“I have found my people” is a common phrase I use when referring to one of my sons. He is a brilliant boy with loads of potential. At a young age, he can discuss engineering, astrophysics and hold his own talking with adults but not all kids find those topics interesting. All this vast intellect and few people who get him can be frustrating but there is the BRIGHT shiny side to being so narrow in your search for friends when you find them YOU TRULY FIND THEM! This is how I feel about Scaling New Heights.
The first time I experienced Scaling New Heights I had the pleasure of sitting next to William "Murph" Murphy on the plane to San Antonio, Texas. I talked to him and it didn’t take long to discover he was 'somebody special.' The more I talked to him the more I was impressed by not only his kindness and knowledge but with the idea of more people at the conference who understood the environment of QuickBooks. I don’t claim to be the best, or the most knowledgeable, in all fields but finding people who talk a similar language, people who get it when I say "the A/R is off on the BS and it might be the Undeposited funds need to be cleared" is exciting!
A funny thing happened even after I walked away from Scaling New Heights, our firm changed and we started to change the dialogue at our firm into one of vision and with more passion. Even though we worked with each other every day our vision was more united because we could see the future together. I encourage firms to take their team so the vision of the direction of their business can be a shared experience. I am thankful I was brought along as a team member, I am thankful my lead thought enough of me and my potential to ask me to join her in the vision of the business which has changed our firm, and now I am now longer a staff member, I am a partner and help lead the future of our business. I am thankful and give credit to Scaling New Heights for helping our firm be more. I doubt I am the only one who has been touched by Scaling New Heights this way. When Joe shares with us his genuine passion for what drives him and his staff to host content knowledge based conferences so many of us feel moved to do more. Being around so many market leaders and teachings of their subject matter and concepts allows us the possibilities to see and do more.
I was already thrilled when I landed in San Antonio and found so many more people who got me, in fact there are a ton of MY PEOPLE! Everyone wants to feel like they belong and have a home of like-minded people and for me Scaling New Heights is this piece of my life that makes me “feel” connected. Thanks to so many people at these conference I have not only found “my people” but I have GROWN and I have been able to feed this thirst inside me to be more and know more. The community inside of the Scaling New Heights family is supportive and encouraging. We all need each other and as the drive for more specialization increases so does the need to network and refer out to our peers. And as the cloud becomes the platform so many of us are choosing, no longer is it necessary to be in the same cities, the distance between states no longer matters so if I have a client who needs an expert I can refer to my list of friends and peers and pick the BEST for the job!
I am thankful for this opportunity to grow and become more than I was, I don’t see the end yet as to what the future holds, but I do know I have support from my peers and that makes me feel stronger and more emboldened to seek out more. Having an ecosystem to fall back on when lacking expertise in an area makes me stronger.
Part of the friendships I have built have been based on meeting people at vendor booths or sitting at lunch and talking with my peers’ about their painful experiences and how they fixed those situations with either a tool or a creative method. There are so many tools on the market it’s hard to be expert in all of them so it’s incredible to get the chance to learn more in conversation with friends, and then the big bonus is talk to the product developer, owners or specialists at each booth. This is so cool. This one on one contact has changed our business! Truly! Being able to talk to someone who is passionate about a product and understands how it works means they can explain it to me so I can see the benefit in using it and how it will solve a pain our firm is having.
I am not a sappy person but I do get emotional when thinking about how Scaling New Heights has changed me, and I am thankful for the opportunity to be with each of you that I have met or will meet in the future. I am thankful for all the hours that have gone into piecing us all together so we attendees at the conference can enjoy the experience. I always feel taken care of during my stay and this says a lot about the Woodard team, so from the bottom of my heart I say thank you. And so, with tears in my eyes, I mean it when I say you have built an experience that has made me stronger, Thank you!