lucas lachance\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nwe hear a lot of verbiage. it’s and it’s legacy verbiage i find in a lot of firms about the division between the professionals and the administrative teams, which i take issue with from the get go, but everybody on my team is a professional. they’re all degreed. they all, you know, everybody has been through trainings or certifications. so the distinct, the old school distinction between professionals, meaning the cpas and the non cpas, i think, get away from that type of terminology and understand that everybody is bringing a valuable skill set to the table, and then listen to them.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
voiceover \/ dave maresca\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 presents a production of capstone marketing, capstone conversations.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
jean caragher\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nhello. this is jean caragher, president of capstone marketing. i am happy to be talking today with lucas lachance, director of practice growth at lane gorman trubitt, or lgt, who was recently named the association for accounting marketing’s marketer of the year. in his role at lgt, lucas oversees business development and sales, marketing plan development, public relations, client experience, as well as social media staff training and strategic planning. you’re a busy guy. lucas yes, prior to taking the role of director of practice growth in 2015 lucas spent the previous eight years at the firm as an auditor, and i’m here to tell you, this is my first capstone conversation with someone that transitioned from auditor to practice growth. so, i’m really excited about this. lucas serves on the aam’s finance committee, and as their treasurer, lucas.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
lucas lachance\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nwell, thank you very much. it’s great to be here this morning.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
jean caragher\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nwere you surprised when you received this award? tell me you know your reaction. how it went down.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
lucas lachance\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\ni was floored, just because i know the past winners and and even my colleagues, all of whom are incredibly deserving. and so i, i was really, really floored. rhonda called me or actually emailed me about a week ahead of time to give me a little bit of time to prepare a few remarks. but other than that, i didn’t know right up until pretty much go time.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
jean caragher\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nokay, so you asked, she asked you to prepare, but didn’t tell you that you won. no,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
lucas lachance\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nshe told me that it’d be one that i won. and so she said, you have about three to five minutes at the actual awards ceremony if you want to talk. and so i prepared a couple of notes ahead of time, right?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
jean caragher\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nyeah, that’s that’s always been, and maybe they’ve just made the decision. now, it’s always been a question of, do you tell them or not tell them? like, are they totally surprised? do they want? so it’s obviously they’ve decided now to give you a little bit of a heads up. did you appreciate that?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
lucas lachance\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nvery much. so of course, you know, i’m i was writing my i was writing my remarks on the plane on the way to salt lake city. so i, you know, it was like right to the last minute for me as well, right?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
jean caragher\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\noh, gosh. well, i, i first want to go off script a little bit. can you tell us briefly how you made that switch from auditor to practice growth.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
lucas lachance\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nit was, it was unique. i had. i’d spent about eight years as an auditor coming up. i was a senior manager on the audit side, and actually i had given my notice and left the firm, and so i was working for, i briefly worked for thomson reuters as a technical editor, creating the creating the books and the online resources that accountants use to audit, not for profit, organizations and other and other companies and the the gentleman who is in my role before me left. and so the managing partner and one of the other members of the policy committee called me and said, let’s go to lunch. and so we went to lunch, and they laid out kind of what they had envisioned. they retooled the position completely, including adding a partner track to it, so that i would have the opportunity to come back to the firm in a completely different role and still have an opportunity to make partner. and i thought, well, okay, you know what? i missed the firm anyway. i was glad to have an opportunity to come back, but knowing that i could still do it and make. partner was something that was very important to me as as part of the negotiation to come back. so i was really, really happy. and i thought, you know, worst case scenario, i’m still a practicing cpa. if i come back and this doesn’t work out, then i can still, i can go back and be billable. i mean, i can go back to to audit or, or, you know, do something else at the firm itself. so it was, it was a gamble on both sides, it required a lot of trust, right?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
jean caragher\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nyou know, it did, but, you know, these days, there is a partner track for marketers and business developers to become partners, and it wasn’t always like that. so that’s another exciting change that’s happened in this industry.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
lucas lachance\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nyeah, i had, i mean, personally, i feel that i had an advantage just because i was a cpa and had the license. but a lot of my counterparts who are not cpas all still have been able to, through their careers, establish a seat at the table and really be part of those c level conversations.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
