Ep. 113: Twyla Verhelst - Building Confidence in an Industry of Introverts

Contact Twyla Verhelst:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/twylav/


Twyla's Links/Resources:
https://linktr.ee/twylavhttp://www.freshbooks.com/accountants

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:Adam:
(00:00)
 Welcome back to Count Me In. IMA's podcast about all things
affecting the accounting and finance world. This is your host,
Adam Larson and today I'm bringing you right up to the start of
episode, 113 with our featured guest, Twyla Verhelst. As we
listen to this conversation, we first need to acknowledge that
many accountants got into the profession because they are really
good at crunching the numbers. However, the role has changed, and
accounting and finance professionals are now asked to be
confident communicators and storytellers. Twyla will walk us
through the evolution of the position and give us strategies for
overcoming introversion to be confident business partners. Let's
head over and listen now.

Mitch: (00:45)
The accounting profession is one that typically attracts rather
introverted individuals. Now there are many stereotypes about
accountants and their personality traits, but in speaking with
you, I know some of these stereotypes have evolved or proven
false, particularly in today's industry. So would you like to
give us just a little bit of background from your perspective on
today's conversation?

Twyla: (01:14)
Sure. So, you know, I don't necessarily think that the
personality types have changed per se. I still think that the
accounting profession does attract rather introverted individuals
and I feel comfortable sharing that when I'm an accountant and an
introvert myself. But what I do believe has happened is that
we're no longer your dad's accountant, or we’re no longer your
Uncle Joe that used to be an accountant. Accountants now have a
very diversified skillset. We have social skills, we have
relationship skills, and oftentimes these relationship skills are
what are driving the service agreements. We have the clients,
that's the value they're paying for. They're no longer paying for
what you slide across the desk at them every year on an annual
basis, coupled with their bill that you slide across, that's just
different, it's changed now. And there's so much more inside of
the personality of an accountant that's being shared with the
client and the client is valuing. So, when I speak of this
previous accountant that I'm thinking of, I actually think of my
parents' accountant in my head. I think of the man that we saw on
an annual basis, my parents were entrepreneurs, we went and saw
him annually. They helped with their personal taxes and their
corporate taxes. And I remember specifically when I told him I'm
thinking of becoming an accountant, he really just had five words
for me, which was, do you want a job? He didn't expand. He didn't
elaborate. He was very much an introvert. So now I think we're
still introverts at the profession probably still does draw in
introverts, but the stereotype of the boring accountant that fits
in a box and doesn't really talk and doesn't really converse has
changed. And that's, what's evolved inside of the industry.

Mitch: (03:07)
So typically, you know, many accountants will get into the
profession because they're skilled at diving into the numbers,
right? They like to work at their desk and crunch these numbers
rather than really work with people. But as you said, the job has
evolved. And you know, these accountants are asked to embrace new
identities. You know, we look to these individuals as really
confident advisors. So as the job evolves and the individuals
grow within this profession, again, from your perspective, what
is the first step for accounting and finance professionals to
take when looking to make this progression and gain a little bit
of this confidence?

Twyla: (03:50)
Before I dive into the first step, I just want to make sure that
we're clear on the type of advisors that we're looking to be, or
that we're trying to strive to be. And why I want to start there
is because sometimes that's the barrier to us getting there, is
that we have now painted this picture of, I need to be this
really professional, highly confident, so knowledgeable, and use
these big words and this accounting jargon in this financial
jargon in order to fit that new mold. That's not necessarily true
either. And so I want to just lay that out there because
sometimes that's a roadblock to thinking, how do I get started?
Because you're trying to get somewhere that I would encourage you
not to get too far down that road, because now you've become
somebody who's no longer the introverted accountant, but now
you're intimidating or now you're talking over your clients or
now you're really not in relationship with your clients because
they're almost too scared to bring up what's going on inside of
their business because of potential shame or potential guilt or
potential, you know, getting inside of a conversation that they
no longer understand and that they don't even feel comfortable
saying, “I don't know what you're talking about”. So I want to
make sure that we start there and then once we know that,
alright, let's be professional and let's be advisors and let's be
inside of a relationship out there, clients, but not take that
too far. Then it's a case of starting with do some personal
reflection. Where do you currently have a skill gap and do that
self audit. Do you have really personable skills already and,
that you've evolved or developed inside of your career thus far
and now you're just layering onto that. Or are you the more
traditional, introverted accountant, super, super smart, but
loves sitting behind your desk and you know that you need to take
steps towards breaking out of your shell so that you can feel
comfortable inside a relationship or inside a conversation with
your client. Or is it more that you're needing to do some other
sort of, upping of other skills, which could be video calls
nowadays, especially, where you've got to feel comfortable
getting on video, presenting, doing that virtually, being
organized to do that and not losing your place and feeling
confident and having a loud, clear voice that everyone can
understand and hear over the internet. What do you need to do to
upskill? And so it's kind of taking that step back and saying,
all right, here's what I'm trying to be. So once you understand
where it is you’re trying to grow to, or stretch to then, where
do I need to fill in that gap in order to be that advisor.

Mitch: (06:41)
Now, please correct me if I'm wrong. But I would assume that
technology is a big reason that this evolution within the
accounting profession and an individual's ability to effectively
communicate and build these relationships, you know, this change
is because of technology. I would say technology is now that
person who was sitting behind the desk crunching the numbers,
right? We have the software and the computers to do that for us
and the human, the accountant, is responsible for the
communication of the data that's gathered from the technology.
So, utilizing this technology and kind of having that secondary
relationship, what is the best course of action for a
professional to increase their comfort and confidence in changing
what they do on a day-to-day basis because of technology and then
communicating what comes out of it?

Twyla: (07:41)
I completely agree with you that technology has really paved the
way for this evolution, paved the way for us being able to have
the...