Episode 113: If You Say You Are Going To Do Something, Make It Happen With Lauren Fitch
Claim that power to attain the goals you have always dreamed of for yourself. You can make it happen as long as you believe in yourself and work harder than ever! Join your host Amy Vetter for an interview with Lauren Fitch, COO of Hannis T. Bourgeois, LLP. In this episode, they discuss her drive and determination to become a lawyer against all odds and how her career pivoted based on economic conditions that created a career she could have never imagined. Lauren emphasizes the beautiful results of self-confidence, improving your skill sets, understanding yourself, and learning how to adapt to change. She also discusses tips on overcoming obstacles and being organized through collaborative tools. Tune in to embrace a mindset that will help you take your life to the next level.
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If You Say You Are Going To Do Something, Make It Happen With Lauren Fitch
Welcome to this episode, where I interview Lauren Fitch, the Chief Operating Officer of Hannis T. Bourgeois, a certified public accounting firm with over 140 employees and offices located in Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Denham Springs and Hammond, Louisiana. She graduated from LSU with her BS in Business Administration and went on to graduate Magna Cum Laude from Southern University Law Center.
She has several years of professional experience, mainly focused on managing technology infrastructure, internal financial operations, recruiting, business development, and risk management. She's a member of several local businesses and civic organizations and a board member of the National CPA Firm Management Association, CPA FMA. Her proudest achievement is being the wife of Derek Fitch and mother of three children, Beckett, Rivers, and Adley. She can be found traveling, reading, or on a tennis court when she's not watching her children compete in sports.
During this interview, we discussed her drive and determination to become a lawyer against all odds and how her career pivoted based on economic conditions that created a new path that she could have never imagined. I hope you enjoy this interview and share it, like it, and subscribe to others that you know can benefit from the lessons that Lauren shares.
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I'm excited to have Lauren Fitch with me. Do you want to get started? Give me a little intro on yourself.
Thank you, Amy. I am the Chief Operating Officer for Hannis T. Bourgeois. We're a public accounting firm located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. We also have offices in New Orleans, Hammond, and Denham Springs, which were all located in Louisiana in the heat. We're experiencing a 103 index right now, but we are getting used to it. We have over 150 employees with the company, and we do all kinds of services. We try to be that one-stop shop for our clients.
I’m glad to have you on. What I like to do with these interviews is to start from the beginning of your story and go back to where you grew up and what your parents did, your siblings. Where did you start out in the world?
I was born and raised in Baton Rouge. My dad was an electrical engineer, and my mother was a stay-at-home mom. My dad shaped a lot of my work ethic and that nature. He was one of those people who never took a sick day. He’s very routine-based and a company man. He stayed with the same company for a long time. That shaped me a lot, and I'm also the youngest of three daughters. I'm not just the youngest. I'm the youngest by 10 and 15 years. I’m almost like a grandchild in some aspects because my parents were older. My parents are Baby Boomers. I’m a Millennial technically, but I'm an elder Millennial, especially since I grew up with some Gen X-ers.
My oldest sister was in the medical field, and my middle sister went to law school. From a very young age, she shaped me a little bit because she was in law school, and she let me come to law school with her one day. I shadowed her, and I took all the notes. From the age of five, I said, “I'm going to law school.” That was what I wanted to do. It was either that or I wanted to be a cartoon voice background because I was a good actress whenever I was younger. I would perform for my sisters. They thought it was a hilarious thing.
What is your favorite cartoon?
I liked the Disney character. There was a family that I would go to dinner with, and they thought it was hysterical when I would order off the children's menu when I was older because I could make my voice into like a young child. I'd say, |I like to get the chicken tenders, please.” They thought that was terrible. They're like, “That's cheaper. You can order off the kids' menu.” The two career paths are similar. Luckily for my parents, I chose to go to law school. That is how my career was supposed to start. The craziest part about it is I didn't get into law school. I've been talking about it for my entire life. That was a big defining moment for me.
