S1E17
· 01:01:02
Hey y'all, it's Nikki. Welcome back to another episode of the Working Mamas podcast. I am the founder of the Winston CPA Group and the lead instructor of the Winston CPA Exam Readiness Program, the first, the only comprehensive CPA exam review course created by a black woman. I'm extremely proud of that. It's been a, huge undertaking and also a labor of love.
Speaker 1:So I'm happy that my course is complete, that it's ready for registration. And I can't wait for all of the future CPAs to join me in my class. So if this is your first time listening, welcome. Thank you for tuning in. I greatly appreciate you.
Speaker 1:If this is your fifth or fifteenth or however many times you have listened, welcome back. I greatly appreciate you. So I've done a bunch of different episodes and talk about a lot of different things. CPA exam and the accounting industry, of course, and small business entrepreneurship, working mom life and career convos. I talk about all the stuff that I enjoy, that I love to talk about and that I know about.
Speaker 1:So this episode today, I wanna talk about the CPA exam, but not really the whole, not solely about the exam and the content. So if you're like, well, I'm not taking a CPA, so I don't wanna listen. There's something in this episode for you too. But I say, I wanna talk about the CPA exam because there is a full backstory about the CPA exam, the journey to get that piece of paper in the mail, and the physical, the emotional, the professional, outcomes that happen as a result of that. So I really wanna have a grander conversation just about dealing with adversity in general, but there's gonna be some references to the CPA exam because I experienced a lot of just craziness while I was taking exams and still trying to do different things in my career and be a mom and a wife and all these other things.
Speaker 1:So when you ball all of that up together, and you put a big bow on it that says, I'm trying to be a CPA and I need to pass these four exams. You end up with a ball of insanity, temporary insanity until you pass the exams. But it is a journey in my life that I will never forget just because I learned so much about myself when I was taking those exams and going through everything I went through just to, well, not just to, because it's a prestigious credential. The prestigious credential. So I don't wanna downplay that at all, but there was just so much that I went through to get there.
Speaker 1:And so I wrote my blog post NickWinstonCPA.com. Long time ago when I first passed, post CPA vibes and how it felt to be done and my last score release and all of that. And occasionally on Instagram or LinkedIn, I will share screenshots of my books and some of my old notes and flashcards and the way I wrote out my problems when I was trying to do practice by pen and paper. But there's a lot of that story that's untold. And I wanna delve into that in this episode.
Speaker 1:And just to give you all some context, where this is coming from is, ever since I passed the exam initially, and y'all have heard me say this before, initially I said, when I passed, I was going to take all of my notes, make them PDFs and just publish them on the internet and just let any CPA student just go to a site and download them in hopes that the way I studied and the non traditional study tactics that I use, maybe that could help somebody else who's struggling because it is hard. It hard. And it's not just hard because of the content, it's hard because of everything else. You have to give your whole self to the CPA exam. It doesn't matter how old you are, how much experience you have, whether you just got out of college last year or twenty years ago, it is a huge undertaking.
Speaker 1:And so I wanna talk about this experience because I don't know how I just walked into my pantry door, but So setting the table like I usually do on my podcast for those of you who are new, I usually talk about what I'm sipping on. Today it's just, turmeric and water, Or really the remnants of turmeric tea and some water. So had some tea earlier and drunk it all, but I wanted some water. So I just put the water in my tea cup so I can get the residual benefits of my tea. I am also in my kitchen walking around, number one, because I feel like I need to move.
Speaker 1:I haven't moved a lot in the last couple of days. I've moved from my bed to getting ready to go into my office. Then I'll get out of my office and come right back to the bed. So I haven't done a lot of moving around. And there's something about recording this episode and walking around my kitchen that just feels refreshing right now.
Speaker 1:But usually when I get home and I have some downtime or I create some downtime so I can read, whether it's a book or I have a feed. I have a really dope news feed on my phone where I've customized it now to the point where it knows me well. So it'll pull up all these articles and news updates and things that I have looked at on my phone or something that I said I wanna see more of or less of. And so each day I see a lot of different blog posts or updates about the CPA exam or the accounting industry or whatever is happening. And this one I saw today pointed me to a blog post on the AICPA's website about addressing diversity in the accounting industry and what the stakeholders can do, whether it's firms, universities, colleges, other non firm employers, what we can do to boost the number of black accounting graduates and CPAs of color.
