humans are the most advanced supercomputers, but there’s no user manual.
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the disruptors
with liz farr
like many who start out in public accounting, vimal bava didn’t initially question the status quo of our high-stress profession where long hours and little time for self-care are the norm. part of that stress was a partner who would “chew us out” for mistakes on returns.
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but when vimal’s doctor told him he needed to find ways to reduce his stress, he started his own firm. another wake-up call for vimal came in 2017 when one of his accountant friends suddenly passed away.
learning meditation, mindfulness, and yoga helped vimal deal with the stress and helped his firm grow as well. after bringing these practices into his life, his “mental and physical health took a 180-degree turn.” vimal also reports that “my firm was growing without me putting in much effort,” he stopped “working crazy hours,” and he “was living a much happier life.”
he shares many of these practices in his weekly newsletter, the 5-minute friday newsletter, as well as in webinars and in conference sessions.
12 more takeaways
- stop working weekends and long hours. when you return rested after a weekend break, you can get more done.
- challenge the status quo. ask, “why are we working these long hours? what’s the reasoning behind it?” don’t accept long hours as the norm.
- treat your employees the way you wish you’d been treated. pay for regular cpe and personal development. check in regularly without micromanaging.
- consulting isn’t always tax or accounting; it can be other important things that are part of their business.
- you can teach an accountant programming, but it’s hard to teach a programmer accounting.
- a healthy mind is a healthy body. if you have positive thoughts, you’ll take better care of yourself.
- take care of the humans. genuine human connections matter.
- find ways to incorporate mindfulness into your day, even if you just have one minute or five minutes.
- share mindfulness practices with the whole team, not just the leaders.
- 85% of what we learned in school is only applicable to 15 percent of the world. but the remaining 15 percent, which is mainly soft skills, is applicable to 85 percent of the world.
- don’t stigmatize mental health. make it okay to be not okay.
- we humans are the most advanced supercomputers, but there’s no user manual.
about vimal bava
vimal bava is a seasoned cpa & business owner with over 15 years of experience in the accounting and tax industries. bava is in his 8th year of operating his public accounting firm based in arkansas. along with operating his firm, he also provides mental fitness coaching & mentoring to other professionals to help them start growing in their professional journeys. as a mental fitness coach, he is deeply committed to helping individuals navigate the challenges of modern-day stress, anxiety, and work-life balance. drawing from his personal experiences and the challenges he has overcome, bava offers a holistic approach to well-being, emphasizing simple practices that we can all incorporate into our daily lives. beyond one-on-one coaching, bava conducts corporate workshops, in-person seminars, and webinars, extending his reach to larger audiences and organizations. as a lifelong learner, he is driven by the transformative power of education and is pursuing a doctorate at florida international university. check out his weekly newsletter, 5 minute friday, for which you can find the link at thebackpackcpa.com.
transcript
(transcripts are made available as soon as possible. they are not fully edited for grammar or spelling.)
liz farr 00:04
welcome to accounting disruptors conversations. i’m your host, liz farr, from 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间in in this series, i’m talking to owners of firms who are running things a little bit differently than their fathers or grandfather’s cpa firms. my guest today is vimal bava, founder of vb cpa. he’s also known as the backpack cpa, and he’s the author of tfive-minuteute friday newsletter. how are you today? vimal.
vimal bava 00:36
great, liz, how are you?
liz farr 00:37
i’m good. i’m fantastic. well, why don’t you start us out vimal by telling us a little bit about your firm, where are you located, what services you offer, and that kind of stuff.
vimal bava 00:52
so i’m based out of bryan, arkansas, it’s a suburb of little rock, arkansas. and my firm is primarily focused on healthcare practices and real estate investors. so we do offer accounting and tax services. for more on the tax side, we have one employee, and this is my eighth year of my firm.
liz farr 01:13
and fantastic. now, how did you come to be an owner of a firm? how did that happen?
