The Ambitious Bookkeeper Podcast

188 | How to Become a Better Leader with Alyssa Lang

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In this episode, Alyssa Lang, my biz bestie & The Workflow Queen dives into what it truly means to be a great leader, focusing on how to move beyond everyday tasks and really lead your firm.

She breaks down five key pillars of leadership that will help you build a scalable, profitable, and well-aligned business. Alyssa shares her personal journey, explaining how shifting your mindset, setting the right offers, creating smooth systems, building a strong company culture, and removing yourself from daily operations can transform your firm.

Tune in for heartfelt stories and actionable advice!

In this episode you’ll hear:

  • 5 key pillars of leadership
  • resources for becoming a better leader
  • personal journey


Resources mentioned in this episode:


Connect with Alyssa:


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This week we're doing something little bit different. As you may know, I have a BizBestie, her name is Alyssa Lang, and if you are hearing about her for the very first time, well you are in for a treat today. I'm actually not going to be interviewing her, I am airing a solo episode that she recorded for her podcast on my podcast because I felt like this topic was such an An important topic to discuss. Now, some of you listening might be at the very beginning stages of your business. You might not really be thinking about hiring or adding team. And so the title of this episode is how to become a better leader. I don't want that to deter you from listening because when you start your own firm, even at the very beginning, you have to be a leader of your clients. And that's what Alyssa is going to also discuss in this episode today. So please don't turn off this episode. Keep listening. The more you learn about what's to come and what to expect and how to create a vision for your firm, the more success that you're going to have. So don't let episodes like this overwhelm you and get in the way of what's right in front of you. in the next, you know, few days or a few months, go ahead and listen with an open mind and you might have some big takeaways. Uh, one thing to mention in the episode, Alyssa does talk about her power to breakthrough bootcamp. At the time of this podcast airing, that bootcamp is over, but she is offering a removable CEO workshop where she will be covering a lot of the same topics in a condensed workshop. Live, so I'm going to link that in the show notes Just scroll down in the show notes and click on removable CEO workshop to join that it's completely free And I hope you really enjoy this episode I listened to it and I thought it was great and I just really wanted to share it with you So without further ado, let's dive in

Alyssa:

Being a great leader in your firm isn't just about managing people. It's truly about setting yourself up for success in a way that allows you to really step away from the day to day and actually lead the firm. It's about designing a business that doesn't rely on you for absolutely everything so you can finally focus on the big picture and also maybe do some advisory or whatever makes you feel good in life so that your firm can run like a well oiled machine. In this episode, we're diving into the five key pillars of leadership that will help you to create a scalable, profitable, and aligned firm without burning yourself out. We'll talk about the mindset shifts you need to make, the offers that you'll need to set up for success, the systems that keep everything running smoothly. The company culture that empowers your team to move forward and how to become truly removable. If you're ready to shift from overwhelmed business owner to confident leader, then keep listening guys, this is probably my number one favorite episode I have ever recorded. I poured my heart and soul into the topic of leadership and I felt extremely called to share this with you guys and I cannot wait for you guys to dive in. If you're anything like me, you most likely clicked on this episode because of its title. Because it had something to do with leadership and it has something to do with stepping into being a really good leader and what that actually looks like. The reason why this might have actually really attracted you to this episode and to really just sit here and immerse yourself into this is because At the end of the day, I feel like there's not a lot of information online or even just in general about like how to be a leader. And I think it's because a lot of leaders are still trying to figure that out themselves, myself included. I feel like no matter what, no matter how much of a blueprint we're given, or no matter how much of a strategy we're given, It's still such a vague topic, and that's because leadership can be whatever you make it, and whatever you want it to be. And so I really wanted to, honestly, I'm not gonna lie guys, I originally had a different episode ready for today. Um, to come out for you guys, but I am literally recording this the night before this is going to go live because I was just felt really called to share leadership tactics, leadership skill sets, leadership details with you guys. And to be honest, I love to be really transparent with you guys. I'm still figuring this out for myself. I've been in business since, my gosh, I think 2017 is when I started my very first business. Up until now, 2025, and literally in four days, we're about to hit five years here at Workflow Queen. We just hit three years in my firm, like, and then my firm before that, I no longer have it. I feel like I've just been going through the ups and downs. And I feel like as an individual, it is so crazy to look back at The different changes and the different versions of myself that I became in the process. And so I felt like this episode was really calling me more than I have ever experienced. And for me to literally scrap an episode to replace it the night before where I now have to actually edit it. We have a podcast producer and the poor guy can't even edit this because I just decided last minute to just make a change. I just felt really called to share this with you guys. So I'm very excited to dive into today's episode because I'm really going to be sharing it with you guys. A lot of what I think really builds true leadership within your firm and how to really step into that next version of yourself. And so when we're talking about leadership here, this episode is really going to be for those of you who are well past the newbie stage, who are just really leaning towards Getting yourself out of doing all the little mundane things and ready to kind of take that next leap in the business, but it's scary and it's uncomfortable and it's overwhelming and I totally get it. Trust me. If anyone gets it, it's totally me. Like I know what you're experiencing and know what you're going through. And if you are someone who's more at the newbie stage, it doesn't mean that that leadership is necessary or isn't necessary in the beginning stages. It's just not as prominent because in the beginning stages, you're just trying to like get your feet on the ground. In the ground, you're trying to plant