Speaker 1:And that's not just blacks, but blacks, Latinos, Asian Americans, and there might've been another classification. I can't think of it right now. Island, I can't think of it right now. But it's crazy the way this article flowed, because it was like an interview type of format where there was the writer asking questions to the speaker, Kim Drumgo. And I would read her responses to each question like, oh, this is exciting.
Speaker 1:Okay. There's more Latinos in the industry now. A lot of, accounting students enrollment has jumped like double digits. Like I was getting so excited. And then every time it came down to talking about the metrics with the black students, everything just went, there was just this gray, like this dark cloud, like it would say Latinos are up 14% in 2018 and this, this and this.
Speaker 1:And then every statement about the black students was prefaced with, unfortunately for black students, this has stalled. Or for black students, hiring in firms has been flat since 02/2008. It's 2020. So that's for twelve years, black professionals, black accounting students have seen no growth in firm recruitment, or at least establishing a viable career in a firm. And my damn, that's kind of messed up.
Speaker 1:You know, when I think about organizations like NABA, which I'm a member of and a former board member of, and all of the initiatives and programs and things that NABA as a national organization has in place to connect, make those connections between the students and the firms. And when you think about a lot of the events or some of the signature sponsors and corporate partners, they're usually the firms. And so it's just mind boggling that we're creating this pipeline and we are, you know, putting the warm feelers out there and they pour so much into some of the organizations that are designed to attract and recruit and develop black accountants, but yet still they're not hiring us. I understand that. So that's kind of where this episode came from.
Speaker 1:There were also some other metrics about, not just the black students in the professional setting, but with the CPA exam and even with enrollment in accounting programs. And it talked about how, again, really exciting metrics to hear about Latinos and Asians and other non black nationalities. And then when we get to the black kids, it's like, okay, unfortunately enrollment has dropped or enrollment hasn't improved with the black students. And the rationale is that the black students are moving more toward those analytic data driven STEM type of programs. And I've always thought of accounting as it can be an A and create a STEAM program instead of a STEM just because of the technical knowledge and just everything that goes into accounting and working in the industry.
Speaker 1:So I've always felt like there was an opportunity to integrate accounting into that conversation, but that's a whole another episode for another day. But I felt like I wasn't a % sold on that response. And I'm just basing this on the number of accounting students who reach out to me on a daily basis, whether it's on Instagram, whether it's on LinkedIn. There's a lot of black accounting students out here who are working towards that major. So it was, it's almost like we are either stalling or declining in every category as black students, as black accountants, as black graduates, as black CPA candidates.
Speaker 1:We are either stalling or declining when it comes to enrollment and accounting programs, when it comes to sitting for the CPA exam, when it comes to getting hired in these companies, in these firms. And I mean, some of it we know, some of it is, it's just, it's here, it's always been here. So we know what part of it is, but we also need to understand that we have a role to play in driving the bus of our careers and not chalking it up and using that old, what is it called? The old cliche, the white man excuse as a reason not to be great. So that was what I wanted to preface my conversation with about the untold part of my CPA exam journey.
Speaker 1:So took my first exam, September of twenty fourteen. I took FAR. I chose FAR because I had seen FAR content in practice in my job. At the time, I was working in a job where anytime debt was issued, I was booking those journal entries, whether it was at a premium, at a discount, trying to figure out which expenses to capitalize versus which expenses to expense to the p and l, setting up amortization schedules, making sure that when I booked my entries, I captured the interest expense and the amortized piece of the premium or the discount, making sure my journal entry made sense, asking questions when I didn't understand, and doing journal entries and learning about specific accounts and reconciling the balance sheet and participating in financial statement reviews. So a lot of what FAR entails was my day job.
Speaker 1:So I chose to take FAR first. And I passed, first try. Next time around, took audit and I failed, partly because I skipped a lot of the content, but partly because I was feeling myself from passing FAR that I felt like I can afford to skip some content and audit because if I was smart enough to pass FAR, I can pass all of these. And that's the wrong attitude to have. Because after that, I went on this cycle of passing exam, failing exam, passing exam, failing, failing again, losing credit.
