101 ⎸ [Q&A] Keeping it Secure: File sharing for Bookkeepers

Um, Favorite secure file share system. Hey Erin, what's up? So I prefer I. Using Google Drive with all of my clients, but I recognize that that doesn't work for all client bases. the reason we've gone with Google Drive is it's the business version for one, make sure you're using the business version if this is what you use. But our client base already is using Google Drive most of the time to, manage their own files. So it's really easy to integrate that.

And it's just, it's since we store all of our. work papers in our, our client files, like the stuff that we work on behind the scenes in Google Drive. Anyway, it makes it a lot easier that the folder that we share with them is also in Google Drive. So if you are a Microsoft user and you use OneDrive, that works as well. I would try to keep it as simple as possible so that your clients adopt it. There are other options.

Obviously there's Dropbox, there's other like, share file and other systems that are built for accountants too. And I'm like drawing a blank on the names. And, smart Vault was one. I tried that out at the very beginning of, my business and it was really hard to get my clients to adopt it so, It depends on the sophistication level of your clients. So like when I was in corporate, we would just have to use whatever system kp m g put us on to share our files for the audits.

But like that's a different situation. I. It's a little, it's a little different when you're working with clients. So the other, the other thing that I do to make it easy for them to send us stuff is I set everybody up on Hubdoc. Not all of our clients utilize it, but the ones that do are really good at it and they use it to store their receipts and invoices, but they also just send us. Anything that needs to be sent securely.

So a tax notice, a lot of times sales tax registrations, if something comes in the mail, they just take a picture of it and put it in Hubdoc. so that's the other thing that we do. And, I back up Hubdoc to the client's Google Drive, if they have one or their Dropbox.

And then, the other thing that we are about to implement as I've been doing some more research since this kind of goes along with secure files and whatnot, I probably need to update the b a course for this, but we are about to, we're buying a third party software that creates an actual file backup of all of our client files, like the zero file or Q B O. If you use Q B O. so I highly recommend doing that because something that I've learned in looking at the terms of service for a lot of these

cloud softwares is that they still say you need to have a way to back up things. So yes, it's an extra expense for us, it's like five to $10 per client. that's another value add that we're gonna be adding to our packages and like how we, we say, We include a a zero file or a zero subscription Hubdoc subscription. And now we're gonna say we also include a backup service to ensure that our clients always have a backup of their files and their records if they need 'em.

So, so that's a, something that we're gonna be implementing as pretty much as soon as possible. Like, it's, it's just me. I just need to like, pay for the subscription, and set it all up for the clients. But, yeah, so the software that I'm gonna be using for that for our zero clients is called back, export my books, and then. One that if I were using qbo, I would probably be using something like Right Networks or rewind.io or something like that. So, so I hope that helps all y'all listening.

Thank you for bringing up the secure file sharing system, uh, so I could talk about that.

All right, Bailey says, I want to bring on someone to help me with bookkeeping and closing out month end. Where do you go to hire new team members? Oh, such a good question. It kind of depends on. As you're going through B B A I highly encourage before you get to that point, to really think about your values as a company and your vision.

Because no matter where you go to find employees, one of the biggest important pieces is getting a, a team on board with your vision and your, your values, which then create your culture. So if you need extra support in. This area, we have Mariah on our team who is our leadership coach, and so she will do strategy sessions and group coaching if that's something you're interested in.

And, If you just go to ambitious bookkeeper.com/leadership coaching is the path, then you can kind of peruse the different options if it's something that you really want support in, like helping you lead a team. but the short answer is go through the vision and values, in module one, in phase one of B B A, get those pretty solidified. Like it's okay if they change, but.

The core values that you wanna operate from and your vision, because you need whatever team member that you interview, like you have to have that conversation on your interviews with them of like, this is my vision. This is where I'm at right now. I need your help to get there. Right? And so you need them to buy into that and to, um, a part of that vision and establishing the culture that you want. So I would say that is the most.

