Have you ever heard of a Human Tunnel? No, me neither, but now I’ve been in the middle of one.
On the first day of Connect, we had to wait for the Exhibit Hall to open after the afternoon sessions. So, finishing the day on Level Three, we rode down the escalator, following a group of drummers who were pounding our rhythm for us, and when we finally got to Level One, the Human Tunnel was open.
Over three hundred Intuit members lined both sides of the hallway and cheered for us like we were the number one team entering the field at the SuperBowl*.
And so it carried on like this the whole time. This conference wasn’t about QuickBooks. It wasn’t about marketing from other Vendors. It was about us. Every single one of us was the MVP, the Queen, the Oscar winner.
The Main Stage speakers were amazing. So many new and exciting features to QuickBooks were announced and displayed. Chart of Accounts templates! I’ve wanted this for so long, and now it’s about to launch. Super exciting.
Tuesday morning, we heard from Jade Simmons, an excellent pianist who also shares many inspirational ideas. “Your purpose is not the thing you do. It’s the thing that happens in others when you do what you do.” So true. Remember when Accounting was just moving numbers around to create the totals needed for tax returns? That’s over. As Deb Kilsheimer’s session taught us, It’s not about the transactions; it’s about the relationships. Carla Caldwell gave us direction toward Communication. Don’t be thinking about what you’re going to say next. Listen! Geni Whitehouse shared seven things she wishes she’d known when she started out. For example, what do your clients know? They are not accountants. You are.
There were many, many more sessions like this focusing on what you can do to help your clients. How can AI help you? What is the best Tech Stack? Sadly, you can’t attend all of them.
But you can get together with your friends and exchange takeaways.
Then there was Ryan Reynolds. What a fabulous actor and entrepreneur. He made us all laugh including Cassie Divine who was the “Barbara Walters” of the conversation. His best statement? “Get out of your own way…and don’t take yourself too seriously.” Also, “Accountants are ****ing Wild!” (Yeah. We are!)
Adam Grant has always been a great motivator to listen to on his multiple podcasts. He mentions that Imposter Syndrome is not a chronic disease. It can drive us. Because as he says, “If multiple people believe in you, then you should believe them.”
Then, of course, there were parties. So many parties that it wasn’t possible to attend all of them. But there were plenty of good friends no matter where you went. Walking down the hallway, riding the escalator, dropping into the Sound Spa, or listening to Eddie Van Halen….I mean, Ted Callahan…play guitar in The Harmony Lounge. If you didn’t know someone in each space, you did before the next few minutes were up.
My very best takeaway from this year’s Connect is pretty simple. Care about yourself and care about your clients. We already know Debits go on the left and Credits go on the right. Let’s just take a full, deep breath and imagine what will make us happiest. I can’t wait to see how much life changes for all of us before next year’s Connect. I hope we win the SuperBowl* again!
*Super Bowl is a registered trademark of the NFL
Susan Pruskin
Susan Pruskin Consulting
Susan Pruskin
President and Founder
Brilliant Numbers
Susan has been using QuickBooks since the 90s when she first took the floppy disk out of the green box and shoved it into the A drive. What a long way we’ve come since then! She has been named in the Top 100 of North American QuickBooks ProAdvisors nine times. She is currently a member of the Intuit Partner Council, a prestigious group of people who meet on the Intuit campus twice a year. She founded this firm fifteen years ago and loves helping business owners meet their goals and dreams by helping them with their financial data.