2 Successful Speaking Engagements Completed!

Most of you know that one of my aspirations is to become a well-known speaker on areas that I have expertise in.  Two weeks ago, I successfully completed two speaking engagements at Southern High in Durham, NC.  The topic of choice was “The CPA Career” and “Accounting Implications on the Stock Market.”  I received this request from Mr. Williams at Southern High, who inquired through the NCACPA.

My audiences consisted of 10th, 11th and 12th grade students in two business classes.  Some were interested in becoming CPAs in the future, some were not.  I had to keep these presentations unique, inspiring, motivational, and fun.  I used a PowerPoint presentation that I developed myself, but was sure to incorporate the students into the entire “speech” to ensure they didn’t want to fall asleep due to boredom.

I discussed various topics such as:

• Why am I here
• What do you want from a career
• What kind of lifestyle do you want to have
• What will it cost to enjoy this lifestyle
• The definition of a CPA
• Differences between an accountant and a CPA
• CPA Exam
• Types of CPA jobs
• What can you earn as a CPA (I focused a lot of the discussion around compensation to ensure the students would be willing to listen to the accounting career as a worthwhile endeavor)
• How to become a CPA in North Carolina
• What is it like to be a CPA
• Is accounting for you
• Employment outlook
• Be your own boss
• Accounting implications on the stock market – including the Enron example
• Other key topics

The first discussion went so well, that they asked me to do another during Period 2 for a different class.

Thank you to all that attended the discussion and thank you to Mr. Williams and the NCACPA for giving me the opportunity to be a guest speaker at Souther High.

I look forward to many more guest speaker engagements in the future!