We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Mandy McGowan. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Mandy below.
Hi Mandy , really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
Let me start of by saying, I believe my purpose in this life is to help others. The “how” has not always been clear, but the purpose has always been to help, to leave people better than I find them.
I fell into my career by accident. I was a young kid who chose not to go to college to be close to home and my younger brother as our mom was battling cancer. I wanted to be a nurse. (Hint- I am not a nurse.)
I graduated high school and got my CNA license right away and registered for classes at the community college and got a job in a nursing home. I had worked at a doctor’s office for the last two years of high school, so this felt like the next step.
It was only about 8 months in that I realized this career was not for me. I could not turn off my heart. As patients would pass, all alone with no family around them, my heart broke. One of my professors told me I had to be able to be kind and compassionate without absorbing all the loss that I would experience if I was going to be a nurse. Quite frankly, I did not know how to do that.
In the span of 6 hours, I quit my job and dropped out of college with no plan, just knowing nursing was not the plan.
I did what any 18 year old would do and went and got a job at a restaurant serving and bartending. A few years later I was expecting my first child and knew that I could not keep working until 3 am and sleeping until noon when I had a kid at home with me.
I applied to every place in the small town I was living in that had a “normal schedule”. The only place that called me for an interview was a tax firm and the rest is history.
Ok, not really, but it kind of is. I fell in love with the finance side of businesses and learning how they were successful and what caused them to fail. I have worked in tax resolution, tax preparation, bookkeeping, life insurance and financial coaching all and what I have found is that I love the latter three the most.
In finding my love for my work, I discovered how much I am able to help my clients through what I do. The moments where they see their financial goals up ahead and within reach is the most exciting moment of any week in my work.
I think it is a fair statement to say it found me and I am lucky it did.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I work with my clients on two important parts of the finance world in their businesses. Mindset and money.
I help my clients overcome past stories around money to feel worthy of all they can create, eliminate self-sabotaging behaviors around money, and understand how the money flows in their business.
Whether I am working in the capacity of a profit coach with a client or as their bookkeeper with a focus on profit and cash flow strategy, I love helping them realize that they are capable of understanding finance and how much it benefits their business when they do.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I think the biggest thing that was most impactful for me has been my desire to always be learning. I have never gotten to a point where I think I know it all, or even enough. Especially in my industry which is changing all the time.
The skill to be able to learn is one I hope I never lose.
Second would be my willingness to make mistakes and learn from them. I think too often we get stuck in the “it has to be perfect” mode and are afraid to move forward because we might make a mistake.
Third would be my ability to meet people. This has been the most impactful in my business as I have many people who refer clients to me regularly but if I hadn’t gotten out of my own way and went to places to meet new people, I am not sure I would even know some of them.
My advice is to always be learning- a new skill, a change in your industry, how to run a business- it is all evolving all the time, so always be learning and don’t worry about being perfect. The secret no one talks about is that no one is, but many pretend to be.
Who is your ideal client or what sort of characteristics would make someone an ideal client for you?
My ideal client is someone who knows their time is best spent on what they do best, not on the accounting aspects. They are wanting to make more money and save on taxes without sacrificing cash flow or profits to make it happen.
They are kind and enjoy a good laugh, because I laugh on just about every client call I have. It makes the day more enjoyable.
My clients are typically in a service industry with a small team of support in the business.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.elevatingprofits.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MandyLMcGowan
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mandymcgowanep/
Image Credits
Samantha Markey Photography
