Xero certainly know how to put on a show: Xerocon London was fantastic from start to finish. The key notes, breakout sessions and the awards. Just wow.
The main theme was “human at heart” which was felt across everything from the Xero talks, to the Xero family, and the welcoming community feel there was as everyone chatted and caught up with Apps and teams they know.
There’s one speaker who stood out to so many people, and that’s Ben McBean: a former Royal Marine Commando who was injured in Afghanistan and lost 2 limbs. He shared how he didn’t let this life changing situation stop him reaching his goals like completing the London Marathon or climbing Mount Everest.
His talk was incredible. Honest. Heartbreaking. Real. Positive. Human at heart. Pure inspiration when it comes to positive mindset and setting yourself a goal to focus on, and chip away at achieving no matter what set-backs come along.
Ben’s hurdles were obviously different to those we face in business however that positive mindset that’s needed is the same.
You’re not just going to reach your goal of winning a Xero award without putting in effort. It won’t just come to you. You need to work towards it, push through that pain again, and again, and again until you get there. That first time you feel pain it’s not going to be pleasant. But the next time you feel this same pain you’ll already know you can overcome it and every step will get easier and easier as you keep going towards that goal.
Just as Ben felt, there will be times when it seams too much, it’s going nowhere, it’s hard. But don’t stop, because this is your indicator that things are changing and to push on.
As the winners of the Xero awards were announced you could see each firm has the same mindset as Ben and that they had committed to working towards their goal, staying positive: and now they realised their dream and were standing up on stage on front of 3,000 other accountants getting presented with an award from Gary Turner CEO of Xero. Boom, they’ve done it!!
The Xero Awards winners:
Huge well done to them all.
The four firm’s below stand out to PF as they have all focus on marketing, invested time, money and effort in showing truly who they are through their brand, website and content. Marketing is a big part of their firm and has helped show their prospects, clients and Xero just how great they are.
Accounting came naturally to them, but marketing didn’t so they’ve all had to learn new skills, actually do marketing and keep in their mind that one day it’s all going to pay off. They all accepted that it would take time to see results with their content but kept pushing forward.
Emerging Firm of the Year Ireland: RDA Accountants
Check out the interview with Paul here!
“Sometimes things take a little bit longer. Persistence is the thing! This is a journey not a sprint.” Paul Redmond.
Small Firm of the Year: Rowdens Chartered Accountants
Most Valued professional (MVP): Cheryl Price CH Accountancy & Bookkeeping
100% Xero award finalist: Raedan
What’s your goal for your firm?
Grown your business? Deliver amazing client experience? Build your firm’s brand? Pick up a Xero Award in 2019?
We ask our Accelerator members this too. They all set themselves a challenge to reach their goal and work towards this over the 12 weeks of the course. Learning every week and gaining clarity as they actually do marketing.
Try it, and focus. Push through. Write that blog even if it takes a full day: because the next time it’ll be 12 hours, then 6 hours. Best of all it’ll be human.
Or start that client onboarding process: make the time, focus on what you want them to experience, what can be automated so that the process is seamless?
The journey, the pain, the sweat and the tears are what makes you human. And your firm human at heart. Connecting you with your prospects and clients.