yourself, become established. You're trying to build your business. Like you're trying to get there. When we're talking about leadership, you go from like being a solopreneur into someone who's like, okay, I actually have to step up. I now have to lead my clients. I have to lead my team and I have to lead myself. And so really this is for this, who this episode is for. And I really invite you for anyone who's listening, like I said, I'm going to drop a lot of really great information, but a lot of this isn't some blueprint. I'm not going to hand you over some master plan of like, you do this, you're going to be a great leader. It doesn't work like that. Leadership really comes from a transformation within. It is something that you have to truly master and you truly have to focus on in order to step in that to the next level version of yourself. So I don't want to paint this picture that this road is easy and that It's going to be rainbows and butterflies because I can tell you from experience, I always like to start these episodes with some sort of a personal connection with you guys and I will tell you from my own experience, I was thinking right before I hit record, the different moments and the different versions of myself that have truly happened over the years of being an entrepreneur. I was at that phase where I thought I was literally going to have a side hustle and that I would never have a team, that I would never hire anybody, and then it's changed. Now I can never imagine my business without my team. Like, now I don't want to operate at all without the team, right? And so the different versions of me that had to step into that. are so different. I still also remember like my first really big financial month, like the first month I ever made the most money I've ever made. I remember the first time that, um, that, that one month that I made more money than I did as a bartender. I remember those moments when I had to fire my first employee. Like I just remember different versions of myself. And if I look back at that prior version of myself, I wish I can give her a hug. I truly wish. I could take a step back and say, prior Alyssa, you're going to be okay. It's going to be hard, but you will get through it. But at the end of the day, this is only going to make you stronger. And so I want this to be a really quick reminder for you guys to just pause. And think through the different versions of yourself. And as you have navigated this entrepreneur life, as you have grown your firm, as you have landed new clients, as you put yourself out there, as you were uncomfortable, or you did things that weren't easy for you, I want you to pause this and I want you to think about those moments. We are so busy looking at the next freaking mile ahead of us. Today I had a call with one of my absolute favorite humans and she really helps me with. Getting out my thoughts and helping Amiya realign her name's Karen and I'm obsessed with her. We had a conversation today and she said something really interesting to me that I wanted to share with you guys. She said, we're all so focused at looking at the next mile, the next five miles, the next ten years, right? We're always looking at the bigger thing ahead of us, when instead you should only be looking at the next hundred feet. As far as your headlights can go. So she used that analogy. And it really resonated with me because like, it's true even for myself. Sometimes I'm always looking at ten years from now, five years from now, or like, Three months from now, instead of like, what is right ahead of you? We're always so focused on the major, massive things when we could just tackle what's in front of us. And so I just want you to pause and truly remind yourself of how far you really have come. This is, I don't know what it is about today, but today has just been a little bit heavy for me. And I'm like trying so hard to like keep it together here because like, it has been very hard and I'm trying to celebrate myself and I'm trying to celebrate. All these ups and downs I've experienced throughout the years and like the struggle, but at the same time, like the beauty that came with it. The things that have come from this entrepreneur life that I would have never imagined, like my version of myself, you know, 5, 7, 10 years ago, whatever, could have never imagined I will be in the place that I'm at. I would never even know, I didn't even know what a podcast was at that time, and I just It's insane. So I'm gonna keep that bar together and kind of leave it at that. So that's really what pulled me to really talk through this episode with you guys. And I think that most bookkeepers and accountants are really just kind of navigating. If you guys have ever like woken up and you just feel like you're living the same life every single day over and over again, it's like that in your business and you just feel like it's just so like redundant and you've lost your passion for it. I get it because that's how life can be as well. I just think that When we're trying to shift from being the entrepreneur and just being the team member and just being the employee of your own company Into stepping into leadership. I will tell you right now that if you don't shift into being a leader You cannot scale to the level at which you want to The saying that what got you here is not what's gonna get you there is a true thing. I have lived it I have breathed it. I have seen it for myself. I have experienced it in so many different ways, but And I've seen a lot of my students, and a lot of our audience here, just really going through the certain little shifts, those little things that you guys think, it's that, that, um, what is it, when a pilot shifts just one degree, it can land in a whole different destination. It's the same way, but we're so concerned about those little tiny things that we're doing, that we forget about those one degree shifts that actually shifted our whole entire company. And so I want you guys to just sit back. I'm going to be sharing a lot of tips that I have for you guys in order to really step into that next level version of yourself, which is becoming a leader and how to really truly manage the team, the company, and really skill it. Not only just for like the financial reasons, but also to grow as a human. I feel like my business has opened up. This version of myself that I feel like would have never existed if I didn't start a business. And it's just been such a beautiful transformation of who I am versus, like now, versus who I was then. So I think there's five core components. The easiest way I can explain this to you guys, which we are going to cover a lot of these components in my free Power to Breakthrough Bootcamp, which we're hosting from February 17th through February 21st. I will actually drop the link in the show notes if you guys are interested after we go through all of these components. If you're like, This is for me. I really need to learn more on this. I want to expand as a leader and I want to go beyond what I'm currently doing to make change for the benefit and the expansion of the business and make sure to join us in the bootcamp. There will be replays available for a short period of time until end of day on February 