Rain, Rainbows & Slow Growth

THE BESTIE BRIEF

For women bookkeeping firm owners who get it.

Issue No. 5 | September 10, 2026

Title: Rain, Rainbows & Slow Growth

It's been a full week over here, in the best & busiest kind of way. Grab your coffee, get comfortable, and let's catch up.

Behind the Scenes: Life Lately

It has been RAINING here lately. Not the quick pop-up storm kind either, the sit-in-your-bones, everything-feels-heavy kind of humid that has us stuck inside more than we'd like. I'll be honest, a few of those days I found myself getting restless, wanting to be outside & instead staring at gray skies through the window.

But here's what I keep coming back to. The crops are loving every bit of it. What feels like an inconvenience to me is exactly what something else needed to grow. And almost every time I've stepped outside this week, there's been a rainbow or a butterfly waiting on me, like a little nudge that God really does show out in the small things when you're paying attention. I don't think that's a coincidence, and I don't think it's just about the weather either. Some of the best growth happens in seasons that don't feel comfortable at all.

Football season is officially here too, which means our Friday nights belong to high school ball, bleachers and boiled peanuts. There is something about watching these kids give absolutely everything they have on that field, no holding back, no half effort, just full heart. It gets me every single time. Yes I may have teared up last Friday watching them.

But honestly? What gets me even more is watching our little town show up for them. Packed stands. Loud cheers. Neighbors who barely know each other standing shoulder to shoulder because they showed up for the same thing. That's not just a football thing to me. That's a business thing. That's a LIFE thing. Community is EVERYTHING, and I mean that in the deepest sense, not just as a nice sentiment. Whether it's a stadium full of people cheering on a team, or a group of women bookkeepers cheering each other on through a hard season, we are simply not meant to do the hard things alone. I see it on that field & I see it in our Bestie Club calls every single week.

On the home front, the pups keep growing right along with everything else this season. Leo especially has turned into my little sidekick. If you've hopped on a coaching call with me lately, there's a good chance he was somewhere nearby, probably curled up under my desk or making his presence known in the background. He's basically part of the team at this point, and I kind of love that he's along for the ride.

Labor Day gave us some real, honest-to-goodness family time. No agenda, no rushing, just being together & letting ourselves rest for a minute. I don't take those weekends for granted, especially in a season where so much of my time and energy goes toward building.

And now, we're gearing up for me to be out of town next month in Key West for CEO Weekend. I'll be honest, there's a part of me that's already a little nostalgic thinking about it, because these weekends together are some of my favorite moments of the whole year. More on that soon, but just know I'm already looking forward to it.

CP Corner: Inside My Own Bookkeeping Firm

Inside Calculated Profits, the CP Team Growth Initiative is still underway, and I want to be really honest with you about where we're at & how we're approaching it, because I think it matters more than the update itself.

We're starting from the bottom & working our way up. That means mapping out real trainings & real advancement opportunities for our team, not just handing people a title & hoping they figure it out. It also means finalizing the AI tech we're rolling out across the firm, piece by piece, instead of flipping a switch overnight.

Here's the part I really want you to hear. We are taking this SLOW, on purpose. When it comes to tech and team, we have moved fast before. We have made quick calls because we felt pressure to keep up or because it seemed like the obvious next step, and it backfired on us - big time.  It cost us time, trust, energy, and money we didn't have extra to spend. So this time, with this initiative, we made a decision as a leadership team that we were not going to repeat that pattern.

No rushing. No shortcuts. Just steady, intentional progress, one real step at a time, even when it feels slower than we'd like.

If you've ever felt that pull to move fast just because everyone else around you seems to be scaling overnight, hiring overnight, or automating everything overnight, I hope this is your permission slip to slow down instead. Slow does not mean behind. Sometimes slow is exactly what protects the thing you're building.

Besties making moves

This is my favorite section to write every single time, because THIS, right here, is what all of this is actually about. Not the systems, not the strategy, this. Watching women build something real & then celebrating them out loud for it.