Speaker 1:Not necessarily in that order, but it was a similar cycle. And it was just so much to deal with. Like every emotion that you can think of, you feel. Because you anxious to even start. You already anxious and nervous about what you've heard about the exam and just hearing other people's experiences and reading certain horror stories online.
Speaker 1:You're already nervous about starting. And then some of that nervousness goes away once you master a concept or you get a good score on the practice exam. Or, you know, you write something out and you think it don't make sense, but it's the right answer. So these little small wins get you excited. And then a few weeks go by, you still feeling good about yourself.
Speaker 1:You're making it through the content. Well, myself, I shouldn't be talking about myself, but I'm making it through the content. And exam gets to be a day or a few days or a few weeks away. And now the anxiety is coming back and it's like, oh, I don't know if I'm ready. I think I need like two more weeks because I still need to figure out COVID versus COSO.
Speaker 1:And I don't really know what's going on. If I see that on the serum, I don't know what I'm gonna do. Been there, done that. I have felt every possible emotion that a human can feel about anything when it comes to the CPA exam. So I spent all this time, I'll go back to talking about myself like I should be.
Speaker 1:So I spent all this time in the days leading up to my exam, to calm my anxiety and trying to tell myself it's gonna be okay. It is not that bad. You have studied this stuff for weeks and months. You know it, you got it. And you tell yourself that, but there's still that uneasiness when you go into that testing center.
Speaker 1:And it doesn't really go away until a few hours after you leave the testing center. So literally all day. And so I had been on this hamster wheel with the exams for so long. And I got to this point in my CPA exam journey where I had credit for REG, credit for VEC, credit for audit. And this is after I had passed and lost credit or failed all the exams multiple times.
Speaker 1:I was about three years into studying at this point. So I had gotten to this point where, like I said, I had credit for VC audit and reg. I had to take FAR for a third time. Like I said, I had passed, lost credit, failed, went through the whole gamut with the exam. So I had credit for those three.
Speaker 1:It was time for me to take FAR again. And I had two options. First option was I will pass FAR and I'll be done with the exams and I'll get my license. Okay. My other option was if I fail FAR, I fail so I don't have credit and I lose credit for BEC and for audit.
Speaker 1:So basically I pass FAR and I'm done. I fail FAR and it knocks me back to square one, only having credit for red. So I take the exam and kept telling myself, got this, you know this. I mean, you know, I'm a go in there and give it all I got. It is what it is.
Speaker 1:At this point, my I had ice in my veins when it came to score release. I went from being nervous and anxious and sad to, you know what? It is what it is at this point. So I wasn't nervous about score release. I knew it was a lot on the line, but I said, I'm a do it.
Speaker 1:Take the exam, wait those two or three weeks to get my score and check my score release email, my score notification email. And I saw that, I saw the size of the attachment. And I think I said in the CPA Q and A episode that I would know whether I passed or failed based on the size of the attachment. Like that's how so accustomed I had become to getting score notifications, because I had took the exam so many times. And I saw it was bigger than normal, which meant it was two pages, which meant the first page was gonna tell me that I failed and that I lost credit.
Speaker 1:And the second page is gonna tell me exactly where I failed, where I was strong, weak or comparable to the other candidates. So I opened the attachment and I look at it, FAIL, all caps. And then it had my score. I think it was like a 59 or something like that. And I was actually like, wow, okay, 59.
Speaker 1:Because by the time I had took FAR the third time, I hadn't seen FAR content in at least a year. So the blueprints probably got updated. Things probably changed. I know I definitely forgot some things. So that was me going and scheduling my exam and then going to sit for it a couple of days later without opening a book, practicing any questions, anything.
Speaker 1:I got a 59. I said, okay, all right. I'm done with this for right now. All this work I put in, all this time, energy, effort, I've been doing this for three years. I don't know.
Speaker 1:I don't know what's next, but I'm putting this on hold for right now. Because I was at the point like, why is it always so hard for me? You know how one thing goes wrong, but you feel like your whole life is wrong. Like, why is it always so hard for me? Why is this exam so easy for everybody else?
Speaker 1:Why does everybody else get the easy testlets and I get the hard ones? Like, just all kinds of questions. I don't sacrifice time with my kids, with my husband at work. I'm working sixty, seventy hours a week. And my job don't even care that I'm studying.