Why didn’t you get in?
My grades were high because I knew that you had to make the grades to get in, but I'm not good at standardized tests. I should have known because I had trouble with the ACT. I had to take the Princeton review twice for the ACT prep to get my score up to LSU standards to get in there. Whenever I sat for the L set, I was like, “This is not good.” I'm not doing well.
When I didn't get in, I scheduled a meeting with the chancellor of the law school. In order to get that meeting, I had to call upon someone in the community. I had to call upon a mentor. I said, “I need to get this meeting.” I went into his office, and I was 22 years old. I said, “I will apply until you let me in. You might as well let me in.” Luckily, he said, “We're going to waitlist you.” I said, “Okay.” I went and got a real job because I didn't know what would happen. I got the news a week before law school started that I had gotten in. I had to quit my job. I am sorry. I did not mean to do this and start law school from there.
A couple of questions for you about the standardized test issues. How much of it do you think you started having a mindset issue with the test because you knew it was standardized, and it hadn't gone well for you before?
That's the interesting part because if you would have shadowed me in the Princeton review, I was answering every question. I was listening and intense, but when I went to the exam day, as we know, these tests are multiple guess. You either pick A or B, and I think the mindset is I must pick the wrong answer. It is all I configure because I was killing it whenever it was a practice test or whenever I was listening in a class on how to master these types of tests.
I always wonder how much of that gets in our heads after a while with those things. It's hard.
Make It Happen: Sometimes, going through all those obstacles will lead you to the right career or path perfect for you.
The whole reason that I graduated Magna Cum Laude from law school is because of me not getting in. I do attribute that because I had that mindset of going into this, but I'm not supposed to be here. I have to prove myself. I studied twelve hours a day, and people didn't see me for a whole year. I lived in that library, and I was more of an average student in college, not like the normal 3.0 that you need to get by or 3.5 maybe.
I found out I was number two in the class after the first semester. I went to an HBCU, and they have scholarships for the top five students. I was able to get that scholarship academically from getting the grades. It was hard because I worked during law school to keep that up. I was number five or something like that after graduation, but the lucky part, no one cared.
The rough thing about all that stuff with the tests of how much we get wrapped up in those things, or no one ever asks. Once you're it, you’re it. The same CPA exams I took multiple times before finishing. It's not when a client comes to you and says, “How many times do you take the CPA exam?” You have to get through it after a while, but it's hard when you're in the midst of it. The second thing that you said was you had a mentor that helped you get into it. Who was this mentor, and how did you meet them?
Since I knew that I wanted to go to law school, I was a courier. You bring everything to the courthouse and everything of that nature. I was reading the documents and learning what you're supposed to do. I got a little better job. They wanted me to do more bookkeeping and some other stuff. He was a lawyer and he graduated from the law school that I was trying to get into. He's the one who knew the chancellor and got me into that appointment because the chancellors are busy. I'm sure they don't take a lot of meetings normally, but he took the meeting, and he listened to me.
The whole thing talks about the importance of building relationships and speaking up for yourself, not accepting, no. What was it about this lawyer that you had bonded with him or found that he could be helpful to your learning?
He was very engaged. I started with him on day one. I want to go to law school. I want to do whatever I can to learn this business. A part of him thought maybe I would want to work for him. He thought I would stay. It was criminal defense. That is not easy. What he did was personal injury and criminal defense, which isn't a tough business. He was good at it. I still, to this day see, see him, and it was funny because he came around. He does some fundraising for the law school, and he knew to come to me and ask. I wrote that check because I said, “You're right. This law school gave me that opportunity.” I need to give back at this point because I'm at that point in my career. I tried to give back as well.
Make It Happen: If you want to learn a specific role, you have to be willing to learn the types of tools required for it.
The third thing I ask you about that story is what do you think gave you the confidence to go make that meeting with the chancellor, and it would work for you?
