We sat down with Lisa Smith who is a functional medicine dietitian, gut-health expert, and founder of Lisa Smith Wellness. She explains the realities of deep stress and the health impacts that so many accounting firm owners quietly carry. “Deep stress, differs from everyday overwhelm, and professionals who juggle multiple roles often don’t realize their bodies are stuck in long-term survival mode. Lisa breaks down the signs many CPAs ignore: waking up tired, constant tension, reliance on caffeine or wine, disrupted sleep, brain fog, and that ever-present feeling of being “on.”
Chronic stress cascades into bigger health issues when ignored. Everything from hormonal imbalances and inflammation to digestive issues, weakened immunity, and long-term cardiovascular risks. Lisa helps us understand why high-functioning people–specifically entrepreneurs–tend to override their internal warning lights. Simply becoming aware of these patterns can be the first turning point to making your life better. We also explore the paradox many business owners face: loving their work but feeling trapped by the very business they dreamed of building.
Lisa is a firm believer that habit change can be a solution to these problems and why we struggle to implement healthy routines even when we “know what to do.” Lisa shares what she’s seen with clients, especially when someone reaches a pivotal “why” that motivates transformation before a health scare forces it. We talk about reshaping identity, breaking old paradigms, and rediscovering agency in how we structure our lives and businesses. Tools like reflective journaling, quiet morning time, and even reevaluating our zones of genius become foundational pieces in realigning how we work and building CPA firms that are sustainable.
Next, we dive into tactical strategies listeners can use heading into next tax season. Lisa introduces her “campfire” analogy for nutrition, emphasizing the power of protein-loaded meals to stabilize energy, regulate mood, and avoid the mid-day crash so many accountants know all too well. She explains how even small nutritional and lifestyle shifts like improving sleep patterns and carving out non-negotiable thinking time can dramatically improve resilience and decision-making.
We wrap up with a rapid-fire list of Lisa’s favorite books for personal and business growth (listed below), along with an encouraging reminder that running an accounting firm doesn’t have to feel like a constant strain. With intention, better boundaries, and a healthier internal framework, accountants can build a business that supports their well-being. This episode offers both a mindset shift and practical takeaways for anyone looking to break free from burnout and reclaim their energy.
You can listen to the podcast here or on the player below.
If you want to explore how we can help you build a lifestyle firm you can enjoy and scale, please check out our resources from Accounting Practice Academy.
Timestamps:
03:55: Introducing the concept of deep stress
05:58: How stress impacts sleep and cortisol
07:57: What entrepreneurs consistently overlook in wellness
10:50: Habit change and understanding personal motivators
12:52: Redesigning your life and business through intentionality
16:34: Long-term health implications of unmanaged stress
18:59: Feeling trapped in your business and how to begin unwinding it
23:05: Reducing stress and improving clarity
24:26: Price’s Law, the Pareto Principle, and understanding real productivity
29:14: Pre-tax-season tips for improving energy and well-being
30:46: The “campfire method” for stabilizing daily energy
34:29: Lisa’s book recommendations for leaders and entrepreneurs
Lisa’s Resource Recommendations:
- Prepare Your CPA Firm for A Sale by Brannon Poe
- Atomic Habits by James Clear
- The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson
- Who Not How by Dan Sullivan
- Traction by Gino Wickman
- The Common Path to Uncommon Success by John Lee Dumas
- Journaling Guide: http://lisasmithwellness.com/the-morning-mindset-journal
Connecting with Lisa: Listen to my Pretty Well PODCAST https://apple.co/3Y2IbSZ
Visit my Website https://lisasmithwellness.com
Read my Wellness BLOG https://lisasmithwellness.com/blog/
Find me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/prettywell_podcast/
lisa.lsw@outlook.com
Disclaimer: The following is an unedited transcription of the episode and has not been combed for errors.
00:00:00:00 – 00:00:13:16
Lisa Smith
how do I do more of what I love and what do I do with what I hate to either redesign it, reallocate it, delegate it, or or do I need to do it? Does is it really moving the needle in my business?
00:00:13:17 – 00:00:27:13
Brannon Poe
I’m Brandon Poe, and this is the county’s Flight Plan podcast, where you can enjoy engaging conversations about mergers and acquisitions in accounting, practice management. Listen in on strategies to build a more fun and valuable accounting firm.
00:00:27:13 – 00:00:53:01
Brannon Poe
All right. Welcome to the Accountant’s Flight Plan podcast. I have a very exciting topic today. So this is a topic we’ve never delved into. And, I have a special guest who actually, her daughter works in our company. Her name is Lisa Smith. And her daughter, Brynn, works on our team. But a little bit about Lisa.