Speaker 1:They just want me to work. So it was just, it was a lot. And I said, No, you know what, I'm done. I'm not gonna torture myself no more, I'm done. And that feeling lasted about twenty four hours.
Speaker 1:Can you grab some water? That feeling lasted for about twenty four hours. And in that timeframe, I actually felt weird because in three years, that was the longest time I had ever gone without studying, aside from study breaks. Like after score release, I would take a week off to get ready for the next section. But as far as just not studying, not looking at anything, I had never done that before.
Speaker 1:So it felt weird. Like, am I really about to do this? Like, am I done? Like, I done done? Like I'm not opening a book today or not practicing type done?
Speaker 1:Like I, it was hard for me to accept that, that I was just saying forget it. And so I said, no, you know what? I said, I've passed all the exams before, more than once. So I know what I'm doing. I know this stuff.
Speaker 1:When you've been studying for the CPA exam for three years and you sitting for all these different exams, you see a lot of different things. And I felt like at this point, there is not one CPA exam question on this planet that I have never seen. I've seen all of them. All the multiple choice questions, all the Sims, all the possible written communications, all the document reviews, I've seen all of them. And I probably didn't know the answer to all of them, but I've seen it.
Speaker 1:There were some questions, I will see the name of the company. Like, Oh, this is company ABC. Question is about blah, blah, blah, blah. It got to the point I had memorized the questions and the answers. So I was like, Okay, no, I'm not gonna be done.
Speaker 1:I'm a at least give this one more shot. I'm a give it six months. I'm a give myself six months. This was my plan. This is what I was telling myself.
Speaker 1:Probably pacing around my kitchen. But like I still am. But I said, I'm a give myself six months to get back to pass FAR and get back the two credits that I lost. And again, I told myself, I know I know this stuff. I just need to recalibrate some stuff in my life.
Speaker 1:I gotta look at my studying. What am I studying? What am I focusing on? How much time am I spending? Where am I studying at?
Speaker 1:Because environment is everything when you studying. And I was just like, I just gotta change some things. I gotta figure some things out. And I had got to the point where, you know, stuff was going on at work as far as like job changes, downsizing, all that kind of stuff was going on. And I was one of the ones who landed on my feet through all of that.
Speaker 1:So I was, and still am grateful for that. But as I looked at my day, cause I said, I need to make more time to study. I need to do more intensive studying. How can I do that? What times or days am I not, you know, when are my kids at school or at their after school stuff?
Speaker 1:Where can I carve out these blocks of time so that I can really dig into studying like I want to and like I need to? And I said, well, where do I spend most of my time now? At work. And so I quit my job. I gave them a thirty day notice and I quit my job.
Speaker 1:I didn't like it there. And I was tired of my time being disrespected. And so I quit. Because like I said, I was giving myself six months to get my credits back and I didn't like being there. And I'm just a firm believer in you're not a tree, so move.
Speaker 1:So if you don't like being somewhere, don't torture yourself or force yourself to be there just because you feel like it's the right thing to do or the political thing to do. I didn't wanna be there. The job stressed me the hell out and it was all for nothing because they later went out of business. So, well, it wasn't all for nothing because that's, I can do a whole career convos episode on just that job. But I say all of that to say, I was willing to get back up even after being knocked down a thousand and one times.
Speaker 1:I was willing to get back up a thousand and two times. And that's what I did. And I gave myself a timeline. I gave myself a timeline, six months, which I know is short to take three exams. But when you been in that material and you have seen it and stared at it and studied it as much as I had done at that point, it was just a matter of me, you know, refreshing my study habits.
Speaker 1:Because it wasn't about the content. I know that I knew the content. And if I spent enough time with it, can build up, you know, that who, what, where, when, why and how of a topic. So I wasn't worried about that. I was more so focused on creating a study plan that worked.
Speaker 1:So I started studying. All that time that I was spending at work, I spent a lot of studying, not all of it, but I spent a lot of studying and I spent more time with my family. And I like money. Okay. Let's just be clear.
Speaker 1:I like money. And when I quit my job, was less about the money and it was more about my peace of mind. And it was also more about me saying, am worth more to myself than working myself like a crazy person. And I wanted, I had to do this for me. That's the bottom line.