Playing sports helped a lot. I play sports my whole life, and I would pick what I call the shock collar positions in every sport. I would be the setter, pitcher, or basketball as a point guard. When you make the team, you get the win and the discipline involved in that. That was hard for me to accept the rejection. I was like, “They want me at that law school. They just haven't met me. I'm a number on a page. Maybe if they meet me and they know how much I want this and this is my dream. T
hat's what I told him. I said, “I get that score does not reflect what you think a law student should be, but I'm going to overcome that, and I'm going to work harder than anyone.” I told him that, and I followed through with, “If you say you're going to do something, you got to do it.” Something that stuck with me for a long time is you fake it until you make it. Maybe I didn't have the confidence, but I sure came off that way in that meeting where I was sure that he should take a chance on me.
All of that is important and finding where in your life you have been able to find that confidence in yourself is important. You can draw from it when you need it. Was there anything in your family, how did they feel about what you did, and were they encouraging you to do this?
They were encouraging, even though I do think that they were, the ones that said, “Maybe you should look at a plan B.” When I didn't get in, my dad was like, “Maybe you should pick another career.” The safe bet, but they've always supported me in every way. I had an advantage when you're the youngest watching. You get to see a lot of the mistakes that your siblings make, and you have a better lens of how to approach things because you've seen them go through. I saw her get into law school, and I saw how she approached law school, even though I was ten years younger.
You said you didn't go into criminal defense. What area of law did interest you?
In my undergrad, I did a lot of HR. I took the HR certification because that was my ultimate plan B. I graduated in the recession. I graduated from law school when everybody was being laid off. I was met with another obstacle. With the grades that I had, I was able to clerk for large corporate law firms, but they hired no one. I went to an organization, and I said, “I'm going to be your staff attorney.” Luckily they went for it. I graduated from law school, and you take the bar right afterward. I didn't have my bar results yet.
You did not have trouble with the bar.
I did not. That's the funny thing. I'm good at school. I'm good at putting in the work. Standardized is a little bit of some natural cognitive ability that I didn't have, but I'm willing to work harder and overcome. That’s why I was able to keep those grades up. I became a staff attorney, and I was an attorney for several years. I kept working in nonprofit agencies, which is hard because I don't know if you remember this time period, the stimulus funding had come out, and organizations went from maybe having $500,000 to $2 million, and they had to figure out the growing pains of making sure that those dollars were spent correctly.
That was my first career as an attorney. It was more of a general counsel-type role. I did that for several years, and I wanted to try to get back into that corporate law firm setting. I thought that it was a good time, but I had gained such different types of experience by being in a nonprofit. I didn't have that traditional, “She's been billing hours for several years.” I didn't fit in and the corporate law firm side.
I received an email from a friend that said. “Not your grandfather's CPA firm. This organization is growing, and we're looking for our first chief operating officer.” I received that email, and I'm like, “Of course, I'm not qualified for this course. I'm going to apply because that's what I do.” It was eye-opening. That was the first time I laid eyes on the accounting industry.
I went in and the funny thing was after that interview, I went to a wedding. I talked about it, and I said, “It's strange. I have an interview for an accounting firm.” He's like, “I work at an accounting firm. You shouldn't go there. You should come here.” I said, “Do you hire lawyers?” He said, “Yes. We had the BP spill in Louisiana. A lot of accounting firms at the time were doing these BP claims, and they could use some lawyers on staff.” It's funny because that was Hannis T. Bourgeois. The guy at the wedding was Hannis T. Bourgeois, my current firm. The other firm was the smaller firm that I was at for several years.
I became a chief operating officer. I was 29 years old. I’m seasoned at that time. The managing partner at the time said, “I'm going to be here for five years. I'm going to retire, and we'll have a new managing partner. Learn everything you can.” He jokingly told me, “In case you were wondering, the chief operating officer's job description means everything. Anything you can think of, that's your job.” I was like, “This is great.” In case anything pops up, that’s your job.
Make It Happen: We could wish for the gift of more time, but it can’t happen. We can’t have more time, but we can be present now with our families and friends and appreciate it.
I had a wonderful experience in that smaller firm setting of 50 people. In that time period, I was fortunate enough to go to national conferences every year. I went to AICPA Practitioners Symposium. That's what it was called at the time before engaging. I also went to AAA at the time, and now, it's CPA FMA.
I learned a lot by going to that annual conference. That was how I learned the accounting business. As a lawyer that had never even done a tax return or even knew what 1040 was. All that to say is that dream that I had as a five-year-old to be an attorney. I practiced law but for a short time and not in a traditional courtroom setting like you would imagine an attorney on TV.
How does that make you feel that you didn't do that part?
If someone asked me, “Do I miss the billable hours?” All the times that I would have missed from my children? It was the perfect fit. Going through all those obstacles led me to a career where I tell people all the time when they want to major in accounting, I was like, “Do it.” That's what I wish I would have done because you always have a job in accounting. It's stable because we are good at morphing into whatever we need to be. In a crisis mode, we got you. COVID, we got you. Learn more than I ever would working with an accounting firm than I had done the traditional let-me bill hours at a law firm and work my way up the corporate ladder there.
I was able to excel faster in a leadership position in this industry. I won't even lie to you and say that it was easy being an attorney amongst accountants. As you can imagine, when we would have partner meetings and the calculator would come out. I'm like, “That's not the first thing that I reached.” The first day when you start law school, they call on you, “Ms. Fitch, stand up and talk about this case. Give me your opinion.” I'm comfortable with words and writing, but I had to get real comfortable with Excel, calculators, and something that I had never been exposed to. It is magical once you've realized all you can do with these types of tools and the learning that you get for everything.
An important observation to have is what are my skillsets, and how do I have to morph to the people around me to be successful? You could have kept trying to push the way that you've always done, but it probably wouldn't have created success in your role. How did you go through the process, or what were the moments where it shot in your face of, like, “I got to shift the way I'm going about this because it's not going to work the way that I know how it works?”
I've never been the most organized person, I'll admit. I'm more of a big picture type person. When you work for an accounting firm, a lot of people tend to be more perfectionists. It's amazing when they can tell the numbers are out of whack. I don't have that brain. I had to train myself. I had to work harder and spend more time getting organized. I use a lot of organizational tools to help me because I'm not a natural type-A type of person to be organized. I wasn't the girl in high school that had her life planned out in a beautiful planner with highlights, pictures, and all that. I was more laid back in that aspect.
On that side of my personality, I had to focus on being supremely organized. I'm in charge of marketing and business development. I'm in charge of the accounting department internally, the HR department, and also technology. I had to learn all those different facets. I know IT. I would've never thought that I wouldn't understand and speak that jargon, but I can because I took the time to learn it. When you're thrust into a leadership position, I'm not going to ever ask anyone to do anything that I don't know how to do myself or have done myself.
I learned how to assemble a tax return, how to bill, and every single job responsibility that was under me so that I could adequately understand what that job entailed and what are the steps to make sure we had good work programs. Someone can take a vacation. If someone's out sick, we can adjust, adapt and be able to do each other's job thing. I worked harder on organizational things. Whereas an attorney work on our craft of how we talk to clients and how we draft things, My whole personality and skillset had to change to take on that role.
A couple of things that you said in there that are important and want to draw out are, first off, what you're talking about there is rolling up your sleeves and getting dirty at times. That's a leadership skill that a lot of people don't take the time to do. It's hard to manage people if you don't understand what they're doing, what the issues are, how to make it more efficient or even be open to listening to what those things are. That's important, but for those people that aren't organized, like you were talking about, you said there were tools that you went to help you. What were those?
At first, it was a large piece of graph paper on my desk where I would write things down and cross them off. I've gotten a little more technology savvy since then, and I use Trello. If you're not familiar with it, it’s a project management board. It helps me be my scattered visionary self yet and keep up with everything. It's also collaborative. You can have different boards with different people, and you can move things around of that nature. We have all kinds of other tools that you can use, but the point is, it has to be one that makes sense for you. It's visual.
I'm not that great at audio learning. If you're sitting there talking to me, it's harder for me to take in that information. I'm very visual. If it's in front of me and I see it, I'm usually able to retain it better. It also has these checklists, and it also allows you to drag the card when it's done. It has this beautiful long card that says, “Completed work.” I told the managing partner, “In case you were ever wondering what I do and what I've done these past years, I don't have that timesheet that says every client and everything of that nature.” I’m like, “Go on the board and see what we've moved since the beginning of time.” It keeps going there.
I live and die by my calendar. My husband and I have a shared calendar. Instead of having a personal and at work, it's all together. I put it as private. If nobody needs to see that, I have to pick up my children. Someone will laugh when I invite my husband to a staff meeting. I'm like, “He's not coming. He has to take care of the children at that time.” I live and die by Office 365 and Trello.
Make It Happen: Life gets easier as you go along. It's fun and short. Stop and smell the roses because our lives could drastically change quickly. COVID was an excellent time for people to reflect on what was important.
What do you do as a leader? These are tools that have worked for you, but what if they don't work for the people that you're working with? How do you get them on board?
When you work with people with different, Trello sounds like a foreign language to them. I had to adapt. There was a woman here that been here for the same role for several years. I can understand that you get comfortable in a certain way. We meet in person to go over those items, and I can put them on my Trello board, which they know I'm not going to collaborate with her in that manner because that's not comfortable for her to go to that board.
I also had her put recurring appointments on my calendar for the things that she needed from me because a calendar is not necessarily the way that she operates. She writes it down in an actual book. That's one example of adapting to someone else's style but making it your own so that you don't miss those important deadlines or priorities for them. If they're my staff, they're my priorities too. I have to make sure that I'm them for those.
As far as the communication differences, the way that your partners might communicate, or through numbers or calculators versus how you would have stood up and stated your case, how did you have to learn to change how to stay the case in order to get buy-in with a different mindset like that?
I learned to give them data. It could be any initiative that I wanted to do, the smallest. We should have a website for our merchandise or something of that nature. I knew the cost of having it on a spreadsheet. I would anticipate what questions they may ask about that initiative. They're going to ask for the investment, return, and all these things, but I would try to have those prepared. If it was solely my opinion, usually I didn't say it was my opinion, I would go to, and that's where the national organizations came into play in my career.
I ended up not going to the CPA FMA conference. I ended up joining the board there. That gives me a round table of people who are in my position. I can get data from them. I can send them a message and say, “I am thinking about approaching my managing partner with this project. Have you done it before?” I always have to ask this, “What is your revenue and employee size?” They understand that this is a firm that is like us, and they've done it before. We're not reinventing the wheel, and this is why they were successful. I use that type of data before I go in rather than like an attorney would be like, “No, I did the research, and this is my opinion. Here you go.”
I was thinking you are building a case. When building a case, it does come in because in order to build a case, you would have to go to outside resources, reference material, and stuff like that. It did come into play in a different way.
To end our session, I like to ask some rapid-fire questions if you can pick from a category, family or friends, money, spiritual or health.
Family and friends.
Things or actions I don't have that I want.
Can I have the gift of time or time with my family and friends and not take back in my career at any moment. I have three children that are young. They're 10, 8, and 5 now in 2022. My husband is an executive. He travels for work. The gift of more time with them, but as we know, we can't do that. I try to be more present when I am with them and not be on the phone, looking at my email, and not engaging with them. If I'm going to do anything for work at night, I usually wait until they go to sleep before I take that out.
Things or actions I do have that I do want.
The people call me a connector. I am a relationship builder, and that's comfortable for me. I'm always the one that is forming the groups to get together, whether it's planning my high school reunion, making sure we do that girl's trip or staying in touch with people. That is an action that I want to keep doing because it's important to me to have my thrive in having those circles of people and different circles too.
Make It Happen: If you're contemplating a change, it can be done, but it’s not easy to change cultures or jobs, but you can do it. Know when it’s the time to say yes or no.
I have the people that bring me back to my youthful days in high school. I have the females that I draw upon, the working females that are in my same boat that have full-fledged careers and are trying to raise children. I do like to keep up with people and know what's going on in their lives. Sometimes, that is hard.
What about things or actions I don't have that I don't want.
I'm approaching that interesting birthday. I will go into the 40s, which I hear are great. I'm excited about it. I want to continue, as I'm growing older, to say no to the things that don't bring me joy. I used to say yes to everything, but I'm a little bit more choosy. For instance, I was approached to serve on a nonprofit board, and I said, “When are the board meetings?” That was my first question. If they were at night, it was not going to happen because that is my family time. When they say they will meet at lunch, I'm like, “I can do lunch.” I think a 29-year-old Lauren would have said yes, regardless, but approaching 40, Lauren gets to tell people no now.
Last question. Things or actions that I do have that I don't want.
I wish I were a little bit more comfortable staying organized and in that manner, but approaching 40, I don't know that that's necessarily going to change. Luckily, I'm married to a type-A organized person. I have come a long way. What I find is when I'm not using my organization skills, I have more stress. When you're disorganized, it sometimes means that you're procrastinating, you put something off, or it's taking you longer to do something. It's harder for me to find that shirt in the morning because they're not color-coded, and it's easy to find them. That may make you late.
I do try to be more intentional and say, “Organization is not the end of the world.” If I'm organized, it'll keep me from getting stressed if there's a stressful day, a big meeting, or during summer, you have to find time to fund to bring your kids to camp. If everything is not laid out the night before and organized, you're going to be late.
Before we conclude, is there anything that you wanted to say again or a message that we haven't gone over that you want to make sure our readers read before we conclude?
Anyone that finds themself in my season of life, which is a full-time job, and three children, it gets easier as you go along, but it's fun. I always want people to remind me to remember that this is short, that these children will be eighteen, and in my career, I will approach retirement soon. Stop, smell the roses and enjoy it because our lives can dress and change in a fast manner.
As crazy as it was, I think COVID was a great time for people to reflect on what was important, and I did the same thing. I came to this organization in 2020. If you're contemplating a change, it can be done. It is not easy to change cultures or change jobs, but you can do it. Say yes, when it's appropriate to say yes, and say no when it's appropriate to say no.
Thank you so much for being on with me. There'll be many tips in here for people to learn from.
Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. I enjoy your keynotes when you speak to firms. It's a great message.
Thank you very much.
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My Mindful Moments with this interview with Lauren that had many nuggets and lessons in it that I think that many of you will be able to take away from it is worth reiterating one more time. We talked about her upbringing and how she was the youngest of three daughters. Those daughters were different in the age of 10 and 5 years. She was much younger than her oldest sister. Her middle sister being in law school, started determining her path going forward because her sister would take her to class with her. She would take notes from her sister and started finding the love that she had for law and wanting to do that.
An important story that she talked about was how hard she worked in order to get into law school and make sure she got the right grades. Knowing that she had issues with the standardized tests, she had to take alternative routes to make sure she got into law school. Many of us might give up when we don't get what we want or the results don't show up the way that we want.
Her story of seeking out relationships and a mentor that had helped her in the past to get her into meeting with the chancellor of the law school. She could state her case of why she should get in is an important lesson that she showed determination, and what most people want to see is hard work
There are tests, and all of that can be hard to be able to get past and be able to pass themselves. What happens a lot is we don't look for other alternative ways to make sure we can achieve our goals because, at the end of the day, to be an attorney, you have to go to law school. This mentor and relationship that she built were ones that she could call upon that allowed her to get a meeting with this chancellor and her plea to him that she would work as hard as she can work to show him he would make the right decision of allowing her to get into the school.
There are many good things to unpack there. Number one, that chancellor being open enough to give her a chance to see her determination that not everything is a number, but also her confidence to be able to do that and build relationships along the way. You never know when you need to call a relationship to be able to push something forward. What she said in all of this was that she told the chancellor that he shouldn't be sorry about this decision because she said she was going to do it. She's going to be one of the top students, and she will be.
She graduated at the top of her class. He was able to see the positive and make this decision. That's also something important when someone goes out on a limb for us and takes a chance. We show them that they made the right decision. We also paved the way for others that are like us when they come around to be able to give them a chance as well.
She talks about how her path ended up going in different directions because of the recession. There wasn't the hiring and careers happening in the corporate law firms at the time that she graduated. Through a friend, she was given an opportunity to interview at an accounting forum where she had no background prior to that.
It is important that we are open. We keep our eyes open to opportunities. Just because it's not an industry we’ve been in or a job that we've never done, where in our skillsets do we have the expertise that could help? That takes research and trying to understand an industry that's foreign to us to see where we would be able to help that firm and company, whatever opportunity that we're trying to get to.
What she learned quickly is that she did have a different way of communicating than the firm when she started working for them, and also skills that they had were different than her skills. Just because we're not the same as somebody else doesn't mean we don't fit. It is looking at what are the best things that we can do that benefit them because they wouldn't be able to do it without you. Also, being clear on the things or gaps that we need to work on in order to be successful and not feel bad about that.
She talked about the fact that she went to conferences immediately and the accounting profession to learn it, to meet other people, and make sure that she was getting the training that she needed to be successful and help that firm. We also talked about how the decisions were made differently in an accounting firm than what she was used to with the lawyers. She had to figure out a way to communicate differently, and this was a gap in her own skillset of organization skills that she knew they appreciated.
In order for her to be successful, She had to clear that so that they didn't feel she wasn't capable of the job when that wasn't the most important part of that job, but in other people's minds, it can be a blocker, and they don't see the other things that great things that you're doing if you don't clear the path there.
Learning the organization tools, whether it was to-do lists or moving to Trello, which I love, has a great user interface to keep yourself organized. It's also something you can share with others. It's very visual and living by your calendar, which I talk about all the time. That's important. When working with others, think about how to change your style based on other people's personalities.
We've talked about the different generations, and not all generations are comfortable with something like Trello how she meets with someone that isn't technology savvy. They still feel like they understand what's being worked on, and they're being included in the discussion. We talked about how to make sure that you're successful in conversations where people are different from you or might take in information differently.
She learned quickly what were the things that accounting partners were looking for in conversations in order to get things across the line, costs, and anticipate the questions that they were going to ask. If she has an opinion, go out and validate the opinion with others in the profession that have similar size businesses and firms. She could also have outside information besides her own to justify the case. I talked to her that she was still saving her case.
It's important that we think about those things when we're going into presentations with others. We're anticipating what they are going to want. We can create the success that we want for ourselves, for the business, and be able to create the energy and fulfillment that we want for ourselves and those around us.
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About Lauren Fitch
Lauren McCall Fitch, J.D., currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer for Hannis T. Bourgeois, LLP a Certified Public accounting firm with over 140 employees and offices located in Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Denham Springs, and Hammond, Louisiana. Fitch graduated from LSU with her B.S. in Business Administration then went on to graduate magna cum laude from Southern University Law Center.
Fitch has over 13 years of professional experience mainly focused in managing technology infrastructure, internal financial operations, recruiting, business development and risk management. Fitch is a member of several local business and civic organizations and a Board member of the national CPA Firm Management Association “CPAFMA.” Her proudest achievement is being the wife of Derek Fitch and mother to her three children Beckett, Rivers, and Adley. She can be found traveling, reading, or on a tennis court when she’s not watching her children compete in sports.