One thing I learned about Sterling’s How to Dream in Color Workshop: if you do it, be careful what you wish for. You may get it – and faster than you thought possible. I did the workshop in 2002 and accomplished everything I really wanted to in less than a year.
I wanted a new building to house my CPA practice. Within months I found a 2,500 square foot building in a very nice, high-visibility location on one of the main streets leading into downtown Orlando with twice as much parking as I need, for the right price. And anyone who knows the Orlando area knows that finding ample parking is almost impossible. And it almost fell into my lap. It wasn’t even listed. It has appreciated 200% since I bought it.
I wanted an American collector-car too. That was on my list. I was visiting my wife’s family in New York, just browsing through the newspaper, and there it was, a nearly immaculate 1965 Chevrolet Impala SS convertible, rust-free, for the right price. It looks brand new.
The items on my list just kept turning up. I needed a part-time staff person and a lady sent me her resume, unsolicited. When I looked it over, I discovered that she worked for the same New York accounting firm for over ten years – just the kind of mature, stable person I needed – Boom – I decided, and there she was.
Being more aware of what exactly you want helps you realize it. When something’s well-defined and shows up, you can recognize and grab it.
I guess I’ve always been goal-oriented, but it took the How to Dream in Color Workshop to help me sit down and evaluate what I was doing, and where I wanted to go. We went through an extensive checklist, laid out my goals, and got them all down in pretty good detail. When I left I had a framework of what I wanted to do and a good idea of how to go about doing it. That list, all by itself, was a huge help.
The How to Dream in Color Workshop put my future right there in front of me, and since then, things have just happened. I’ve had highest-ever months every month, and highest-ever years every year since 2002.
I got back home incredibly fired up. It’s funny how that workshop stokes up your engine and keeps it stoked. In the past, I’d get through tax season exhausted, and find myself saying, “Ok, what am I going to do now?” I’d be burned out. That didn’t happen after the Dreams Workshop. I had other things on the horizon to go toward and that’s kept my energy going.
My confidence that I can set and achieve a goal hasn’t really diminished since I did the workshop. I haven’t achieved the level of billing I set out, but then I’m not sure that’s what I really want right now. I’m already making more money than I ever thought I would. We’re growing at a consistent 20% a year. My business has increased 250% since I started with Sterling. This year our billing will probably be over $400,000 and that’s quite a bit for one guy, with one part-time bookkeeper, a part-time office manager, and two part-time CPAs generating production for me to review. I have all the business I can handle until I hire another me – and I may have done that too. I hired someone a week and a half ago who can help review some more complex matters I’d ordinarily have to do alone.
I am planning a website that will allow me to move the practice more to where I don’t have to be in there producing all the time for my practice to function at the high level I want. I’m working to free one day a week from production so I can run my business rather than have it run itself. I’m behind the wheel now, but there’s too much automatic pilot going on.
As it is I have a very up-tone office with everybody knowing what they have to do and when it has to be done.
My wife is onboard with the program. She knows it works. She came out to Sterling with me for my Executive Booster Program. She’s seen the changes. It’s made a big difference in how I manage life, my practice, everything.
I’m growing old enough where I don’t want to work as much. In the workshop, I decided that I wanted to change my lifestyle. I now have time to read novels. I work on my golf game. I have more time to spend collecting things with my seven-year-old son. He’s into scouting, and at the moment he’s into lizards and bugs.
Tom Osborne, CPA