Get to Know Top Five Presenter Courtney DeRonde

In preparation for the first Top Five for Small Business event of 2022, Courtney DeRonde shared a little more about TDT CPAs and Advisors, PC where she works as CPA and managing partner. The business is a boutique advisory firm that provides overwhelmed leaders and owners of small businesses learn how to manage their business and finances in a proactive way. Currently, the business provides outsourced accounting, tax business advisory services, audits, reviews and more. In the future, TDT will also provide Full Focus Planner workshops.

The Full Focus Planner Program

DeRonde became a Full Focus Planner Certified Pro for three reasons: to take advantage of the information the program offered, to equip and train her team so they had the information they needed and for the opportunity it provided to find the best knowledge available to share with her connections and clients. DeRonde has been at TDT for her entire career. Her primary role now is vision and strategy for the firm. Knowing the overwhelm and stress of leading and having a life (hobbies, family, spouses, homes to maintain), she sees her Full Focus Planner certification as a tool that can help with prioritizing her to-do list

Along with her attention to the Full Focus Planner, DeRonde concentrates on goal setting, or taking hopes and dreams and turning them into actionable steps and habits. This process, which she’ll discuss more during the upcoming Top Five session, helps small business owners prioritize and focus on specific goals. A lot of entrepreneurs are vision focused, which is a blessing in that they have many ideas, but it can also be a curse because it causes a lot of distraction. The Full Focus Planner system helps people clarify what they want so their goals become a filter for all of those ideas and opportunities. Does this align with what I said I wanted and am in the process of achieving?

With a blurring of lines between work and personal over the course of the pandemic, it’s been more difficult to keep track of everything. DeRonde has seen some clients affected in positive ways due to their industry, while others have been affected in negative ways; however, overall, people have opened themselves up to doing things that weren’t necessarily feasible before, in terms of working, leading and collaborating remotely or in hybrid situations.

DeRonde’s three pieces of advice to boost productivity in 2022 include:

1. Set boundaries and decide when and what you’re going to work on. Whatever you want to do needs to fit into that timeframe. Filter your priorities.
2. Create consistent routines and rituals around your mornings (to prepare for your day) and evenings (to end your day). This could include exercise, devotions, etc.
3. Pick your top three priorities each day and focus on those.

More on the above will be discussed during the virtual event, “Top Five Ways to Reach Your Most Ambitious Goals and Achieve the Lifestyle You Desire,” at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 26. Register here.

To learn more about TDT and DeRonde’s work, visit tdtpc.com or connect with her on LinkedIn.

For more information on the Greater Des Moines Partnership’s Top Five series, visit the Business Resources page. While there, be sure to register for the next Top Five series.