00:00:53:01 – 00:01:17:10
Brannon Poe
She is a. Oh, you got a lot of initials behind your name. I don’t even know what all these stand for. So, are the NLD and then you see, basically, she is a functional medicine dietitian, a gut health expert, and the founder of Lisa Smith Wellness. She has a dual master’s degree in nutrition and human biology.
00:01:17:12 – 00:01:47:18
Brannon Poe
Lisa is passionate about helping people live their best lives by offering cutting edge health solutions paired with a deeply personalized approach. She’s a certified wellness coach and a certified functional nutrition practitioner. This helped hundreds of clients break free from exhaustion, premature aging, gut issues, and hormonal imbalances. And, she’s worked her through her some of her own health challenges, like leaky gut, Hashimoto’s, just hormonal havoc.
00:01:47:18 – 00:02:16:03
Brannon Poe
And she describes, so she knows firsthand what works and what doesn’t. And she has made it her mission to help others get results that last a lifetime. She also has a podcast of her own called Pretty Well, and it is globally ranked the top 2% show. She explores hot topics and science backed strategies to help listeners heal their gut, bounce hormones and unlock ageless beauty through simple yet powerful wellness shifts.
00:02:16:05 – 00:02:43:12
Brannon Poe
And as I said, like this is a topic we haven’t delved into. I know, you know, we have a lot of our listeners are very busy professionals. And a lot of busy professionals get tied up with their business and they can’t take care of their health the way they should. And so that’s, what this episode is going to be all about.
00:02:43:14 – 00:03:09:10
Brannon Poe
So welcome, Lisa, friend, and thank you for having me. I was so excited to come on and talk with you today. Yeah. It’s, I’m just, you know, I’m personally very interested. It’s it’s interesting, a little background, like, my parents are aging, and my mom’s 85. Dad’s 86. My dad’s had some health issues, but my parents are have live pretty healthy lives.
00:03:09:12 – 00:03:35:00
Unknown
Fortunately, I do know, you know, my my wife Carol’s had some some, I guess some, I can’t I never can say properly how she actually. Motos. Yeah. That’s a mouthful. It is a lot and that’s so you know your when, when someone close to you has something like this it really spikes your awareness.
00:03:35:02 – 00:03:55:22
Brannon Poe
And so let’s get into kind of, let’s get into some of these things that, that really affect a lot of our listeners or people that they know and love. So first question is how do you define deep stress and how do people know if they have it or not?
00:03:55:22 – 00:04:20:03
Lisa Smith
I’m so glad you asked me this. And here’s why.
Because you’re talking with people who are. They have their own business, they’re doing and wearing multiple hats, and they know I know this firsthand. I’ve lived this. I know what this is like. You can’t let a single ball drop, because if you do, you’re afraid the whole thing comes crashing down. That is a pretty good setup for deep stress.
00:04:20:03 – 00:04:45:14
Lisa Smith
And what deep stress is, Brandon, it’s not the normal. Oh, I had a rough day. I’m like, go home and have a glass of wine and relax. Deep stress. Is that on going? It’s elevated stress that’s ongoing. Where it becomes normal, it becomes your new normal, where your nervous system, your cells, your soft tissue, all pretty much brace for impact.
00:04:45:14 – 00:05:10:15
Lisa Smith
It’s like being in chronic survival mode. And, you know, it’s a it’s a little different than than just, oh, I had a stressful day. And the next day I wake up and things go back to normal. This is normal. And the way you know, or the way you may suspect deep stress is you wake up tired, you feel on all the time, and you long for the times where you don’t have to be on.
00:05:10:17 – 00:05:31:01
Unknown
You feel like you can’t relax, you really crave or really need or look forward to. Caffeine in the morning, a glass of wine to wind down at night because it’s just this that helps you to feel a little more settled. You kind of don’t feel settled. You might have brain fog, you might be a little more forgetful, and you carry a lot of stress, maybe up here in your neck all the time.
00:05:31:01 – 00:05:58:09
Unknown
You always feel stiff and achy. Those are some signs of of to some, you know, check engine light. That could be deep state. What about what about sleep? Sleep usually impacted by that in a big way. It sure is. That is a very common. And where people they might fall right to sleep, but then they wake up at 2 or 3 in the morning and they’re up for a long time, can’t go back to sleep, or they maybe just can’t fall asleep because the mind won’t shut off.
00:05:58:11 – 00:06:22:08
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. And we know sleep like if you sleep is off. Well that just causes the dominoes to, to kind of fall to doesn’t it. Or, or is that just one of the dominoes in the whole line of dominoes. Yeah. Well it can be both. So if we’re not sleeping well and we all know what we feel like a day or a day or two after not sleeping well.