28th. So if you can't make it live, don't worry to any of the sessions. You can just sign up and you can just catch, catch the replays. So five core things that you guys need in order to really become a true leader of yourself. Number one, you have to have a powerful mindset. Two, you have to have the right offers. Three, the right systems. Four, the right team. And you actually, the last piece is to become truly removable from the day to day of work. So let's just go in and deep dive into these, each core of these, these core components. Sorry, excuse me. Okay. So the first one is powerful mindset. So I think that if we all just sit back, if you've been in business for quite some time, or you've experienced your ups and downs, you've been through the ringer and you know, and understand what it's like to just go through all the things, I want you to take a step back. Like I said, at the beginning of the episode, and I want you to remember the different pivotal moments within the business. your business that really truly shifted things for you, whether it shifted your mindset, whether you just exponentially grew, grew and you made a bunch more money, like what were those little moments in time that happened and what was happening around those times, if you can remember. True leadership guys starts with your mindset and not your mindset about your team, but your mindset within yourself. If you truly do not think that you are going to grow beyond what you're currently sitting at, or that you will never be able to find that right team member or, Oh my God, every time I hire, I just, there's never anybody good out there, or I hear this a lot. I've been hearing it a lot in our breakthrough program of there's just not people willing to work right now. Those are, if you keep telling yourselves that guys, You are always forever going to be stuck. The next core piece to becoming a really good leader is having the right offers within your firm. And so this means like taking a step back and determining who are you serving, how much are you making, how much time are you spending working as the owner of the company and also What do you have available to give out to your team? So you might be thinking, Alyssa, how does this have to do with anything that I have to do with a leader? The reason why I say this is because a lot of the times in order to step into the next level version of yourself and become the true leader, you have to have alignment. And sometimes we've picked up clients that we don't like working with or We have offers that we actually hate, some services that we just do not like delivering on. There are some things along the way that somewhere, somehow, you just decided let's try this or let's try that, but you never took the time to purge the things that no longer work for you. And so this actually does make a difference when you want to step into being a leader. What are some things that are kind of like the dead weight within your company? So that might mean like, let's just use taxes as an example. That was my dead weight. That was something that, in my very first firm, I used to do bookkeeping and taxes. And I loved it at the time. At the time, it served me. It was great. I think it was a really good time, until it didn't serve me anymore. Then when I started my second firm, I was like, absolutely not. Not bringing on taxes. Will not go there again. And that was okay. It didn't make me any less of a human, any less of a leader. It didn't make anything bad or wrong just because I decided to ixnay on any of our tax services. So I want you to take a step back and look at what feels misaligned within the firm. Maybe there's some clients that you guys have picked up along the way, just like I said. That maybe were incredible clients when you first brought them on, but then turned into nightmare PETA clients. And if you don't know what PETA is, it's pain in the ass people. Anyways, so like, what are those people that you have brought on or brought into your world as far as that you're serving in with your services and that you're charging money for? Are you charging what you're actually worth? Maybe at the first moment of starting your business, you charged really cheap because you didn't have confidence and you were feeling like You know, this is what I want to charge people because that's what feels good for me. You've probably changed over time. If you've been in business for three, four years, you probably have a crap ton of confidence. You probably really know what the hell you're doing because you got a lot of education. You probably have invested a lot of software and a lot of systems in order to get you to support your clients to the next level. So I want you guys to take the time to think about that. As stepping into this leadership role, that means that you also have to face, going back to mindset, the really hard, hard decisions that are going to make you feel really uncomfortable to let go of things that no longer serve you and that you feel fully misaligned with. Whether that's clients, the time you're spending on something, anything. So are you still offering services that require too much of your time? That could be another thing as well. Doesn't mean you need to get rid of it. What it might need is a reality check of like, is it time to actually delegate that work? So if you're anything like me, I wish I could see you guys because I want to say like, raise your hand. If you're anything like me, you probably loved bookkeeping at one point. You loved categorizing transactions. You thought freaking reconciliations were the coolest thing in the whole entire world. And now like years later, you're like, I dread, literally dread the idea of categorizing anything. And it's because there's a natural progression that happens in life, just like, you know, and also within your team and within yourself and within your offers and your clients as well, is that over time, You will get bored of things. Over time, you'll no longer feel in alignment with something. You'll no longer desire to do something. And that's the same for your offers. So it doesn't mean you need to get rid of it. You might like really want to be diving into advisory, but you can't until you delegate the other services that you need off your plate. And this is where becoming a really clear leader comes into play. We need to look at those things and say, realistically, I no longer want to do this. I need to bring someone else in. We might not have the funds for it because I have been charging not enough this whole time and I need to change that and I need to get uncomfortable and have those scary conversations with those clients I no longer align with or the ones that I'm charging dirt cheap. It's time for the reality check that we need to change something in order for this to happen. One big thing that I want to tell you guys is profitability in your company is freedom. Let me repeat that again. Profitability in your company is freedom for you. You need offers that truly support your business, your clients, and your ability to actually remove yourself from the daily tasks. This is it. Huge. This is a very pivotal moment. This is a main reason that I believe people become really detached from their