Creatives-in-progress
you are welcome here
This is for the business owner exploring ideas. The curious accountant asking ‘what if we…?’. People on the path to figuring things out.
ABOUT KAREN
My creative beginnings
My story began with a love of creativity and an accountant qualification. Together, they led to the creation and success of PF, the creative agency working exclusively for and with accountants.
My passion is for leading a team of creatives to help accountants realise they too are creative, and for collaboratively working with accountants in their marketing. Everything I learned in twenty years of helping accountants understand and love marketing formed the core content of my book, The Accountant Marketer.
I’m a qualified accountant (a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in Arizona) and a dual British-American citizen living in Scotland. We are PF serves accountants anywhere on the globe, so I lead a team working from locations all over the world, including South Africa, Argentina, Hungary, UK, and the USA.
My two personal values, the ones that guide everything I do, are freedom and honesty.
My personal pillars include whisky, coffee, faith, walking, and magic.
Connect with me
This week I took a trip down to Manchester for some strategy and finance meets with my own accountants.
I captured a lot of video footage, none of it including the hours of meets, deep discussions, laughter, curious considerations, suggestions, advice, and support I got from the good people at @wearemap_ . But when you’re in the depth of those deep convos you don’t really remember to whip out the time lapse video (and tbf it would simply show a lot of talking!).
MAP have been my accountants for over seven years and I continue to be daily grateful for their experience - and the way they ask good questions and suggest ways to think about situations but always respect that the decision and business are mine.
Now I’m on my way back to Edinburgh and then home! Happy weekend all 🙏🏻❤️✨
(Ps the goofy faces are me attempting to record my video of the day yesterday! Ha!)
Day 55/100 Video Challenge
#100dayvideochallenge #100days #accountants #businessadvice #advisors #financialmanagement #strategy #creativeagency
Apr 26
Still plugging away, day after day on this 100 day video challenge .
I’m waiting until I’ve completed it to start gathering all the learnings…but I can tell you now that doing something every day for 54 days so far is definitely beginning to give me glimmers of progress.
I continue to be curious about how I’ll sum it up when I’m done, but I can already see the impact of doing something small, every day, showing up, and seeing what happens.
What would you love to get even marginally better at?
(Ps first time I’ve been BLEEPED on insta captions! Haha! Enjoy!!)
Day 54/100 Video Challenge
#100dayvideochallenge #100days #video #justkeepgoing #makeyourshittypots #quantityfirst #oneatatime #persistence #progress #motivation
Apr 25
Another view from inside the Johnnie Walker experience: this is where you will pause to think all things branding. Yours, your firm’s…and the difference between them.
In this room are alllll the different kinds of “labels” of JW whisky…red label, blue label, black label…and one of the workers explained he had “proper” names for all the whiskies, like Special Old Highland Whisky and Extra Special Old Highland Whisky. But since no one could remember which was which, they just pointed and said “the one with the black label” or the red label or whatever colour.
There’s SO much to learn here - about the “Striding Man” which is recognised as one of the world’s first brand logos - about connecting your brand to what people want and understand - and most importantly, for those coming to this workshop, considering who you are. How all of this applies to who you are today and what decisions you’ll make about your own personal brand, and how that connects to your business brand (or where it doesn’t).
And what your Next Big Thing is.
If you haven’t booked your place on this workshop yet, DM me for all the details. I’d love to see you there if it’s a fit for you - or have a chat about whether it is right for you just now.
Day 53/100 Video Challenge
#100dayvideochallenge #100days #personalbranding #brand #businessbranding #accountingfirm #firmowner #accountant #edinburgh #jwprincesstreet #brandingworkshop
Apr 24
Keep following Karen on her
journey on instagram
The journey so far
You are creative too
Maybe you’re not much for drawing or painting or sketching or even writing. But when you think about problem solving and curiosity, it’s a little easier to believe in your own creativity.
You’re a creative person if you have a curious, open mind. Willing to ask questions and see things differently. It can be a bit of a mess, like a child with crayons just going all over the page and outside the lines and maybe even onto the table. (Or wall.) You try something, and maybe it works – and maybe it doesn’t. But you’re on the path to figuring it all out.