00:06:22:09 – 00:06:42:10
Unknown
But if it becomes chronic, that’s even more of an issue. But when we don’t sleep as well, our, our so our main stress hormone, we have more than one. But the main one is cortisol. We all know cortisol right. So we know if we have elevated cortisol for long term that will it causes all kinds of health issues.
00:06:42:10 – 00:07:11:03
Unknown
I’m sure we’ll talk about that. Poor sleep. In addition to stress, the stress causes elevated cortisol or sleep also causes elevated cortisol. So it adds insult to injury. It’s like adding fuel to the fire, keeping that deep stress going you know at this level. Yeah. So cortisol is meant to spike and go down spike and go down. How many times have we heard the analogy of you saw a lion in the street, you know, you went into fight or flight, and as soon as the lion was gone, the threat was gone.
00:07:11:03 – 00:07:29:12
Unknown
We’re supposed to come back down. We’re not supposed to have that elevated level anymore. Us in business, we go up. We may not go as high as the lion in the street, but we go up pretty high and it stays there. And then, yeah, maybe at the end of the day it might start coming down and it maybe doesn’t.
00:07:29:14 – 00:07:57:13
Unknown
Yeah. Should stress our sleep. Definitely exacerbates and compounds the problem right? I mean I mean you’re you’ve owned a business and own a business. What do you think in terms of like the wellness that people consistently overlook? What what are entrepreneurs overlook more than anything? You know, it, it’s it really depends on the person. But where I would go, I would go to two places.
00:07:57:15 – 00:08:24:09
Unknown
I would say sharpening the saw is number one. We’re so busy. Stephen Covey, classic. Wonderful book from two decades ago. You know, the seven Habits of Highly Effective People maybe three decades ago. I’m dating myself, but it’s classic wisdom book, right? And number, maybe it was number seven. I don’t remember. But sharpening the saw, we don’t take time to sharpen the stone.
00:08:24:09 – 00:08:45:16
Unknown
We all know that if we go to cut something with a dull knife or a dull saw, we actually can hurt ourselves first of all. And second of all, we work ten times harder than if it were sharp. So we don’t take time because we don’t think we can take time to take a step back, listen to ourselves, be still, and really then recalibrate.
00:08:45:18 – 00:09:13:23
Unknown
So I would say that’s number one with entrepreneurs. Again I’m preaching to the choir here. And two, nutrition because nutrition is habitual. We eat what we’re comfortable eating. We eat what’s convenient, we eat what’s fast, especially for your audience during your really busy season. You know, it’s just easier to to to do this mental habit of, this is what I do, this is how I survive.
00:09:14:01 – 00:09:35:09
Unknown
So to find a new habit that are just as convenient. But that’s fuel your body so that it keeps your energy. It keeps that fire going instead of it dying out. Dying out. I need more coffee. I need a candy bar. I need something to keep me going. If we can fuel properly. I find that that makes a massive difference.
00:09:35:09 – 00:09:59:23
Unknown
And that’s one that easily gets overlooked, right? Yeah. And what a hard habit to change if you’re stupid. I mean, that’s, I feel like a lot of people, I heard the term find your wife before your wife, and you heard that before. Yeah. I haven’t I haven’t heard the exact thing, but your why is is the basis of all of it, right?
00:09:59:23 – 00:10:28:09
Unknown
It’s for all of our success, for habit change. It always comes with that. Simon Sinek. If you know Simon Sinek, he’s amazing as that. Great Ted talk and a book and yeah, but it’s like like, you know, find a reason to change your eating habits before, you know, before you get diagnosed with type two diabetes, before you get, you know, whatever it is, some sort of health wake up call, right?
00:10:28:11 – 00:10:50:05
Unknown
That I have not heard that put that way. But that makes so much sense because your why we’ll find you and that’s you’re right. We don’t we don’t want to be coming from that position for sure right. Yeah. Habit changes like something actually we studied a lot when we developed our academy because you know, humans are creatures of habit.
00:10:50:05 – 00:11:27:10
Unknown
And how we run our business is habitual. It’s it’s such a hard, it’s such a hard thing to change. Have you, discovered anything or just seen patients, like, change our habits really rapidly? Can you just kind of talk a little bit about what you’ve seen in terms of people actually changing their habits? I sure can, and, you know, I never as I said, I did not hear I have not heard that saying before, but that is when I found people would really change their habits, is when.
00:11:27:12 – 00:11:49:03
Unknown
So when people I a little back story about me Brendan you you know this but just for our listeners, I had a brick and mortar functional medicine practice in Pennsylvania. I moved to South Carolina a year and a half ago, sold my practice, which was amazing and a blessing. And now I work more virtually with people and with businesses.
