Change Your Mindset
Welcome to Change Your Mindset (formerly known as Improv Is No Joke) where it is all about believing that strong communication skills are the best way in delivering your technical accounting knowledge and growing your business. The way of building stronger communication skills is by embracing the principles of applied improvisation. Your host is Peter Margaritis, CPA a.k.a. The Accidental Accountant, will interview financial professionals and business leaders to find their secret in building stronger relationships with their clients, customers, associates, and peers, all the while, growing their businesses.
Episodes
May 22, 2022 • 49 min
“The idea of burning the ladder is a shifting mindset, and building bridges is the action that creates opportunities to build relationships.’ Dr. Alan Patterson
My guests today are Dr. Alan Patterson and Jenny Knuth. Alan has more than three decades of international business experience. In 2006, he formed Mentore, a consulting practice specializing in leadership and organizational development. Many global and national businesses an...
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May 15, 2022 • 9 min
“People's perceptions of you are their reality, so pay attention to what you want their reality to be.” Peter Margaritis
The way we show up does make a big difference, whether in person or virtually. Perception is reality, and the perceptions we create with others, especially with decision-making executives, really matter. People want to interact with humans they can see, hear and experience in person, whether remotely or in pe...
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May 8, 2022 • 43 min
“The beauty of good leadership is having the ability of having a wonderful platform to impact someone that you may never know how so.“ Ruben Minor
Our guest today is Ruben Minor, who is the president of RAM Consulting Group, an organization that focuses on speaking training and coaching individuals and groups regarding leadership, team dynamics, relationship building, diversity, equity and inclusion, fundamental business philosophi...
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May 1, 2022 • 13 min
“Emotional Intelligence helps you connect with your feelings, turning that into action, and making informed decisions about what matters most to you.” Peter Margaritis
To succeed in the highly competitive world of financial consulting, accounting professionals must possess the right mix of technical experience and soft skills, or think of them as power skills, or better yet, emotional intelligence — EI. EI plays an increasingly sig...
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April 24, 2022 • 28 min
“In rapidly changing times, dexterity to speed is your key to adaptability.” Rod Collins
In today’s episode, we are joined by Rod Collins, a returning guest. Rod’s initial episode was released on February 14th, 2022. The topic of conversation was ‘The Benefits of Flat Organizational Structures.’ Today, our discussion focuses on the strengths of running a collective intelligence workshop when you're trying to solve problems or c...
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April 17, 2022 • 7 min
“Go write those stories, prepare and practice. And then if the occasion calls, go off script.” Peter Margaritis
This excerpt from the book “Off Script: Mastering The Art of Business Improv.“
The Silent Killer of business is ultimately a lack of financial acumen. The death knell of a company comes from having leaders who are empowered to make important decisions and who don’t understand the fundamentals of Accounting and Finance. Le...
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April 10, 2022 • 26 min
“There is a real direct application to being human with what you learn in theatre and Improve.” Robert Bendetti
Today, our guest is Robert Bendetti, Jr., CPA, who is the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Life Cycle Engineering. As CFO, he is responsible for all financial operations of the company and accounting contracts, purchasing, Process automation, and IT. Before Life Cycle Engineering, Robert served as VP o...
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April 4, 2022 • 7 min
We are in the people business and we need to treat our people and customers with the respect that they deserve.” Peter Margaritis
Saving a few pennies is not worth losing a customer. In this era of social media, bad reviews, pictures of disappointing meals, and word of mouth can significantly impact your business. While we must always watch our costs in order to make a profit, it is important to realize that it is the revenues that...
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March 28, 2022 • 9 min
Leadership has many attributes associated with it, such as perseverance, vision, inspiration, motivation, and service, to name a few. A leader is there to serve, and my uncle Dean was a great leader who served his country. Retired Colonel Dean Danos passed away on January 27, 2022, after a valiant and brave battle with pancreatic cancer. He served in the Vietnam war, where he flew over 300 combat missions in the AC-47 Gunship, know...