Speaker 1:Company is sad, people are sad, circumstances are sad. I had to do this for me to show myself what I could do. And me being the person that I am, because again, I like money. I had always had in the back of my mind, I wanted to build a business. I love being an accountant, being a CPA, because I wanted to do something for working moms, busy moms, because every mom is a working mom, whether you work inside or outside the home.
Speaker 1:But I was building a business and a brand called The Working Mamas, which is also the name of this podcast. And my goal for The Working Mamas is to be the company that transforms what it means to be a busy mom from being overwhelmed and overworked and underappreciated to a mom that feels good about her day, that doesn't feel like she's running on fumes. So whatever we could do as the working mamas, as a community to make life easier for moms through errands and grocery delivery and all of that. That's what I want. That's what I'm going to put into the universe.
Speaker 1:That's what I've already started to put into the universe. And so I said, yes, I'm gonna study and I'm gonna get my credits back for my license, but I'm also going to take some of the spare time and do some market research about what moms really want. And let me also try to snag a couple of clients so that I can get into the hustle and bustle of the errands, of the grocery deliveries of these on demand personal services and see number one, if I like it, but more importantly, to understand the logistics and the bumps and bruises of getting it done so that when I hire somebody, I have already gone through the wringer myself and I've physically done what it takes to do the job. So now I can properly train and onboard somebody else. I can tell somebody to go out and do a job that I've already done myself.
Speaker 1:And see, said this wasn't just about CPA candidates because now the small business coach is coming out of me. So I would tell anybody who owns a business, who works in a business, who wants to own a business. If you have a business that you're trying to grow and scale, one of those business buzzwords or business phrases, buzz phrases. If you have a business you're trying to grow and scale, and you know that you are eventually going to have to hire a team, it is important for you to understand what you are hiring them for and what you're hiring them to do. Because it's unfair to the employee and it's unfair to your business for you to bring somebody in and not lay the expectation for how you for what you need to get done.
Speaker 1:Not the how, because it's up to the employee to figure out the how. But if you tell them what needs to get done, give them the autonomy to do it. But don't just throw them out there and say, Hey, I want you to be the grocery delivery person for the working moms. Okay, so what does that mean I do? What would I be doing?
Speaker 1:How much time does this take? What if I need to communicate with the client? How do I know if they paid? What time do I need to be there? So I need to figure out what time I need to leave from my location so I can get the shopping done and get to them on time.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of questions to be asked and there's a lot of gray area. So it's important that as a business owner, as an entrepreneur, before you hire people, make sure you have laid the foundation for them to come into your business and start off on a good foot. And that you don't set them up to fail by not setting the expectations and providing them with the guidance and the resources that they need to be successful. So I did all of that grocery deliveries and running errands because I wanted to meet these moms. I wanted to see how they live, what they shopped for, what the biggest struggles are.
Speaker 1:And I got to hear so many stories about, oh, thank you so much. Or, hey, you can leave my groceries at front door because I'm breastfeeding my baby. One time I delivered some groceries to a guy, a husband who's like, oh my goodness, I'm so glad that you did this because my wife was a feeling good and she doesn't trust me to go to the grocery store. And I mean, just all the different things that I heard. And it's always like, all moms have a bond.
Speaker 1:As busy moms, we all have a bond. It doesn't matter where you live, what you look like, how much money you make. We all have a bond because we share a similar struggle. But, so getting back to my journey. So I'm studying and I'm delivering groceries and doing market research while my kids are at school.
Speaker 1:And I get a call from a recruiter who I had known since I first moved to Atlanta. So she and I have a long standing relationship. And she caught me about an opportunity. And it's funny because she is like, she's one of the sweetest people, but her delivery is not, her delivery would make you think she's a mean person or she's an abrasive person and she's really not. And so she would always call me, Hey, Nicole, I have this senior VP job that I thought you would be great for, but you know, they really want that CPA and you don't have it, right?
Speaker 1:Or you're still studying, right? And so it was just like, geez. That's the other part of the reason why I just wanted to get done because it is so annoying when people ask, hey, are you still studying? Hey, did you pass? Hey, are you a CPA yet?
Speaker 1:Like, is so annoying to have to go on that tangent of a long drawn out explanation about, well, you know, I was almost done, but I failed FAR and I gotta take BEC and audit. Like, non accountants don't even understand what you're saying. They don't know shit about FAR or REG audit. They don't know and they don't care. They they really don't.