00:11:49:05 – 00:12:10:05
Unknown
But to answer that question, when people would finally get to me in my office, they would have already seen several doctors and practitioners. So they were desperate. You know, we’ve tried. I’ve tried everything. I don’t I don’t know what else to do. I know that somehow I need to change what I’m doing, but I don’t know what to do.
00:12:10:07 – 00:12:30:22
Unknown
So at that point, people tend to be really motivated because they don’t want to feel bad anymore. They don’t want to feel sick anymore. And it’s scary. They don’t. They don’t want this to be a forever thing. So that is very motivating. That is when people’s wife finds them. But also some people just get to a point and they say, I’ve had enough.
00:12:30:22 – 00:12:52:14
Unknown
I don’t want to be in survival mode. That’s a really strong why I want to live the life. If we take a look from, you know, if we reverse engineer from where we see the end of our lives and look back to now, we have all the control to make the changes, to live the rest of our days the way we want to.
00:12:52:16 – 00:13:18:01
Unknown
So that becomes a very powerful way. If we just take a step back and say, wait, what is it? This is a one ticket ride this life. I got one ticket. Yeah, yeah. So what do I want to do? I mean, I’m in the driver’s seat. I can I can be in the passenger seat. I can be passive and let things happen to me, or I can create what I want, and that’s going to require change.
00:13:18:01 – 00:13:21:08
Unknown
But that becomes very motivating when we get to that stage.
00:13:21:08 – 00:13:41:09
Unknown
one of the lessons that we, kind of teach in our academy is failure to implement. We call it FDI. So you can have all the information, you can know what you’re, you should do, quote, or, you know, the path that would get you leads you to success, but you can’t implement.
00:13:41:12 – 00:14:05:17
Unknown
And, that is something that I think what we have found is like, okay, look, in the past, because a lot of times your habits, if you look in the past, you’ve probably changed some sort of habit before, right? Like maybe you gave up ice cream when you were 21. I mean, whatever it was. Yeah. How did you what did you change, like, look to your own personal history?
00:14:05:19 – 00:14:27:10
Unknown
Was it because you had accountability, or was it because you are goal oriented? Like, I feel like it’s, it is really specific to the person, right. And if you think back, so, so for anyone listening who really wants to change, like think back when have you changed before? Because certainly you have at some point in life.
00:14:27:12 – 00:14:54:15
Unknown
Yeah. And it can be really specific to the season. I think back to when I was right out of college, I had different motivators than I have now, you know, so it can be really specific for the individual to what is actually going on now. Yeah. But yeah. So you have found then that, that failure to, to launch that comes from, you know, multiple reasons.
00:14:54:15 – 00:15:16:18
Unknown
But you’ve found it’s really helpful for people to look back at times when they’ve been successful. Is that right. Right. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean are you familiar with this guy, he’s he’s an author and he was a motivational speaker, actually, he calls himself a teacher from years and years ago. Bob Proctor. I have heard of Bob Proctor.
00:15:16:20 – 00:15:47:08
Unknown
I think he was kind of the. I want to say he was he was one of the disciples. That kind of Dave Ramsey came from as well. Maybe. Oh, maybe that could be he. Yeah. He came off of almost the Napoleon Hill. Yeah. Okay. That kind of thinking. But he he’s brilliant. He’s since passed. But there’s his company still is continued from his, his partner Sandy Gallagher.
00:15:47:08 – 00:16:12:03
Unknown
It’s Proctor Gallagher, but he has so much on YouTube about changing our paradigm. And we get stuck in a paradigm of, this is who I am. And these are my limitations. And and if will have the courage to step away from that and redesign our paradigm, that can be very freeing as well. Yes. Start new habits. Yes. I could see him speaking on that because that’s and that is definitely true.
00:16:12:03 – 00:16:34:09
Unknown
It’s it’s becomes part of your identity in a in a sense too. It’s how you what your health habits are become part of your identity. Exactly. And even our work habits and even overwork and not sleeping enough, they just become part of that. But we can change it. That’s the exciting part. So all right, let’s talk about some of the bad stuff that can happen to people.
00:16:34:09 – 00:16:57:08
Unknown
Like what are the long term health implications if, you know, these business owners don’t take the time they need to rest. What what what goes on, you know, to their bodies when they don’t do it. Yeah. What happens? So many things happen. You know, when we we tend to think I’m good. I’m fine. I can handle it.