jean caragher\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nand that’s where marketing and business development needs to be, for sure.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
oh, yeah, we still do spend a lot of time talking about that. and, you know what needs to happen and and the the risk that the marketer needs to take as well, you know, to have the confidence, you know, to grab that seat, you know, so to speak. oh, okay, so given this interesting background, tell us what you believe is the greatest challenge in marketing cpa firms,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
lucas lachance\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nit’s the talent it’s getting the right people in at the firm. we whether you’re staffing specifically for your marketing or practice growth group or staffing for the firm overall, specifically in texas, there just are not enough cpas. and so being creative about tapping into markets is important, and human resources and marketing have to work hand in hand to develop the strategies that get into those right areas where we can tap into the right numbers of whether they’re students coming through internship pipeline or professionals that are already established, that are looking to make the jump, being visible is critical in that, and working, working in a partnership with human resources is essential, right?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
jean caragher\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nyou know, it’s so interesting you say that because i’m surprised about how many marketers are not teaming up with hr. yeah, hr does their thing, and marketing does their thing. and that’s that’s a missed opportunity.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
lucas lachance\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nit is. i honestly, given the functionality of our firm, i don’t know how that’s possible, i caught a really great session though at aim that talked about the intersection of marketing and human resources. and i’m i of course, downloaded the presentation to keep for future reference. but we have a great partnership, our, our our hr group i feel is wonderful we have. it’s led by jillian hawkins, who is very dedicated, long term member of the firm, but we have two recruiters that focus on experienced recruits, as well as a second recruiter that works on the pipeline through colleges, through the internship programs, and they have been great. i’ve been able to go out and spend some time on interviews with them, and they’re very, very professional and great at what they do.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
jean caragher\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nand don’t you think there’s been more attention paid now to cpa firm brands, given this talent crisis and the information that you know potential employees need to know about a firm before they make a decision? absolutely<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
lucas lachance\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nit comes down to what, what is your visibility in the market? i think i read a statistic that i believe there are 147 accounting firms in the dallas fort worth metroplex, the dallas fort worth area. so how do you cut through all of that noise? and then with the internet, the very first thing that any potential candidate does, whether they’re early in their career or established, the very first thing they do is go and search. they go and check you out on glassdoor. they go and check and see what what your footprint is, what are your areas of specialty? so i find that a lot of candidates come to the table already armed with a number of questions about the culture of the firm. what are we doing? what are our values? which i think is indicative of folks that are looking for something more than just coming and doing the job and going home.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
jean caragher\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nyes, i couldn’t agree more, because in the branding work i do, you know, we’re always tackling, you know, the vision, mission, core values. and i tell you know, practitioners, this is not just some warm and fuzzy stuff that want you to create like it really does have meaning. and i agree, especially since you know our experience with this pandemic, lots of people are really giving a lot of thought to how they’re spending their time and what they’re doing. and who they’re doing it with, and, yeah, and that just makes those components that much more important for firms to really lay out and live that it’s that those items are authentic, you know, and true, and not something that’s been made up well.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
lucas lachance\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nand i think what we’re seeing, what we saw through the pandemic, really, i feel laid a foundation for what is now a much broader discussion on dei and and what does it mean for employees to bring their authentic self to the office in whatever capacity. but you know, even if, even if you feel that dei is a fad. there still is an economic case to be made for having a workforce that’s engaged. engaged employees will stay longer, and they will work harder. and if that means that you need dei policies to do that, then that’s something that firms should be investigating pretty significantly.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
jean caragher\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nso it would be eight years, right, that you’ve been director of practice growth. what? what’s changed the most from the time you started in this role until now?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