Speaker 1:I remember when I passed, when I finally got that FAR credit, which I'll get to in a minute, and I put the I put the post on Facebook. And one of my homegirls, like my homie, homie, homie that I grew up with, she commented on my post and she said, sis, I don't know what that mean, but it sound like it's big. So congratulations. She's like, I don't know what the CPA exam is and I don't know what it means, but it sound like it's big. So congratulations.
Speaker 1:So non accountants don't know what all that mean. And so where was I? Okay. So delivering groceries, CPA exam, and doing this market research. So, and then I get the call about the job.
Speaker 1:So a few weeks before she had called me about, she called me about a consulting project. But a few weeks before she had just been getting all these different jobs, all these big jobs, like directors, VPs, controllers, all these like CFO track type of jobs. And there was always, so where are you with the CPA? I mean, which sections have you passed? What's going on?
Speaker 1:Blah, blah, blah. You will be great for this job. I know you would like the leadership qualities you have and just your accounting background and your expertise, you'll be great, but you don't have that CPA. She kept telling me that. And at first I kept saying, Oh, that is so annoying.
Speaker 1:But then it just kept, when you hear it so many times, sticks different. It sticks you harder every single time. It stuck me a little bit harder every single time. It pierced me a little bit deeper every single time. Every time she called me with these big jobs, with these big salaries, these big comp packages, oh, but you don't have the CPA.
Speaker 1:And I'm like, okay. So I'm basically eliminating myself from opportunities because I'm on this hamster wheel and I'm not done with these exams. I know I wanna get done. And I know that I'm tired of retakes and pass and fail and lose credit. So what am I gonna do about it?
Speaker 1:That was why I was okay with taking six months off to invest in myself. A lot of people were like, girl, you crazy. Or why would never leave my job? Again, it wasn't about the money. Because I knew when I got that piece of paper that says certified public accountant, that I would get mine.
Speaker 1:So it wasn't about the money. I knew that I would get mine when it came to money. So I wasn't worried about that. So she had called me again. You know, I have another big job, but you don't have the CPA, but I do have this contract.
Speaker 1:I said, okay. I was like, but you know, you know where I'm at, you know I'm studying for CPA exams. I'm trying to focus on that. I really don't even wanna jump into a job right now because that's just gonna take me away from what I'm trying to do. She said, well, you know, I kind of already told them about you and they wanna talk to you this afternoon.
Speaker 1:Relationships. Relationships are everything. And she and I had known each other for over ten years at that point. And this goes back to another episode I did on career convos on dealing with recruiters and what you should and should not expect from a recruiter. She and I had known each other for over ten years at this point.
Speaker 1:We would keep in touch occasionally. Whenever I made a move in a job, she knew about it. She congratulate me or just say, what's going on? She would often present me with opportunities throughout the years, but it just never worked out. The timing wasn't right, the role wasn't right, the money wasn't right.
Speaker 1:Something didn't work out. So I say all of that to say, me and her being connected and being in touch, periodically checking in with each other, she'd never made any money off of me. She had never placed me anywhere. We had never really done any business together outside of meeting up occasionally for lunch, couple of LinkedIn messages, a couple of text messages because we had each other's phone number. Relationships are everything.
Speaker 1:And when you work with a recruiter and you expect your first interaction with a recruiter to turn into a job opportunity, number one, it's probably not gonna happen unless there's just a perfect alignment there. And number two, that should not be your motivation for reaching out to that recruiter for them to sign you a job. When you reach out to a recruiter, it's about the relationship. And me and this recruiter had an organically grown relationship. So she was able to speak intelligently about me without me even knowing.
Speaker 1:To the point where her client wants to have a conversation with me in just a few hours. So relationships, relationships are everything. I told y'all this, this was not just about the CPA exam. It's it's really about real life. But, you know, so are you open to just having a conversation?
Speaker 1:It's a six to eight week project, you know, extra money, blah blah blah. I I like money. Let's be clear. I like money. So I said, okay.
Speaker 1:Again, relationships. Off of the strength of our relationship, I said, okay. Even though I had clearly said, I'm not doing anything else until I get my license, until I pass these exams. Because of our relationship, because I know how she operates and I know the caliber of clients that she works with, I said, okay, I'll have the conversation. Just because you advocated for me, I'll have the conversation.