Important piece before you go and like tactically, logistically, look for an employee, do that work, that internal work. But the places that we've recruited from are hire my mom.com, which you actually have to pay to be able to post there. She has a vetting process so that no, like really scammy jobs. Get posted in there. She is the woman who runs that, site is amazing. So she has a vetting process.

I would start that process right now if you are thinking of hiring, like posting a job in the next couple weeks. That way she can vet you and you'll be ready to post. It's, I, I can't remember Mariah, how much, we paid maybe like 30 to 45 bucks or something for a month. Not a bad deal at all because we got some really quality candidates for this last position we hired. And then, so that's one place I've recruited on LinkedIn.

So that's where I have, found, one of our, staff accountants who is with us part-time. And the thing about that is, We were connected because we had a mutual connection. And so when I posted that I was hiring the mutual connection, sh re-shared that. So that strategy is part of like always be marketing, but also always be hiring. So in your, when you're doing your marketing, you're also working to attract, Team members, right? Like clients and team.

You wanna attract everyone that's gonna like buy into your vision. So it's really important to have in your marketing, to showcase your vision, your mission, your values, and your personality, because you potentially are recruiting, employees throughout that as well. So that is how we got connected. I did pay, I think I. I can't remember if I paid to post a job on LinkedIn or if it was just like the first one was free.

But that was how I found him and it was really due to the mutual connection that we had. I don't think it was really due to posting the job on LinkedIn. I mean, not a hundred percent due to that obviously. Because if I hadn't posted on LinkedIn, our mutual connection wouldn't have re-shared that. So, that is always like a strategy you should think of in the back of your mind to not only be attracting clients, but also be attracting team. Cuz you never know.

and I always like when people approach me like, Hey, are you hiring? I'm always like, I would love to take your resume because I'm. I'm always hiring in that regard of like, I'm always looking for good candidates and kind of like keeping that conversation open because when I do get to the point where I need to hire, I have a list of people that I could reach out to first, if they're quality candidates, right.

So, that's, those are the two main places where we've gotten really high quality, employees. And, otherwise you can also recruit inside the bookkeeping side Hustle group. Just shoot Kate a message and ask her if it's okay to post a job. She's usually pretty cool with that.

And you can also, if you're just looking for like a contractor or maybe even an employee, because there are people in like the ambitious bookkeeper community who thought they wanted to start a business and then decided not to eventually. And so they're still hanging out in the community and they'll like contract with other bookkeepers or or whatnot. So you might get some really good quality candidates that way as well.

and then another thing is just kind of like word of mouth, kind of like you would for a client. Like you tell people like, yeah, I'm looking for a bookkeeper. If you know anyone, like, let me know and send them my way. it's the same with clients like, Hey, I am running a bookkeeping business. If you know of anyone in this industry that needs a bookkeeper, send them my way, type of thing. So, mutual connections are usually really good for that kind of stuff. So I hope that helps. All right.

Very interesting on the zero Q B O backups. I had no idea. Thank you. Yeah. You know those, the, the fine print, Follow up question. How do you differentiate roles between hiring a bookkeeper versus a staff accountant? So really depends on what you're, what you're looking for, what level of experience you're looking for, when.

When I was hiring for the staff accountant, my vision for that role was for, is for it to, become accounting, accounting manager, controller, eventually director of accounting operations or client operations, that type of situation. So like I had already kind of mapped out like, this is the growth path I want and I need it at a certain point. So I needed to recruit In a like higher up in the process.

But I would, I'm still willing to mentor someone to get them to that controller level or that accounting manager level. So because of where we are at in our business, like I can still manage a bunch of client meetings, but I know soon there's gonna be a point when I cannot, I can, well, right now we're at that point where I can no longer take on new clients and me be the one meeting with them. So I needed to have a candidate that could.

Fairly quickly, potentially step into that meeting with client's role. So you have to figure out what it is that you need right now and then what you're gonna need in the shorter term, and who you think, like what role you think is best. Going to grow into that and then having that growth conversation on your interview process. So having it in your job description of this role is we are looking for this role to quickly move up into this position.

we are willing to mentor, do blah, blah, blah, like whatever it is. And then having that conversation on the call to see how hungry they are for a growing company. If you don't. If you do not anticipate growth and you're just trying to keep up with current workload, be honest about that. Because a lot of people want.