company and they start to resent it. It's because the energy that you put into your work is not representative of what you are currently taking home, aka your profitability. And I truly believe that that's a reason why people end up hating their companies. I love my business 100%. However, on the other coin, I'm also in a weird place where I'm like, what am I doing? Where do I want to go? Because even for myself as my own leader, I'm going through my own natural progression where I'm like, okay, been there, done that. Now I want to move on to something else. And that's kind of where I'm at in my own journey. And so, but for me, What I love is that I don't resent my company because my company pays me beyond what I believe I deserve because I do deserve it because I've put in the work for it. So you want to make sure that you have the right offers that aren't making you resent your company. And if you're one of those people listening right now that you have learned to resent your company, that you're no longer happy, it just might be that you're doing tasks that you shouldn't be doing anymore. It might also be that you're not, you're not earning enough. And I know that's really hard to hear and super scary, especially when you're like hearing me on the other coin saying like, Hey, gay guys hire. Like, how am I going to hire if I don't have the profitability right now to pay myself? Aren't I going to resent the team? It's not like that. Sometimes it's short term pain for long term gain. And I want you guys to take a step back and I really want you to think through the idea of profitability equals freedom. So the key takeaway of reshifting your offers as you're stepping into more of a leadership role. So I want you to look at your services, your offers, and your clients, and I really want you to ask yourself, Is this truly built to scale? Are these clients that I'm currently working with going to take me to that next level version of myself plus the next level of, of the firm? Am I also doing tasks that are mundane and that I don't like doing and that no longer challenge me that I can easily outsource? Absolutely. So I want you to take that away. Then I want you to take the time to actually think through that. The next core component of becoming a really great leader is that you have to have world class systems. I get this all the time. Most people think that systems are just software. That systems are things like Keeper, or Notion, or Asana, or QuickBooks, or Xero. Whatever that is. Systems are not just softwares. Systems are so many different moving parts within the business that help to keep things moving. Organize and working efficiently to take the ease off of your plate. So a lot of the times we are doing all these different things in the business, not realizing that you do have a system. You might not have documented it. You do have a process for that. You do have a system. You do have some workflows. You've got things working for you. But you don't realize because you've never stopped to slow down to get these things into place. Some of the most successful companies in the world have systems that work to a T for that's repeatable that anybody can come in they can hire them and they can get the job done. The same needs to be for you and I know a lot there's a lot of resistance in the accounting space where You know, my clients are very nuanced and this client has this unique situation and this client has this. I get it guys. I've done it myself as well. I've been in the industry for quite some time now. We also have our own clients as well, and I know what it's like to feel these nuances. However, we have a system around how to deal with nuances for our clients. However, we also on the other coin have a lot of really great processes and systems for how to manage all of our clients. At the end of the day, we need to create repeatable processes, workflows, and automations to help train up the team, get things off our plates, be able to get people to step in so you can do what you truly desire to do. Your desire could be things like, I want to go on vacation or I want to do advisory services, but you can't because your, your bookkeeping is still, Something that you're stuck in doing every single day, or maybe you're pulling all your statements or you're organizing your Google drive folder, you know, because you've, you're not letting go of the mindset that like you can't trust anybody. So like you see how all of this is really leading into being a next level version of yourself and becoming a leader. Really good leaders have really good systems and processes and they're willing to invest in the right support. to make it happen. I also know from experience as someone who I do, I think that I'm a great leader. I'm saying think. I actually, I don't want to say think. I actually know that I'm a great leader. I still have a lot to learn, but I know I'm a really great leader. But one thing I will say is that really good leaders are willing to invest in the right systems, team, and things in order to move and scale the business forward. And sometimes with you guys trying to figure everything out from scratch all by yourself. Can really get in the way. I'm not saying it's not possible. Anybody can, you guys are smart ass people. You could figure out absolutely anything. However, when you invest in working with someone who has already been there, done that, has a repeatable process, repeatable system, has a good, um, system going, Why not just take it from them? Like, why try to like reinvent the wheel? Why try to do it from scratch? The thing is, once you see someone else's process, you get those things implemented, you could tweak them to be unique to you. You can, you can set up different automations or scrap things that don't make sense for you or change things over here. But the cool part is you don't have to set that foundation for yourself. And this is why I always say, guys, this bootcamp of ours that's coming up is going to be one of your favorite things that this is something that you really want to focus on is. If you are, let's go back to one year ago version of yourself, if one year ago you said you were going to implement that one thing or hire that one team member and you're still here one year later, Not have implemented that thing and not have hired that person or not have done the thing that you said you were. It's because you're just capped out. It's because you're not focusing on the right things. It's because you're trying to reinvent the wheel because maybe you just don't want to sit there and spend the money on being able to get the right systems and processes or the right team. If you're still in the same spot from one year ago, I really am going to highly recommend it. Our bootcamp is absolutely free, guys. You can come to it. It's February 17th to February 21st. You're absolutely going to love it. It's for those of you who really want to scale and step into leadership and actually remove yourself from the day to day. It is the bootcamp for you because we're going to talk about how to identify the biggest problems in the business so you can focus that on that area so you can truly scale. If your firm isn't systematized, it's not scalable. So I want