vimal bava 01:21
so i mean, i worked at two different firms and public, and then it was just kind of one of those things, like the long hours, the stress, and the burnout, which just kind of got to me. and it was having an effect on my physical health, as well as my mental health. and so i just couldn’t handle any more doctors who actually had been to the doctor for a few months prior to me going out on my own. and he told me, you need to find ways to reduce your stress because it’s hurting you physically, like i had my physical done to bloodwork done, and the results weren’t good. and so he told me to find ways to improve my health. so that’s kind of when i went on my own; i need to slow things down. so the first year i was on my own i didn’t, i needed enough income to replace my w two income, which i was able to do. but i was trying to make it easy for us again, and i was trying to improve my health.
liz farr 02:14
yeah, well, mental health is certainly a huge challenge in our profession. and it seems to be sort of the rite of passage that they almost force us to live these crazy hours, and a lot of physical discomfort is really hard on us. now, what are some things that you do at your firm that you wish other firm owners would also do? so
vimal bava 02:52
i mean, i’m sure a lot of firms are probably doing something like this, but i mean, the one employee i have, i try to invest in her. although she’s not a cpa, i tried to have her do it like regular cpe. and i still try to get her to go out and do like different trainings and things. whether it’s on cpa academy, through naatp, or some other platform, just try to give her more autonomy and empower and keep her challenged. that way, she doesn’t feel bored. and then, like, i always keep asking her, are you okay? are you okay? because i tried to do things i wish people would have done for me, was starting out in public or even like few years into public, there were times where it just felt like we were just like cogs in the machine, like day in and day out who was going in, cranking out returns going home, nobody really cared if we were okay or not. so i just tried to make sure my employee is taken care of, and she’s doing well. and you know, a lot of times i just don’t want to hand her things and say, hey, go do this. i tried to eat like a screen recording or write down the steps, make it easy for her, and try to let her do it on her own. and so i mean, to kind of summarize that. if you’re not already, i would, you know, empower your employees and give them more autonomy. don’t micromanage them.
liz farr 04:03
oh, yes, the micro managers, i did have a few of those. oh, which is kind of throw something yeah, too. and then expect you to figure out on your own how to do it, but then jump all over you if you didn’t do it exactly the way that should be done.
vimal bava 04:24
i mean, like, so the very first time i worked, i remember literally getting cussed out by one of the partners. and i mean, it wasn’t i wasn’t the only one that would get cussed out with some of the other like interns and younger staff would also get cussed out and they made this printout returns for them to review. so we will do to return in pro systems. i think that’s what we use, but then they print out a 5060-page booklet with a tax return. make notes all over it and call them into their office to go review notes. then, you know, there’s pretty much to us out, so expect this and go back and fix it. come back again with a second draft and then choose out again. so then thinking back, you know, i was like, i wish they would have kind of told us, hey, you know, we understand you’re on. but here’s how you could have done it right. instead of, you know, here, let me just like, berate, you know, go off, and you and i want you to now go back and fix it.
liz farr 05:13
you know, there are so many more empowering ways to help you figure out how to do it. right. right. and you’re nobody comes into public accounting knowing exactly how to do that. yeah. yeah, and every firm has its own different little nuance in how you do the work papers and how you treat this. oh, this should appear on the forms and how you should label, you know, everybody has something. yeah. all right.
vimal bava 05:54
and if, and i think these days, i see a lot of this like firm owners are this leaders, they’re posting all the time, how they’re implementing these training systems onboarding systems for the employees, which is a nice thing to see, you know, they’re actually investing in those people.
liz farr 06:10
yeah, yeah, you’re my first stint in public accounting as an intern. and a lot of the managers were really tired. with the inconsistent training that the new people got, they were piloting a training program for all of their new tax season people. so, for two weeks, i went in there full-time and just did practice work. they showed me how to do work papers. you know, they had me do all these fake projects, which was really a useful exercise, right? because that way, i could learn how they liked things. all right. and it also kind of standardized how this new group of people were going to do things so that the managers who would be reviewing the work would have something consistent. and so that the partners would also have something consistent. and that was a great idea. unfortunately, there was a lot of turnover at that firm. and by coincidence, i went back to that firm many years later. and none of that training program was still around; it was just wow, which was really too bad. because that was a really good thing they put together.
vimal bava 07:55
yeah. and i mean, when i first started, like, what they told us the mantra was, it’s all on job training, which i understand, you know, i mean, if you start out in january, busy season, and do on the job training, those supervisors and managers, they’re hard to kind of sit down with and even getting good feedback.
