A six-figure win and a team of her own, almost 1 year in.
Her biggest win is worth six figures in annual revenue, and she is building another team around herself.
Carol T. is a global CPA advisor who builds offshore teams for large accounting firms and other mid to large companies, then gives the client operational control. Almost 1 year in, her biggest win was worth six figures in annual revenue, and she was building another team around herself. She started with Carla soon after going private, because she did not want to waste time figuring it out on her own. As a CPA, she says, she is stereotypically reserved and introverted, and if she can sell, anybody can.
The interview
Carla Cherry with Carol T..
I'm sitting here with Carol T. She is a global CPA advisor who builds offshore teams for large accounting firms and other mid to large companies. She has gone through Power Offer Consultants, and I wanted to speak with you about your experience. Thank you for joining me.
Yes, good to see you again, Carla. It's been a little bit of time. I've been busy lately, but that's all good things.
All good things. And I wanna hear all about them. So I'm excited to dive in. Just straight out of the gate, I like to ask people, what has been, what was your biggest win? What was, since learning, through learning our processes and going through our program, biggest win for you?
Gosh. There's been a lot of big wins. Pretty similar in size, which is good to have multiple big wins. But I'd say probably the biggest win was one most recent.
As far as revenue annual, it's $109,000.
And I build offshore teams, so it's not like I'm in the mix of this. I build it and give the client operational control, so it's a true win ...
So that has been fantastic. And I've had one other that was pretty close to that size too, but that's probably the biggest.
Yes. Congratulations.
Thank you.
And I wanna ask you because people just starting out their consultancy, they ask me, how big can I go? Is this realistic? Which is a funny word to me. And you swung pretty big out of the gate. So, how, so having gone through the program, could you look back and if prospects are watching this, kinda give your take on now landing some of these larger contracts? What would you say to them?
As far as the timing, is that what you're asking about?
Well, yeah, as far, yeah. Let's start with timing. That's great. So as far as timing, so I do hear a lot of people say, well, I wanna do this, but I feel like I have to get a couple more under my belt before you, or, I'm not sure if the timing is right. And how would you speak to that? Because you made the investment pretty early on.
I did. I knew what I needed to do, I felt like. I did not want to waste time trying to figure it out on my own. Even though, I knew my advisory service, I didn't know the sales process.
I knew what I wanted to do. I knew I had goals. I had a goal of whatever it was to grow to a certain size, and I knew I couldn't do it kinda on my own. I just knew I needed a launch. And so you're right. Pretty early on after kind of going private on my own I started working with you. And I'm so glad that I did because I didn't know what I didn't know. Even if I knew my business, I knew my advisory, and I knew what I could do, I had to figure out how to connect and reach my ideal client.
And I would just say, I'm glad I did. I'm glad I did not wait because, one, I would have lost time. I would have gotten more frustrated and potentially not gained the momentum to keep going and keep multiplying forward. I'm very glad that I did not wait.
Excellent. And so I know that one of the things that you have told me that you got out of the program was the sales process. So can you speak to what it was like for you before learning our processes and frameworks to afterward?
So before, the sales process was not crisp. It was probably a little bit of rambling. A little bit of begging sounding, maybe. And I'm only slightly exaggerating. The sales process, the work that we went through, you told me it was gonna be a little bit of work, so I knew it. I said I'm up for it. I wanna do it right.
I'm glad I did because it really made me think about my business, my offer, how I articulate the offer, how I reach clients, what I really wanna do. It really made me nail that down. And before you're starting a business, you've got so many other things you're thinking about. You need someone to push you to that 1, 2, 3. Think about this. Think about that, and build it this way. Break it apart.
You really need help. And I needed that help, and I'm glad I did it. But I learned how to frame the offer, how to connect, how to detect what was a good client, what was not a good client. And just all of the technicality that you brought, your technical team and all of that, I couldn't have built that on my own. Not in the way that you had validated it already. I'm just, yeah, it, it's night and day. ...
Yes. Yes. Yep. How does that feel too?
It's awesome. Yeah.
First year. You're hitting massive goals first year.
Yeah. It is a lot of work, but that's what we all signed up for. We want, we wanna do it. We wanna do this out of corporate. We wanna do it on our own. We have the expertise. But now it's sustainable. Now I've got a team around me.
One or two big clients, you have testimonials. And other clients go, oh, okay. This is validated. This is real. This, she is who she says she is. She's gonna do what she says she's gonna do. Other clients say so, other than her. You just gotta get the ball rolling. You just can't waste any time.
I'm so proud of you because you're now expanding, which I am not sure how much you can talk about now when I won't put you on the spot, but you're now expanding in a big way within the first year, which is so exciting.
Yeah. It's almost 1 year in and growing. Yeah. Having to kind of expand another team to build another team around me.
It's amazing. So in terms of, the investment, people say, is it worth it? Because it is an investment. So ... How would you speak to that?