00:16:57:08 – 00:17:19:14
Unknown
I’m resilient. I got into this. I know what I got into, I know what I’m doing right. So we tend to override our. Our body is telling us there’s a problem. It is like your car with the check engine light coming on and your body’s saying, we got a problem. This, this, like this achy ness, this headache, this, this stomachache, this inflammation, this bloating, like, these things are all check engine light.
00:17:19:19 – 00:17:39:22
Unknown
And we tend to, pull the plug on the light. We don’t tend to address the light. And we go, I’ll be fine. But what it can lead to are all kinds of things. It can lead to hypertension, cardiovascular problems. You mentioned type two diabetes, chronic inflammation, which is the root of all chronic diseases. Right. So take it from there.
00:17:39:22 – 00:18:03:14
Unknown
Anything that chronic inflammation is involved in which is every chronic disease it can go from there. You can get gut issues. You can have, you can have mood disorders, mental your mental well-being can suffer, if it’s colds and flu, it affects our immune system. Right. There’s hormonal imbalances that like, even for men, reduces, you know, it can reduce testosterone levels.
00:18:03:14 – 00:18:32:10
Unknown
So now that that becomes this, this snowball that keeps causing more problems. And for women, it causes different hormonal imbalances. So these are things that, you know, some of them might be like little fires, but if left unattended they can become big fires that become much more difficult to address. Yeah. It’s it’s, it’s I do think people don’t pay attention to the, the lights.
00:18:32:14 – 00:18:59:20
Unknown
You’re right. And but you know business can be a little bit, but my next question is kind of about more about business and how sometimes you can feel trapped, like you’re a prisoner of your business. You know what what what do you do then? What? You know, what is the,
00:18:59:22 – 00:19:19:20
Unknown
Talk a little bit more about that dilemma. Yeah, that I lived that maybe you’ve lived that. I bet a lot of people were talking to. I’ve lived that where we build our dream business. I want to get in business, and I want to help people get well. That was my passion. Still is my passion. But when I opened my brick and mortar, that’s all I saw.
00:19:19:20 – 00:19:39:21
Unknown
I didn’t see the marketing, the operations, the automations, the hiring, the firing, the, you know, all the other things that take up 80% of your day and the 20% is the main reason you got in the business that you’re passionate about. And and then you realize you’re the one keeping all the plates spinning. And so it becomes really hard.
00:19:39:21 – 00:20:04:09
Unknown
Then you realize I’m I built my own pros and I have been there and you still love it, but now you, you you don’t know what to do because you don’t want the plates falling and crashing. So what I would recommend is that you, you carve out time like an appointment, like the most important appointment you’ve got all week, and you sit without distraction.
00:20:04:13 – 00:20:23:11
Unknown
It could start daily. Ideally, it would start daily with, you know, quiet time in the morning, possibly journaling. I like a certain way of journaling. I, I have, created, I’ve created the non journaling journal because I don’t, I’m not a journal or, but I’ve found there are a lot of benefits to it. So I’m trying to get consistent.
00:20:23:13 – 00:20:43:06
Unknown
But let’s go back to what we talked about with that paradigm shifting, that identity shifting. So you sit, you carve out, you give yourself an appointment at least once a week to start with daily if possible, even if it’s only for a half hour. And you sit quietly and you decide what? What has made this a prison? Why do I feel this?
00:20:43:06 – 00:21:06:06
Unknown
Why am I having this chronic deep stress? And then you think about what do I love about my business? What do I mean, what do I hate about my business? And be real? Like we tend to minimize that and say, oh, I don’t hate anything. I’m not supposed to hate. No, no, there are things you hate. Be honest with yourself, write that down and then begin to look at what do I do with the things that I hate?
00:21:06:06 – 00:21:30:02
Unknown
Can I delegate those? Can I redesign them, can I? What are my options? There are always options, but this takes time. This takes time. In, in, in quiet. Because if with distraction it never really gets done. And we always need to get it done. It’s kind of like but we’re going to start an exercise program at home. Like we mean to do it, but we get busy and we don’t do it.
00:21:30:04 – 00:21:38:18
Unknown
So it really does take intentionality and, ruthless determination and then sitting in stillness and asking those questions,
00:21:38:18 – 00:21:52:10
Unknown
how do I do more of what I love and what do I do with what I hate to either redesign it, reallocate it, delegate it, or or do I need to do it? Does is it really moving the needle in my business?
00:21:53:13 – 00:22:39:14
Unknown
I love that idea. It, made me think of of, just the, the idea that when you’re making decisions around your business, a lot of times people make decisions when the stress is high and we don’t always make very good decisions. When our stress is high, we actually make much better decisions when our when we’re relaxed. That relaxed thinking is very powerful and so what you’re talking about is like getting in that state of mind where you’re relaxed and then addressing, you know, maybe you can think through this problem so much more effectively then, than just handling in the moment.