liz farr 08:13
yeah, they’re now as we go through our professional work, sometimes it’s not so much the things that we start doing that are the most impactful, but the things that we stopped doing. so what are some of the things that you stop doing, that have been the most impactful for you?
vimal bava 08:35
honestly, i think it’s just like me stopping the work on the weekends and is working those long hours. before i remember, i’d work like 7080 hours. and then when the new week rolled around, it’s like, i’d be worn out and just not an enthusiastic about being monday. and it’s like, you know, it’s just another day, there was no separation between weekdays and weekends. and, you know, i felt like, it was always low on energy and just lose passion for work life, which i guess you could call burnout, right. and so just stopping working those long hours, and then taking time on the weekends for myself, helped me just overcome that burnout phase. and it was her also hurting this like personal relationships too. because if you’re working all the time, you just don’t have time for your family or even social things to do. and i think that also hurt my productivity too. because the longer i work, the tire to get and the less i get done. and so if i’m refreshed from a weekend break, and i can get more done. and then this is all kind of another thing i started doing is working on the firm instead of in the firm, because while i was working in the firm, i wasn’t really able to grow the firm. so i stopped working in the firm and started working on the firm. so i think those two things were really warm impactful for me and my own firm growth.
liz farr 09:53
that’s great. now, we also sometimes make mistakes and as we go through life, and sometimes it’s those mistakes that give us the best learning, and what is the most valuable mistake that you’ve made. and
vimal bava 10:12
i think this all just kind of goes back to the whole time management issue again, because i think ever since my first job in public, it was just ingrained in me, you know, it’s normal to work long hours and not make time for yourself, especially during busy season. and i just thought that was kind of a traditional way of working. and, and, you know, it was like to suck it up, just work. and so the mistake i made was, i didn’t challenge the model. and i just went along with what everyone else was told me was telling me, you know, like sheep, you know, sheep always follow their sheeps. and so, if i would have actually challenged the status quo and asked, you know, why are we working these long hours? or, you know, what’s the reasoning behind it? i think that could have helped me in the beginning. but instead, you know, i just went along. and like i said earlier, just i’ll just lead to severe burnout and missed a whole host of physical and mental health issues. and so a very important lesson i learned out of all of this was the importance of health as well. and anything, the mistake of accepting crazy hours as the norm helped me learn an important lesson the hard way.
liz farr 11:12
absolutely. and we’re gonna circle back to that mental health thing in a bit. but but i wanted to talk about something that is that i noticed on your website that i thought was really cool. that besides the usual tax and accounting services, you also offer technology advisory, web development, and seo optimization. now, those are three really different things for cpa firm to offer. how did that come about?
vimal bava 11:46
so i mean, initially, mike major in college was computer science. i ended up in accounting by accident, you know, back in college, it was like, right, around 2003 days before a lot of the it jobs are being outsourced to india and stuff. and so someone was telling me was like, well, there’s not gonna be any jobs in computer science. so you might decide to do something else. so then, i started taking some business classes, and one of them was accounting. and then the instructor told me, you know, you should consider accounting as a major, they have good job security. and so i just kind of landed into accounting. but then, i’ve always had this passion for technology, and actually went back and did some coding boot camps a few years ago to learn coding and things. and but the technology advisory, we actually came out of a need from one of my physician clients who just started a practice, he get to ask me questions that tell them would like a social media website, and they’re like, tech related issues. and so then, while i was helping him, i realized, you know, hey, i could kind of offer this to some other clients to just kind of like an add on service. so my position client was kind of a guinea pig. we tried a few different things with him, and it helped him. so i thought i would offer this to others. and so the tech advisory is mostly for kind of the healthcare practices where we make sure they have the right software setups, kind of right processes, and the right people handling the right pieces of the process. now i’ve added like some other just one off projects, where i’ve helped people with their website seo. but i guess it’s not really like the profitable work, but it’s just kind of one of those nice add on services like hey, i can help you with that, too. and then helps my passion technology too.
liz farr 13:16
that’s fun that you get to to dabble in something that you actually majored in and help people with it. yeah. you know, it’s just not any usual set of services that accountants offer.