It, it's absolutely worth it, because you lose so much time and money if you don't do it. You just have to go with your gut. You just have to say, you know this works. You know it will work. Other people say it works. And if you get, it's not just a time that you lose. You gain so much frustration, and you can't afford that because you have to stay positive. You have to build. You have to know you can do it. So not only do you waste time in not taking the investment and not getting the true help. Say you wait 3 months, 6 months, that's enough time to get really discouraged.
And it, sales is a, sales is an energy game. When you're selling, you have to be up.
That's right. So, and can you, and speaking of a team. So we surround you ... with us, it's not just me. You get the team. ... So how is that for you?
Yep. It showed me what a team should look like. So, the way you had sales consulting, coaching, the process, and then a tech team right after that to come in in the next phase saw how that looked. So then when I was kicked out of the nest or when I jumped from the nest, I knew what I needed. I knew I needed a part timer or marketing person and then to a full time to manage that, but I knew what it looked like because you guys showed us that, how to handle the cold email, how to handle the DMs on LinkedIn, and what it should look like.
Yeah. I just, you just get so much from the program. I can't even, we could sit here for 2 hours, and I couldn't even list everything. And a lot of times when I'm going through the call, I have that in my head still. I have that in my head. I don't stray from it because it works. The process.
So can you talk just a little bit about that? Because people always wanna ask me, what is the process? And you're speaking directly about the sales process.
That's right.
But in terms of how would you describe the process as you went through the whole program? I know it's been a minute, so your memory may not be perfect on it. But how would you describe the process to people in going through the program?
Yeah. I think so. The process and just going through the program itself, it, like I said, it was a little bit of time, but it was laid out initially, so it was really clear. You knew how to work it in. And you're building, so you have extra time. You haven't acquired the bad clients yet. Because they can suck you under, and then you don't have time to, you're, it's just, it's a down, a downward spiral if you've been ... bad clients. Go ahead and do it ... Go ahead and do it fresh.
And because you lay out and you help me lay out. Your team helps lay out. What do you wanna say no to? Because we all say, oh, I'm gonna say no to that, but we don't. We say yes to too many things. And so it's almost like a program where you're gonna follow on the program. I'm saying no because I can right now. They know, and only stick to the ideal client.
And going through and really diving into the offer. How do you validate it? What are you gonna say? How are you gonna sound credible? How are you gonna be credible? Not just how you sound, but how are you truly gonna draw out what they, what your ideal client needs to hear. It, I can't even really explain how it works so well. It's just you make us analyze it, and we put it to paper, and we use it.
I love that you said that because, I've helped so many people that have acquired their first couple clients out of corporate, and they're the wrong clients. And they're like you said, it's time sucking. And, what it ends up being is a glorified employee. If you don't have the process down, and I tell people, you really can create what you want. You can create the amount of money you wanna make. You can create how many offers you wanna, do you want a couple, 2 really big large ones? Do you want 4 large ones, or do you wanna do a bunch of little ones and that'd be project based? We really sit down in that first session, in that first phase, and figure out exactly what you want to create, and then we work the numbers backwards. And we go, okay. It's a numbers game. At the end of day, it's all math. How many do you have to pitch to close? So what is your closing rate? Okay. Then this is how you're gonna hit it.
But so many people make the mistake of thinking, oh, I have to take x amount of clients before I'm validated. I have to take 2, these lower priced clients before I can ask for more money. And what I tell people is you guys have all done the work. You've all amassed the case studies and the experience. Everybody we work with has come in, comes in with typically over a decade of experience with incredible case studies ... And so you don't have to prove yourself again. All you have to do is position yourself properly. And then you can go after the big clients ... I love when you came in. You were like, I'm going after it, and I'm going big. You swung, and you hit it out of the park.
Well, what do you have to lose? And we're, a lot of people are, you hear this a lot. I see this a lot. We're all at this stage, same stage in my career where we go, I have nothing to lose.
That's right.
But everything to gain. ...
And I'm a CPA, so we're typically stereotypically reserved, introverted. And if I can sell, if I can do it and maintain the energy level by not getting sucked under the wheel by low paying, high demand clients, anybody can. ...
I love that point too because the lower, what people miss when they're newer to this is that the lower paying clients are actually the worst clients because they take up more time. They're more demanding. The higher paying clients, they see you. They understand that you have the expertise, and they know what, that you're gonna do a good job, and they value you, and then pretty much leave you alone. And then you go do a great job. And so it's, they're actually better clients and paying you more money. So, yeah, it's interesting, isn't it?
Yes. It is.
Alright. Well, I'm gonna let you go. If somebody's on the fence and thinking about joining the program, what would you say to them? Just last words.
Don't wait. Don't wait. You owe it to yourself to just do it. It works. And just you'll lose time and get frustrated in the process. If you drag it out and overthink it, just do it.
I love that. Thank you so much. It was so good to see you.
You too. Thanks, Carla. Appreciate you.
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