lucas lachance\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\none, two things that come to mind off the top of my head, one is an external force and the other is an internal force. the external piece is technology is, you know, right now, the right now, the buzz is all about chat gpt, but honestly, marketing tech stacks have been evolving with new products on the market every year and and we’re i feel like with everything that we’re really asked to do in marketing and business development, we’re always looking for the tool that’s going to make us more successful, or at least more efficient. so i see the evolving tech stack being very important. we’re looking at it as well as a matter of fact, we’re there. i’ve seen a number of them already, and we’re we’re joining the group as well and hosting our own webinar on chat gpt in eight days. but i think technology is an external force. is is a very significant aspect of how i’m seeing everything change internally. we when i took over the group in 2015 internally, we faced a pr crisis. the the firm really kind of viewed practice growth as a collection of party planners and people who make things look pretty and changing the understanding of the role that practice growth plays in the long term. success of the firm was a process, and it was executed. we i am part of an amazing team of brilliant professionals. they teach me more and more every single day, which is wonderful, but it’s been a long process of making commitments, following through, demonstrating the benefit, and because we work with accountants, tying that back to roi. so like you mentioned earlier about, it’s not just warm and fuzzies, but it’s difficult. it’s difficult to translate that concept, i feel, to a group of folks with an analytical standpoint, as opposed to more of a creative one. but fortunately, there have been a number of changes and in how the firm views the role of practice growth over the last seven or eight years, and we really are seen as an integral part now and as part of the entire firm, not just party planners,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
jean caragher\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nthat’s, that’s so wonderful to hear, because i, i’ve said the whole practice probably on all these conversations since covid, if there was ever a chance for marketers to shine in accounting firms, it’s been these past three years, because we all saw, you know, teams of people and those individual marketers in their firms really showing up and producing content and communicating with clients and dealing with crises and client situations and internally, you know, keeping people motivated. i think a lot of marketers and business developers, you know, partners, really open their eyes to what they are contributing to their firms. and unfortunately for some, it took a pandemic for that to happen. but overall, i’m going to take that as a win. yeah,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
lucas lachance\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\ni think of one instance in particular, and you before we even hung. done you and i talked about katie katie cook. she was lyle’s former midnight she’s katie cook. we hadn’t really done a whole lot of webinars. we had done some. we had dabbled. and then the pandemic came along, and then people needed information about ppp. and so all of a sudden, the regulations were released, and everyone was clamoring for information, and so katie, along with josh woods, who’s our marketing manager, and one or two of the other professionals, the accounting professionals, got together and in 48 hours, digested and pulled together a webinar that hosted for more than 500 people, and katie and josh did it on a dime. i mean, they, they learned the zoom info platform in 36 hours. that’s all they had. but it was, it took the pandemic to do it, and they executed it incredibly well. but that really kicked off. okay, you know what we can do webinars. all right,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
jean caragher\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\noh, gosh. so lucas, i know you’ve grown, you know, a network of accounting marketers. you know, through aam and otherwise, what factors or skills do you see in those folks that contribute to their success? i<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
lucas lachance\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nyes, gosh, honestly, i think it’s that most of us really learn from and listen to the wisdom of those who were in those shoes before us. i think is the biggest part of it. we our firm right now, is a part of prime global where, and we’re relatively new to that, so i’m still working through and developing my own network through prime global. previously, we were members of leading edge alliance, and when i first started in this role, that’s really where i cut my teeth. and so i’ve got a support system of folks from lea that we talk all the time still, even though, now i’m in in law, but we still talk all the time about, you know, hey, has anybody run into this? or do you have, you know, has, have you seen this in your market? or do you have any tools that will help me with whatever the issue is, and we rely on one another. it’s even though now with mergers and acquisitions of firms, we have overlapping geographies. there still is a trust there where, you know, i one of my, one of my, one of the smartest women i know is jen lemanski, and she’s down in houston with pkf, and our firm just opened up an office in houston. but jen and i still talk all the time, but it’s having that network of people that you can trust, that you really can rely on, and folks that have been doing this a lot longer than i have. man, there’s a lot of institutional knowledge there that i that i just try to soak up as much as i can.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
jean caragher\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nright, right? i’m proud to say there’s quite a history now for accounting, marketing, yeah, and a lot of, you know, really smart people that have done, you know, wonderful things and and i have always found, you know, aim and other organizations full of people who are willing to share information and ideas with you. you know, there’s some organizations they hold information pretty close to the vest, but that’s not aim, you know, just like you were saying, you know, you talk and share ideas and, you know, ask for advice, and it’s wonderful to have that<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
lucas lachance\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nyes, yeah, aim has been, aim has been a wonderful organization, similar to prime global and lea and, you know, i’m still working on and developing my network through aim as well, but i have never run into anyone who said, no, i’m not gonna be able to help<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
jean caragher\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nthat’s right, yeah, yeah, it’s that’s just one of the outstanding things about it. so tell us, from your own perspective, which of your personal skills contributes to your success as a director of practice growth,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