vimal bava 13:31
yeah. and i think i mean, these days, we’re kind of cyber friend has burned called one stop solutions, where he provides like a whole host of advisory insurance and all kinds of services under his umbrella. and a lot of times you know, accountant is accountants were seen as like the trusted advisor. and if we can just kind of consult sorry, consult with them on like technology stuff, or you know, other important things that are part of their business that might not be directly accounting or tax. so always like this value added thing that they might value.
liz farr 14:03
that’s cool. and the other thing that i saw that i thought was really cool is that you’re also a developer, you’ve got an app called get w nine not tax
vimal bava 14:14
as i said earlier, i went back and did some coding boot camps a few years ago. so get w nine actually was created out of a major pain point i faced every january with clients like he’s january i’d help clients follow their 1099 and i would ask him for that w nine or other you know, details for the contractors and five out of 10 times they will either send me a handwritten davina and you cannot read or have no w nine and then they will chasing around that contractor they would never get it and so then i just got frustrated with the whole process. and so initially i built this kind of bare bones system just to kind of hold my own clients collect those w nines kind of automate this, the collection process. and then it worked out i tested a couple of tax seasons it worked out my clients were using it and then so i had this other developer come in to help finish it off and create a standalone system that’s web based. so it’s out there right now. it connects to quickbooks online and helps kind of just automate collecting that wi fi. but i’ve actually stepped away from get domain and in the last year or so, and so the other developers handling more of it, but um, i did initially create it just to solve our pain point. and that’s one of those other things is like in accounting and tax, we see a lot of like different pain points, especially in business operations. and you can kind of turn those pain points into solutions and maybe develop some kind of sas or offering you know,
liz farr 15:37
that’s a really good point. there, i’m sure that if you and i sat down, we could probably figure out a bunch of other little, yes, your developer friend could work on.
vimal bava 15:48
definitely. and that’s the nice thing, too, like, so i went to this conference several years ago, and one of the speakers and you can teach your accountant programming, but it’s hard to teach a program or accounting. then it kind of just stuck with me now like, yeah, you know, i mean, i always love technology. so let me go back and learn some coding.
liz farr 16:06
cool. yeah. well, in a previous life, i was an engineering student. and so i took fortran and pascal and c and oh, that never used for anything really? yeah. did take all that stuff.
vimal bava 16:26
yeah, i mean, it’s always handy. especially the logic part of it, you know, helps you to see things in a different perspective.
liz farr 16:33
yeah, yeah, it’s a very logical way to look at things. a lot of people in the accounting community are familiar with your five minute friday newsletter. and what i really like about this newsletter is that you’re not focusing on like, tax or bookkeeping or technology, but you look at mindset, and personal and professional growth. and so how did this come about this is, this is really cool.
vimal bava 17:12
so, the newsletter initially was just a means for me to kind of help me get comfortable putting myself out there, you know, get out of my comfort zone. it was actually after scaling new heights in 2022. like got a lot of motivation, inspiration, and just kind of doing something, you know, maybe video or newsletter, and i figured newsletters, probably the more easier way to get into it. because video is video was harder for me than until i did that video per day experiment. but so the newsletter, like i said, i didn’t want to just do traditional accounting tax topics, because the technical stuff, you can learn it anywhere, you know, you can go to youtube, or even the other newsletters that are out there. so and another thing i had read was that when you create content, right, like, it’s just for you, like you’re the only audience in it. and so then the message was, you know, write about things you’re interested in things which you wish people would share, or tell you about. and so that was one thing i was noticing, it was like people were yeah, there’s lots of newsletters, on tax accounting, all the technical stuff. but there’s not a lot of things on like soft skills, or you know, the personal development type of things. and another fact that i had heard about was, you know, 85% of the things we learned in school are only applicable to 15% of the real world. and the other 15% we learn are applicable to 85% of the real world. and that 15% we learned is mostly like the soft skills and your personal skills and stuff like that. and so then i wanted to focus on non technical skills, you know, even like practical real world skills. and and so, how i come up with these different topics, you know, i read a lot, listen to a lot of different podcasts and things. and sometimes, like, if there’s one sentence or one word that i hear in their book, or their podcast i’m listening to, there’ll be like an aha moments, like, okay, i can maybe write about this emphasize this, like empathy. i was listening to something and it was talking about empathy. you know, in this technology driven world is like ai has no empathy. it’s humans and humans who have empathy. and so then that’s how i came up with the empathy topic and like digital distractions. that was another one that was like, you know, we’re bombarded with so much information. and then like, constantly, we have a phone pinging all day. i mean, everything’s smart these days, you know, even our cars are smart insights, like, we’re distracted. and now, and a lot of this stuff is just based on my own curiosity, but it’s like, whatever i find out, i just want to share it with everyone else. and i actually do do like a lot of mentoring and stuff to younger people that are coming into the profession. and i always notice, like, they’re always weak on the soft side of soft skills. and there’s several of them that are subscribers. and they always like reply in or email and be like, hey, you know, i use this at my job this week, and it really did help or i could see firsthand how implementing this can make a difference.
