Breakthrough Moments from the 2023 Woodard Summit

Last week, accounting and bookkeeping professionals from across the country gathered in Denver, CO, for the 3rd annual Woodard Summit. This annual four-day event provides an unparalleled opportunity for attendees to collaborate, learn, and create comprehensive plans to grow their practices. Read on to learn more about this transformative event.

Unlocking Purpose: Joe Woodard's Keynote

The Summit was facilitated by Woodard CEO Joe Woodard, Vice President of Communities Patricia Hendrix, and the team of Woodard coaches and subject matter experts.

Joe Woodard kicked off the event with an inspiring keynote focused on finding your "why" and aligning your business goals with your deeper purpose. As one attendee shared, "After Joe's opening keynote, I really discovered why I'm so focused on helping companies make good decisions."

Workshop Choices 

Attendees could choose between two workshop tracks:

1. Develop Your Pricing Plan: Through this workshop, attendees established their unique value proposition, set corrective steps for underpriced clients, neutralized marketing-driven pricing pressures, and packaged services to maximize revenues.
2. Develop Your Annual Practice Plan: In this track, attendees created customized and comprehensive practice plans focused on client profiles, human resource strategies, process enhancements, technology deployment, and best practices for structuring client engagements.

Paul Dunn on "Purpose-Driven" Growth

A major highlight was the closing keynote delivered by distinguished author and business educator Paul Dunn. As a four-time TEDx speaker and co-author of The Firm of the Future and Time's Up, Dunn shared his insights on innovation, leadership, and purpose-driven business growth.

One attendee noted that after hearing Dunn speak, she "really discovered why I'm so focused on helping companies make good decisions." Dunn's keynote empowered professionals to align their "why" with strategic business practices.

Voices from the Woodard Summit

The collaborative workshops and personal development activities facilitated by the coaches left many attendees feeling empowered. As attendee Sandra Lanier-Thomas summed up, "I am more than enough and I'm on the right path for me."

Others appreciated the powerful sense of community. Attendees Beth Whitworth called it "everything", while Nancy Jacobson made "amazing referrals and connections." Felipe Sanchez said he was "so grateful to be here" and that he had "forgotten the love and support" he could find in this group.

The workshops were highly strategic. As attendee Richard Oliver from FirstLink put it, "I came here for strategic planning from this perspective. And what I've learned coming through and spending these few days here is that this can be taught the exact same way, the same content for the next 10 years. And the experience will never be the same – we get that from everyone sharing and being uniquely themselves as a community."

Other key takeaways included:

• "I cannot accomplish the goal that my partner and I are looking to accomplish with the current model. And so, we have to come from the new model and then work towards it."
• "I'm heavily focused on decisions. Decisions you make or decisions that make you."
• "I think spending the last week in this space, everyone truly cares about their clients."
• "It's easy for me to tell people my successes, but here I'm able to tell people my failures and they have them too."
• "I feel that I'm not alone in the journey."

Gratitude and the Power of the Woodard Community

The Summit concluded with an emotional sendoff from Patricia Hendrix: "You guys, what you did here this week for yourselves and for each other is nothing short of miraculous."

She emphasized the need to continue leaning on each other, driving visions forward, and staying connected through new Mighty Networks communities that will be launched after the event.

With inspired keynotes from thought leaders like Paul Dunn, and hands-on workshops facilitated by the talented Woodard team, it's no wonder attendees find this event so transformative for their practices and personal development.

Upcoming Events: The Woodard Ideal Practice Symposiums

If you missed the Summit but want to experience the power of the Woodard community, mark your calendar for the upcoming Ideal Practice Symposiums coming to 4 cities across the US this fall. These two-day events will give you the opportunity to begin realizing your ideal accounting practice through an introduction to the Woodard Ideal Practice Model™️.