If you’ve ever been to Scaling New Heights, you know that accounting conferences are life-changing. I haven’t been the same since the first time I went to a conference in 2017. Meeting all those amazing and energized people was a breath of fresh air from the dysfunctional culture I was experiencing in public accounting. Every conference I’ve attended since has been filled with exciting new ideas, connections to new people, and fun times.
I remember going back to work after that first conference, pumped with excitement to share my experience and new ideas. Unfortunately, the sharp demands of clients and the brokenness of the workplace pierced the bubble of community and new possibilities I’d brought back from the conference. With a sigh, I set aside my memories of the incredible experience and reverted to my pre-conference mode of work.
When you get home after a conference, the gap between where you are now and where you’d like to be is revealed in all its stark and frightening reality.
How do you make the leap from a magical experience to create transformation in your life and business? How do you integrate what you learned into new habits, a new mindset, and new ways of approaching your work?
We’ve all had amazing experiences that transport us to another level of being, but not all experiences rise to the level of transformative experiences. A transformative experience helps us close the gap from the present state to a different desired state. Transformation happens when we can say, “I was X, and now I am Y.”
A key to moving from an experience to transformation is a three-step process called encapsulation, which I first read about in Joseph Pine’s Substack, where he’s been drafting a new book about the transformation economy. His previous book, The Experience Economy (written with James Gilmore), described the elevation of value as economic offerings move from commodities to goods to services to experiences, and finally, to transformation at the apex. If you attended Ron Baker’s keynote at Scaling New Heights, you learned about this escalation of value.
As Pine explains it, encapsulation is a three-step process with the experience at the center:
Preparation is what you do before the experience to set your intentions for transformation. You imagine what the experience will be like and what you hope to learn. Reflection happens when you look back on an experience and think about it. Integration is when you put your reflections into action and create new habits and new ways of thinking and being.
Let’s walk through these steps and see how to apply them for your next conference so that your experience truly transforms you and your business.
Why did you register for this conference? What do you hope to gain by attending? Are you seeking insight into this Strange New World we’re entering? Do you want ideas on how to improve work-life integration? Time-saving tips so you can work less and earn more? Or do you want to learn about the latest tax laws, AI developments, or accounting standards so you can apply this new knowledge to your work? Are you curious about expanding your services into a new direction that aligns more with your personal calling?
Is there another reason you’re attending? As a writer and podcaster in the accounting space, my intentions include seeing my accounting friends and meeting new people. Conferences are an opportunity to spend time with my writing clients to discuss new projects and to get to know them on a personal level. I also meet people who would be great future guests on my podcast. Plus, I can get the CPE I need to keep my CPA license active.
All of these are perfectly valid intentions.
You can also prepare for the conference by studying the agenda and selecting your sessions. This is easily done through the app that just about every conference has these days. Most apps will allow you to search for sessions by speaker, so you don’t miss the sessions presented by people you want to learn from. You may also be able to view the list of attendees and reach out to them ahead of time.
Another preparation step I learned from the world of writers is to set up some dinner reservations at restaurants near the venue. Find a nice place to go and set up a reservation for five to eight people. When I have done this, the experience has always been rewarding.
Before you leave for your trip, tidy up loose ends, delegate the work that needs to be done, and set up your OOO reply. You want to keep work distractions to a minimum.
Pine treats the experience as the center of encapsulation, not as one of the three steps in encapsulation. Here are some ideas to help you have the experience you’ve prepared for, so you can reflect on it and integrate it into your life and business.
Be as fully present as you can be while you’re at the conference. Listen, take notes, and ask questions. Focus on what’s happening and make the most of all the fun things happening throughout. The Woodard team is especially good at creating unexpected fun surprises throughout Scaling New Heights. Who can forget Dawn Brolin making her entrance to the main stage on a bicycle this last year?
Exchange contact information and connect on LinkedIn or the conference app to keep the connection alive beyond the conference. I like to seek out a few deep connections scattered among the many quick hugs and hellos as I see friends in the sessions and in the hallways between sessions.
Make plans to meet for a meal or for dinner. Having a reservation in your pocket makes it easy to gather a group for an intimate gathering.