Speaker 1:If nothing else to show my appreciation to you. If it turns into something else, great. If not, again, because of that relationship, I'm totally okay with the time I took to prepare for this interview. All right, so I have this interview, on-site. Like they wanted to, I thought it was a phone interview.
Speaker 1:I thought I had a phone interview, but I think I just had the phone interview with her, or kind of like the interview prep with her. And then a couple hours later, I went to her client's office to do this interview. So I did a little diligence about the company and got to the interview, interviewed with two people. And later that afternoon, I get a call from her saying they wanted to hire me. They were highly impressed with me.
Speaker 1:And I was happy about it, but we don't get what we deserve. We get what we negotiate. Okay. So this initial project, six to eight weeks, decent hourly rate for the contract, start dates, scope of work, all of that good stuff. So my reply back to her was, okay, I will accept this project contingent upon me having the flexibility to work from home or take time off as I need to study for and take my CPA exams or my sections of the CPA exam.
Speaker 1:They were like, okay. So again, they had a long conversation with her. They had a short conversation with me and it took them a couple hours to offer me a contract. And this was all, this all stemmed from a long standing relationship, a long standing organically built relationship. So I'm on this project.
Speaker 1:Post merger integration, mergers and acquisitions. One company had just acquired another and we needed to figure out the accounting, new processes, intercompany relationships, journal entries for the purchase accounting, opening balance sheets, reconciling accounts that haven't been reconciled in eight, nine, ten months, or at least not reconciled correctly. And what else? Work with the auditors, train the teams, create some SOPs. Like it was a cool job.
Speaker 1:It was a really cool job. And for those of you listening to this, who are studying for the CPA exam, mergers and acquisitions, purchase accounting, a lot of the things that I did in this job was some pretty good FAR work from section three, which is select transactions of the AICPA blueprints on business combinations. The journal entries, what it means, the different type of methods to bring them on book, whether it's the cost method, equity method. What's the other one? Consolidation or something like that.
Speaker 1:So I had been practicing a lot of this stuff. That's why I say it's crazy the way things work. It's crazy how God just does things and how He holds your feet to the fire and He'll yank you out so just stronger, so much better and stronger. So I had took FAR. FAR was the exam that almost made me quit this whole thing.
Speaker 1:And now I have this consulting project where I'm doing the very thing in FAR that I was trying to do that knocked me back from getting my exam. So just to have that moment, that full circle moment in my career was pretty cool. So still going through the motions, you know, in this job, getting acclimated, doing the month end close, plus all the M and A stuff. And I'm still studying, working from home, taking time off to take my exams. So was So now I'm about two months into my six month break, which didn't last that long.
Speaker 1:That break lasted for about six weeks that I planned on. It lasted for six months, it lasted for six weeks. But I appreciate that. And I'm humbled by that, because that means I was in demand. Wasn't even applying to jobs, wasn't looking for a job, and my phone was still ringing.
Speaker 1:So I appreciated that. And I wasn't even a CPA yet. So I appreciated that. So I went through the next couple months on this project because it quickly went from a six to eight week project to a nine month project. But I'll talk about that later.
Speaker 1:But they kept extending my contract. Hey, can you stay another month? Can you stay another two weeks? Can you stay another month? Whatever, whatever.
Speaker 1:So fast forward, three exams. I got all three of my credits back, which is still just makes me so giddy when I think about that experience and when I remember getting that congratulatory letter. But the exams that I had been taking and studying and passing and failing and losing credit for over the last three years, I managed to get all the credits back within six months. So I was like, well, did I just spend the last three years like bullshitting around? And I'd literally just passed three exams in six months?
Speaker 1:Like what is going on? And it was really when I, like I said, I took my time back. I reclaimed my time. I didn't like my time being disrespected. And I dug deeper and I worked harder for it because I wanted it bad enough to where I was willing to go there.
Speaker 1:I was willing to go back in the trenches and stay up all night and practice and do research and pull up financial statements on the internet to make it all make sense. I was willing to do that. And even after I passed, that feeling came back like, damn, I really don't have to study today. Like I'm done. Like, what am I gonna do with my books?