The promise of a growth opportunity, at least really good candidates, like high performers, wanna know that there's an opportunity for them to rise up through the ranks fairly quickly. That's why good people leave other jobs, like that's why I hopped jobs every two years because I was a high performer and I would get bored very quickly if I wasn't promoted. So in order to obtain those promotions, I just hopped jobs to a new company and applied for that next role.

So if you don't want people doing that to you, you have to create that job path, that career path for them. So that is something that, Mariah can help you work out in leadership coaching if that's something you're interested in. So I don't know if I answered fully your question versus bookkeeper versus a staff account. It depends on what your end goal is and how much, help you need and what level of experience you need from for someone.

So to backtrack a little bit what we like, what, like I said, I needed someone that is gonna be able to meet with clients. So I need someone who has, Soft skills and I needed someone who understood financial statements. I could speak to the trends and, and things that were happening with those numbers without much mentoring. I'm like, I'm still expecting to mentor at this point, but I wanted to be able for them to like quickly, quickly. What is the word? Jump on board. I don't know.

I'm like losing my mind right now. quickly get, be able to like, have those conversations, after like integrating into our, our process, fairly quickly. And so when we found, Brett and I looked at his resume. One of my requirements was, pursuing a c p A exam because that shows me that someone is, hungry for growth. So that was kind of why that, like, you don't need a C P A to work with me, but that just shows me how ambitious you are and that you are looking to grow in your career.

And then the other thing was I did need someone that had an accounting degree and some experience in an accounting department or a finance department. So, Brett has that finance background. He's, very good with analyzing financials and providing like a synopsis of what's happening. And so we were able, he was able to hit the ground running. That was what I was looking for, that phrase. He was able to hit the ground running pretty easily once he learned the nuances about. Our client's industry.

So that's how I differentiated versus a bookkeeper where I could, you know, a bookkeeper could just kind of roll into the day-to-day process and less, less ad hoc analysis, more of just like picking up the process we've already created and doing the, the tactical stuff. So, you've gotta decide kind of what it is that you need and what your end goal is in the next year because, People want to grow within a year of their position if they're high performers.

Speaking of hiring any advantages or disadvantages to hiring contractors versus employees, so. I will caveat, depends on what state you're in. You may not have a choice depending on the position you're hiring for. So, for example, in California, if you are in the business of providing bookkeeping services to your clients, you cannot hire a contractor to provide that same service to your clients. You have to hire a W2 employee.

So check your state rules first before you decide what's, a better option. Like, you just have to go with what's legal in your state. Otherwise the advantage if you are able to hire a contractor for the bookkeeping role, like you could hire a contractor doing admin work or something completely separate, but not whatever you're in business for doing in California. So I'm gonna assume that you're talking about hiring a bookkeeper and you provide bookkeeping services.

in that scenario, if you're hiring a bookkeeper, as a contractor in any other state besides California or if your state has that rule you, the advantages would be that if you're not sure what your cash flow's like and you're, you don't wanna really be locked in to, Pay, you know, having to consistently pay an employee, you're not sure if they're, you know, the right personality fit or like you just need someone kind of quickly that already has the experience.

That would be the advantage of going with a contractor. The disadvantages of that are that you technically cannot dictate when or how they do the job. So that could create issues depending on what your needs are. Like, if you need someone that I, that is working a specific set hours of the day to be able to do something for you, you can't dictate that. You also can't dictate whether or not they have other clients. So you could, that, that's a disadvantage to where.

you're kind of competing with other clients that might be paying that contractor more than you are, so you're at the bottom of their list. that kind of thing. Right. And then there's always the like, If you get lucky, like we have a contractor that I've had since pretty much the beginning of my business, and she is basically like a team member. She's bought into the vision. She's amazing.

