77 - Diane Gardner - A Story of Making Something Amazing From Losing Almost Everything

The ever loved tax accountant went from big city California to small town northern Idaho, with a change that could almost bring anyone to his or her knees. Instead she found her inner mindset and is making a difference in the personal lives and those around her in the business world as well.

Diane started out owing her own accounting business in California and had the opportunity to adopt a two-year-old little girl. She sold her business and moved to Idaho so she could be a mom. With the need for income to still come into the family she was doing accounting out of her home while still juggling the mom duties of the household. However, things took another drastic change when she also became a single parent and was left to support her and her daughter alone.

At that point she had to start bringing in more business, more clients and making sure that things were taken care of for her family. She went door to door in the small northern Idaho town and gathered clients, but when 2008 hit most of her clients were construction companies, they started dropping like flies. She had just purchased a building and had an office staff of six people. She had to market herself differently because she was now in the social media time and nothing was done door to door anymore. She took marketing classes, social media classes and branded herself on the web. To date she is commended for her marketing abilities as an accountant.

After the real estate bubble hit, did you feel like there was more to lose? Did you go back to that person seven years ago or was it a different scared? It was a different person, because Diane had more on her plate to lose, she had a building, a home and more financial responsibilities than she had seven years prior. The economy was different around her as well it was more of a depressed state and almost impossible to pick up new clients. People and business were going the “do it yourself” route because they did not have the money to support an extra service. Trips around town knocking on doors were not picking up 5 or 6 clients at a time. That is when Diane had to reinvent herself with other services and that is when she added the tax coaching to her list of specialties. She had to go out and find the businesses that had some money so that she could get paid but she could do this with the new service that she had added. During the whole downward time she did not have to lay off any of her staff while she rebuilt and they were some really scary years. Her only choice was to keep doing what she was doing but change it up a bit and find a different client. She looked to clients that were more insulated.

Looking back on the roller-coaster, would you have changed anything about building your own business or going the safe route “Corporate America”? No way, as tough as it was I would have done it. Diane has had people over the years come up and thank her for the time and effort that she spent with them. Weather it was helping them to shut down their business or it was assisting them with ways to help them maintain their business. That is worth more to her that the money that she would have or could have made in “Corporate America”.

The shift that you made in your business, can you tell us about it? The first thing that Diane did was to get involved with a group of Certified Tax Coaches. By getting involved with this group, it caused her to travel. It allowed her to gain confidence in what she was doing and she was able to feel comfortable in her environment.   So the combination of attending conferences, traveling and meeting other people definitely played a role in the shift of her business. But really getting out and learning through classes, podcast and webinars. She has always been a tax preparer but she now needed to show her clients and potential clients that she could be a tax planner as well. It was changing her mindset to allow her to take on a new title of “tax planner” that allowed things to fall into place. The change in her mindset brought on the co-authoring of books and then writing books of her own. It is all about the mindset shift and then going for it.

In regards to the mindset shift, how did you apply that and make it happen? She told herself every day that she had to do this (change) because the area was depressed so badly in the town that she lives. Diane also read a book by Jeff Olson “The Slight Edge” that book really laid out the mindset shift and what they are. It opened Diane’s eyes and the light bulb came on and she knew what she was trying to do and now how to make it happen. Making a mindset shift allows you to WOW others with your everyday knowledge, as it may not be the everyday knowledge of someone else.

Talk about the mindset shift of co-authoring / authoring 5 published books. Accountants are not known for words so the thought of writing a book was mind-blowing to Diane. When she was first presented with the opportunity it was just to write a chapter for a book and she felt that she could do that. It seemed safe for her to just commit to a chapter. She then wrote a book called “Survival Guide to Obamacare” because so many people were asking about it. The book cost her money because she gave them away just so that people could understand a very confusing topic that still today people are confused about. The biggest push has come from the masterminds group that Diane belongs in order to get the next book that she authored that is due out in January, 2015.

How do you feel now that the book is finished? Diane says she feels really good that the book is finished. Several that have read the book have commented about what a nice read it is. She did not want it to read to professional or account-like and she feels like she has accomplished that by the feedback that she has received. She is very pleased to have received some great testimonials as well that have shown her that she conquered the fear and can move onto the next one as a result of not taking the easy way out.

What is next for your business? With 2015 she is looking to roll out an information product and hoping her book will be a springboard to that product. Her business coach has informed her that it will work and happen.

You can find Diane at www.taxcoachforyou.com.

More about Diane:  Diane Gardner, Your Tax Coach, is a Quilly Award recipient and the best-selling author of ‘Stand Apart’ and ‘Why Didn’t My CPA Tell Me That?’.   She has been working in the accounting field with small businesses since 1982. Diane is the founder of Adept Business Solutions and Tax Pro Solutions which meet the needs of her clients by providing accounting and pro-active tax planning services.

Diane is a graduate of San Jose University where she majored in accounting. She is a licensed Enrolled Agent (EA) which allows her to prepare income tax returns and to represent taxpayers in all 50 states.

Diane is also a QuickBooks Pro-advisor, an Accredited Tax Preparer (ATP) and a Certified Tax Coach (CTC). Certified Tax Coaches are an elite group of professionals who focus on helping businesses and individuals pay the least amount of tax that is legally possible.

Diane has worked hard to make her businesses stand apart from other accounting and tax professionals by specializing as a tax coach. Her personal goal is to make sure business owners are NOT overpaying their taxes by utilizing pro-active tax planning.

One of her main goals is to help thousands of business owners pay the least amount of tax they can legally pay. This is accomplished through pro-active tax planning. Her clients generally realize an average tax savings between $5,000 and $50,000/year.

Her clients also benefit from her knowledge of marketing which she shares freely. She writes articles, presents seminars, and offers coaching services so her clients can benefit from this information. She is also the leader of the Business Breakthrough Mastermind Group which meets in her hometown of Rathdrum, ID.

When Diane isn’t busy working with business owners and helping them to save taxes, she is a devoted wife, mother, and grandmother.

Her toddler grandson, Braden, is a very important part of her life and she is fortunate to be able to spend quite a bit of time with him.

This grandma has now learned more than she ever thought she would know about important things such as: backhoes, excavators, front end loaders, and other pieces of heavy equipment. Much of her down time is spent with a little boy digging in the dirt and making roads.

Diane is also quite active in her church and serves on the board of the Twin Lakes Friends Camp which offers summer camping programs for kids. She is also active in her community and in several local Chambers of Commerce.

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