I decided to pursue a career as a CPA after taking an accounting class in high school. I started college at Southeastern Louisiana University at 17 years old. After graduating with my Bachelor’s degree in 2009 I started my graduate program at Louisiana State University while working part time in public accounting. I completed my Master’s degree in Accounting in August 2010 and started working full time while studying for the CPA exam. I completed the exam in 2011 and became the youngest CPA at our firm.
After 4 years in Tax, I left the firm. I was not sure where I wanted my career to take me and spent some time doing tax and bookkeeping on my own before receiving the opportunity to work on contract for Freeh Group International Solutions, LLC. For a year and a half I worked with FGIS to examine claims submitted to the Deepwater Horizon Court Supervised Settlement Program for process improvement and fraud detection. It was work that I felt had a value driven purpose and it was an amazing opportunity to work alongside retried IRS and FBI agents with some amazing stories to share. As my time on the project started to wrap up I made the decision to pursue my first Industry accounting role back home in Baton Rouge. My 5 year plan was to gain some experience working under a Controller and then go for a Controller position.
I landed at a local engineering firm as Assistant Controller and within a year was unexpectedly promoted to Controller. Overnight I went from zero direct reports to four, and then eventually was managing a team of six full-time employees and an intern. Having always been a nose to the computer “doer” who proclaimed to not be a “people person,” I did not feel prepared to lead a team. I signed up for as many leadership trainings as I could fit into that first year along with reading books on the topic. At first I thought my boss was crazy for giving me the position. I committed to trying it for six months and was sure I was not ready the role. I’ll forever be grateful to her for believing in me before I believed in myself.
Teams are made up of people trying to accomplish goals together, so leadership training turned out to be a lot about self-awareness and then awareness of how everyone is different and how we can all relate to each other. I enjoyed the trainings and growth immensely. I learned how to better connect with my team, saw productivity improve, and received recognition from my boss and other leaders on the results. I was fortunate to have a growth-minded boss who was also having the leadership teams read together. I started recommending the books I was reading to other leaders in my company as well as doing trainings within my team. That was the start of what I now see as the turning point in where my career would end up.
After experiencing that impact and connection with others, spreadsheets and financial reporting no longer engaged and excited me. After leaving that company it would take two more positions over a few more years and a lot more personal growth for me to finally realize the path of impact I wanted to pursue. I was really good at what I did and had a lot of success as a CPA, but found my passion in connecting with and developing people.
“Once you taste significance, success will never satisfy you again.
John Maxwell
After researching leaders in the industry, I decided to pursue my coaching, speaking and training certification through the John Maxwell Team. John is a world-renowned leadership expert and after reading his book “Change Your World” I knew he was the leader for me on this journey.
I attended the live certification event this week and was set on fire by the amazing energy and shared vision of the people that are a part of this team. John refers to the shared values of our teammates as JMT DNA. Hearing him speak on the topic that first morning affirmed again that I have found where I belong on my journey of significance.
JMT DNA
We are people of value, who value people and add value to them.
Our Values:
- Value People
- Positive Attitude
- Grow Daily
- Lead by Example
- Live Intentionally
- Exceed Expectations
- Equip Other People
- Consistent
- Be a Catalyst for Transformation
- Allow Room for Faith
I had the opportunity to meet John during a break the first day at IMC and was so nervous I could not get words out. I got a photo and finally stumbled out that I read Change Your World earlier this year and it brought me there. Luckily, when I got the opportunity to talk with the rest of the amazing coaches and leaders that evening I was much less awkward. It was an incredible opportunity and experience.
Believe Grow Glow 