you to, the key takeaway for this one is I want you to think back and ask yourself, what is the biggest bottleneck in your business right now? What, AKA, what is the thing that is keeping you stuck? And that is where you need to focus on and the thing that you need to work on the most. I want you to work through the mindset of the system of like, letting go of this idea that there's this perfect software out there that can do absolutely everything. We all know for a fact that doesn't exist. And even if you found something that gets really damn close, usually the software won't do everything great. It'll only do a couple of some things really well, right? And so I want you guys to take a step back and ask yourself, what are areas of the business that I have been lacking or not willing to put in the work to do the right things like documenting systems and processes. So that way, even for yourself, even if you don't have a team for yourself to grow, to easily be able to get through the work. Cause for me, I don't want to be bogged down by remembering every single month, how we pull those, those, those. Transactions in this one software, I would rather just read something that tells me how to do it. And that's because we've documented those things. It makes life so much easier. So we have two more components to being a really great leader. The fourth component is Empowered Company Culture. So you cannot lead without a team you trust. If you don't trust your team, That's a systems issue, a leadership issue, or a people issue. At the end of the day guys, true leaders and those who step up and actually say, I'm going to lead these people behind me, actually need people to lead. You could be leading clients. You could be leading team. You could be leading yourself. You need to have a good, solid team and a team does not need to be 10 employees, full time, full benefits. It can literally be you and one contractor. It does not matter what the structure is. It's all about you stepping into the next leadership version of yourself. Do you think, and I'm going to use Jeff Bezos, whether you like him or not, do you think Jeff Bezos is sitting there and packaging boxes, and also looking at KPIs, and also running team meetings, and over here like doing customer support? No. And I know that's like a billion dollar company that I'm using as reference, but I want you to think back to any successful company that you know, like, and trust, and think about who is behind the scenes actually leading them and moving them forward. Leaders aren't doing, guys. Leaders are talking, speaking, providing, supporting. Educating, like they are truly looking at things from a high level perspective and giving guidance to their team to watch them to bring things to life and bring the end result to life of what you want from your firm. So once again, you can't lead without a team you trust. And when we're talking about team that we trust, this goes back to, what's your system for actually bringing on team members? Are you willy nillying it and just posting in a Facebook group? And saying, hey guys, I have a job, does someone want to get hired? I see this all the time in the industry. And it's okay guys, if you've done that, it's totally fine. But however, are you really putting in the effort to bring a good team in? No wonder you're hiring people that don't care about the company, that don't, you know, they come in and they have no skill set because you're just being so loose about your hiring process. And this is where we really come into the play. This is something that we actually really heavily focus on, on our group coaching program breakthrough. We walk people through the ideation of hiring, the actual hiring, the onboarding, the everything they need to do to bring their team up to par. And like I shared at the beginning of the episode, Even for someone who has their system so down for hiring, we've got everything in place, has still managed to hire a couple of wrong hires and that's okay. Like I said, we then looked at what part of the system of our hiring system needs some reworking so we can avoid that same issue again. And we did. We went back. Instead of crying in the corner and saying, Oh my god, I'm never gonna hire a grade, and our system sucks, and it's never gonna work. We just identified the part of the system that we just needed to tweak and just change just a little bit. to fix, to never have to have that problem ever again. And so I went back and I hired again. We hired an incredible employee and I'm like obsessed with her. And so it's all about just tweaking things here and there. And so just make sure that you guys are looking at how can I be a leader and take a high level look at what is our hiring like so I can lead this team and make sure that I'm supporting them. A good leader is someone is not someone who has a death grip on their team. Is constantly hovering over them, constantly asking them for everything. It's someone who is really letting go of control and allowing their team to make mistakes. How many mistakes did you make in your own business that actually helped you move forward? When you did mistakes, you fixed them. We moved on. I'm not saying that it's It's have your team make mistakes left and right. There are things that you can put in place that avoid mistakes like quality control, which we will talk about at our boot camp. So I'll show you guys my exact quality control process that we have in place. So that way the team does the work and then we go through quality control before it gets handed off to the clients to make sure it's up to standards and it's up to clear and the expectations of what I want for the quality of work that we produce for our clients. Another big thing, too, when it comes to creating the right team to be able to step into that leadership role is you must set clear expectations, track KPIs, and have really hard conversations. That's the part that I think scares the people the most when it comes to hiring is I don't ever want to have to go through and fire someone. Well, so of course you not wanting to ever have to fire someone is the reason why you can't even get to hiring them because like, you're so fearful of having to fire someone that you won't even hire someone. And so you see how your own mindset will get in the way of things. You must set clear expectations. If you failed to bring on a team member and they're just not executing up to standards, I always ask people, did you tell them exactly what you wanted? Oh yeah, well I told them on the Zoom onboarding call. You told them one time on a Zoom onboarding call, when they learned everything about the company and everything that you were like throwing at them, and you expect them to remember the expectations. You need to have this stuff jotted down, guys. When we're hiring an employee, we do, and we never used to, guys. This is something that we never used to do, but then after a couple of, you know, months You know, things that felt out of alignment with team members. We rolled this out, going back to us, me being a leader and looking at high level, what needs to be changed is we now have clear expectations that we do for 30, 60, 90 days. So when someone's hired, they're given a 30, 60, 