From the Bestie Club:

Morgan learned our STAR framework for hard conversations on a Tuesday call, and used it that same week to finally hold a boundary with a client who kept sliding back into old habits. Her words after: "I feel very good about it."

Rebecca had been quietly frustrated with her compensation model for months. One conversation on a coaching call about compensation structure, and she had a real fix, and a plan to roll it out.

Alycia kept running into the same miscommunication with her VA, over and over. One boundary-setting conversation later, using a script we built live on the call, and the pattern broke.

Kelsie rolled out a "figure it out first" policy with her whole team after learning about how we utilize it in our firm. It's already changing how often they come to her with questions they could answer themselves.

From the Next Level Bestie Mastermind:

Lisa hired her first subcontractor this year and calls it her biggest win of the year, hands down. Her new hire hit better-than-expected speed in month one and doubled her margin on one client. In the same month, she also landed her largest recurring client to date, in her target niche, sourced from a referral by another woman in her mastermind. Not an ad. Not a funnel. A bestie.

Mari surpassed her entire 2025 revenue by August, with a third of the year still to go. She's also mid-hire on her very first team member.

Jessica is only dollars away from matching all of 2025's revenue, already in 2026, after letting go her biggest client due to boundary issues earlier this year.

Trisha finally delegated her social media after sitting on it for months. Had two full weeks of content ready to go the same day she hired it out.

Rebecca built a referral partnership two years ago that is still, today, sending her steady discovery calls. No ad spend. Just a relationship she kept up.

Brandy had a client leave to try bookkeeping on her own. That client came back, on her own, no chasing required. Bonus, she increased her price when she came back.

Kathryn worked through a hard team situation and came out the other side with a bookkeeper promotion she'd been meaning to make anyway.

Drezden built her own AI-powered system that now catches missed deadlines and cuts hours off her monthly close prep, automatically.

Besties, this is why we don't build alone. Every single one of these wins happened inside a community, not in isolation. Look what happens when you surround yourself with women who get it.

So proud of every single one of you.

The CEO Corner

You don't have to do it fast, and you don't have to do it alone.

That's the thread I keep pulling on this whole issue, and the more I sit with it, the more I believe it's the thing so many of us need to hear right now. Whether it's rolling out new tech & training on your own team, or building your firm from the ground up, there is this constant pressure to move fast & figure it all out by yourself. I feel it too, even after all these years.

But here's what I know to be true. Some of the best, most lasting progress happens slow & steady, and it happens surrounded by people who get it. Not because slow is easier, but because slow gives you room to actually build it right the first time instead of rebuilding it later out of necessity.

So if you're in a season of slow growth right now, or if you're realizing you've been quietly trying to carry it all by yourself, let this be your reminder. Slow is not behind, and alone was never required. You are allowed to build this at a pace that actually works for your life, surrounded by people who will walk it with you.

📆 What’s coming up

A few things I want on your radar right now:  

🩷 Podcast · September · Relaunch

As promised, we're relaunching the Rescue My Bookkeeping Business podcast and I'm so excited!  Due to my medical hiccups...this had to be pushed to late September though. Stay tuned for the newest episodes to go live next month.  You can check out our previous episodes here.

🩷 CEO Weekend · October · Key West, Florida

This weekend is focusing on MARKETING (and not just the same stuff you've heard before either). Key West is going to be something special & spots are limited. Sign up here.

Deadline to sign up is Tuesday, September 15th.

🩷 Next Level Year Weekend · December

For the bookkeeper who is DONE winging it & ready to walk into 2027 with an actual plan. Five clients or fifty, if you’re serious about growing your business next year & you want to do the work alongside women who get it, I want you in the room. Sign up here.  

🩷 Bookkeeper's Bestie Club

If you're not in the Bestie Club yet, I have to ask, what are you waiting for? Come get the community, the systems, & the support you've always needed but maybe never had. Send me a DM & let's talk honestly about whether it's the right fit for you right now.

Thank you for being here, and for building alongside me every single week, even from a distance. However you're building right now, fast or slow, surrounded by support or still figuring out the alone part, I see you, and I am cheering you on harder than you know.

Keep Thriving 🩷

Stephanie