liz farr 19:58
that must be really encouraged. you’re going to get that kind of feedback. yeah. and, you know, i’m thinking back to my training all of my schooling and empathy public speaking. and curiosity, writing skills they were not really emphasize. right. but yet, those are really what differentiates people from, you know, the bare minimum, right? pure people.
vimal bava 20:33
yeah. and then the other thing is to like, not tell everyone all throughout school, i was always this kind of quiet, reserved, kept to myself, you know, got my stuff done and left. and it really wanted to do much with anyone. but then, as i started growing, and that’s the other thing with this newsletter, like theme is let’s start growing in our journey instead of just going through it. so as i started growing in my life and my career, i started noticing, well, the people that are out there putting themselves out there, you know, are the ones that are out of their comfort zone. and those are the ones that get the most respect or even, like get looked up to start implementing these small changes. and end of the day, it was more of like a mindset over this coming, overcoming that mindset that you’re not good enough, like those self limiting beliefs.
liz farr 21:14
i’m sorry, you know, and i would encourage any listeners to subscribe and, and if you subscribe, then you can also get a link in the, there’s always a link in there where you can go back and look at the previous issues. so use it,
vimal bava 21:30
and it’s all hosted on substack. so if you just go to the backpack, cpa.substack.com has all the prior posts and everything on there. i started doing that five question friday, where you were our first guest. and the goal behind that is just to kind of give more insight and wisdom from like, people that haven’t gone through their career, and so others can kind of get some more motivation from it.
liz farr 21:53
yes, because we need to give the new generation ideas. stay in the profession. yeah, make the profession better than it has been for us.
vimal bava 22:07
yeah, definitely. i mean, i was talking to someone few weeks ago, she works for ey. and i guess, you know, the same thing, she was working those long hours, and she just doesn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. so she’s like, you know, how long do i have to stay in this before i can grow in my firm, i don’t want to just keep auditing cash. and so i told her, you know, it’s a patience thing. and that’s where this last week’s episode came from was the the tortoise and the hare story. it’s like, you gotta have that patience. i mean, and that’s going to help you build the resilience and just grit to get through the first couple years. i mean, it’s kind of a test.
liz farr 22:42
it is, and you know, there there are actually people in the audit world who are embracing different ways to teach audit. so that it’s not just doing the same thing like your friend at ey, auditing cash, you know, you see this much of the business. yeah. when they’re the business itself is is huge. yeah. and, you know, it doesn’t make you a very good auditor, if all you know, is this little teeny tiny bit. yeah. now, now, you also teach and coach mindfulness, which is another really different thing that for an accountant to do. and so why do you think that that’s important for accountants?