And I got lucky with that, but I don't think that's the norm with contractors, especially if they're working on building their own business. They have their own values, that kind of thing. So you still have to go through that process of making sure they're aligned with your vision, your culture, and your values. Before you even decide to hire a contractor, like those are still conversations you should have with contractors when you're looking to hire.

so those are some of the advantages and disadvantages. I was on a call recently with someone, I think it was during the workshops, v i p call, someone was talking about potentially going into business with a business partner. And it's kind of like that is, is almost. More of a commitment. It is more of a commitment than even just hiring someone as an employee because it's a whole contractual arrangement and ownership structure of your business.

So I was kind of like, maybe you should just, you should explore just hiring them and paying them for the job that they're gonna do instead of going through this whole process of becoming a partner. Because if you don't, aren't really clear on your roles and your visions and all that stuff, like it could be very hard to have a partnership, but, Anyway, that's kind of a side tangent on that. Bailey says, yes, that was great. I'm pregnant and want to be able to give myself maternity leave.

So leaning toward a staff accountant that can help with client contact when I need Yeah, absolutely. For you. I think that would be, that would be smart. That way you have time to like kind of mentor them up and get them comfortable with clients and get your clients comfortable with them as well, depending on how soon you're trying to go out on maternity leave. But yeah. Awesome. So let's see. What time are we at? It is almost on the hour, so I'm still here for questions. Drop 'em in the chat.

There are 15 eyeballs I see watching. yeah. So don't be shy. Ask any question. No question is a dumb question. likely if you have the question, someone else has a similar or same question. So,

Yeah. One, one thing that came up, in my dms, I think it was just yesterday from one of our BBA students, she said, that she had a client that has not been giving her. This is a very common thing, so that's why I wanna bring it up, cuz I think any, everyone can benefit from this.

She has a client that she's been working with probably, probably like a year or so, and she, every month goes to request the bank statements and then, Nothing happens, like the client doesn't get them to her, so she's not actually able to completely tidy up and wrap up the bookkeeping. So we have clients like this every so often as well.

But she's to the point where she's realizing that it's kind of an energetic suck for her of like, every time I request the bank statements, I know he's not gonna get 'em to me. He's a really nice guy, but he just like never follows through. And so she, she needs bank statements from back to March. so I suggested to her one go into the tech, sorry, the template vault inside of b a. There are some disengagement letter templates. One of 'em is a like formal.

Contract ending letter and one of them is more of an email that is like a soft, you know, more of a conversational, like explaining to them what's going on. We're moving in a different direction. Here is your next steps type of thing. So, I wanted to let you guys know that that is, More than likely to happen.

Especially as you start to go through working out your vision and your values, you're going to realize that some of your clients are not in alignment with that and they're being, they're starting to become an energetic time suck and just like. Draining your, positive energy and getting you to the point where you're like, okay, I know if I let this client go, this is what, where this student was at.

She was like, I know if I let this client go, it's gonna free up so much of my energy to bring on the better clients or to like, focus on other things that I like. Instead of having this dark cloud looming of like, I need this stuff for this client. I know this client's not gonna give him to me. He's a great guy, but he just has no follow through. So, You're gonna, it's inevitable to end up in this situation. So I wanted to let you know that those resources are available to you.

Obviously you can tweak the letter to be more around your situation, but that's one of the things that you can bring to a hot seat. And, we can write the letter together and tweak the wording together. We've done that before in a Google Doc. We share it, we kind of tweak the messaging according to like the message you want to send and all that kind of stuff. So, Those are, that's examples of what we can do together on a hot seat call. And I've done that with lots and lots of students.

And then what usually happens is you, you freak out. You want to send the letter, you're like sweating palm, sweaty palms and everything. Getting ready to send the letter. You send it off, you feel giant relief. And then you are able to let go of that client and then immediately you get another lead or you land another client because that's how the universe works. So, yeah. Let's see. Another question. Would a contractor need the same kinds of insurance as the business owner?

Yeah, I would say so if they're a contractor, even though you have your own insurance, that may or may not cover what your contractors do, I would require insurance of your contractors. If they're working, directly with clients or handling client information. And, honestly, I would still do a background check and things like that too.

