Debbie Carrell bashfully met me in our phone room on the third floor to share some of her stories of past kindness and present excitement. Being our first full time Accounting Manager, she had much more to say than compound interest and federal withholding. So here’s our interview:
Okay so could you tell us a brief summary experience about owning your own business?
It’s challenging. It’s rewarding. Sometimes you have the flexibility that you might not have in a corporate environment. But it’s just like working for someone else because things have to get done, and if you don’t do them they won’t get done. It definitely helps to appreciate other businesses and business owners {laughs}.
So with the diverse work experience you have, do you have any particular stories that stand out?
Well, the first thing that came to mind was when I was working for Bass. I was in my office one day and there was a window behind me, and someone came in to talk to me about something. All of a sudden she was looking with these big eyes behind me.
And she starts to point.
I thought something was going to fly in behind me. Or something.
So I DARTED across the office and across the floor. {laughs}
Then she said: “oh I’m so sorry I was just going to tell you that there was this huge bird outside…”
{we laugh}
I thought there was a bird that was going to fly through the window or something. It was kind of embarrassing.{laughs}
Just a bird on the window {we laugh}
And then in our work, I remember during tax season there were certain clients that were super sweet. They would come in to pick up their things and they would bring these cupcakes or bags of chocolates. Just being appreciative knowing what we did. When we did sell our business, we had one client for years and we were their CPA. She heard we were selling our business, so she sent us this nice long card. The detail she went into was really nice to hear. It was more than numbers. It was a life connection. It feels good when you know you’ve made a difference.
That’s so great! I would like to think we are an agency that tries our best to make connections with the community. Tying back to our agency, what is different about working at Schaefer than other agencies?
Well I’m one of the older people here. {laughs} That’s new for me.
I think what’s different here is that I love the group of people, and I enjoy the vibrancy and positive feeling that you have around the office. It feels very close-knit, like a family connection. Even the environment of the building. I go home and tell my husband that I don’t just sit in a cubicle or a little white office. Schaefer puts off a neat energy.
Yeah!I think that–well I know that I’ve never felt this way about a job before. The people, the job itself and the office environment is super neat.
I completely agree. So now for the age old question: how did you hear about Schaefer? Like were you in Oklahoma and saw a billboard and thought–
I hadn’t heard of the company until I found the job listing on the Fort Worth chapter of the CPA website. When Ken asked me what made me interested I couldn’t tell him, but I knew that if I applied, there was something special because I wanted a feeling and an experience, not just crunching numbers or sitting behind a desk. I told him that I must have picked up on that. Maybe not from the job description itself, but you definitely get that from the website. You can tell that the company is more than just ‘strictly business.’
And we try our best to stay away from ‘strictly business.’ {laughs} Any final thoughts for your fans:
Those of us that have to find work, make sure you find some joy in it every day.
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