise that will help you to decide how you want to feel on a daily basis.
To find out more about how to create a successful CPA career with confidence, check out http://cpa-moms-coach.com/
You can find the full show notes HERE
Being an introverted mother meant learning coping skills that helped me to show up in ways I would have resisted before the gift of being a mom
The first time I understood the deeper meaning of the difference between an introvert and an extrovert, I got emotional because I wasn’t aware that there were other people just like me. I was reading a book on behavior management and thought it would be fun to take a quiz on whether I was an introvert or an extrovert, never knowing how those results would change my life. I have since learned to own my introvert nature and to even be grateful for how I handle the world in my own unique way.
The biggest surprise I had when learning about the qualities of introverts is realizing that I wasn’t a bad mother. Up until then I was concerned with things like not wanting to be attached to my kids 24/7 and staying behind to talk at PTA meetings making me uncomfortable. Learning that my introvert nature wasn’t a character defect was a major relief.
This week I’m going to discuss the qualities of an introvert, how those qualities have affected my role as a mother and tools that you can use if you are an introverted mother.
To find out more about how to create a successful CPA career with confidence, check out http://cpa-moms-coach.com/
You can find the show notes HERE
If we can end mom guilt in the accounting profession, who knows how powerful that change will be for other working moms!
It can strike at any time no matter what we do for a living, how many children we have, what their ages are or how much help we have balancing our career with our family.
When we are at work, we can feel guilty because we wish we were with our kids. When we are with the kids, we can feel guilty because we wish we were at work. We have a tug of war going on in our hearts and minds and it’s a war that’s has been creating stress for working moms for decades.
I have been a CPA for over 30 years and a mom for 26 years. My children have only ever known having a mom that works and for most of my early career, mom guilt reared its ugly head on a regular basis.
This week I’m going to discuss where the feeling of guilt comes from, some truths we may want to own, how we can end mom guilt and the last chapter of my mom guilt story.
To find out more about how to create a successful CPA career with confidence, check out http://cpa-moms-coach.com/
You can find the show notes HERE
It’s almost that time of year when families gather for the holidays and work parties require everyone to try to get along. It’s when we dread having to see that uncle who always finds something to complain about or we try to avoid that coworker who only wants to brag about her kids and never asks us how ours are doing. Whether it’s at work, in our family or in our daily interactions, difficult people seem to be everywhere.
This week I’m going to discuss the truth about difficult people, why we feel the way we do about them, tips for dealing with difficult people and a fun exercise that will have you laughing instead of dreading.
To find out more about how to create a successful CPA career with confidence, check out http://cpa-moms-coach.com/
You can find the show notes HERE
In this episode I'll be discussing what buffering is, why we buffer, how it hurts us and how to stop.
When we use buffering in our lives to “lessen or moderate the impact of something”, it’s to lessen the impact of our negative emotions. This can become so habitual that we aren’t even aware we are doing it. If we feel stressed or overwhelmed and tend to binge Netflix to escape, we are buffering.
Buffering hurts us because it dulls the aliveness of life. It shows up in our lives as overeating, overdrinking, overspending, overworking, over Facebooking and any other action that we overindulge in, in order to numb out uncomfortable feelings.
Buffering with external things puts us at a disadvantage because we believe we need the things in order to feel better.
By understanding what buffering is and what it is costing us, we can take the steps to stop and create the life we would like to have instead.
To find out more about how to create a successful CPA career with confidence, check out http://cpa-moms-coach.com/
You can find the show notes HERE
It’s that time of year when we bring out next seasons clothes and become re-familiar with what’s been stored away. It’s when the old can become “new” again. When we can make decisions about things we want to keep, discard or give away.
If you got swept up in the decluttering craze of Marie Kondo’s book “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up” like I did, you know all about only keeping items that you love and how to properly fold and store what you decide to keep. My husband joked that he had never seen our counter tops so sparse than when I became obsessed with the Kondo method.
