How to get started with video and use it to raise your firm's profile

How did you get started in the big wide world of accounting?

I went back to studying about 10 years ago when I had two small children. I was only on reception at the dentist 10 years ago, feeling a bit lost, thinking what am I going to do with my life? Knew I had loads of ideas going on and actually sat there and was always doing their bookkeeping in the dentist and was very interested in helping them out, and I just thought I want to learn a bit more about that. Everyone needs an accountant. I'm different, as in a bit more relaxed, because I always thought of accounting as a bit stuffy and boring, if I'm honest, and I've always heard about people being scared of their accountants. So long story short, went back to college, took three years to do a diploma, and then landed my dream job in my local... There's a local firm in Newark, there's 11 offices around East Midlands, it took me two attempts to get a job there and got a job there, finally.

Started there in 2013. By 2014 I started working on Xero, looking at apps and things like that. There were just talks about it. But because it's such a traditional firm, it's took them a long, long time to get. Because I was new, fresh and wanted a simpler way, I saw the benefits of it and went from there, learning that, and I've always wanted to do my own thing. I've got my own ideas, I question everything. I wanted to do more personality and under a corporate firm, I struggled to be me, if that makes sense.

In terms of how you got started with gaining new clients, was it clients that you brought across from the firm you were at or did you have to start from scratch?

From scratch, yeah. I had a friend that wanted me to help them, which was one from me. Charlotte works for the same firm, but a different office, but she left that role four years previous to me. We've come from the same thing, which is good. We've learned that firm's way together, if that makes sense. She had two clients, I think, already. Very, very small ones. We were very nervous. I'm not going to lie. Charlotte was still working and we thought we'd join the business in the summer, and I left my job in Feb. By March I said, "You need to hand you notice in to your job. I've got quite a few people on the board with me here," because I was sharing the passion.

I started up in networking, I hate the word networking, but socialising in business, with Duncan & Toplis for about two years prior, and that helped me. I didn't know how it was helping me, but meeting the same people, getting to know me, trusting me, liking me, when they knew I'd started myself, they were like, "Hang a minute, I know somebody that knows somebody that might need your help with this. Is it easy," he said, "is it simple?" "Yes. Yes. Will we give you more nurturing advice? Yes. Are we approachable? Yes."

When did your journey with video start and when did that seeds get planted in your head that you needed to use video?

I was at Duncan & Toplis when I did my introduction video, and that was just before I was leaving. I thought "I'm going test it out," but I was that nervous. I was shaking, because I did it in my car. I thought "I'm going to drop the kids off and I'm just going to say where I'm from and it's all okay." But Luca, my son, was sat in the back and I said to him "Just hide a minute," because I'd rather do it with him there because I felt safe, which is so stupid.

Then at the end of the video he popped his head up and it was quite funny and I shared it anyway, and I really had a lot of engagement because everyone found it funny that my son was in the car. And I thought, "Oh, there's something here, where you can just show your personality" and it went from there. But I felt held back because I was with Duncan & Toplis and I felt like they were probably watching it going, "What the hell are you doing? We're a professional firm. We can't go out with that." But it probably wasn't. That was in my head. That was making me anxious. So before I did a first video being self employed, I probably did it five, six months before that on a video.

So when did you come up with your own hashtag #thejourneyisreal? 

Honestly, so many people messaged me about that and even took the hashtag from me. They use it on their own, I think it's brilliant. The day I went self-employed, I think we did a video and I thought, "You know what?" I don't know why, I thought I'm going to share the highs and lows because I felt that's my accountability. If I say I'm going to go to that networking event through a video, not that anyone cares or remembers, but for me, I can't let my fans down. I didn't have any fans, but you know what I mean? I felt like I've let the whole people that might watched it down if I didn't go to that event or I didn't do what I was saying I can do. I know how to grow a business just from doing my own little things. I just had to just do a video, not worry about it and not... I didn't watch them back. Don't watch them back.

And do you just use your phone to record them?

Yeah. Just my phone. Straight off. Write bit of spiel and put it on, because some people said, "Oh, why don't you do subtitles or..." No. By the time you get that on and linked the app to that and then you have to edit it. I haven't got time. I was wooshing about growing the business.

A lot of accountants are perfectionists, they don't actually release something until it's perfect. But actually, that's the wrong mindset isn't it? It's even if it's not perfect, it's done. 

Yeah. And then it makes it worse. The longer you leave something, the harder it is. It's like having an argument with someone. The longer you don't speak to them to sort it out, the worse it gets between you both. The longer you put something off, and if you're thinking about it a lot, you need to do it

I know you do a lot of car videos. Do you find that that works well for you? Why do you do videos in the car?

I didn't think about it. Because someone actually said they've noticed my car's changed. And I'm like, "That's cringe." I was being lazy. What else am I going to... I had no office, I didn't want to do it in my house. I did a couple in my home. Not many do it in the car do they, because again, they need the equipment, they need the whole set up, they need to filter it, they need to put the lighting in. I've done it and I've got lipstick on my teeth.

So what impact would you say it's had for you? What direct impacts can you say? As a result of video I have got X many leads, and let's talk about business first. Has it actually resulted in leads for your business?

I had a lot of inboxes on LinkedIn to start with, "I've just seen your video, going self-employed. I've seen that you've spoke about a solution you've got. Can you tell me more about that?" They see that I'm normal, genuine. I don't do any selling. I don't inbox. I probably inboxed two, right in the beginning, because it's someone I known through someone else, and just said "Hi, how are you doing? Let me know if you need any help." I only managed to do about two. I had a lot of inboxes asking about more of, "I've just seen your video, can you tell me a bit more, can you give me a call?" 