vimal bava 23:40
i mean, i guess you know, i’ve touched on this many times already. but i’ve talked about the mistakes i made. all this came out of my own personal experiences, and learnings going through the stress to burnout, and the smell and physical and mental transformation i went through. so, you know, mid 2010s are kind of a low point for me, both professionally and personally, i’m just became a victim distress and just didn’t really know how to handle myself. and so then 2017, i got a really big wake up call. one of my friends passed away, he was also an accountant in texas. and we talked all the time. and i can sense he knew he was going through the same stuff i was going through. and so his passing away was kind of a wake up call for me. so i started, i got serious about it, and start looking for ways to handle my stress and the other problems. and i didn’t want to depend on external stimulants like drugs or alcohol to help me so i was looking for natural ways. and i came across, you know, meditation, mindfulness, and like different yoga programs. and so since like, 2017, i’ve spent 1000s of hours and 1000s of dollars on learning these different practices. and then as i started doing these practices, and experiencing firsthand how all these tools i needed to be happy were already inside of me. i just needed to find a way to bring them out. it was like a whole mindset change. and then like, you know, using the power of you breathing. mindfulness was really important because a lot of times we’re living in the past or we’re living in the future, we’re not living in the present, and that’s a major country. between two are like our stress. and then some, both my mental and physical health took a 180 turn, like after i started implementing all this and you know, i was feeling great. my firm was growing without me putting in much effort, like i wasn’t working crazy hours, i was living a much happier life. and physically i had lost almost like 80 pounds between 2018 and 2020. and, you know, the biggest lesson i learned there was a healthy mind is a healthy body. because you know, if you have positive thoughts positive mind and you know, you’re going to obviously take care of yourself, you can be more kind to yourself, you can eat better, you know, live more healthier. and so, in. you know, it’s really important for us humans, like especially accountants, that we stay strong mentally, because like, in this profession, you know, it’s labeled as a high stress profession. and on a daily basis, we’re bombarded with 1000s of pieces of information. and on top of that, we’re always having to learn like new apps, new programs, new workflows, and in our handy dandy cell phones, like i said earlier, they’re always like, distracting us. and so, with too much to do, and too little time, we have to have some kind of practices. and you know, the biggest thing i tell everyone is in our webinars and seminars i do and the workshops is mindfulness isn’t something that requires a lot of time. it is something you can do on a regular basis to just build your mental muscles, you know, incorporate into daily life, whether you’re eating or walking or taking a shower. mindfulness is something you just kind of make part of your life. anyways, this mindfulness in his most basic definition, is simply becoming aware of your current thoughts, feelings, and emotions, and not getting caught up in them. you know, it’s like you’re really creating a space between the stimuli that triggers you and your response to a stimuli. like, you know, till everyone’s like, if a client calls you up, and they get you all worked up, instead of like, just going back off on them right away, or, you know, having some kind of negative reaction. if you’re mindful, we will pause for a second process everything that just happened, and then respond in a much more positive manner. and then you’re presented several like webinars and seminars over the past couple years, and i’m actually doing a live session in canada next month at the cpb conference for bookkeepers. and so i’ve just, it’s part of the whole mission i’m on to now part of the five minute fridays is reading these practices and tools. because like my friend passed away, i don’t want to become another victim of stress. and i don’t want others because it hurts me. when i talk to other accounts and bookkeepers. they’re telling me they’re stressed, it’s like, you don’t have to be stressed, there are ways to work better.
liz farr 27:36
there there are, and you know, and i would say, well, your listeners might say, well, you have an easy female firm. what about us who were stuck in big, top 25 firms, or top 100 firms where we don’t have that kind of option? what what advice do you have for them?
vimal bava 27:59
i mean, so you know, the whole mindfulness meditation, taking care of yourself, it’s about just taking care of the human, it’s nothing to do with your profession, or being an accountant or anything. you can make one minute, you have five minutes, one minute, i mean, you can do these things, while you’re just like taking a coffee break, or even in the mornings while you’re at home. it’s a simple, small practices that build over time. yes, if you’re working in like a large firm, or in high pressure, you obviously do go to the bathroom, or you obviously go take a lunch break or something, you know, you get to just find ways to incorporate the small practices into your life. because there’s this book i read called the monk who sold his ferrari. and this was a few years ago, and one of the lines that really stuck with me. he says saying you don’t have time to take care of yourself is saying, like you’re driving your car 100 miles an hour, and you don’t have time to fill up gas. so eventually, you’re gonna have to stop and fill up gas. and so you eventually have to stop and take care of his body and randy crabtree, you know, he’s a big proponent of mental health. and with him when i was talking with him, he said, you know, if you’re not, if you don’t make time for yourself right now, to take care of your own health and wealth, i mean, your own health, you’re gonna be forced to take care of your health later on. and so it’s better to make that time now in small chunks of time on a regular basis.