00:22:39:16 – 00:22:45:04
Unknown
Yeah, I love that. I love that you brought that part out of that. And we all know
00:22:45:04 – 00:23:05:12
Unknown
decision fatigue system fatigue. It’s it’s rough because you’re like, I got to make another big decision. Like it feels so big. But if you can take a step back and not be in that stressed in that stress mindset, if you can take it, you know, and I have definitely have ideas for how do we help reduce stress.
00:23:05:12 – 00:23:27:17
Unknown
But there are some really easy ways to do it. They’re not perfect, but they will definitely help bring some of the cortisol down. Yeah, yeah there is a there’s something I wanted to ask you about. I just learned about this recently and it’s called Price’s Law. Are you familiar with Price’s law? It rings a bell. But tell tell us what it is, I can’t remember.
00:23:27:19 – 00:23:59:18
Unknown
Yeah, I, I’m sure like we’ve all heard this in some form or another, but Price’s law says that 50% of our out output comes from the square root of the number of people involved. So say you have 16 people in your office and say you’re bringing, you know, a million in, like gross income, 50% of that 500,000 comes from the square root of your 16 people, from four.
00:23:59:20 – 00:24:26:06
Unknown
Is that fascinating when you think about that? So I like to apply that Price’s law also to this prison mentality of, okay, 50% of my productivity, whatever that is in my office, is coming from the square root of whatever my input is. How do I determine what input is not moving the needle, and can I get rid of it like I made it?
00:24:26:08 – 00:24:54:02
Unknown
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think there’s, you know, it kind of ties into the whole Pareto principle very well, which is the 80 to 80 principle. And, which is really similar. It’s like 20% of your inputs produce 80% of your outputs. And it can be applied in any business, like in so many different ways. You know, like 20.
00:24:54:04 – 00:25:23:06
Unknown
It an interesting thing about accounting firms. What we, what we’ve learned is that generally in an accounting practice, if you take the bottom 20% of clients like it, like if there’s a thousand clients, an accounting firm, the bottom 200, which represents to 20% of the quantity of clients, generally produce 3 to 5% of revenue of the firm. Usually sometimes it’s even smaller, sometimes like 1 or 2% like it’s.
00:25:23:08 – 00:25:44:21
Unknown
Yeah. And you think about that and it’s, it’s really cool and mind blowing. Actually, I sat with Brant at dinner last night and I was like, Brynn, my daughter who works for you. I was like, this price is law. Like, let’s figure out if this is the same as the Pareto Principle. And she’s like, really, mom? I’m like, yeah.
00:25:44:21 – 00:26:02:03
Unknown
So let’s like do it. Let’s do an example and see if then we can extrapolate that into. And she’s like, I know what I did. I get, you know, I can I can totally see that response. Like well yeah.
00:26:02:03 – 00:26:12:01
Unknown
Okay. All right. I’m going to, I’m going to turn the page a little bit and get to some of the questions I always like to ask all of our guests.
00:26:12:04 – 00:26:41:04
Unknown
And the first one is just maybe a memorable story. So can you think of like what’s been the most memorable story in your career? It could be a client. It could be a a team member. Yeah, yeah. So so my goal for clients and for everyone, on my podcast as well, my goal is to give people manageable changes that are life changing.
00:26:41:04 – 00:27:04:02
Unknown
They’re transformative. And one day, in in my office, I had several clients that day and in on that particular day, two different people came in and said, you saved my life. And I went, oh, that’s nice, that’s great. And they’re like, no, no, really. You did. You saved my life. You completely changed it. Now, did I save their life?
00:27:04:02 – 00:27:27:09
Unknown
No, no, I didn’t, but I gave them manageable things that they could now put in, as you said, based on their why, based on what they wanted to accomplish in life. They could put these lifestyle changes, dietary changes, sleep, things that would help them sleep, things that would reduce stress into their lives. And it wasn’t overwhelming and it was life changing.
00:27:27:09 – 00:27:47:08
Unknown
That’s the bottom line. So these things that we’re talking about today, these are life changing. They sound so run of the mill, right? Oh, I’ve heard that before. Oh, I know what I’m supposed to do. If I had a dollar for every time someone said, I know what to do, but I just don’t do it. And then we’re able to talk through the nuances of why.
00:27:47:08 – 00:28:12:06
Unknown
Or maybe it’s a little different than what you thought you knew, and we can just tweak it a little bit now. It works for you. It’s transformative. Yeah, yeah. I feel like, you know, it’s the simple things that we all kind of know. And I feel like a lot of suffering that we have as especially business owners is we’re just trying to do too much all the time.