It's helped you to increase your, your connections and your followers on LinkedIn because you're posting content, you're building out your network, aren't you?

I also post the lows, so I don't always say it's amazing day. Two weeks in, I remember doing the video, and that went quite viral for me at the beginning. This isn't massive, but 11,000 views or 15,000. I know people have loads more than that, but for me for the second or third video, people were actually helping me out when I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by everything and didn't know which direction I was going and I was not making it up as I go along, but you are, when you're in business, you've actually got to just do it and then learn as you go. You don't know the outcome, you don't know the end results. You know your goals though, you want your vision, you want your big house, you want your holidays, you want the kids to be looked after and I act like I'm in survival mode.

So people are like, "How do you find yourself motivated, why you post an Instagram every day?" Because I'm in survival mode. Let me just see what... You've got to do everything. If you want your business to grow, you've got to do everything. I was about to say a swear word again. You can't just say, "Oh no, it's not growing and I haven't got any clients." But are you doing everything you can to try? You don't even necessarily have to do a video. People that don't want to do video, that's fine, but that's where the ways are going now. Video and audio, podcasts. They want to hear your voice, they want to see who you are. The opportunities are that with marketing now, it's that way rather than a newspaper article.

When you do a video, would you post it to every platform in the same way?

LinkedIn was just the only one at the beginning, then I've got over my friends watching on Instagram and thought, "You know, what does it matter?" Because friends don't necessarily get what you're doing and why. So I just got over it. I started posting on my future cloud one on Instagram, then I linked that to my Facebook one. Some of them don't even get a view. Instagram does, but Facebook, you find not many has liked it, but I have to ignore all of that because I'm happy doing it. I like sharing my day or content or something to help others.

So what other opportunities have you got from doing video? 

This is another thing that might hold people back. "Oh, what if I get asked to speak somewhere or what if I get asked to do a podcast or no, I can't do that." I had all that. When I first did a few videos and someone messaged me saying they want me to be on a panel at the Digital Accountancy Show.

I was like, "Oh my God. Ooh, can I do this?" But you just have to say yes and do it anyway. So Digital Accountancy Show, I've been asked to do a couple of podcasts. I've been asked, on my Instagram, a woman from that school that I went to on Friday said, "Oh, you're really inspirational. Would you help out by being a dragon in a Dragon's Den type thing." And I was like, "Yeah," thinking, "Oh my God. Don't know if I've got time." But because we've invested... So me and Charlotte invested in other people to run stuff with us, so we can do these other bits and bobs. To grow the business you have to invest in people and trust and delegate. Have use of Zoom, Teams on Microsoft, that's what we use. Talk to your staff, make sure they're okay, then you can go out and help others.

For someone who's only been running their business for less than a year, it's pretty incredible for those opportunities to come your way. When I think about how many accountants are out there in the UK who probably have run practices for years and years, maybe at the top of their profession, doing amazing stuff, but because they're not out there and putting themselves out there, they're not being asked. Whereas you are, even though you're a newbie to the profession. You're getting all those opportunities in front of people who are more established in the sector. So clearly video is working for you?

Yeah. Yeah. It is working. And also, even if you've got a practice that you've been in for 20 years... So obviously people think, "Well, it's easy for you to do cloud, because you're brand new." You know there's the old ones that have been doing a certain way for so long. They say businesses can dry after 10 years if you don't get with the times, then you're going to suffer. It is so true. If you're very manual books and checks and not with the online banking, I've seen it, you're going to suffer because times are moving. Where was I going with this? I've lost my train of thought. If you don't personally want to do it, and you think, "Oh no, I'm not doing that. Blah blah." Get someone that will help.

Absolutely. Right. I think we did speak about this in terms of whether you plan videos or you just do it. Do you just do it?

Do it. I did a video an hour before this call, because I'm going to a social meeting and thought "Oh, should I post a video." My first thought was, "Can't be bothered. I can't be bothered." And I was like, "No, come on." Sometimes I'll make notes so it goes in my head fresh, and then I just did a video on my LinkedIn literally an hour, just said "Hi, it's lunch time. Going to a social end of Feb, do you want to come along? It's this, this, this person and what you waiting for..."

How do you decide what to post about? A lot of people, they say, "Well, we don't mind doing video, but we have no idea what to post about." How do you come up with content ideas, or do you just basically just... I guess your content idea is documenting your journey, kind of saying what you're doing right or not?

Yeah, documenting my journey, but also listen around you. If you speak to clients, people, there's so much content in your conversation that can help others. It's unreal. Whether it's a debatable thing you talk about. Don't fear someone going, "What are you going on about?" Because I did. Someone's going to turn around and on my post and go "shut up." Or someone's actually commented hashtag eyebrows or something. People can be negative, can't they?

A lot of clients want direction. They come to you because they trust you, they don't know. Now we can't make decision for them as such, but sometimes you have to just say do it this way and see what, you know... And if it goes wrong, just own up together. If you like each other, trust each other, it'll be fin. People are so worried about just making a snap decision and getting on with it. And I think that's what I'm good at now.

What advice do you have for accountants to get started for video?

Write what you are interested in. Write what you want to achieve in your business. So maybe even do a video of your future goals in business, even if you're off track on how it's run. Maybe put content out there saying, "I'm after a bit of advice from other accountants. I've been doing this for 10 years. We're at a bit of a dead end." If that's one way you want to go down, if you need to improve your practice a little bit, so put it out there. It doesn't matter that you need help, does it? Ask for help in a video, because then they'll see you. Don't watch it back. Even if you talk about the next event you're going to. Talk about an event you're going to. Talk about what you did in the weekend. We want to hear about that. We don't want to hear about the FRS102 and the MTD. They don't care. They Want to know what you did in the weekend and what you ate.