Consultant & Founder
JET Consulting Services, LLC
5 A.M.: Wake up. I start my day in prayer and ask for wisdom and direction.
5:30 A.M.: Take care of our dog Magnolia’s puppies and put a few pieces of wood in the sunroom stove. I enjoy the sunrise while sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee and reading a morning devotion. This is a special part of the day to count blessings and gain strength for the day in quietness.
6 A.M.: This morning I run about three miles with some good listening. Right now, I am listening through the book of Job. My mind and heart contemplate Job’s struggle and triumph and apply it to a current personal situation.
6:30 A.M.: Back home, I shower and brew some coffee. I look over my calendar and gather my thoughts to prepare for the day.
7 A.M.: The children are up and greeting them is one of the high points of my day. It is a morning ritual to exchange hugs and send them out to take care of the animals before breakfast and school.
When I pursued accounting, it was out of a desire to serve people like my father, who started his small contracting firm with heart to serve, very little capital, and a willingness to work hard to impact our community.
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At the office
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8 A.M.: I walk to my desk in our sunroom and join my first Microsoft Teams meeting of the day. This is a call with a long-term partner to review a challenging project outcome. We get all the issues on the table and seek common understanding. We agree the outcome is difficult but are committed to not allow a loss to damage the partnership. We work through the contributing factors and develop some process changes between our organizations. I leave the call with positive relationship energy and continue a 7+ year partnership with strong momentum.
8:45 A.M.: Check-in with the children at their desks, encourage them to diligence and say goodbye. I tell Amy goodbye and leave for
the office.
9 A.M.: Jump on my second Teams call. This is a daily check-in with my core collaboration team. Weekly topics include business development opportunity flow, project scheduling, team leadership collaboration and project escalations. Today, we review our Fast Lane new project opportunities and confirm any appropriate actions for this week.
9:40 A.M.: I have a 20-minute break to reply to a few emails and gather my thoughts for the next few hours of collaboration.
10 A.M.: Join another Teams meeting with some awesome teammates. There are two engineers, one project manager and one business process expert. Our goal: come up with a solution to enable a client customer care team to deliver outstanding service through every modern communication channel. I lay out the scenarios and constraints from the client to start us off. My colleagues start to brainstorm and a few minutes in someone throws out a winning idea. This connects me to a nagging problem for several other clients and I ask if the nascent solution can be generalized. Yes! It can apply to several similar scenarios. I love these sessions where creativity blends with service thinking to create breakthroughs.
During a typical week, I have breakfast or lunch with someone in my network. These meetings are an important part of our team and my personal success. Sitting down over lunch or coffee has been a place for new ideas, strong relationship growth and important business development.
11 A.M.: Take another mental break to document the last call and prepare for the next client meeting. I take a few minutes to read the WSJ Editorials and skim a few articles from the news section.
11:30 A.M.: Teams meeting with a longstanding business strategy client. This is a conversational collaboration with their leadership team. We work together to keep focused on their growth as an organization and continue building their brand and team. It’s great collaboration with their leadership team. We listen to their needs, suggest some ideas to consider and capture the next steps. It is so exciting to see their successful growth. They have doubled their business in the past three years!
12:40 P.M.: My last meeting ran into lunch. I catch my breath with some reflective notes and next actions committed to the CRM. Today is an in-office lunch day. During a typical week, I have breakfast or lunch with someone in my network. These meetings are an important part of our team and my personal success. Sitting down over lunch or coffee has been a place for new ideas, strong relationship growth and important business development.
1:30 P.M.: Next up, I have a standing weekly mentoring meeting with a junior team member. This is especially rewarding, as we started meeting when he was fresh in his career and wanting to gain project responsibility. Today, we have open and vulnerable conversations that sharpen us both. He has taken on project leadership of one of our organization’s largest active projects and is doing well. Today’s conversation flow brings celebration of a success, encouragement on a touch decision, and challenges to grow in his client account management skills. These types of conversations give an added dimension of meaning and energy to my day.