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“When it comes to cybersecurity, the effort level on the part of the bad guy is not any different, regardless of whether it is a large entity or small entity.” Chris Barber
My guest today is Chris Barber. Chris is the Chief Nerd at Cheaper Than A Geek IT service provider. They have demonstrated a history of providing award-winning support in the IT service industry. Cheaper Than A Geek helps small businesses save money with a smart...
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March 13, 2022 • 27 min
“It's really about understanding what is your way that you uniquely contribute to your business, and most of the time, it's not going to be where you're spending most of your time.” Courtney DeRonde
Today, my guest is Courtney DeRonde, a CPA and managing partner of TDT CPAs and Advisors— the boutique advisory and accounting firm for small businesses and nonprofit organizations. The company helps overwhelmed, successful ...
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March 7, 2022 • 8 min
“Higher education needs to change how accounting is taught and align it with the critical power skills required to succeed in today's business climate.” Peter Margaritis
As an accountant, understanding how to sell yourself, both in an educational setting and in the workplace can help you succeed professionally.
Technical accounting skills are the foundation of accounting education. However, in today's accounting profession,...
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February 28, 2022 • 28 min
“I truly believe that every person you meet has the power to change your life, and you have the power to change theirs.” Jen Nash
My guest today is Jen Nash, The Connector in Chief. Jen helps people add more meaning to their lives through connection. She's a master facilitator, passionate about masterful storytelling, corporate training, and an author and sought-after executive coach. With over 20 years working as an entreprene...
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February 21, 2022 • 9 min
“Learning how to listen effectively is a critical part of communication and building stronger connections.” Peter Margaritis
Being an active listener creates many advantages in life and work. However, mastering the art of active listening is easier said than done. Active listeners pay attention to what others are saying without thinking about how they will respond or how the conversation might affect them. They listen to a big dif...
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February 14, 2022 • 28 min
“If you are leveraging collective intelligence, respecting diversity, and inviting dissenting ideas, you are going to uncover the unknown unknowns more quickly and likely come up with better results.” Rod Collins
My guest today is Rod Collins. Rod is a leading expert on digital transformation and the future of business. He's the host of the Thinking Differently podcast on the C suite Radio Network, where he explores how technol...
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February 7, 2022 • 8 min
“Everyone should be involved in developing solutions to customer problems.” Peter Margaritis
The traditional hierarchy organizational structure has been around since the 1950s, and so have many of the strategies developed to make it work well. As time goes on though, some of these strategies are becoming less effective, while others are simply out of date.
A flat organization is a company that does not operate on strict hierarchie...
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January 31, 2022 • 29 min
“The type of person that we had to look for to be a virtual CFO is completely different than the type of person that we looked forward to being an accountant.” Jody Grunden
My guest today is Jody Grunden. Jody is the CEO and co-founder of Summit CPA Group, a fully distributed virtual CFO firm. He has authored two books, Digital Dollars, Cents, and Building the Virtual CFO Firm in the Cloud. He won multiple awards, including recogni...
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January 24, 2022 • 9 min
Leaders need to remember that all eyes are on them at all times. They are being watched for how they manage pressure and conflict. Leadership in action is setting the fear, panic, negative and reactive emotions aside at the moment and responding with calm and confidence.
When an organization hires you, you become part of that brand. In and out of the office, your actions, words, behavior, and attitude are seen, experienced, and jud...
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January 17, 2022 • 29 min
“Your clients will like you better if you just show that you know them, and you're listening to them more than telling them how much you are an expert.” Tom Wadelton
My guest today is Tom Wadelton. He earned his bachelor's degree in computer technology from Purdue University and an MBA was a finance minor from Indiana University. He's a CPA who's licensed in the state of Indiana. Tom is a member of the association o...
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January 10, 2022 • 12 min
Sometimes we have a hard time defining what good or great leadership is, but we also know what bad leadership is.
I believe in Improv leadership, which is more about the team and less about an individual. No matter what business we are in, people are our most important asset and we need to begin to treat them better.
The firing of 900 employees by the CEO of better.com via a zoom call is a tragic example of how not to manage people...
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