54: Ingrid Edstrom breathes fire into client relationships [podcast]

Ingrid Edstrom is definitely not your stereotypical bookkeeper. She breathes fire, plays Irish music in a band and makes videos with her sidekick, Penny, who was created as a prop for a Business Networking International (BNI) meeting. When the attendees commented on Penny, she realized that this was something that made her stand out, so Ingrid brings her along on all her business trips as well as appearances on the AskABookkeeper.com online education series.

In this episode, we talk about how if we act like we’re boring then how can we expect our clients not to think of us the same way? And forget about trying to attract and retain top talent if your firm thinks this way. Ingrid refers to it as “finding your inner unicorn”, your own set of passions that makes you unique. Weave these into your work conversations and you’ll soon realize that your relationships with both clients and coworkers will be on a much deeper level.

Ingrid Edstrom is a bookkeeping nerd and CEO of Polymath LLC. Polymath is an award winning Intuit Firm of the Future winner, Hubdoc Top 50 Cloud Accountant, and Corporate LiveWire Small Business Bookkeeping Firm of the Year. In 2016 Polymath was featured in the book “The World’s Most Inspiring Accountants” and was recognized by the Woodard Network with both the Practice Innovation and Rising Star awards.

She has her BA in Biology from Gustavus Adolphus in St. Peter, MN. She was recently recognized as one of the accounting profession’s Top 40 Under 40 and as one of the Most Powerful Women in Accounting.