Voices

Got Passion? These Accountants Do

In case you were wondering where the passionate accountants were, there’s a new Web site that will tell you, appropriately called “The Passionate Accountant.”

The new Web site  has been created by a group of accountants – all members of Mentor Plus Consultant Accountants Round Table (CART) – in an effort to change the perception of the accounting profession.

On the site you’ll find a directory of passionate providers by state (not all states are represented), a list of success stories describing how businesses overcame challenges, and blog posts written by some of the passionate accountants on the site. You’ll also find resources that support the work of passionate accountants and successful business owners – one of which includes the book, “Crush It!” by Gary Vaynerchuk, which focuses on social media, branding and marketing. It ultimately became the inspiration for The Passionate Accountant Web site.

See, before the holidays, Edi Osborne, chief executive of Mentor Plus, mailed each CART member a copy of “Crush It!” with instructions to read it before their quarterly meeting in January. When the group arrived in Las Vegas last week for their meeting they were asked to share their thoughts on the book and how it might relate to their practice.

Of course, many of the CPAs in the room admitted to skepticism – they did relate to the underlying message about sharing their passion and yes, taking advantage of social media to do it.

But that wasn’t enough. They were asked to prove it. How were they using social media?

Many weren’t.

However, by the end of the first day of the meeting, every accountant in the room (some who had even resisted setting up a basic LinkedIn profile) were signing up for Twitter, writing blog posts and yes, even creating Facebook pages.

Why?

Well, a little peer pressure and mentoring went a long way.

“We had been educating these guys about social media for two years,” Osborne said. “I just decided it was time we lock them in a room and walk them through the process from beginning to end. We weren’t going to let them out until they had captured some of their amazing stories on paper. These accountants go way beyond the typical to help their clients succeed and have some great stories to tell. But rather than just share them with our roundtable group, we decided to go public. We were blown away by the results.”

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