2 P.M.: Given the success in this morning’s brainstorm meeting, we take our next call in a different direction. We hope this morning’s solution will apply to a set of similar clients. Forty-five minutes later, we have a solution outline and action items for my colleagues and I to deliver the architecture and features presentation that will transform how dozens of our existing clients can better collaborate on a widely-used customer service platform.
3 P.M.: Quick call with a financial institution software company. I was able to confirm their technical capabilities to deliver a post-COVID optimized solution center for a community bank. I send a quick email to the bank confirming our understanding and their needs to deliver their solution later this spring.
3:20 P.M.: I take an unplanned phone call with a new prospect. He came from a long-time network contact from the West Coast. She has a client in the Midwest looking for business process optimization. Great call with their tech director, and it looks like we can help them achieve their objectives. I recap notes to the team with next steps. Spoiler alert: he became a client two weeks later!
4 P.M.: Another Teams meeting with a long-time colleague who provides some administrative assistance. We status update a few internal projects. I captured the information she needed from me on several open tasks.
4:30 P.M.: I end my professional day with some quiet work on the year-end report to the team. I review the financial results from 2021, outline a message of thanks and report to the outstanding people I am privileged to work
with each day.
6 P.M.: Leave my workplace for a friend’s house. This evening I am attending a planning meeting for our summer Vacation Bible School. Great topics and plans are developed.
8 P.M.: I get home much later than usual. I missed the supper hour with the family but have just enough time to read the children’s bedtime story and talk on the couch. Then it is time for bedtime prayers, tuck into bed and lights out. This is a special time of day, and I know it will not last forever.
9 P.M.: I take a few minutes to reflect on the day. I look at my calendar and take a mental note on my next morning and evenings for the remainder of the week. I am glad to see I’ll be able to be home for family dinner hour the rest of the week.
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Joel and his wife, Amy
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9:30 P.M.: Amy and I finally get some time to connect and reflect on our days. This is valuable time for us to discuss plans, share in decision making and enjoy some time decompressing. We share devotions during this time and usually have a furry critter with us.
11 P.M.: Another day has ended. Time to go to sleep!
About Me
NAME: Joel Troxel, CPA
JOB TITLE: Consultant & Founder
COMPANY: JET Consulting Services, LLC
COMPANY SIZE: 3 employees (approx. 50 associates)
MOST INTERESTING THING ABOUT WHAT YOU DO: Being able to make a direct impact on the effectiveness and quality of life for small businesses in the community. When I pursued accounting, it was out of a desire to serve people like my father, who started his small contracting firm with heart to serve, very little capital, and a willingness to work hard to impact our community. I am deeply grateful to be able to help small business teams today to impact their effectiveness in serving and enabling exceptional quality of life for their teams and communities.
PREVIOUS POSITIONS:
CFO & COO at Adaptasoft, Inc.
ALMA MATER: Valparaiso University and Ivy Tech
INCPAS INVOLVEMENT: INCPAS Innovation Advisory Council, Various Conference Committees
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The Troxel children
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When I'm Not at Work
FAMILY: Wife Amy and 5 children (Titus, Rhoda, Onita, Xandrea and Elva, plus Baby Troxel due in July)
PETS: Cavalier King Charles Spaniels: Marigold, Poppy, Petunia and Magnolia; 2 cats; 9 chickens and 1 sheep
HOBBIES: Small farm and produce garden, traveling, building model rockets, hiking, backyard science projects
OTHER MEMBERSHIPS/COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: Home Grown Hearts, Volunteer Teacher & Administration, HarvestCall Humanitarian Relief Volunteering, Church Stewardship Committee, Berean Ministries Volunteer, Indiana State Prison
Advice for Students Considering the Profession
The CPA profession is filled with amazing opportunities leading to almost any industry. Seek to build relationships within the CPA profession and your areas of interest. You will be amazed at the opportunities that open to you when you bring value to your colleagues, clients and community organizations. You will be amazed at the wonderful professional community among CPAs.
Best Advice You've Ever Received
In life, look beyond your own profit to how you can create wins for every party you engage with. In business, engage in a way that creates a win for your clients, teammates and community, in addition to yourself.
Do you think a day in your life would make a good addition to our series? Contact Katie Kirkton at kkirkton@incpas.org to find out how you can share your story.