So, just because they're a contractor and might have their own LLC and their own insurance does not necessarily mean that they have integrity or anything like that. Always be, have a healthy level of skepticism, trust, but verify. So yeah, hopefully that helps. And it's your business. You can set those standards if you. If you so wish. So it's like, if you wanna work with me as a contractor, I need to do a background check and I need your business insurance.

Copy, like I've had, clients have asked me for copies of my insurance, and clients have asked me to sign, NDAs, non-disclosure agreements and things like that, even though that's built into my contractor, my contract or my engagement letter. It's okay for your clients to ask for that information too. Honestly, that means they're just a savvy business owner and so if they have intellectual property and information that they don't want leaked out there, they should be doing that kind of stuff.

Yeah, so. All right. Any other questions? I'm a little skeptical by nature. Well, we all are. We're accountants. It's kind of drilled into us. Glad I'm not the only one. Love that trust, but verify. I think that was like one of the presidents that used to say that, like back in the day, seventies, sixties. I don't know which one. Maybe FDR or something. I don't even know. I could be totally wrong on that. I'm not the biggest history buff, so feel free to correct me if, if you are.

Yeah. Okay, Lori. Hello. Since my focus now is cash-based service micro businesses, would it be better to only take on clients who want to use fresh books or should I offer Q B O also? That's such a good question. What is your gut telling you? Because. If you have poked around in fresh books and you really like it and you can really stand behind that product more so than QBO O, then maybe that's your answer. I mean, that's kind of how I feel about Xero.

I am fully bought into the product and what it can do for us as a firm, my team, and for my clients. And so when you are bought into that product, it's a lot easier to tell clients like, this is what we're gonna use, I'm gonna migrate you, it's gonna be more affordable, it's more efficient for us, blah, blah, blah.

So, you'll still, I would still suggest being very, Up to date with QBO O and understanding it, which I'm sure you probably are, because you're still gonna have to be able to dig in and do diagnostics and perhaps migrate them. So. That would be just kind of check in with yourself, like, is this a product I really I'd buy into?

And I really think that it's better for my clients cuz if you don't, if you don't really truly think it's the best option for your clients, it's gonna be harder to convince them because you haven't convinced yourself yet. my advice on that. So no matter what software you choose, you have to be bought into it. So yeah. All right. I think I want to change my niche and get away from real estate clients. Investors are just so complicated.

I don't know who this is, but I know we have a few people in the group that, that, that this niche belongs to. So I'm very curious, can you sign your name? But this is the majority of my clients. Any suggestions on making this shift? So I would immediately start changing the marketing that any marketing that you're doing, whether it's email marketing, word of mouth, showing up at Chamber of Commerce, adjust your marketing message, your social media, and.

Kind of make it a big deal, be like, this is our thing. You know what I mean? Like, and make it obvious. So I'm not sure what you're looking to shift into if it's something that is like, A parallel industry that supports real estate investors, or if you have no idea yet. Oh my gosh, Nicole. I was afraid it was you. Oh my God. I was like, don't tell me. Oh my goodness. Okay, so, oh man, we're gonna have to save this one for a hot seat. But here's some things to start thinking about.

First of all, I would say if somebody comes to you and they're like, so-and-so of your other, one of your other clients referred me to you, how are you gonna handle that? So think through, because that's how you're getting most of your clients. Yes. Also, you're doing a presentation at a mastermind for real estate investors, so that might. I don't know if you wanna think about pulling out of that, because you're gonna, that basically says I'm open to working with you, type of, clients.

So if you don't pull out of that presentation or if you've already done it, oh well. But if you haven't, if it hasn't happened yet and you don't wanna pull out of it, can you change your messaging to say something like, we pretty much focus on property management at this point, or another sub niche of real estate. I don't know if you're planning on kind of staying in that realm and you just don't wanna work with investors and flips and things like that. You can be very clear about that.

Be like the type of clients that we are starting to work more with, um, are these. If you're completely flipping to a totally different industry, that's gonna be a little harder. But to stop new leads coming to you in that industry, I would say, if someone comes to you and is like, so-and-so referred me, are you taking more clients? You can just say, no, I am not taking any more clients at, at this time. And then if you know of someone else providing.