lucas lachance\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\ni would probably say, probably say that, most, mostly that i’m a people person. i, before i got into public accounting, i worked in internal audit. oh, i’m also an exciting spot, right? yeah, you learn really quickly how to be diplomatic when you’re the internal auditor and you’re coming to visit a department. so i established really early on my approach for management and people relationships is to come from a position of helping. so i’m never going to be the i gotcha guy. i am here because there’s a there’s an issue, and i need your help on how to resolve it appropriately. so that’s been my philosophy, whether it was internal audit or rehabbing the rehabbing the the reputation of our department when i first took on that’s been my approach. is. we need to work together to be successful in whatever endeavor we’re doing, so let’s roll up our sleeves and let’s do it. and so i think that’s probably been the thing that’s been most beneficial. of course, it doesn’t hurt that i also was an accountant. i’m an accountant, and i can speak the accounting language, so i’m kind of unique in that i can translate what marketing needs versus what accounting accountants are looking for, but just being honest and forthright in my approach, i think, has been critical, a bit pivotal, in success.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
jean caragher\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nthat’s a great approach, because many times marketers are trying to get partners and managers, you know, the whoever to do things that they’re not comfortable doing. so there’s already that feeling like i’m not excited because i’m a little intimidated, maybe, or maybe i’m even a little scared about it. oh, yeah. so i would think when they know you have their back, they might be willing to, you know, take that step, you know, out of that comfort zone<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
lucas lachance\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nand when you, when you come to an accountant and say, hey, we’d like to put you on camera for a webinar. you know, people, people fear heights. what is it heights spiders and they would rather face heights, spiders or death than do public speaking. like public speaking is the thing that most people are most fearful of. so when you say, hey, i’m going to put you on camera and you’re going to we’re going to broadcast this out, and you’re going to have an audience looking at you, it terrifies a lot of people. so doing whatever we can to put them at ease, whether that’s dry runs or whatever needs necessary, getting them comfortable to let their let their expertise shine. they’re the subject matter expert. let’s get that out there for them. right?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
jean caragher\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nabsolutely, absolutely. so tell us what is your top priority initiative right now,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
lucas lachance\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nmoving into our new houston market, i think, is the thing that is 2022 was very tumultuous year in a good way. there just was a lot of change. we acquired two firms, one in january of 22 and one in february of 22 and then opened up. then we hired on a partner to lead our houston office, and opened that officially early in 23<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
lucas lachance\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nwe’ve we’ve onboarded our clients from the mergers or the acquisitions, which was great, but it was a fairly intensive process, and then rolled right into another major firm initiative. and so when you’re down in houston and we’re trying to establish a presence, it’s, you know, very much an awareness campaign and marketing and industry specialties, and getting in front of the right folks and establishing those coi so it’s, it’s been many trips back and forth between dallas and houston, and now that i figured out the right flights to take and the right airport to fly into, and you know, things that trial and error, things are starting to get easier, but i think right now, the the focus for the firm overall is making sure that the houston team is supported and successful, and that they don’t feel like a satellite office, that they that you really are culturally the the same as dallas. so if you were in dallas, you could plug in here. you could plug in in houston, and have all the same resources and everything else that you would need to be good at what you’re doing,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
jean caragher\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nyeah, and that’s that’s such a pivotal role that marketing departments, or many of them are playing these days with all of the mergers that are going on. it’s so important to have the marketers as part of that team.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
lucas lachance\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nbecause it’s not just about the brand, a lot of it is about the culture and the people and and creating that team<\/p>\n
and communication, you know, internal and external facing communication, because acquisitions, even if you are the acquirer, there still is a lot of change that’s introduced with that process. and it comes with, sometimes redundancies, so it introduces an element of uncertainty, and that makes people uncomfortable. so clear, forthright communication is internal and external. is one of those things that’s very important, and that a lot of that comes through the marketing, the marketing group,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
jean caragher\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\njust keep sending it, keep repeating it. you know they’re gonna, they’re gonna see it at one of those times, right? each time, right? okay, no. so before we get to my final two questions, i want to throw another one at you that we did not plan ahead of time. so in the the newsroom. least that aim sent about your winning the marketer the year. part of that description included the firm’s growth, and that through digital marketing, with inbound marketing, specifically, you achieved your goal at 143% growth. are you willing to share with us a little bit about how that happens?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