This week I’m sharing the most important first step to organizing and simplifying your life and an exercise that will change how you feel in a dramatic way.
The thing I know now that has been missing from the organizing and simplifying craze is what I would consider as the first step before emptying everything from your closet onto the floor. It can make your life dramatically more organized and simplified and doesn’t require any storage bins.
To find out more about how to create a successful CPA career with confidence, check out http://cpa-moms-coach.com/
You can find the show notes HERE
A few weeks ago my husband had chosen to not speak to me for a day. I was mistaken about the time we were supposed to leave for something and I wasn’t ready when it was time to go so he went without me.
Before I learned how to manage my mind, this type of scenario would have played out with thoughts like these:
- Why is he not speaking to me?
- I already apologized for being mistaken about the time
- This reminds me of all the other times he’s given me the silent treatment
- I hope he talks to me soon so I can defend myself
- I hate when he’s in a bad mood
- This feel so uncomfortable
This week I’m going to discuss why we take things personally, what we can do instead, why it doesn’t make you an uncaring person and the key to learning how to stop taking things personally.
To find out more about how to create a successful CPA career with confidence, check out http://cpa-moms-coach.com/
You can find the show notes HERE
When was the last time you were happy at your job? When was the last time you came home and felt a sense of accomplishment?
In this episode I’m going to explore why you may not be happy at your job and what you can do to feel better.
When you have the awareness that I teach, it puts you in control of how you feel which means you will no longer be a victim of any circumstance.
Let’s face it - you spend way too much time at work to not feel the way you want to feel when you are there. The great thing is that it is 100% within your control.
To find out more about how to create a successful CPA career with confidence, check out http://cpa-moms-coach.com/
You can find the show notes HERE
Setting boundaries the correct way sets the stage for a more peaceful, resentment- free and drama- free life
Envision this – resentment free relationships, no longer engaging in gossip, clear and honest communication with others and with yourself, managing your relationship with technology, feeling peaceful and in control.
Sounds great right? It’s possible when you learn how to set proper boundaries in your life.
This week I’m going to share the secrets to setting boundaries (hint: just saying “no” is not setting a boundary), what a boundary is and is not and share an example from my life.
To find out more about how to create a successful CPA career with confidence, check out http://cpa-moms-coach.com/
You can find the show notes HERE
You are poised and ready at a time in history where women are truly needed in ways that are more important to businesses than ever before!
This week I’m going to explore my beginning as a female accountant, why statistics don’t paint a true picture, the female business owner trend, the new generation of “conscious creators” that female accountants are poised to support and how I can support you by showing you how to manage your mind.
This episode is only the beginning!
To find out more about how to create a successful CPA career with confidence, check out http://cpa-moms-coach.com/
Keep coming back because we are going to learn how to deal with mom guilt, how to reduce overwhelm, how to set proper boundaries, how to handle difficult people, how to get things done without added stress and much, much more.
Amazing things are possible when you learn how to manage your mind.
You can find the show notes from this episode HERE
This is the introduction to my podcast. Before I start posting my weekly podcast I wanted to introduce myself and tell you what this podcast will be about.
So let’s start with who I am – I am Dawn Goldberg. I have been a CPA for over 30 years and a mom for 26 years. I have worked for large firms like Deloitte & Touche and Ernst & Young as well as small firms.
The whole premise for this podcast is that you can have the thriving career and the happy family that you desire by learning some powerful things that I’ve learned along the way in my own life’s journey.
We’re going to talk about the best gift you CAN give your children, about the lies we are told as girls and women, how to build self confidence, the secret to minding your own business, why being a CPA and a mom is a perfect match, how to work part time and be successful if you choose to go that route and much, much more.
This podcast will show you that nothing you have experienced up to now is your fault. You were just never taught how your brain actually works and how you can take charge of it instead of it taking charge of you. You are going to learn a new way of being. It will inspire you to set big and small goals as well as show you how to have the balanced life you’ve only dreamed of.