Reflections

Or catchup. Or a re-introduction. Cause we're not back on track...yet.

I came here today to write a little bit of something. Share some big things. Some small things. And put in the work to build a habit.

On the way here, my friend

Holly Marsh

’s new Take Up Space sticker (not affiliate links; Holly’s just amazing) landed in my feed (and yes, my treat for completing this is the sticker in my cart).

Then I headed over to Twitter and Nayo did the thing she does and shared some wisdom, reminding us all Mark Twain said, “Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.” (that link up there will take you to Twitter, and does not have any affiliate links), and it’s exactly the wisdom I needed to hear in this moment.

I say: the universe gives us exactly what we need when we need it.

And the universe has been very gracious all week (25 minutes left on Groove #2).

I’m chilling in a Groove (again with the lack of an affiliate link - I just really love Groove and I’d love for you to love it, too) with 23 minutes left on the clock and, as much as I’d love to write here forever and scrub and get this perfect, I’d also like to move on to the next thing for the day. So, newsletter in 20 minutes? Ready? Let’s see what all I can put in here that is me, taking up space, working on continuous improvement, and making ht most of the time I have while giving myself the grace to not be perfect.

Last year, someone asked me, “what was your method?” There were some other words and context that, well, IYKYK, and otherwise you can make something up and have a nice little story in your head and I encourage this action.

Something similar happened earlier this week.

In both instances, I walked away from something that wasn’t serving me anymore. Things that maybe never did, but I wouldn’t know unless I tried.

My answer? I had no method, especially in the moment that was referenced. I show up as authentically me as I possibly can everywhere I go. It doesn’t always feel good to be around me. But, you’ll always get 100% of me. Today, you’re getting just that. Bouncing around from one place to the next, and yet, it’s all connected by the thumbprints left behind.

Let’s come back to right now, shall we?

I birthed a business yesterday with Jennifer Dymond. It was a lot of work. We both had many other things mapped out for the day that needed addressing.

But we sat down, worked together, and worked through the things we needed to do to take those first steps to put things on paper. Sadly, as I’m writing this, I don’t have a website or even socials to share with you. They’re coming. It might take a couple of weeks. I’m very excited for it all.

In January 2024 (and early February), I did a ton to work on and through processes with my firm. I also exercised the creative muscles I wanted to start using more again (13 minutes on the (first) clock):

• Some minor logo updates, because it’s fun and I can.

• Leaned fully into Google Workspaces for my engagement letters - there’s a Zapier automation and a script and customized, beautiful engagement letters as a Doc and a PDF as well as new folders and the right folder structure all at the click of a button. I’ve cut the time it takes me to set an engagement in half. And before you come at me with, “but Megan, if you use the tool I love, you could automate everything.” And you’re right, I could. But I’d automate myself to oblivion in a way that doesn’t work for my neurodivergent brain. This isn’t about resistance to change, but about leaning into tools and processes that work for me and that work for the majority of my clients.

• Updated several of my reconciliation spreadsheets that also become workpapers. For every return I prepare, I do a reconciliation of the source docs and other workpapers to the tax return. It has workpaper references and totals. It also has reports made and built for clients that pull information directly from these workpapers. The S-corp Reconciliation is available here (okay that link also has a Nexus guide and will end up making me money if you buy the things there). The partnership equivalent is coming soon - the words that go with the workbook are about half way done. And the 1040 will come after that. When? Good question. I don’t know. And I’m not making promises beyond if it’s done done in February, it’s likely not happening until May.

• Shared a tool I built for planning your start and making use of project management tools in ClickUp (that’s also not too shabby for just about any project management tool) with a couple of experts and realized how much gold is there. Yes, it’ll go into its own little place at the same link above…probably also in May.

• Developed a color palette for that venture I mentioned above. Why do I do this? So I can have pretty spreadsheets. The grid you see at the front of a workbook lets me have a customized gradient in all of my spreadsheets.

  

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  But Megan, those aren’t quite Crayon Advisory colors. I know. They’re not for Crayon Advisory. The thing they’re doesn’t have a home yet. It existing is the worst kept secret around.

What’s next? Today, it’s more engagement letters and touching a tax return. Probably also registering a domain name, getting banking set up (we’re accountants, of course we’re using Relay for our new project and no, that’s not an affiliate link because Relay has a new partner program that works a bit differently). and a few other fussy, necessary things (I’m out of time in that first Groove and I’ve started another one - I added parenthetical comments regarding the lack of affiliate links above). Coming soon? So many tax returns. All the tax returns. Offboarding non-returning clients. Improving my capitalism game (yeah, I know, that means I should be using affiliate links. Don’t at me here. I’m learning). Welcoming questions and distractions because those are what makes me good at what I do. And continuing to make space to get things done early while also doing things for no reason other than I want to do them.

Whew that’s quite the list, no? I’m ending writing this with 40 minutes left in the next Groove, and deciding I’m going to change what this looks like ever so slightly before hitting send. And now there’s 22 minutes left on Groove #2. Which means this took one Groove. You, too, can do the hard(ish) things.