00:28:12:08 – 00:28:31:17
Unknown
Like it’s it’s really we don’t put up great boundaries around our time so that we can focus on these things profitably. Yeah. And that was one question. Before I ask you my last question, I want to go back to kind of like some of these more actionable things. And I do think it’s a lot of it’s time management.
00:28:31:17 – 00:28:44:19
Unknown
It’s like we’re just we’re just taking on too much. We’re just wanting to do too much. Cramming every moment of the day, or cramming something into every moment of the day. So do you,
00:28:44:19 – 00:28:52:11
Unknown
do you know of, like, maybe a couple of tips? The journaling is a great one. I think that’s a great, like, quiet time in the morning.
00:28:52:13 – 00:29:14:03
Unknown
But there’s some other things that you could think of that might help, you know, especially people, you know, taxis. And right now we’re recording. It’s, late October. So taxis is coming up for a lot more listeners. What are some things I could do? This taxi that kind of put them in the right direction? Yeah. I want to talk about two different prongs of that.
00:29:14:03 – 00:29:36:00
Unknown
First of all, to go back to what do you love? What do you hate about your business? To take that a little step further is what is your zone a genius now heading into tax season? That might sound kind of ridiculous. Like, I got to do what I got to do. I got to get through it. But but when you have time to reflect, what do you do that only you can do in your business?
00:29:36:00 – 00:30:06:15
Unknown
You do the best. You do better than anybody. And then what are the things that you do because you feel like you have to? But truly, maybe another team member could do that. Maybe you could restructure and maybe that’s their zone of genius. So again, that takes a little bit of that takes a willingness to step off the hamster wheel and to take a very honest inventory of what is what all the activities are and then what what do you not do that well, but you just feel like you have to it’s it’s it’s it’s a hat you wear.
00:30:06:15 – 00:30:24:21
Unknown
And can someone else wear it. Can something be restructured. So that is like we look at not only do we love but what are we really good at that needs to be ours. We can’t give that up. But there’s some things we’re just not that good at and we still do them anyway. What can we do? What can we do about that?
00:30:24:21 – 00:30:46:03
Unknown
It may not be what I’m suggesting, but you may come up with another option. The second thing, let’s go back to nutrition. Just because that is something I’m really passionate about and it can be life changing if we choose to fuel properly. Think about your your energy as a campfire, and every day you get up and you build a campfire.
00:30:46:05 – 00:31:06:21
Unknown
Now you want that campfire to last till you come home at night. You don’t want it to die out, and then you’re artificially reigniting that thing. So if we do that, if we want to build a campfire brand, and what would we need to build that campfire to to keep it burning for a long time? What, what we would just we would just keep food coming up.
00:31:06:21 – 00:31:23:23
Unknown
Keep so we would keep our firewood right by the fire. And when we need to replenish it, we just throw a log on the fire. Right. Exactly. But we would start out with logs, just like you said. We would not start out with kindling or newspaper. Those those we put on the top, but we would start out with those great big logs on the bottom.
00:31:24:01 – 00:31:45:12
Unknown
Then we would throw some kindling, possibly some paper. So those logs are protein. We got to get them in breakfast, lunch and dinner. We got to get protein. And because those are the logs of our energy, if we get those in, it reduces cravings, it improves energy and it helps us to not get hangry and irritable. So we got to get the logs in.
00:31:45:13 – 00:32:02:15
Unknown
So that starts with breakfast. What can you do to get 25 to 30g of protein. And at breakfast you can do lots of things. You can do eggs, so you can just look at how many grams of protein per egg and work accordingly. Eggs and cheese will help that. You can do a protein shake. You can do, there are different options.
00:32:02:15 – 00:32:21:21
Unknown
You can do that. You will get that protein. Get it breakfast. Get it at lunch. Get it dinner. Now you’ve got a fire of energy burning all day long. The kindling and the paper. That’s carbohydrates. So you throw those on and that keeps the fire going. The mistake a lot of us make is we start our fire in the morning with kindling.
00:32:21:23 – 00:32:50:22
Unknown
And before by 11 a.m., we’re hungry, we’re chugging more coffee. We’re looking for some chips or some snacks to tide us over, maybe some nuts. So the key is get the logs on the fire. Yeah, get that breakfast. Get that 30g right away. Makes a huge difference in energy cravings, irritability and resilience. Because think about when you’re hangry and you’re shaky and you’ve got more decisions coming your way than you have time or energy to give, it feels overwhelming.
00:32:50:22 – 00:33:00:05
Unknown
So it reduces overwhelm. It’s like it is life changing. It’s super. It’s once you change it, you won’t go back because you’ll realize how much better you feel.