Speaker 1:Like my study guides, my flashcards that I made. Like, what am I gonna do without this extra time? I literally felt that way for the first few weeks after I passed. Like, I'm supposed to be studying or doing a sim or something crazy. But I did that and got that congratulatory letter, but it didn't come with a license like I thought it was.
Speaker 1:So even though I had passed all four exams, I still didn't have a license and NASBA denied my license application more than once. I'll tell y'all why in another episode. I'm a end this episode because it's been fifty five minutes. And if y'all anything like me after, I usually try not to make my episodes more than thirty minutes, but I had some things to say on this particular episode. So I needed to get all of that out.
Speaker 1:So I will create a part two of my CPA exam journey, the untold story, and tell y'all about how I passed and still had to wait like well over a year before I even got a license. So stay tuned for the next episode. Again, this episode is not just about future CPAs and accounting students and professionals, but there's a lot of things, a lot of takeaways from this episode about careers, about negotiating, about being a small business owner, about being a working mama, about going for yours, about believing in yourself and investing in yourself and betting on yourself. So stay tuned for that. Yes, I am still pacing around my kitchen.
Speaker 1:I'm about to go catch the rest of this basketball game and I might go to bed. It's late, but I'm a night owl. So it's not, it's late from a time perspective, but it's not late to me because I'm a night out. But definitely wanna continue this conversation with y'all. If you are listening to this episode and you have your future CPA friends or your business besties, your professional friends, definitely share this episode with them.
Speaker 1:I would love for y'all to rate and like the podcast, subscribe to it on Apple and SoundCloud. If you do have questions about the CPA exam, about your career, about accounting, I'm happy to answer your questions. A lot of people hit me up on Instagram at nickwinstoncpa. I also get a bunch of messages on LinkedIn. What else?
Speaker 1:I need to tell y'all. CPA exam cohorts. So I am creating, like I said, like I've been saying, my CPA exam review courses, each one is gonna be a cohort. So the FAR, Odd, BEC and REG cohorts are gonna be study groups where we are getting ready for the exam. We're gonna have study guides.
Speaker 1:We're gonna have lab and direct conversations. We are going to practice retired CPA exam questions. So I have AICPA approved questions and simulations and all that stuff to go over because I really want y'all to be ready for this exam, but also be ready for your life and your career after the exam. So on the next episode, I'll touch on that too. I'll talk about how I passed the exam and still didn't have my license and some career options for when you pass the exam.
Speaker 1:So definitely hit me up. If you are interested in enrolling in the CPA exam cohorts, let me know. You can hit me up nickwinstoncpa, or also email me, nickynickwinstoncpa dot com. Also for those of you who are looking to schedule study sessions with me, if you book a study session and then you later enroll in one of the cohorts, then the cost of your study session is credited towards your cohort enrollment. So I wanna make this easier for y'all, as easy as possible to get this done, to get over this CPA exam hump.
Speaker 1:I'm also thinking about payment plans for the cohorts, if that will help y'all. Let me know how y'all feel about that, if that's gonna work for y'all. But again, I hope you enjoyed this episode. There was a lot in this episode and this was straight from the heart. I really just had to say this.
Speaker 1:I had no show notes for this. I'm gonna type up some afterward, but I usually have a couple of topics that I stick to and some notes and some research that I do, but all of this came straight from the heart. That article hit me so much that I knew exactly what was said, the metrics and all of that. And usually I have to refer back to an article again, like, okay, what was the statistic or what was this? Or who was the author or who were they talking to?
Speaker 1:But it really just hit me and I felt like I needed to share this today. So if you, are listening to this and this was beneficial to you, again, definitely rate the podcast, share it, subscribe, tell your friends, tell your coworkers. I hear a lot of people say they connect with me on LinkedIn because they coworker liked the article that I wrote and then it showed up in their feed and they wanted to be connected with me. So happy to be connected with y'all, answer y'all questions about the CPA exam, about your careers, about your businesses. So let me go catch the rest of the game.
Speaker 1:LeBron and them was winning the last time I was watching this. So I hope they still are, you know, LeBron is everything for us Ohioans. So I will catch y'all later. Hit me up if it would, look at me, can't even talk. Hit me up if y'all have any questions and stay tuned for part two, because I want y'all to hear this about getting the letter for passing the CPA exam, but not getting the license.
Speaker 1:So y'all be good. Talk to y'all later.
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