lucas lachance\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nsure. so there for the for practice growth. there are for the business development piece. there are three components. i myself do new business origination, so part of my job is going out and finding new clients and bringing them to the lgt community. we also have a director of business development whose name is emily ackerman, and she is 90% dedicated to outbound sales. so she and i each have individual goals that are part of the contribution to the overall firm success. however, i have challenged our market our marketing manager, josh woods, to also have new business goals, and his goals are utilizing digital media and digital marketing to drive people to the website or to call us, and those inbound leads are tracked separately, and they’re expected to generate, you know, whatever the year is, x number of hundreds of 1000s of dollars in revenue through inbound marketing alone. so whenever anything comes into the firm that is not part of a relationship that somebody already owns, it’s funneled to me. i take them through the proposal process, you know, vet them out, and then take them through the proposal process. and if you know, if we close that as a new customer, as new client, then that goes towards josh’s inbound marketing goal. so we’ve had a lot of success, and i credit him honestly with the philosophy behind it, but we’ve had a lot of success with our digital marketing, utilizing paid campaigns and organic campaigns, generally on linkedin, that is our primary target platform. we also, we also have a presence on facebook, although it’s not quite as strong, and we do have a presence on instagram as well, but linkedin is where we really concentrate our efforts. and through that, both organic and paid, we were able to generate enough leads that he not only beat his goal, but it was almost 150% of his goal. so he’s incredibly excited about that. it was a great year. we landed some really good quality big fish, clients that found us through marketing searches, you know, accounting searches, online.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
jean caragher\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nthat is just, it’s really amazing. i know it’s happening, but it still amazes me how our marketing world has changed, you know, over these decades, and because i think what we do, like the basics, are still there, but how we can do it and the tools that are available to us to do it have changed completely, yes, or nearly, nearly completely, um, yeah. i mean, i remember the days, you know, i’ve been around long enough that, you know, when a prospect called a couple of partners put some print brochures in their briefcases, and they drove to there, and then they told the story, right? they got to tell the story of the firm and what. and nowadays, as we both know, those prospects are doing their homework to just like you were saying, potential employees are already researching the firm. they’ve got their own questions. prospects are doing the same thing. so, you know, so we talk about, we’ve talked about communication and external communication, firms need to be really careful about, you know, telling their story, and really trying to make that connection with the prospects, and being clear on what types of prospects you’re looking for and what they what their experience might be. and working with lgt, you know, in this case, as opposed to one of the other 136 firms in dallas, i think that numbers right? so it has just, you know, to look back on and to look today. it’s, it’s just so interesting and powerful to me how it’s grown. it is.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
lucas lachance\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nand then the other piece to that, though, is, since we’re we’re tracking the source of our different our different prospects. that ties back to and makes my little accountant heart happy, because i can tie roi back to our spend. yes, you know, and if we’re bringing in a couple $100,000 in new business through digital marketing, then my budget is a lot more palatable when i submit it. to the policy committee be like, okay, well, this is going to be my spend, but this is what it can generate, you know, so there’s, there’s a lot more buy in when i can, i can tie those things specifically together. and that’s been a process, just trying to figure out what tools are necessary to make that happen<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
jean caragher\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nright. right. now, do you have a content marketing platform like a hubspot or marketo?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
lucas lachance\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nwe use hubspot,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
jean caragher\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nhubspot, okay, yeah, i use hubspot. i’m very familiar with hubspot, too. that was a great choice. it’s a really it, it can just do so much, right? with all the data, and it just, yeah, um, awesome. okay, so<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
lucas lachance\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\ni was leaps and bounds ahead of what we were using before, which was, which was two separate siloed programs that didn’t speak to one another. so every time you had a new prospect, it was putting it in one system and turning around and putting it in manually in another system. and hubspot has just been a revolution for<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
jean caragher\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nus? well, at least you didn’t say all your stuff was on an excel spreadsheet. that way, a lot too. so we have, we haven’t done, you know, totally graduate.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
lucas lachance\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\ni still have some of those partners who are using the excel spreadsheet, or a lot of a lot of little tiles and outlook, oh my gosh.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
jean caragher\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nokay, so last two questions, what would be your best piece of advice for accounting marketers? oh gosh,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
