CERTIFIED UNSTOPPABLE: A CPA’S JOURNEY BEGINS
Flash back to summer of 2010 – I get home from work, immediately jump out of my car and start walking towards the mailbox. I pick up the pace in the sultry July Memphis heat, anticipating that this will be the mailbox visit that will set me for life. I open it up, and there it is – a tidy full envelope from the State of Tennessee. I rip it open, almost tearing the certificate inside of it – there it is, Alexander Kevin Mahoney, CPA, right there on the neatly printed paper! Completely surreal. I shoot a text to my friends who graduated with me from the Rhodes College Masters of Accountancy program the year before – it’s time to celebrate. That Friday, the drinks flow on Beale Street. People study for years and fail one or more of the 4-part test you have to do to get your CPA license- I went 4 for 4, licking this thing in 9 months. Gonna be unstoppable.
SOMETHING’S MISSING
Flash forward exactly 2 years. I’m sitting in a conference room at 10 pm in Boise, Idaho. It’s the 6th week of a brutal audit client engagement, and we’ve been living out of a suitcase the whole time. Sorting through a seemingly endless pile of client documents, I realize I’m missing one of them- oh *bleep*, I totally forgot to ask for it from my client, and I can’t finish up my documentation without it. I sheepishly wander over to the client accounting manager who is still onsite. He looks at me sideways with bloodshot eyes, what does this kid want? I let out a sigh and fess up to forgetting to ask for one more thing. Angrily asking me why this wasn’t on the notorious PBC (prepared by client) list, he shuffles through a few drawers before shoving it at me. A week later, my manager informs me that I won’t be promoted to Senior yet again, citing this as an example for why. She’s right – my heart’s not in it, to me it’s just an endless, 15-hour day cycle of work papers and review comments that will all be thrown out the window soon anyways. Something is missing in my purpose, in my career, in my life.
STRATEGIC THINKING AND NBA RING
Shortly after, I left the audit to become a corporate accountant. I’m building systems to make my company close its books faster, coming up with better ways to pull and organize the data. I’m FINALLY being recognized for my strategic thinking and for an uncanny nose for finding out what’s going wrong, the kinks in the process. I’m instrumental to one company going IPO, and then implementing an entirely new accounting system for the Golden State Warriors (and getting an NBA championship ring along the way!). I’m not just sitting there for hours reviewing and documenting someone else’s work… I’m driving real transformation in my companies, and eagerly teaching my fellow accountants how to find errors and build the systems to make sure they never happen again.
MAKING PEOPLE’S LIVES EASIER
7 years of corporate accounting pass, and something is still missing amidst the routine of month end closes, so I leave accounting to onboard companies onto Workday’s accounting system. I truly love this job- as a recovering accountant, I can translate my clients’ needs into Workday functionality. I’m leading 3 or 4 meetings per week, taking down my clients’ pain points and quickly turning around creative solutions. It suddenly hits me- I have a heart for service, for teaching, for making peoples’ lives easier and less stressful. I thought, if I can bring relief to CPA’s with many more years of finance experience than I have, then how much more impactful could I be with people who know NOTHING about finance and are literally scared to even look at a credit card statement, much less an Excel Spreadsheet?
EMPOWERING PERSONAL FINANCE.
I poked around looking at various programs and finally stumble upon Ramsey’s coaching. No additional certifications needed, no red tape, just helping hard-working people transform their anxiety about personal finance into empowerment. The 7 baby steps are genius to me in their simplicity. But as a CPA, I knew I could bring additional tools. Turn a budget into a lean mean easy-to-use spreadsheet rather than just making the client fill out the Ramsey website budget PDF by hand. Walk them through Morningstar reports to show them different types of investments. But most importantly, help them align their financial choices with their life goals. Because I’ve been there. Muddling from job to job, waiting for that next happy hour, that next vacation, that next night out to distract me from not following what I was called to do, and regretting the bill later. Not only did building a budget allow me to manage the stress of starting my own business, but made me evaluate my relationships and my investments of time and energy. Because of my background as a CPA, building a budget was an easy and intuitive step for me, but I know I can make it painless for you too. Book a call with me today, you’ll be surprised how quick this transformation can happen!
Congratulations! It really is an inspiring story!