Always Trust Your Gut in Life and Business

In this episode of the Profits + Prosecco Podcast, I am going to dive into the importance of trusting your gut and the journey. I know this is something we hear ALL the time, but I want to share a few stories with you on times where listening to my gut paid off in the long run. A lot of times, our brain can try to limit us and keep us safe, whereas our gut and intuition genuinely try to communicate things to us. Keep on listening to hear more about these stories that ultimately got me to where I am today as the owner of a virtual bookkeeping business! 

But before we dive right in, welcome to the Profits + Prosecco Podcast! I’m your host, Katie Ferro, CPA, reformed rule follower, creator of Booked Out Bookkeeper, mom to 3 little ones, and Kajabi enthusiast.

This podcast is for entrepreneurs who desire to change their life through their profitable business, and for bookkeepers and accountants who want to escape the 9-5 and start a simple scalable bookkeeping business like I did. 

Bookkeeping increases profits and profits change lives. So pop some bubbles and let me show you how! 

In this episode, we are talking all about trusting your gut in both life and business. And for even more juicy details, listen to ALL of episode 2 of the Profits + Prosecco Podcast on your fave streaming platform.

How listening to my gut led me to amazing opportunities within the corporate world.

In the very first episode of this podcast, I dived into my journey about starting an online business. I didn’t get into the details of everything, so I want to touch more upon that in this episode for you all. Firstly, the reason I decided to study accounting in school was simply that I had no idea what to do with myself. I knew I was good at math, and everyone would suggest that I go into accounting. I always thought there was an option later down the road where I could get into taxes with accounting and ultimately work from home when I had kids. So, I decided to go on and study accounting. After I had graduated from college, I landed my first corporate job in 2008 in sales tax. I remember so many instances where I thought to myself, how am I going to do this long term? Between the hours, the commute, I couldn’t envision doing this for the next 40 years. 

I did love this job but I ended up moving to South Florida after about 14 months. I figured if I couldn’t find another job, I’d go back into the working service industry. One night I wanted to see what was out there for corporate. I saw another sales tax job about 30 miles from where I’d be living, I applied for the job and sure enough, I got the position. This new job offered 100% tuition reimbursement as well, I thought this was a sign and I decided to get my master's in tax. I ended up getting my master’s degree that my company paid for. After that, I decided to take a CPA exam. With my initial thought of doing taxes and working from home, I knew I needed experience preparing actual taxes. I’ll never forget one day I was driving to work and talking to my best friend on the phone about this. I vividly remember telling her about how the next step for me would have to be working at a CPA firm. I went about my day, and around lunchtime, I got a phone call from a partner of a local CPA firm. This partner had somehow come across my resume online and gave me a call. It was so strange how the timing of this had happened right after I mentioned it to my best friend. It was almost like the universe was listening to me or something.

Following my instincts finally resulted in me closing the door to corporate and working from home.

After that phone call from the CPA firm, I went to the interview. The only thing I had to take a hit on was the compensation - this firm could only offer me so much as it was a smaller firm than my corporate job. I decided to take the pay cut, I leaped and joined this CPA firm. I passed my CPA exam while working there, and I learned so much. Overall, it was such a good decision to join this firm, a lot of the skills I use now in my bookkeeping business learned in this firm. I finally got experience in quick books and understanding business owners. By going to this CPA firm and leaving my prior corporate job on good terms, the corporate job ended up trying to get me to come back. They offered a manager position for me, and this would have a 30% more increase from the salary I had when I left. This decision was hard because I valued my time at the CPA firm and I hadn’t been there for too long. I decided to be open and have an honest conversation with the firm about this new offer, the bosses at the CPA firm thought I was nuts. I remember them thinking this would be such a short-term decision and not necessarily agreeing with me.

I knew I couldn’t turn down this offer to return to the corporate job, so I did return. I made sure I left on very good terms with the CPA firm. Now at this point, I’m a sales tax manager at my corporate job. I’m 29 years old, a licensed CPA, working at a big company with great benefits. I felt like I made it and I accomplished everything. Just a year later though, I found out I was pregnant with my first child. After having an accident, my corporate job basically paid me to quit my job so they could reduce their payroll liability and look better for an impending sale. I needed that push finally to leave the job, I wouldn’t have left unless everything was happening at once - pregnant, car accident, paid to leave. Crazy right? Closing the door to corporate allowed me to be home stress-free when I became a new mom. Once my son became 1-year-old, clients and opportunities started to present themselves to me.

Always Trust Your Gut in Life and Business: The Bottomline

My point in sharing these stories with you is because I want to incorporate story-telling here but also to let you know that signs are there for you, but you just have to listen to them. Don’t dismiss the signs, you have to take the leaps when it feels scary and illogical. I know for me, it felt really scary to leave my first corporate job without a backup plan. It worked out because it led me to get my master's degree, and then my CPA, and working at a CPA firm where I’d gain all of these amazing connections and skills. It was truly fortune and fate from listening to my gut. 

Don’t forget to tune into episode 2 of the Profits + Prosecco Podcast. Thank you so much for listening to Profits + Prosecco podcast. I know this episode has helped you see how profitable businesses change lives. If you enjoyed the episode, please take a second to rate and review. Each review helps us reach and inspire more entrepreneurs and bookkeepers just like you. 

Don’t forget to take a screenshot, share it in your Instagram stories, and tag me at @orderlyaccountingbykatie. Cheers to your inevitable success and I’ll see you in the next episode!  

Connect with Katie Ferro

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