lucas lachance\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nwithin your firm to the extent it’s possible try to specialize. we have, we have four industries that we primarily serve, and one of the things that i’m asking is that each of the people in our team take one of those industries as one that they really want to work with. and you know, we have, we have quarterly industry meetings that are cross functional. so we bring in, you know, audit or assurance and tax and consulting and business advisory. and the teams are all cross functional, but they are all industry driven. so i have been pushing for different members of our team to pick an industry that they like and really immerse themselves in it. and then also cross train. not only is it good for the department overall, just when people take pto so that stuff doesn’t stagnate, but cross train, i like to i want to cross train our team so that, you know, eventually they have the skills they need to, at some point in the future, lead their own team. but to, you know, to learn those types of things, you’ve got to have exposure to them. so you need to be able to work on events, and you need to be able to work on publishing. you need to be able to do a little bit of social and so i think cross training and all those different things and becoming proficient in them is important,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
jean caragher\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nthat’s awesome, because i see that’s also the way firms are growing their teams. so they’re hiring, you know, digital specialists, or, you know, writers or design or whatever that is. well, there’s still a lot of you know, one or two marketer firms that do everything you know. you see more these days of of teams being built with these type of specialists. so there is an opportunity to, you know, get to learn what the other people do. yes, absolutely. okay, so last question, what is your best piece of advice for managing partners? oh,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
lucas lachance\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nthis one’s easy. listen to your team. yeah, it ties. it ties back to the comments about the seat at the table. but we hear a lot of verbiage, and it’s legacy verbiage i find in a lot of firms about the division between the professionals and the administrative teams, which i take issue with from the get go. but everybody on my team is a professional. they’re all degreed. they all, you know, everybody has been through trainings or certifications. so the distinct, the old school distinction between professionals, meaning the cpas and the non cpas, i think, get away from that type of terminology and understand that everybody is bringing a valuable skill set to the table. and then listen to them. you know, listen to the folks that are in your marketing and business development and practice growth groups. they have expertise that the firm needs. and i’m fortunate enough where i’m at the table and can be the advocate for our team. um. um, but there, there are firms where that’s the highest level or highest ranking marketing or business development person isn’t in those conversations. so it’s important to listen to what your marketing and business development team is saying. they know what they’re doing. they know what the industry is. invite them to those conversations. you’ll be surprised,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
jean caragher\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nlet me tack on one extra question for those, because you just brought up, you know, an important point. so for those marketers that don’t have a higher level person like you at the table and they’re trying to get there, what would, what would be your number one, you know, encouragement or task that they should do to get themselves there?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
lucas lachance\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nfind an advocate, yeah, find somebody who is open to those. and this is a, this is a, this is a terrible generalization, but i’m going to say it anyway. if the the group of decision makers is all partners, or if your firm has principles, then then align yourself with someone, probably a younger, younger level partner, but someone who is in those conversations to be your advocate and and and work with, work with that person, to develop at least some talking points that that that person can bring to the conversation, just someone to introduce the topics and the points for discussion and open the door. that’s all you need. but if you’re if you’re not in those conversations yet, then then partner up with someone who is right.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
jean caragher\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nso the other thing i’m hearing is that the marketer needs to decide that that next level is something that they want, and they need to proactively go after it. would you agree with that<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
lucas lachance\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nabsolutely, after a certain point, regardless of where you are in your career. after a certain point, your career is your responsibility. you have to take the reins, and you can, and you can do that in a very polite way, but you know you have to take the reins and determine what’s going to be the best for you long term. and if that’s staying with at the firm where you are, that’s great. then make the changes you can make with within your scope, and then align yourselves with others who feel similarly to have the discussions further up. right?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
jean caragher\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\nexcellent. i think that’s a great point for us to end with. lucas lachance, director of practice growth at lane gorman trubitt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
lucas lachance: revenue generation through digital marketing<\/strong> \n <\/a> \ncapstone conversations \nwith jean caragher \nfor 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1334,"featured_media":133003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2271,2734,3120,3002,2764],"tags":[4624,4625,4561,4560,4640],"class_list":["post-133000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marketing","category-podcast","category-pro-member-exclusive","category-special","category-video","tag-aam","tag-association-for-accounting-marketing","tag-capstone-conversations","tag-jean-caragher","tag-lucas-lachance"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nlucas lachance: revenue generation through digital marketing | capstone conversations - 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n