In this episode, Brianna Johnson interviews Alisha Jernack, Senior Manager at Mazars USA LLP and graduate of our Transformational Leadership Program™ (TLP)about her personal business development strategy.

After TLP, Alisha completed our Rainmaker Development Program® (RDP) and has made business development a regular part of her daily work and professional goals. In this episode, she shares how her rainmaking efforts began and provides ideas for others hoping to get more involved in developing business for their firms. She also speaks to the importance of choosing strategic activities that align with your service line or industry focus. Tune into this discussion to discover how you can create your own personal marketing and business development strategy that leads to more revenue generation for your practice and firm. And, be sure to read the show notes for this one, where Alisha shares how she’s been developing her brand and increasing her visibility remotely during the COVID-19 crisis.

*Following the recording of this episode and in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the nature of business and networking have shifted greatly. We followed up with Alisha to ask how her rainmaking efforts have evolved as a result of social distancing requirements:

"Yes! I absolutely have pivoted to networking in a remote environment [post COVID-19].  We have actually had great success!  

I am a co-host of Mazars Covid Talks.  We have recorded 10 episodes thus far.  We of course had Jen on as a guest. At Mazars, we have a COVID Business Advisory group which I have been leading.  We have done a ton around the PPP, including getting a tool we developed to market within 48 hours or so of the CARES Act being signed.  Our tool was developed not only to calculate the PPP loan amount, but to calculate and model out the forgiveness.  We have been using this tool with clients since early April to run different scenarios with them in cases where they were looking to make business decisions and wanting to understand the implications on forgiveness.  With all of that, we created a webcast series called “Where’s the Money?”.  We just had our part 7 earlier today, and we will have part 8 on Tuesday.  I have been a presenter on 4 of the 8.  We have an incredible following on this series.  We have even been asked to participate on external webcasts with other Centers of Influence (COI’s).  I have presented recently on webcast with Assured Partners, Palmer and Cay and the French Chamber of Commerce.  This has led to quite a bit of PR.

Outside of PPP, I have attended virtual happy hours internally and externally with COI’s.  With clients and prospects, we are doing daily Zoom meetings.  I would actually comment that I have built better and stronger relationships with those outside my normal geography.  I am seeing and working with others outside of NJ on an almost daily basis.  Whereas normally I may catch up with these individuals two or three times a year.  It’s been great!"

About Our Guest:

Alisha Jernack is a senior manager at Mazars USA LLP. She helps entrepreneurs and small businesses in manufacturing and distribution, professional services and not-for-profits, in addition to other industries. Alisha is involved in the firm’s entrepreneurial service group education and training program. She is also a member of the NJCPA Mentor program where she mentors college students.

You can find the Inspired Ideas podcast on these platforms:

Tools & Resources:

Connect with Us:

Alisha Jernack:

Brianna Johnson:

ConvergenceCoaching: