Episode 153: Be Intentional - Build Something That Doesn't Only Rely On You With Darren Root
If you can be intentional about your career choices, you can unlock extraordinary moments of transformation. In this episode, Amy Vetter sits down with Darren Root, Growth Strategist at Rightworks, to explore his journey from working at his father’s firm to building his successful practice. Darren shares how making intentional decisions guided him through the challenges of leaving the family business and launching a thriving independent venture. His honest and vulnerable account of the emotional process of letting go will resonate with anyone looking to take charge of their career. Get ready to learn valuable lessons and gain insights that inspire you to embrace your career aspirations with courage, determination, and intentionality.
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Be Intentional - Build Something That Doesn't Only Rely On You With Darren Root
Welcome to this episode of the show where I interviewed Darren Root, CPA, CITP, CGMA, and the Growth Strategist for Rightworks. Having managed his own CPA firm for 30-plus years, Darren’s vast accounting experience is rivaled by his passion for helping firm owners modernize and transform their practices into thriving, sustainable enterprises. Darren has earned numerous awards and continues to contribute to the profession with books, articles, and podcasts. As a notable and prolific thought leader, he also works to educate and inform the profession in all areas of firm operations, industry trends, and business models.
During my interview with Darren, we discussed his journey from being part of his father’s firm to eventually splitting off into his own practice. He shares his lessons along the way and also the process of letting go. You’re going to really enjoy this episode. Darren shares so many great tips and stories from his life that he shares with others so vulnerably and openly. If you like this episode, please share it with your friends and colleagues so that they can benefit from what we talk about during this interview as well.
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Welcome to this episode of the show. I am so glad to be here with my friend, Darren Root. Darren, would you please give the audience a little bit of introduction for yourself?
Sure. It’s actually great to be here. It’s great to do this with you. I’ve been a practicing CPA pretty much my entire adult life. I went to Indiana University and started at Deloitte. I started on the normal path that we all go through but then started a firm many years ago. Somewhere along that journey, I started a company called Rootworks in addition to my firm. I became Executive Editor of the CPA Practice Advisor Magazine and sold my company. I’ve been through a number of iterations. At this point, I’ve started a new company called Better Everyday and I still help a lot at Rightworks.
Darren’s Family
We’re going to get right into your story. Why don’t we start out with where you grew up, what your parents did for a living, and if you had brothers and sisters? Give us a little background on that.
This is interesting. I don’t know if I’ve ever really thought about my story.
This is going to be fun.
This should be fun. I grew up in a small Southern Indiana town called Bedford south of Bloomington, Indiana. Bloomington was a great town. It had Indiana University there. Bedford was a small town that was much more conservative than Bloomington. My parents were always together. I have 1 brother and 2 sisters. We’re an athletic family. Everything evolved around sports. My dad had been a really good athlete and my brother played Division I basketball. We were around sports all the time growing up. It was that traditional go to church every Sunday, ride my bike everywhere I went, and not worry about too much, or at least at that point, I didn’t. It was that normal small-town thing.
How did they end up in Bedford in the first place?
My dad’s parents were from the area. My mom’s parents were from Eastern Tennessee, Johnson City. A lot of her family is from Johnson City, Tennessee. They were huge bakers. They owned big baking companies in Eastern Tennessee. Seaver’s Donuts was the family brand. My mom’s dad, my grandfather, moved to Indiana, Bedford to run a big bread bakery. It was called Wholesome Bread at the time and then ended up being Wonder Bread. That’s how my mom ended up there. She and my dad went to high school together. My mom said she was not attractive enough so my dad didn’t pay any attention. They didn’t get married until they were about 30 years old. It was well after my dad had played basketball in college, gone to the service, came back to Bedford to work, and met my mom.
How did they meet?
I don’t think I know the answer to that. They both passed so I don’t know that I’m going to find out the answer to that either. I’m not sure. It’s a good question.
Your dad played basketball. What did he do in the service?
He was in the Air Force. He was a guy who rode airplanes and would read the maps as to when you were going to bomb something if he was ever in a bombing situation. He would argue his real role in the service was playing basketball. Apparently, this is the Korean War. He was stationed in Puerto Rico for a good time. According to his story, the bases were very competitive with each other. The colonels or whoever would run the bases were always recruiting the best athletes. They had the best basketball team. He thinks his official job with the Air Force was as a bombing navigator, but his real job was playing basketball all the time.
I had talked to someone who was in an accounting firm that had been a basketball player. They would get pulled on to audit jobs but then get called off to go play a basketball game.
It may also be golf or whatever it was.
They were able to get out of all the work and everyone would be mad.
I know he was a good golfer because I played golf with him a lot. Apparently, he played on the tour for a little bit. After leaving the service and getting married, there was a window in there where he was trying to play golf professionally. Apparently, he wasn’t married and he didn’t have any financial responsibilities. He was living with the US Senator in Washington DC who happened to be from Bedford and he played out of there. That generation largely didn’t spend a lot of time talking about themselves. What I found out about my dad, I usually heard from somebody else. It was not something he was telling me.
Also, what’s interesting is their time to wait to get married. Especially from a small town, I’m sure people got married young.
My wife was 19 and I turned 22.
Why did your mom wait to get married? What was she doing?
It depends on who you talk to. If you talk to my dad, it was because she didn’t have any offers. If you talk to my mom, she went off to Columbia Christian College, which I don’t know if it exists anymore, in Columbia, Missouri. She moved to Miami and went to work for what was probably at the time some Bell Telephone, AT&T, or something. She went and, at that time, was doing a career or doing what she wanted to do. I’m not exactly sure why she ended up back in Bedford. That’s a good question.
She got her experience outside of Bedford. They came back together. Did they both work?
There were four of us kids running around. I would work for Dad periodically, but I don’t ever remember her working. I was the 2nd of 4. I don’t remember her working, and Dad worked for the Internal Revenue Service for a good while.
He was an accountant.
He then started his own firm out of that or partnered with the guy and then ended up with the firm.
Did you, with your dad, ever go to his job?
Every Saturday.
What did he do?
You’re not old enough, but do you remember those big black binder things? Back then, you had to put headings at the top of every page. My job was to pre-label all of those binders.
I remember those.
My binders were everywhere. I had a great time labeling.
Is that why you ended up choosing accounting yourself?
I don’t think so. I thought I was going to go to college to be in sciences and maybe go down the dentistry path. I realized once I got there that science was hard and accounting seemed really easy. I gravitated towards what I thought was easy. It came much easier to me. For the sciences, I had to work hard at that. That’s probably why I ended up there.
How’d you end up taking an accounting class when you were going towards science?
Indian University had a pillar business school. I wasn’t positive what I wanted to do, but I did take a 101 or whatever it was at the time. I remember not having to study and getting an A+ in it. At IU at that time, you take a fairly well-rounded curriculum for the first two years.
That’s awesome. Were you an athlete as well?
Yeah. My brother was probably better at most sports than I was. I played basketball and football. I played a lot of golf. Tennis was where I gravitated to where I became really good, or at least in my mind good at. Tennis was what I was most passionate about. Back then in a small southern Indiana town, I played quarterback too. Tennis and football were at the same time.
You would get a lot of peer pressure not to play tennis, so I would play all summer. I would win tournaments and all this stuff. It was like accounting. It came easier to me. I liked it and I was good at it, but the peer pressure was too great. I got hurt in my senior year of high school playing basketball so I played tennis on the tennis team. I decided not to play football. I was number one on the tennis team and went on from there.
That’s awesome. Did you still play in college?
I played more as a reserve for Butler in my first year. I don’t think I was good enough to play at that level in Division I, but I practiced with them all the time. I was a pretty good hitting partner. I then transferred to Indiana. That’s a whole different level for tennis players so I didn’t, but I still play a lot now.
That’s awesome. Let me back up. You said your wife was nineteen. Did you meet her in high school?
Yeah, probably when she was a freshman and I was a junior. In a small town, you know who people are. We went to the same church. I was older enough than her that we weren’t in middle school together and we went to different elementary schools. I knew she was, but we started dating when she was a freshman and I was a junior.
You must have gotten married while you were still in college.
I got married in my senior year of college. She had gone for a year to college and decided she didn’t want to go anymore. I was working full-time and going to Indiana University full-time. I worked in the clothing business when I was going to IU and loved it. That’s another thing that I gravitated through and really liked. I’m sure there were some hiccups and some issues along the way, but we dated most of that time and then decided to get married. That was in ‘83, so my senior year. She had finished beauty school and was doing hair at a local hair place in Bloomington.
Was that scary to get married that young or were you ready?
I was not smart enough to know the difference. John and I did a podcast together on The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. We were going through a book and we were talking about habit two, which is to begin with the end in mind. I couldn’t help but think when we were doing that how much I didn’t do that when I was young. It never crossed my mind. I was going with the flow. You thought that was the right thing to do at the time. We were young.
Accounting Career
Tell me about how your accounting career started then.
I went to Deloitte.
In audit or tax?
I started in tax. I ended up in a new group that they were forming called their small business group. I gravitated towards that because I had grown up with an accountant dad around a lot of small businesses all the time. That’s what I knew as accounting, but Deloitte’s idea of a small business back then was probably less than $50 million or something.
Exactly. It was still pretty big.
I knew not too far in that that was not the career path probably for me and the bigger city. I was probably a little homesick. Michelle and I were married. It didn’t seem like the career path for me. We thought we wanted to live in Bloomington. Bloomington had always been home to me probably not as much so to Michelle because my dad’s office had always been in Bloomington and I’d gone to school in Bloomington.
We decided to go back to Bloomington. I took a job with a small accounting firm down there that was not my dad’s for about two weeks and didn’t like it at all. They sent me on an audit, which I had not done much of. We went into this bank. This guy who worked for this accounting firm, when we walked into this bank to do a cash count, said, “Everybody, stand still. We’re the auditors.” I was so nervous I could have crawled underneath the table.
They want the auditors there to make it worse.
If you knew this guy, it would make perfect sense. I went back to the office and was like, “I can’t do this.” I talked to my dad and was like, “Dad, I can’t do this anymore. I got to do something different.” He said, “Come over and work with me,” so I went over. His firm at the time was doing maybe $150,000 a year in revenue. I went over there and I didn’t know much. I knew how to meet people and to grow. We grew the firm probably to $1 million within 3 years or something but we were going down different paths.
Computers were becoming a real thing. I was really interested. I liked technology. Dad was super happy with those black binders and didn’t want to give them up. I could tell that this wasn’t going to go in a direction that I was interested in going in. I suggested that he take all of his clients and I take mine and we go different ways. That’s what we did. It was probably not what he wanted, but it was what I thought I needed to do. Ultimately, I stayed really close to him, bringing him along in technology through the years but at a pace that felt better to him. I went off and did my thing.
Advice For Family Firms
That’s an important thing to pause on because there are so many people in family firms trying to make that work. It can sound like the dream of, “I’m going to come in and help my family’s business,” and so forth. Looking back on it, what advice would you give someone in that situation?
I’ve been asked this question by a number of younger people working with their fathers in connected firms. My dad was less the type who liked to deal with things head-on. My mom was that person in our family. My dad was not that person. My advice to them would be to have conversations before you ever get there or, very early on, try to have some open line of communication because chances are, it’s not going to be perfect for both.
At some point, the dad or the mom is going to want to exit that firm at some point. They want to exit at some value that feels really good to them and may not feel good to somebody else. I would say to talk through it if you’re going to make that commitment because once you’re in, getting out is usually somewhat painful.
To a family member.
That’s what makes it normally painful. You’re having Thanksgiving and other holidays with these people. When you leave, it’s probably not the best of circumstances, so talk through it.
Be Intentional: Leaving a family business can be challenging, so it's important to discuss your decision with your parents.
I have a best friend. It’s not accounting but it's a veterinary business that she took over. When we talk about the business, she knows it was her dad’s even though he is not running it. She’s still very concerned to do something that he wouldn’t agree with or was his baby kind of thing.
It’s hard to separate from that. My dad probably never did love the fact that I went off and did my own thing. At least my justification for doing that was always to stay close to him and bring him along at a pace that was more comfortable for him, but then I could grow something in the manner that I wanted to. That ended up working out, but I wish that it had been an easier conversation back then.
It’s very hard to approach those conversations head-on as a child. If you were buying a business, you would be talking about those things. When you started your own practice and moved away, then what happened?
I stayed in Bloomington still. My practice took off at that point because I was good at meeting people and engaging. Since I’d worked in the clothing business in Bloomington for all the years I was in college, I knew everybody in town. They would come in and buy clothes. I had relationships. It grew really quickly. I’m only in my late twenties at this point. I was working all the time.
We started a family a couple of years after we got married. Michelle was 21 and I was 24. I was in my late twenties practicing on my own. I didn’t know anything about anything but I was growing like crazy. Before long, we were taking on all kinds of business that I was not trained for and I was not good at, but because I had a CPA certificate, people kept coming.
I wouldn’t call it a disaster because I was growing a firm, making decent money, and building a life. It got to be where it was painful because it was complicated and I was way out over my skis, which is the way I would look at it. Arguably, that went on for ten years like that. I gravitated towards self-help books a lot. Back then, you went into bookstores. I ran across something called The E-Myth. I didn’t even know what E stood for. I probably didn’t know what an entrepreneur was at the time.
The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It
I picked up the E-Myth from Gerber and consumed that book over a weekend. It was arguably, at the time, the best book I had read. All of a sudden, light bulbs started going off and I was like, “It doesn’t have to be the way I was trained, the way that it is, or the way that my dad has always done it. It could be different and I actually get to choose.” That was an epiphany for me. It was probably in my mid to late 30s.
I went through that in my 30s too. There’s a point where you have this vision when you are young of what your life’s going to be. You’re working toward that and then you get it and you’re like, “This isn’t what I thought it would feel like.”
Throw three kids in there and a wife who wants you to do things. It’s like, “This is horrible.”
Let me ask you. The lesson that you took from there that it doesn’t have to be the way that it’s always been, was that the biggest lesson you took from the book.
Ego And Letting Go
The biggest lesson I took from the book was that I could create something that didn’t depend on me. To that point, I took great pride and joy that every time the phone rang, I knew they would buzz me because everybody wanted to talk to me. That was the epiphany I took from that. 2 of the most influential books of that time were that and then The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. They were not that far apart.
I went to the bookstore looking for help with running my business or thinking through that. I got a lot of ideas from The E-Myth. Since it was so painful running my business, we had three small children, and we got married young, we ended up in marriage counseling. The marriage counselor hands me a book and says, “You guys need to go read this book called The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” I had not heard of that either.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
That was another book that was monumental in the way I think. We did a podcast on it. I learned so much from that book that probably was more impactful than any book. It was the idea that I needed to be proactive. I could choose what I wanted at that point. I needed to think about what that was and begin with the end of mind. I needed to start putting the right things in the right order. All that stuff was new information for me. I really grew a lot out of that.
When you said, “Create something that didn’t rely on me,” it’s ego. How do you remove the ego of being the one most needed or the best idea even if you’re getting in the way of yourself? It’s a very hard thing to allow others to step up and be able to do that. What was the process for you to not feel bad, guilty, or ashamed when it wasn’t a call for you?
At the time, it was more about how I was hitting a ceiling and it was painful, and I didn’t want to live that way anymore. I was unaware of the concept of the ego at that point. I’ve always been an avid reader. I consume a lot of books. Somewhere along the line, it was several years later that I read Michael Alan Singer’s book, The Untethered Soul. That’s really where I started understanding the concept of the ego and how that could be something that I could see and it was a thing. Prior to that, I probably thought of the ego as somebody having an ego, but it was actually this thing. For business reasons, I understood the ego in letting go and being able to see those things when I was making a transition in my business. That came much later for me.
You can buy into the concept of not having every phone call be for you because it’s painful. You get to a point of pain. However, when it actually starts happening, how do you feel? You have to keep telling yourself, “This is what I want.”
The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself
It’s still a hard thing. It’s always hard when you want to be that person and that you do have that small ego component. Beginning with the end in mind or seeing a bigger picture, John Mitchell and I talk about this all the time. You see what other people are doing, whether it’s on social media, in magazines, or at conferences, and it can make you want to do those things.
I’ve gotten to the place where I constantly ask myself, “What is it in me that is making me even ask those questions? I don’t want to do any of those things.” There’s a part of you that sucks you in that wants something that you’re not doing or that somebody else is doing. At the end of the day, I constantly ask myself, “Why would I want to do that? Why am I letting my ego pull me towards that?” Does that make sense?
Yeah. Any transition is hard. I especially feel like when you run a business, it becomes like your arm. You associate that with you. I sold my business in my 30s and went to work for Intuit. I could not believe I was sad about selling my business because I was excited about this next opportunity. My business wasn’t fun anymore. I had lost my love for it.
I remember when you went to Inuitit.
I[2] was on the plane ride there and still struggling with all the things I did love about being on my own versus going into a corporation. I was reading the Yoga Journal magazine on the way there. There was a story about an instructor. Her name is Seane Corn. For people in yoga, she’s an international yoga instructor. She’s incredible. She does all of this charity work around the world.
The story was about the fact that she did it with these 2 other yoga instructors and 1 of them was much younger than her. The interviewer was asking her, “How did you guys even pair up?” The younger instructor was telling the story about how she was teaching in San Diego. All of a sudden, she started noticing one day of the week, Seane Corn was in the back of the class taking the class, but before the class was over, she disappeared. She can never get to her to talk to her. She couldn’t believe she was coming to her class.
She finally figured out, “This is my plan. I’m going to catch her before she leaves.” She catches her and she’s like, “I am so honored that you have been coming to my class. I would love it if you would mentor me. This is an incredible opportunity.” Seane Corn paused and said to her, “I’ll do it on one condition.” She said, “Okay.” She said, “When you feel threatened by the next person coming up, you walk toward her, not away.”
That was such an important lesson that I read right at that moment. In every season of your life, you have to make space for the next people to come in so you can do your next best thing. It’s the hardest thing to do to let that go because that’s how you identify yourself. That’s your ego. It’s your accomplishments. It’s how people know you. You can’t get to the next level unless you open up space for somebody else. It’s so hard.
That’s such a valuable lesson though. When I started doing what I do with helping firms, there weren't a huge number of people doing that. You probably remember. Gary Boomer was doing a lot of it. Jim was starting to come along Boomer. They were the gold standard of that time. Now, there are a lot of people doing this and it has been interesting to watch and to try to navigate that.
A[3] fter I sold Rootworks to Rightworks, so many of my old team members and even members have started the same types of businesses. John and I were having this conversation not long ago. It has gone from being this thing that I thought I would have a problem with to it is super gratifying to see how many there are. There are probably 6 or 8 of them that have spawned from that.
You made that mark. You were able to create space for other people to be able to help people as well. The more people helping, the better. It’s hard to think of that when you’re trying to support a business and you’re trying to invest all this money, do it, and then see it in the light of actually making the whole better.
People probably wouldn’t see this in me, but it’s true. I’m mostly an introvert. People would think, “You write articles and do these speeches and all this stuff.” I enjoy doing all those things but it’s very draining. I like being by myself. I’m not an outreach sort of person. If I didn’t have somebody selling and somebody like John who was talking to people and all that stuff, I'd be super happy.
My wife’s an introvert. We’re super happy being at home not talking to anybody. Sometimes, that can come off as not being social. I’m not social. I’m fine in social settings but I don’t create them most of the time. When people are coming along, you should be reaching out, lending that hand, and doing these things to raise them up and to help. I have a tendency to go into my den in Florida and sit with some empty bookshelves because they’re not full yet.
That’s such an important thing to say because everyone judges from the outside from what they see and then their own experiences and then make their opinions. It is so important to have that openness to even ask the question, “Why do you do that?” If someone asked you, you would say, “I can’t be around people this much. I’m an introvert.” They’d be like, “Okay,” instead of being like, “I’m offended. He doesn’t want to spend time with me.”
When I would get done doing a session or speaking at a conference or something and people wanted me to go out, I’m like, “No, I’ll go back to my room.”
Rapid-Fire Questions
People get surprised how speakers are like that. You’re putting out so much energy. Once it’s over, you huff. It looks like air coming out of a balloon. There are so many great lessons here. I’m so glad that you shared this. I’d like to end with some Rapid-fire questions. You pick a category from family and friends, money, spiritual, or health.
Spiritual.
Things or actions that I don’t have that I want to have spiritually.
More regular meditation
Things or actions I do have that I want to keep spiritually.
Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life
An open mind.
Things or actions I don’t have that I don’t want to have spiritually.
To think I know all the answers or a closed mind.
I love that. Things or actions that I do have that I don’t want.
Baggage from growing up in a closed environment spiritually. Does that make sense?
Absolutely. As you get older, the answers to these questions change so much because you understand what’s important.
I know we’re wrapping up, but there’s this guy. His name’s Richard Rohr. I’m not Catholic. He's been a Catholic priest for 50 years and a Franciscan monk for about the same amount of time. He has written a lot of books. The one that I’m most fond of is one called Falling Upward. If you ever get a chance, check that out. He talks about the 2 halves of life, the half where you’re creating your container and then the 2nd half of life. I find that very interesting.
What I Know For Sure
Was he on Oprah?
Yeah. He and Michael Singer have both been on there.
He was awesome on there. He was on her podcast a few times. He says things you wouldn’t expect.
H[4] e’s fantastic.
Is there anything you want to make sure that people take away, that we haven’t talked about, or that you want to emphasize from this discussion?
Be proactive. You get to choose. Take a moment and make sure you’re choosing the things that you want your life to be. That’s super important. The word Oprah would use is intentional. I don't know if you listened to her latest book or read it. What I Know for Sure is the name of it. It’s good. It’s an interesting book.
Thank you so much for sharing your story. I really appreciate you making the time.
It is my pleasure. I appreciate you having me on.
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For my Mindful Moments with this interview with Darren, there were so many great moments in this interview. I appreciated his stories and what he opened up about during our talk together. We talked about the fact that he came from a small town in Indiana. He played sports. His mom worked for his dad, and his dad worked for the IRS. Early on, he actually saw the accounting field and what that was. His initial reaction was to go into dentistry and science, but he learned that accounting came to him easier.
He met his wife as a freshman and married her in his senior year of college. One of the things we have talked about offline that wasn’t necessarily a big discussion on this episode was during college, he worked in a clothing retailer and he loved working in a clothing retailer. If you see Darren or talk to him, ask him about that.
Those experiences and people in his life all affected him eventually going into practice with his dad. He started out at Deloitte but soon went in and worked with his dad. He grew the firm very quickly. He grew it using computers and the new technology that was coming out at the time. His dad wasn't into learning about technology and changing the way that he did things.
It’s really important that we pause on that because this happens a lot in firms. I do a lot of work with workplace transformation inside firms. We do have those generational issues that certain generations have grown up doing work in a certain way and then newer generations want to come in and innovate. As anyone who owns a business or is a leader in a business, it’s very important to keep your eyes open and not push against change because whenever you have new generations coming in, that is their norm.
What I hear a lot are people complaining about the next generation, but if you get behind the complaint, it’s your own sense of not wanting to change or change a habit or the effort it would be to learn something new and put all new processes together when you’ve had processes in place for a long time.
If we want an organization to grow and thrive, it’s very important that we are open to what the latest things are and assign some new initiatives that maybe you wouldn’t be good at or want to work on to somebody who is. You give them leadership ability or empowerment at an earlier age because they have insight or perspective that would be different than yours and wouldn’t be so closed off to old ways of doing things.
One of the things that happened during this process was Darren and his father split the practice. He talked about how it can be a very painful way to exit, especially when you’re family, and deal with something like this when it’s financial and how important open lines of communication are. It is so that it’s clear what job descriptions are and if you are parting ways or splitting, you’re doing it in a way that you’re not going to harm your family relationship in the meantime and deal with whatever issues that are in front of you rather than pushing them under.
When he moved on and started growing his business, his business grew very fast. However, one of the things that he learned along the way was that he did not want to create a business that completely relied on him. Those are things over time where you realize as a leader or a business owner that if you create a business that completely relies on you, you’re going to be working around the clock or there may be no way to get out because there’s nothing saleable about your business because it is completely relying on you.
In order to create the right boundaries, you have to make sure that you can’t always be “that person”. It’s too hard that everyone relies on you for everything. It’s important to understand what resources you need and that you’re always looking for the person who could replace you. I know that may be a hard concept for a lot of people. There are some people who will hold on to things and hoard them because they’re afraid that they might lose their role or their stature and what they think about how other people view them. You actually gain respect as you provide opportunities to other people as you empower them. You’re then able to do your next best thing as well.
He learned many of these lessons through books that he read. One of them was The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. You want to make sure that you choose what you want and put things in the right order. A lot of times, I call this the firing order. You have to think about a sequence of events. Whatever goal that you have, what is the sequence of events leading up in order to get there?
Another book that he read that helped him with the whole aspect of not being that person or always being the person everybody relies on is a book by Michael Singer called The Untethered Soul. That helped him understand to focus on the bigger picture and ask the question, “What is it in me that is making me want what others are doing? I’m always, in this day and age, in FOMO where I’m feeling like I’m missing out or that I’m not being the one asked and someone else shouldn’t have been asked, or I should always be considered. Why am I thinking that way and not allowing others to rise as well and realize that I do hold my spot as an expert and I am valuable?” Clearly know what makes you valuable and where other people’s strengths actually help you as well.
When he eventually started Rootworks, there weren't a lot of people doing what Rootworks was doing. He wanted to create something where he could help other people navigate creating firms or being able to grow firms. Many of the members that were in Rootworks started their own businesses. He wanted to make sure that he was able to help them be able to grow and see the best practices that he was able to do.
Especially his focus on technology has been big over time. He has always been a leader in helping others really understand how to make your practice most efficient so it isn’t completely reliant on you, it is its own entity, and you’re able to create that time that you need between work and home. The most important part of all that is that when we create that time, it gives us the energy that we need in order to do work or else we get burnt out.
In ending this episode, he said that it’s really important to be intentional, be proactive, take a moment to choose what you want in your life, and make sure that you’re following that and reminding yourself all of the time. We get off-track because life takes us off-track. It’s up to us to bring ourselves back to equilibrium or center to ensure that we are doing the things that are most important for our lives and for the people around us.
These are the things that we teach in our coaching programs. We’ve got coaching programs coming up in 2025 that you’ll want to be a part of. If you’re trying to unlock some of these things with you, then we are there to help you. We’re starting that off with a workbook that you can download from our site. If you’re feeling any of these things where you might be feeling overwhelmed, then what we want to do is be able to help you in a quick way to be able to make some lasting change.
We’ve put together a workbook called the 7-Day Work-Life Harmony Workbook. You can find it if you go to BusinessBalanceBliss.com/Workbook. Transform your daily practices with proven exercises and reflections. You’re going to set a foundation for the next 30 days to be able to set some intentional goals to be able to get there. For those of you who want to be able to go on this journey with coaching and support, we have group coaching coming up in January 2025. You’ll be able to find it on BusinessBalanceBliss.com. On that site, we have a 90-day coaching program where we are doing group sessions every week and individual sessions once a month to really keep you on track.
I hope you enjoyed this episode. I know I did. I loved speaking to Darren. If you enjoyed this yourself, you should share it with your colleagues so that they learn from it as well. Like and subscribe to our show because when we take this time for ourselves, we not only help ourselves but we help the people around us.
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About Darren Root
Having managed his own CPA firm for 30+ years, Darren’s vast accounting experience is rivaled only by his passion for helping firm owners modernize and transform their practices into thriving, sustainable enterprises.
Darren has earned numerous awards and continues to contribute to the profession with books, articles and podcasts.
As a notable and prolific thought leader, he also works to educate and inform the profession in all areas of firm operations, industry trends and business model.