Bookkeeping services to real estate investors. I would try to make the referral so that they are taken care of and they don't continue to. To come back to you and be like, are you taking clients? Yeah. Blah, blah, blah. Okay. So that would be step one. And then step two is to come to the next hot seat and let's chat about this.

But start, I need to know like, are you planning on completely changing industries or are you tr trying to just move over into like more of the property managers or, real estate? Brokers or something like that, let me know. You may not know the answer to that yet, so it's something that you should think about between now and then. You're just throwing me way off right now. But anyways, I hope that helps, to start getting things, going. So yeah, there, you know, you have some.

And here's the other thing. So if you're just frustrated with the current clients that you have that are not. doing what you need them to. Is it really that the industry or is it just that client and next time we can do better of like sussing out what their values are and if they're gonna be on board with things. So there's still course creators that I will not work with because they are hot mess and they don't wanna take advice and that kind of stuff.

So it's like, just because they're in your niche, niche doesn't mean that you have to take them on. If they're not in alignment with your values. So one of the things that we do to filter those not fit clients out are in our discovery call questionnaire. We have them acknowledge our minimum price and then acknowledge that we want to work with you only if you are open to taking our advice. You wanna do things the right way.

And maybe one that we should add is like, If you're willing to do your end of the bargain, like get us the documents we need, those kinds of things. So I would sit and kind of think about like, what is the reason why you're trying to get out of this NI niche? Niche? I probably need to decide which way I'm gonna say it because I keep screwing it up. But anyways. What are the reasons you're wanting to get out of this niche? Is it more of the personality of the people that tend to be in it or.

Are there other people in the industry that are more level-headed that you could handle working with? Maybe at a different revenue line? So like, revenue threshold could be the thing too, because maybe if you're working with newer real estate investors who really don't have their shit together, excuse me, language, and they are like very eccentric and super excited to get into this and doing all sorts of creative things.

Cuz I know you've said that about your clients, is that, Because they're newer to the industry and they don't really understand what, like how the world works, and they don't realize how much of a mess they're creating.

Or like, is there a way to kind of solve that by base, by saying like, our minimum revenue is this, The, and then doing more education to your clients before you let them work with you of like, this is what's expected of you, this is what you need to be doing, to stay above board, that kind of stuff. just kind of throwing ideas out there. But I would love to jam on this on a hot seat so we can have a back and forth conversation.

Bailey says she specializes in real estate investors and would love to be referral partners. When you're ready to make a shift, there we go. let's see. Ah, yes, I needed to hear that too. Good. Okay. So I don't know what that was in ref reference to Penny, but whatever it was, I'm glad. Is there any more clarity that you need on any of that? Whatever you were referring to. So yeah, such a good, oh my gosh, so many great topics today.

I'm so excited that you all are here and asking your questions.

Heather says, whoops. I just took on a new client on Upwork and found out that they do business with a group of media entertainment that I strongly disagree with. Any suggestions on how to end the relationship without getting deemed. so if politics are part of your values, like, and if it matters to you to not support that, then I would just stand in that and, and. Go to that disengagement letter and just be honest.

I would just be honest and, and be like, our values are not in alignment and I can no longer do business with you. you don't have to be very specific if you don't want to. That would be one. I mean, honesty is always the best, but you don't also have to be specific, if that makes sense. If you're worried about them, I don't know, like it's an upward engagement, so it's like probably easier to back out of than.

Once you finish, I would say still finish the project of whatever it was you were doing. But, that disengagement letter that I template that I have in the template vault is the language, is like, we're, we've decided to move into this direction. So you could use that wording of like, moving into the direction of working with this certain type of client that's not their type of client. I don't know. just kind of throwing out some ideas.

but yeah, I would just either be honest about your values, being misaligned, or you can just, you know, try to bow out gracefully and say, you know, we're kind of at capacity. I'll finish this project, but after that gonna have to like, help, you know, Let you go. or if you want to help them find another bookkeeper, you can. I don't know if that helps. Let me know. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I don't know if that's technically politics or if it's just, an entertainment industry you're not comfortable with and that's okay. You don't have to work with people that, don't. That don't share family values or whatever, like whatever your beliefs or values are, it is okay not to work with those people. Yeah. You're welcome. So glad to be here helping you guys and I'm excited to continue doing these monthly lives. In the Facebook group. Like I said, you'll see a schedule on the banner.