90 day plan that says at 30 days, I need you here. At 60 days, you're going to be here and it's unique to every single person that we hire because everyone that we hire, even if they're like all being hired as bookkeepers, all of them are being hired with different like skill sets. Um, as much as we try to get it specific to the job, sometimes people just bring in different unique approaches. Um, so we customize them. So when we're hiring them, We do a 30, 60, 90 day plan. And this is really great because it gives them the clear expectation. They know exactly what they're working towards. And it gives us a place to say, if you're not meeting these expectations, we're going to have to let you go. And so now it's black and white. There's no emotions. It gets the job done. And usually the team with the clear expectations will actually execute on them. The other thing I KPIs. So KPIs are key performance indicators. These are like metrics. So black and white data. So data, stats, that tell you if the team is executing up to standards. A lot of people are always asking me like, Alyssa, what KPIs can I have in place for bookkeepers? And what can I have in place for account managers, and onboarding specialists, and all these different team members, or even for myself, or even for the company in general? And I always tell people like, this is where you will love the bootcamp. I'm dead serious. We will talk about KPIs on day four of the bootcamp. And like I said, if you want to catch the replay, you can feel free to do so. We're going to talk and deep dive into what types of KPIs that you can have in place. Um, we will talk about our good, better, best system, how we actually use metrics in a good, better, best way, um, which make it really easy for us to clearly state and identify. Uh, what success metrics we've tied to each role. So that way they know they're successful. And then also we know that they're successful. The last component of being a really good leader when it comes to your team is really hard conversations. This is by far the scariest part of hiring. And I'm not here to tell you this to scare the hell out of you. I'm actually being really honest. I think people paint this picture that hiring is great. It's perfect. It's like you live in this little world and you bring them on and they're going to make you all this money and they're just going to do the job so great. It's bullshit. It truly is. It is really hard. To be a leader. And sometimes you want to be like friends with your team members and you want to connect with them at the end of the day, you are their boss. I hate the word boss. Like it really bothers me. I want to be called leader, but I am the boss at the end of the day. I am someone's boss. I have employees like all over the U S from both my companies. I have to lead them, but it also means I have to have hard conversations. I never thought I had to have. I recently had to go through um, firing my very first employee. I've let go of contractors. I feel like it's so different than when it's an employee. And it was a full time employee, full benefits. They had kids, like, It just was a lot and it was very emotional. I cried, guys. Like, I legit cried. But you know what I did? I leaned on my support system. So I have support in so many different areas. I have other bookkeepers that I talk to. I have some people that are my best friend who also run businesses. I talk to my dad a lot about this kind of stuff because he has a lot of experience with firing people with the company he works with. And being a good leader means you have to be willing to have hard conversations. And they don't have to sometimes mean, uh, malicious or, or angry or pissed off or even that you have to fire them. It could be as simple as, I noticed that you messed up in this client set of books. I need you to do better. Those are hard conversations. And I know that if you're, you don't have to be a confrontational person. You just have to be willing to put yourself out there. I remember the day that I had to tell my business partner at Magnetic Profits. At that time, it was called Magnetic Bookkeeping Consulting Semi Firm. I remember the day that I got on a call with my business partner and said, I don't think this is working. And it's either you buy me out, I buy you out, or we dissolve the company. That was one of the absolute hardest conversations I've ever had to have in business. And the idea in this painted picture I gave it, of what I thought was gonna happen from that conversation, was she was gonna yell at me, she was gonna cuss at me, tell me I'm a shitty person. Like, I worked up in my mind this idea. What actually happened was, oh my gosh Alyssa, Like, and she opened up to me. She opened up to me and said, I'm, I'm a little hurt right now, but at the end of the day, I understand your decision. And I worked myself up for no freaking reason. At the end of the day, it's like, why am I doing this? Why are we killing ourselves for no reason? For, for what? To like, usually the, what we painted in our picture isn't what usually happens. And so what if she would have yelled at me? So what if she would have told me I'm a bad person? It's just a reflection of her and not of me. Right? And so we usually work up these ideas in our mind that aren't actually true. So hard conversations will take you a really long way. And usually the team, like, I can't tell you how many hard conversations I've had to have that have turned into beautiful success because they're like, okay, Alyssa, I got you. I'll fix it. Let's do it. You know, stuff like that. Your job as a leader, guys, is not to micromanage, but it's to empower your team. I'm going to repeat that again. Your job as a leader is to not micromanage, but it's to empower and lead your team. It is to educate them. It is to make them feel confident. It is to make them feel like they are doing good because they are, because you have the stats to prove it. They are hitting expectations. It is your job to empower your team in order to be a good leader. So what I want you to reflect on when it comes to your team as a leader is look at your team and what do you currently need to do to step up as a leader in order to better serve them, to better guide them, to better educate them. If you don't currently have a team, what can you put in place right now to make sure you're hiring the right people? If you don't know that answer, come to the bootcamp. We're going to be here to support you. The last moving component of being a true leader within your firm is to remove yourself from the day to day. I get a lot of pushback from people all the time on this. Alyssa, I love my job, like not job, I love my business. I don't, I don't need to be removed. I want to be here every single day. That's great. And I'm so happy for you. However, life, lives. And when it does, you will want to make sure that you can actually step away from the company if you need to. I can't tell you how many conversations I've had with people where they're like, Um, you know, this person passed away and I had to step away from the company for two weeks. Um, this happened, my kids were really sick for a week, or I was really sick and I had to be in the hospital, or I just recently