Women of SBF Explore Career Growth at Leadership Conference

Professional development is a critical part of anyone’s career. At SBF, we are dedicated to supporting all employees’ growth, whether they are client-facing on the accounting side or making our teams work smoothly from the administrative side.

In June, SBF employees joined accounting and finance professionals from across the state for four days at the Florida Institute of CPAs’ MEGA conference in Orlando. We sent employees from our St. Petersburg and Knoxville offices to learn about cybersecurity, ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance), risk management, talent pipelines in accounting, and other various industry topics.

In particular, we were excited for a group of employees to attend the Women’s Leadership Summit, a half-day networking and education event.

There, attendees heard from and interacted with an inspiring set of accomplished CPAs on everything from the power of storytelling in nurturing leadership to practical methods for accomplishing work/life balance. A panel discussion on career advancement proved to be empowering and enlightening.

For SBF performance and development coordinator Amanda Babino, MEGA was her first out of town conference she has attended. She came away with new ideas for helping her teams and herself grow in their roles.

“What I found impressive about the speakers is that they all had different life stories and different career journeys,” she said, “but they were all able to relate it to the CPA world, even if it was not technical.” For Amanda, speaker Juliette Kleffel’s LOVE acronym made the biggest impression: Letting Others’ Victories Excite You.

“I think it is wonderful that SBF is always supporting their employees and wanting nothing more than to see them grow and be successful in their career!” Amanda said. “Getting together with the team outside of the office, including our Knoxville team, was great.”

The speakers “all had such good takeaways,” said SBF lead processor Fontana Seales, particularly those who addressed “leading with purpose.” Getting new perspectives on the accounting industry also produced some new connections with her colleagues.

“This conference was a nice break to recenter my focus,” she said. “It allowed me to spend some quiet time with coworkers that I usually just say hello to in passing.”

As an administrative employee, Fontana was especially excited by the invitation to attend MEGA. “SBF is above and beyond the rest when it comes to admin staff,” she said. “I felt somewhat out of my element, because I was at the conference with CPAs, partners and directors, but knowing SBF sent me so I could better myself gave me the confidence that I belonged.”