So our Facebook Lives are the first Wednesday of every s month. The hot seats are the second Wednesday, and the co-working sessions are the third Wednesday of every month. And then the fourth Wednesday is blink and reserved for. Pop up, random surprises. Um, so we have a few things in the works. I have a resident designer who would like to do a ask the designer q and a type thing with you all at some point.

So if you have questions related to website design, um, that type of stuff, start compiling them. and yeah, if we end up having guest instructors or anything like that, that's probably when those would happen is on the fourth Wednesday, or maybe some other random day because. Why not?

So any who, if you're not in v i p yet, please, look in the group for the post where you have the option to upgrade and if you would like to be able to participate on those v i p calls, the hot seats and the co-working sessions. And for any of you who are newer and not sure how the co-working and the hot seat calls work. So the hot seat calls are an hour long and. We, we do have a Google form that you can pre-submit a question.

If you think of something throughout the, the month and you're like, I just don't wanna forget about this question, go ahead and submit it, and you'll be the first, you know, you'll be first come, first serve, basically whoever submits questions. And then if we have time on the hot seat calls, I'll then open up the floor for people that are on the call to ask their question. But I will go through the submitted questions first.

And. we'll be able to, like, I, like I said to Nicole, like, we can chat back and forth. I'll ask more questions, kind of coach you through, coming to, a solution for whatever it is that you're working through. And, so those calls are an hour long. It's face-to-face and zoom. And then the co-working sessions are an hour and a half. And what we do is we use a Pomodoro timer and, sometimes we'll share some like, Chill music into the speakers so that, everyone's on mute.

we, we check in for the first five minutes, make a commitment basically of like, This is what I brought to work on, whether it's client work or I'm setting up my website or Dosa where I'm creating some social content, but I just wanted to be in the room with others working toward a similar goal. And so, we check in and then we all go on mute. You can turn your camera off, you can turn off the sound, whatever you wanna do. And then we get to work for 20 minutes, and then the timer goes off.

We unmute, we chit chat, talk about like what we accomplished, set intentions for the next 20 minute sprint. And so we do that three times. Whoever is running the co-working session, sometimes it will be me, sometimes it will be Mariah. We will go over this format at the beginning of the call. if there's something that comes up while you're co-working, you can chat in the chat box. And then, we will offer whatever support we can or anyone else who's on the co-working session.

If they see the chat, they can answer it. But, we try to kind of keep it quiet so people can work. that's how that runs. If I am the one running the coworking sessions, that's, that is when, like, if you have a specific, like I'm working through this client file, I'm stuck on this diagnostic, or whatever it is, we can do like a breakout session so that you can share your screen with me, but it doesn't, it's not exposed to the rest of the group.

So, I will try to let you guys know which co-working sessions I will be running. That way you can, you know, to expect like I'll be available for that type of stuff. And. Yes, you can get feedback on your website on a hot seat call as well. Absolutely like anything on hot seats, the only thing, like I said, is that if you are really struggling through like something logistically in a QuickBooks file or zero file and you need to share your screen, I don't do that on hot seat calls.

That would be a co-working session so we can do a breakout, um, if that makes sense. That that way your client's information is secure. Yeah, so that's how that will go and I can't wait to hang out with you and co-working and on the hot seat calls and all that good stuff. And, alright, so I guess that is it for today. If you have other questions throughout the month, please use the Facebook group or Cajabi.

I know right now I'm going live in the Facebook group, so if you're watching the replay in Kajabi, just know that you'll always have the replay of these, Q and A is also in cajabi to refer back to. And also if you have questions, you can also post them in cajabi below whatever lesson it is that you have questions about. And we are still here to support you even if you're not at Facebook.

So, all righty everyone, thank you for coming today and I will see you in the group in an email and all that good stuff. Talk to you soon.