got on a call with one of our students and, and she told me about how her husband has cancer and she now has to step away for six weeks to go help him through remission. Like those are really hard and I know that the majority of you won't experience some crazy stories like that, but however, life will life and when it does, you want to make sure that you are stepped into more of the leadership role and that you can remove yourself from the day to day. You don't have to get rid of the things you don't want to, guys. You can work on whatever the hell you want to work on. But like I said, when you fall out of love with things like doing reconciliations and bank feeds and doing all these things, and you want to move on to advisory, wouldn't it be really nice to be able to become more of an advisor and not have to do those things because you've stepped into that leadership role? The goal is not to remove yourself entirely from the business. It's to remove yourself from the work that holds you back. The things that hold you back as an individual. You are meant for so much more. And in order to do that, you have to lead yourself, you have to lead your team, we have to lead our clients, we have to lead. Your firm needs you to lead. You are going to be stuck on deliverables and stuck on doing things if you don't step away. A real leader invests in their own growth. I want you to surround yourself with the right support, the right mentorship, and the right people. This could be people in your life, these could be your loved ones, it could be other bookkeepers in the online space. For me, it's my breakthrough group. I have a group coaching program called Breakthrough, and we have a Facebook group. It is one of my favorite things. For anyone who's a Breakthrough student, you guys might not know that I actually really love that group as much as you guys probably think I do, even though we're constantly in there supporting you guys. I learn a lot from you guys too. There's a lot of things I pick up. There's a lot of moments where I come and lean on them. Sometimes I'm in a coaching call and I actually share what I'm going through and people encourage me along the way. I have my support system. I've got my biz besties, Brooke Swan. I've got Serena Shoup. I've also got my real life best friends as well. Not that they're not real life, but they're real life best friends too. But you get what I'm saying? I have my other best friends who aren't in the accounting space, who I lean on all the time that I ask for support, that have different insight because one's in the more marketing realm. My dad's in more of the. The construction realm, but even though it doesn't relate to what I do, he does understand what it's like for me to have hard conversations with team members. He knows what it's like to run a multi million dollar business. He knows what that's like, right? My dad doesn't own the company. He works for the company. And for me, like he gets it. He gets what being a leader is like because my dad has to be a leader. So I want you to surround yourself with other people who are experiencing what you're experiencing. I have outgrown some relationships. I let go of my prior boyfriend, loved him to death, such a great man, because my mindset expanded way beyond where he was. It is so crucial, and this is why I'm really gonna push, please join us in the boot camp. You will find your people. I'm not joking when I say, I Love the groups that I curate. Like our breakthrough group, I am so obsessed with our students. We actually are hosting a, um, a, uh, our first time of a breakthrough retreat for only breakthrough students. We actually sold it out in 24 hours because they have been begging me to do this. It's in Zion at the end of March. And I'm so freaking excited. We're not doing any. We're not doing any strategizing. We're just there to be around each other. And it's so freaking cool that 30 of our students, because we can only find a villa for like 30 people, are coming together in another state. They're flying in to all be with each other because they've gotten so close and they, they get on calls together. They co work together. You have to find your people, people. So the main takeaway from the becoming a removable leader. is what's one thing that you can stop doing today to truly step into your leadership role? I think this episode, I'm actually even going to listen to my own episode. I think I needed to hear this as I was talking out loud to support you guys. I am going through a weird, weird shift in my life right now of just my own version of leadership and not just in the business, but also in my life. The way I lead myself as an individual. Um, I'm having to let go of some relationships that I absolutely adore, but that are no longer serving me. And it's freaking hard. I'm having to have really hard conversations. I'm having to let go of control. I'm having to allow my, my own friends to step up and help me because for so long, I've always wanted to control the things, right? And so I want you guys to know that when you do this for yourself in business, It will trickle into your life. Leadership isn't something that just happens. It's truly something you build. And that's exactly why I created our Power to Breakthrough Bootcamp, guys. That's happening February 17th to February 21st. If you're ready to step into becoming a true leader of your firm and build your firm of your dreams that runs without you and you don't have to do everything and you can focus on what you love, you can create real systems at scale, this is the bootcamp for you. I will drop it in the show notes for you guys. I would really love for you guys to be there. Inside this bootcamp, I'll really help to work with you guys through your mindset, shifts, your offers, your systems, your leadership strategies that you need to finally get out of the weeds and step into the role as a true CEO. It's absolutely free. I'd love to see you there. Plus you can find your people. So as a quick, a quick recap of this episode, we talked about the core components of becoming a really good leader, which means you're having the right mindset, the right offers, the right systems, the right team, To truly help yourself to get to that next level version of yourself that isn't the doer, but instead the leader. I am so beyond excited that I switched this episode. Like this all just came from the heart guys. I literally did not script one thing in this episode. You could probably tell by my voice. I'm like so passionate about what I'm talking about because it is something that I wish someone would have talked to me about sooner of how to truly become the leader that I absolutely needed for myself, for my team, and for my clients. I can't wait to see you guys at the bootcamp. Um, I am so pumped for it. I cannot wait. I pour my heart and soul into these things. I can't wait to see you flourish as a leader. If you want to share any of your takeaways from today's episode, please feel free to email us at support at WorkflowQueen. com or come on Instagram at WorkflowQueen. I'd be happy to hear. Okay guys, don't forget, always step into the next level leadership version of yourself. You will never have the mindset to expand yourself. You need