Building a Bookkeeping Firm with Purpose with Erika Crandall

I wonder, what does leadership mean to you now versus before you started the business?

Well, before I started my business, I used to think of leadership as someone that manages a large team that makes tough decisions every day.

And I didn't see myself as a leader because I've never...

Yeah, I was in management role for a very brief period of time.

I just had, I think, two employees under me, but I didn't consider myself as having leadership skills.

But...

As I'm getting older, as I am getting more into my business, I'm realizing that there's so many different aspects of leadership.

And I see that in some ways, I am able to lead my company by providing excellent support for my clients, being there for them, having great communication skills, having discipline.

I did bring my son on to my firm and just teaching him from the ground up about how to be someone that I can duplicate myself and instill those values in him.

That's been a great learning curve for me.

And learning that the best leaders and the more successful people are successful because they're so willing to ask for help.

That's something that in the majority of my adult life was a struggle.

I hated asking for help because I felt like I had to do it all.

And if I asked for help, I felt like I was bothering people.

Like I'm bothering them by asking for help.

Now they have to take time out of their day just to help me.

I didn't like that.

But I'm realizing that's the opposite.

People are so happy to help.

I'm giving them a compliment in a lot of ways by saying, hey, you're great at this.

Can you help me? And now I'm realizing if I want to be even more successful, I have to be open to reaching out and looking for those people that are experts in their own fields so that I don't have to be an expert in everything.

That's such a humble feedback to give.

And I can tell when you were saying, oh, I was very cocky and I had to work on that.

To say the things that you're saying took years of experience to get to that position of it's okay to ask for help.

It's okay to gain feedback.