00:33:00:05 – 00:33:11:01
Unknown
Yeah, I know one of the guys that I’m an iOS is very fit. And I said, you know, what are you doing? What do you how are you eating? And he’s he kind of goes to the old adage like, are you a big breakfast?
00:33:11:01 – 00:33:33:09
Unknown
A lot of protein in the morning, a kind of, you know, a a decent sized lunch, you know, and then a smaller dinner, and that works for him. But he’s really he’s really big on that, that breakfast being kind of the, the way to start your day. Yeah, I like that. And I also like the same idea.
00:33:33:09 – 00:34:04:19
Unknown
Get 25 to 30 every meal. Here’s the deal. We don’t overeat chicken pizza stone. Yeah. Those. Yeah. Potato chips. Sure. Candy. Soda. Sure. But we don’t overeat chicken steak fish because our body naturally tires of it when we’ve had the right amount. And here’s the easiest thing for if someone does eat, you know, chicken fish, beef it’s just the size that 25 to 30g is the size of a deck of cards or a little bigger.
00:34:04:21 – 00:34:29:20
Unknown
That’s it. That’s a you’re eyeballing it. You’re not measuring it. It doesn’t have to be hard. It’s easy. It’s just intentional. It’s making the decision and making sure that that we keep our promises selves. Right? Right. Love that. Those are really simple things that people can do. So thank you for that. That’s great. All right. My last question as we close out, do you have a book recommendation for our listeners?
00:34:29:22 – 00:34:42:20
Unknown
How much time do we have? I got you got a few I, I do I’m just I am going to rapid fire them the first one. Prepare your CPA firm for a sale. Well.
00:34:42:22 – 00:34:59:13
Unknown
Thank you for the plug. But yeah, but there’s a lot of wisdom in that book. If we have listeners, if you haven’t read it or if you haven’t read it for a while, it’s a fast read and it’s a good read and it’s full of wisdom of self-care. I’m really dealing with this deep stress that you and I are talking about.
00:34:59:13 – 00:35:23:21
Unknown
It’s how to back away from the deep stress. I love it. I see it’s application across the board for all business owners. The next one, James clear atomic habits. It’s a must read. I love it, I love it, it’s classic. Another. Really? Do we have time for, like, five? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Love is rapid fire. The people can take notes.
00:35:23:23 – 00:35:43:18
Unknown
This one is an oldie but a goodie. It’s called The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson. Such a good book. It’s just it talks about exactly what we’re talking about. These little incremental decisions we make, they either take the trajectory where we want it to go or they take it down. He gives the example of one Big Mac a day, like one Big Mac.
00:35:43:18 – 00:36:03:20
Unknown
Is that going to kill you? No, it’s not going to. But if you have one every day for the next year, you’re going to see change in your health so that it’s the trajectory concept. Couple others who not Hal with Dan Sullivan. That’s it’s a great one. Great one. It’s great for. How do I get some of this stuff off my plate?
00:36:03:20 – 00:36:26:04
Unknown
Right. Traction. I know you’re going to like this one. Gino Wickman has a lot to do with iOS, but, the principles, the iOS, it’s a great. Yes. Yes. You know, these are all great. And then I really like, the common path to uncommon Success. That one is by an author, John Lee Dumas. And he has some great pearls of wisdom in there.
00:36:26:04 – 00:36:53:18
Unknown
I could keep going, but I won’t. Those are just, we’ll put we’ll put them all in the show notes. So that’s also this has been so, so much fun. And it’s, it’s, you know, it’s a very different topic than we’ve discussed before, but hopefully people will appreciate it. And, you know, I would say running a business, it doesn’t have to be as hard as sometimes will make it.
00:36:53:18 – 00:37:16:02
Unknown
It really can. You know, I’ve seen some beautiful businesses out there and people are able to take time off. They are able to do these things. So it’s doable. I think that’s something that, that’s probably the first little mindset shift people need to make is like, you can’t change it. It’s not easy, but it can be done.
00:37:16:04 – 00:37:33:06
Unknown
Okay. So so listeners, go to YouTube, listen to Bob Proctor. He’s old school, but he’s going to talk all about that. It doesn’t have to be as we get in our head. It doesn’t have to be as hard as we make it. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. Well thank you, Lisa. Thanks for having me. Brian. And I loved it.
00:37:33:06 – 00:37:54:07
Unknown
Thanks for listening to the Accountant’s Flight Plan podcast. You can keep the momentum going by subscribing and sharing your thoughts with us. Visit our website at home. Group advisors.com for more resources and tune in next time for more exciting conversations like this one. This podcast was produced and edited by Liesl Eppes of her group advisors. Thanks for listening.