to pour into your mindset. Because you have to believe that while yes, maybe you're not getting applicants to your job, or maybe you're not getting the income that you want, or maybe you're not seeing the amount of clients that you want in your firm, or you're, nobody's taking you serious, whatever the reason is, if you always think that that is who you are, or what you're going to be like, or, or what is destined for you, you're never going to grow further than you're currently at. And I know that's really hard to hear, but this is something that you really have to expand. And, and I know it's not the affirmations of just looking in the mirror and saying, you could do good, Alyssa. Like you're the best and you're the best at this. And you're going to hire all the right people. Affirmations are great, but affirmations are not going to move you forward. What's really going to move you forward is looking and understanding that. Okay. The reality is right now, we currently don't have applicants at this position that we really need to fill. To fill. Does this mean by this one specific moment that this defines that for the rest of our hiring? Process in the future that we will never be able to hire someone. No, that's stupid, right? Now that you break it out like that, you're, you're, you're, you're really just saying like in this moment that forever in the future, I'm never going to be able to hire because nobody's applying right now. When maybe it's not about that nobody's applying, it's the fact that you are approaching it from the wrong way. Maybe you are not looking at a different angle. Maybe there's an option, opportunity for you to run ads to that, uh, hiring job post, right? Maybe there's a way that you can tweak the copy to make sure that it's really calling to people. Maybe you have more attractive benefits. There's always a ways, guys. There's always a way, but if you have this mindset that you're never going to get what you want, then you won't get what you want. And I know that's really hard to hear is something that I have to constantly remind myself of. This has come up for me a lot. Um, I'll give you a really great example. This past year, I actually had two failed hires. I don't think there's really ever such a thing as failures. I just really genuinely think you'll always learn a lesson, but I call, I'm going to call them for simplicity sake failed hires. But for the people who have heard the two situations that I went to in this past year on certain hires that we brought in that didn't work out for us, you would think that most people would say, how do you even want to hire again? I was literally at the dog park with a friend of mine and she said, I don't understand why you want to hire after like what you experienced. I'm like, Because not everyone's like that. Because not everyone's gonna put me in that situation. Not everyone isn't gonna perform the way that I want to. It's just that person particularly. So what can I do instead of me being like, Oh, woe is me, I'm just gonna cry in the corner and no one's ever gonna hire. Like, no one's gonna be happy working for me and blah blah blah. All these reasons why I'm gonna sabotage myself. Instead I took a step back and said, How can I avoid that in the future? What systems or processes or things can we put into place to attract the right person that actually won't be that same person. And so you have to really let that stuff go. And I know that might be really harsh for you guys, but this is why it is one of the most important things. Parts of the puzzle. You can only grow as far as you think what's capable. If you only think that you are capable of making a hundred K, you will only make a hundred K. If you think that you're capable of making seven figures, you will make seven figures. You get to determine what you are going to do with your life. But I know and understand at one point in my life, I never thought it was possible to ever see seven figures. Ever. I really genuinely thought that was something that I Some aliens in the universe would do but no human could like I genuinely thought that until I proved to myself that I could Do it, but I also went through this gap and phase of my life where I was like I am capping myself because I don't believe it so I want you guys to take a step back and I want you to guys to start making uncomfortable decisions and Uncomfortable put yourself in uncomfortable situations not uncomfortable like weird. I'm talking like When you're scared, usually the thing you're scared of is the thing that's going to take you to the next level. In order to grow, you have to be uncomfortable. That might mean something like putting yourself out there on social media. It might mean emailing someone that you really want to work with, but you always felt like you'd be too pushy and salesy. Well, obviously, if you think you're going to be too pushy and salesy, you're most likely going to become too pushy and salesy. Why not think to yourself, I will not be pushy and salesy. I will be approachable and fun because I genuinely think I can support this person and help them. Be uncomfortable. And in order to really grow, you have to get really good at being uncomfortable. That is my 1000 percent life motto is the more uncomfortable I am, the more I actually grow as an individual. And so the key takeaway when it talks about mindset when it comes to being a leader is I want you guys to sit back and say, what mindset shift do you need to make today? To start stepping into a new leadership role. Maybe you've been holding onto this idea that you're the only one that can execute like the best and that no one else that you hire will ever care about your clients. Like you do. Maybe you're just sitting here thinking that all your systems fails or failed or nothing works for me or no software ever works for me, or I can never find this. Anytime you say, I can never, you're already setting yourself up for failure. I want you to sit back and say, and ask yourself, what mindset shift do I need to make today to step into that next version of myself? During our bootcamp, we're really going to be deep diving into the things that I see a lot of people in the industry saying to themselves that are keeping you guys stuck. So I highly recommend popping into the bootcamp. It is going to be well worth your time if you're really trying to step into that next leadership version of yourself. Serena here again. Thank you so much for sticking through this episode and listening to Alyssa and everything that she had to share about leadership. I truly hope this episode was as impactful for you as it was for me. And just one more reminder, the bootcamp has come and gone, so every mention that she had of the boot camp, I'm so sorry you've missed it. Stay tuned for the next one in the future, but if you are interested in learning from Alyssa right now, You can actually join her Removable CEO Workshop, which has a lot of the same stuff she's covered in the bootcamp in a condensed format in a shorter workshop version. So I highly recommend jumping into that. Go to the show notes and click on Removable CEO Workshop. All right, we'll see you guys next week. Be ambitious.

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