liz farr 29:22
yeah, yeah. and i would say, being mindful, can be as simple as just listening to somebody speaking. or you’re listening to what they’re saying to absorb what they’re saying. yeah. instead of thinking about what you’re going to say, in response, and just waiting for that little pause where you can get in with your thing. but you don’t, you don’t have to go through that manipulation. you can just respond to somebody naturally. yeah.
vimal bava 30:07
and you know, like, when i do some of these workshops, i’ve done a few workshops where they had about four or five people. and the nice thing was a involve the employees too. because if the firm leadership is the only one kind of thing care there, you know, mental health and things like that, those employees are still going to be burned out in stress. but if everyone is kind of on the same page, as far as like, being happy, stress free, this makes them much more happier workplace for everyone.
liz farr 30:33
absolutely. you know, an in a happy workplace is always a good workplace is a good place to work. yeah, yeah. well, what other advice do you have for firm leaders and owners who want to create better firms, healthier firms,
vimal bava 30:57
i mean, you know, i would say, listen to your employees, you know, involve them in the decision making and see what they need and supporting them. because without your employees, there’s only so much you can do as a former owner or leader. now, if you don’t have employees, and i would just suggest, you know, embracing technology, and making good use of technology now, don’t go out and buy every little shiny object that comes out. but embrace technology. and you know, the biggest thing of all, i stress this a lot, but in this high tech world that we live in, don’t forget, take care of the human, whether it’s your employees, clients, even your family and friends, remember, genuine human connections matter. and even yourselves, as firm owners or leaders, you have to make your own health and wellness a priority. and also, at the same time, encourage your employees to do the same. and, you know, one thing i always emphasize in my own presentations i gave is encouraged open dialogue, provide the necessary tools and support for your own employees for their own physical and mental health and wellness. and, you know, if you as a foreign leader owner, you know, seek out some workshops, incorporate into your culture, and don’t stigmatize the whole mental health concept, like make it okay. it’s okay not to be okay.
liz farr 32:12
yeah, and i think showing that as a leader is also important. yeah. that sure, it’s great if you go through some training, and you get this little, little grid that you can put above your desk to figure out what’s most important, and what’s essential to work on. but if you’re not really demonstrating that to your co-workers, to your team, how you are actually incorporating this? and if you’re not saying to your employee, well, you know, i just had lunch. but before we get into this conversation, i want to just close my door for five minutes and just take a break for myself. just little things like that. definitely can make a big, big difference. yeah, definitely agree with that. yeah. and just talking openly about your own mental health struggles. just to bridge the gap, chicago and randy crabtree talked very openly about mental health issues. yeah.
vimal bava 33:38
yeah. and that really helps.
vimal bava 33:42
yeah, and this hearing oh, there’s, you know, like randy shares, especially someone that’s been through the career, you know, it’s higher up there, the seasoned person in the industry, that really makes an impact, right? because then it’s like, okay, if that person who’s been in the industry for 30, some years, can openly share and has been through it, then. i can also openly share, or i can find ways i can talk to them, maybe just more inspiring.
liz farr 34:09
yes, because, after all, we’re humans first and second. our clients are humans first and business owners second.
vimal bava 34:24
you know, it’s a funny thing that there’s this indian yogi listening to him. he always asks if we, as humans, are the most advanced supercomputers out there with the most advanced pieces of technology. yet, there’s no user manual. like when you’re born, they don’t send you home with a user’s manual. and whenever we buy gadgets and things, we try to look at the user’s manual or videos on how to do things with them. but we don’t try to understand this system, and we use it 24/7.
liz farr 34:52
that we do, and many of the user manuals that are online that we can find are very different organisms, right? and then as well, female, this has just been a treat talking to you tonight, i really hope that the listeners will take this as a sort of a breath of fresh air and a reason to step back slow down and listen to that inner voice that we all yeah so v mall, if listeners want to connect with you, where’s the best place to find you?
vimal bava 35:49
they can find me on twitter or should i say x and then linkedin, or they can also find me on my website, the backpack cpa.com.