To deepen those connections, ask questions that delve beyond the superficial. Here are a few I like to use:
Did you particularly like a speaker? Instead of dashing out of the room immediately, make your way to the front and introduce yourself. Tell them what you liked and a little bit about yourself. Ask a question or two. Doing this consistently at every conference I’ve attended is how I’ve met many of the thought leaders I’m in contact with, many of whom have been guests on my podcast.
Throughout the conference, make time to reflect on what you’re learning. Many of my friends post on LinkedIn with their daily takeaways and photos. Capture your insights in writing or with a voice memo. Reflecting on your experiences in writing or video helps cement those memories so you can look back on them and recapture the excitement.
What are the most significant insights you’ve received? What new tools do you want to demo? Are there changes to your workflow or processes that can make a difference? What new ideas do you have for leading your team? Did you learn about a new tax provision that will be beneficial to your clients? Did someone recommend a book that inspired them?
Try to make time each day to reflect on what you experienced. At the very least, make time before you get back into regular life to think about what you learned. I live in New Mexico, and it can be tough to get reasonable flights home in the afternoon or early evening for conferences that end at midday, so I’ve made it a habit to stay an extra night. That extra time allows me to reflect on the conference, review my notes, and highlight or add new ideas.
This is where you take the reflections and put those ideas into action to transform your life or your business. This step begins by understanding the gap between where you are now and where you want to be. Here is where the work begins so that you can move from X to Y. Consider working on just one area at a time, so you don’t get too confused with too many changes at once.
Working backwards from your goal, what steps do you need to take to close the gap? What are the first steps to take in that direction? You don’t always need to map out the entire process, but just the first few steps to head you in the right direction. Find the easiest first step you can take and do it. Bonus if this is something you can do in less than five minutes.
Do you need to sign up for a demo of a new app? Do you need to map out your existing processes so you can make them better? Are there simple changes to your workflows you can start working on and experimenting with?
Are there new habits you want to develop? What about mindset shifts? How do you need to start thinking differently to become the person you want to be? Do you need to pick up new skills so you can transition to a new direction? Did you order and set aside time to read the books that speakers recommended?
Keep in mind that this will be an iterative process. You might not get it right the first time, but every failure is a data point you can use to try again until you get the result you want. As you move through each step, you will likely need to reflect on your progress and your next steps.
You may even decide to change your ultimate goal. Maybe this isn’t the right time to work on this change. Or maybe now that you’re experimenting with a new business model or service line, you realize you don’t want to do this after all. Or perhaps, you realize that your goal for transformation isn’t ambitious enough, and you need to set your sights higher.
If this is a big shift you’re making, remember that you don’t need to go it alone. Ask for help from others who have been where you are and have achieved what you want to achieve. Join a community that’s working on the same or similar issues. If you can’t find a community that fits your needs (or your budget), create your own. This can be as simple as starting an online chat group on Signal, WhatsApp, or Slack with some of your new best friends from the conference. Share your failures and ask the hive mind for help. If you’re reading this newsletter, you know that the Woodard community is one of the friendliest and most supportive groups of people you will find anywhere.
You may need to hire a coach who can guide you through the transformation. A coach can help you uncover your own resistance to change and support you in making the changes you want to make. Coaches can also help you identify your vision, mission, and purpose in life, and keep you on a path to make those the north star of your life.
Another option is to find an accountability partner to help keep you on track. I did this when I was starting out as a writer. I reached out to a friend and asked if I could email her once a week with my goals for the coming week, and how I did on my goals for the previous week. I didn’t ask her to respond, cheer me on, or help me solve my challenges. But just knowing that she was expecting that weekly email from me was enough to keep me focused.
Yes, this is a lot more work than simply registering for a conference, attending, and coming home. But transformation is how you create a life and a business that fulfills your dreams. It’s how we all begin to create a better world, and how we shift from passive consumers to agents of change in the world.
Transformation is how we “Make it So” and how we prepare ourselves for the “Strange New World” that awaits us.
Are you willing to make that commitment to move beyond an amazing conference experience to a life-changing transformation? Let’s make this happen!