This is the Third Lesson in “My 21 Lessons in 21 Years” Series
To celebrate 21 years in business, based on what I have learned from working with accountants, bookkeepers and tax advisors over 21 years I am sharing my journey and some of the lessons I learned along the way. I hope you join me on this journey and maybe learn something along the way too.
The CPD Fest I Planned for 3 Years (And What 300 Accountants Taught Me About What They Actually Want)
The Morning Of
It was 8:30am on the morning of Thursday 11th of December in 2008. I was standing in the lobby of a hotel in Dublin, watching accountants’ stream through the doors for our first-ever CPD Fest.
We’d only been promoting the event since the income tax deadline had ended in the middle of November but I’d envisioned this event for nearly three years. Spent countless hours planning. Invested money we didn’t really have. Recruited speakers. Built the agenda.
Build it……… but will they come. They booked and they came.
But in that moment, watching them arrive—coffee in hand, looking for their name tags, scanning the room for familiar faces—I had this sudden, terrifying thought:
What if they hate it?
Not the content. Not the speakers. Not the logistics.
What if they came for CPD credits and left disappointed because that’s all we gave them?
I was about to learn something that would fundamentally change how we built the OmniPro Group for the next 17 years.
But I didn’t know that yet.
What are we anyway?
Let me back up to 2005-2006.
I’d been building OmniPro for a couple of years. We were doing consulting. Training. Helping accounting firms with everything from technology to practice management to business development but in reality it was a lot of technical support – hard core audit, financial reporting, company law and tax. The bread and butter essentials
And I kept noticing this pattern:
The most powerful moments weren’t in the training rooms. They weren’t when I was teaching something brilliant.
They were in the hallways afterward. In the coffee breaks. In the conversations between firm owners who’d finally found someone else who got it.
“Wait, you struggle with that too?”
“I thought I was the only one.”
“How do you handle when clients…”
I watched firm owners light up when they realised they weren’t alone. When they found peers who understood their challenges. When they could talk openly about the parts of running an accounting business that nobody really tells you about.
And I thought: What if we created an event specifically for that?
Not just CPD credits. Not just content delivery. But a space where accounting firm owners could connect, share, learn from each other, and realize they’re not the only ones struggling with the impossible task of being both brilliant technicians AND business owners.
Thus, The CPD Fest was born.
The Turning Point
The event was everything I’d planned.
Great speakers. Solid content. Well-organized. The technical delivery was flawless.
But what I didn’t plan for—what I couldn’t have planned for—was what actually happened.
The speakers were good, the notes packs were good but at this event we focussed on creating space to network and interact at the breaks.
They were clustering at tables. Huddling in corners. Stepping out to continue conversations. Exchanging business cards like they were currency. We struggled to get them back into the room at the end of break.
At lunch, the dining room was buzzing. Animated conversations at every table. People pulling up chairs to join other groups. Laughter. The energy was palpable.
And during the afternoon sessions, I noticed something: people were almost paying more attention to who else was in the room than to what was being taught from the stage.
Not because the content was bad. But because something more valuable was happening.
They were finding their people.
The Outcome
The feedback forms came back and the numbers were extraordinary.
But here’s what struck me: the real feedback was not about the specific content we’d taught.
The real feedback was the value they got from the conversations they’d had. The connections they’d made. The relief of finding other firm owners dealing with the same challenges.
“I finally don’t feel alone in this.”
“I met three people I’m going to stay in touch with.”
“The best part was realizing everyone else struggles with pricing too.”
“I came for CPD credits. I left with a support system.”
One firm owner pulled me aside at the end. She’d been running her practice for 15 years. Successful by every external measure. And she said:
“Des, you have no idea what it means to spend a day with people who actually understand what doing this work costs personally.”
I thought I was selling technical training and CPD credits.
I was actually selling something much more valuable: belonging.
The Uncomfortable Truth
Here’s what I had to face:
For years, I’d been building OmniPro around what I thought accounting firms needed. Better systems. Better processes. Better technical knowledge. Better business practices.
And all of that matters. It’s essential.
But what they actually wanted—what they craved—was simpler and deeper.
They wanted to be seen. To be heard. To be understood by people who get it.
They wanted permission to admit this is hard. To acknowledge they don’t have all the answers. To talk about the gap between the confident professional they present to clients and the person who lies awake at 3am wondering if they’re doing it right.
They wanted community.
I’d been optimising for content and for solutions, when what they really needed was connection.
This is the trap so many of us fall into: We assume people buy what we’re selling—our expertise, our systems, our solutions.
But often, they’re buying something underneath all that. Something we’re not explicitly offering but they desperately need.
The service beneath the service.
The human connection.
And if you’re not paying attention, you’ll miss it entirely. You’ll keep perfecting your content while your clients keep showing up for the connection.
The Lesson
This changed everything about how I built OmniPro.
We started creating more events. More spaces for connection. More opportunities for firm owners to find each other.
Because here’s what that first CPD Fest taught me:
Your clients often know what they need better than you do. But you have to watch what they’re actually responding to, not just what they say they want.
You have to ask the right questions ……
…….and you have to truly listen to their answers……
………you have 2 eyes, 2 ears and just 1 mouth in that proportion for a reason…….
When you ask accounting firm owners what they need, they’ll tell you: better systems, more efficient processes, higher fees, better clients, more time.
But watch what they actually invest their time and energy in when given the choice. Watch what makes them light up. Watch what they keep coming back for.
And that’s usually not the technical content. It’s the human connection. The shared experience. The permission to be imperfect. The community of peers who understand.
- FIND OUT WHAT THEY WANT
- GO & GET IT
- GIVE IT TO THEM
These 3 steps are not just about growing a business and keeping customers happen. These 3 steps are the key to every successful relationship
Just stop and think about that for a minute.
This connects directly to Knowing Your Ideal Customers in the ProfitPro 6-Step Success Path.
Because understanding your ideal customers isn’t just about demographics or firm size or services offered. It’s about understanding what they’re actually buying from you—which is often not what you think you’re selling.
Questions to ask yourself:
- What do your clients say they want from you?
- What do they actually keep showing up for?
- What lights them up in ways that surprise you?
- What do they value that you’re not explicitly offering?
- What’s the service beneath the service in your practice?
- When do your clients seem most engaged—and what’s happening in those moments?
Most accounting firms sell technical expertise, compliance, and peace of mind.
But scratch beneath the surface, and you’ll find clients are often buying: trust, guidance, someone who understands their world, a sounding board, validation that they’re not alone in their challenges.
That’s the real service. Everything else is just the vehicle.
YOUR TURN
Be honest: What do you think your clients are buying from you?
Now, what are they actually buying?
What would change about how you serve them if you acknowledged the service beneath the service?
I’m curious: Have you ever built something thinking people wanted X, only to discover they were actually there for Y? What did you learn?
Or are you right now perfecting the content while missing the real need?
Let me know. Because sometimes the most valuable thing we can offer is the thing we’re not even consciously providing.
Tomorrow: Letter 4/21 – “The Client I Should Have Fired in Year One (But Kept for Five Years too long)”
If you’ve ever kept a client who wasn’t right because you were afraid of losing the revenue—you’ll want to read that one.
Spoiler: I learned this lesson the expensive way.
