THE BEST DECISION I MADE THIS YEAR

By Liz M Raymond | Bookkeeping Guide & Mentor

When I opened my calendar on January 1st, 2025, I had a clear picture of what I thought the year would look like. After our 2024 Levelling Up for Excellence Bookkeepers Conference, interest for local gatherings seemed to fade, and I told myself it might be time to step away from organizing events.

My plan was simple:
focus on entrepreneurs, support the women running service-based businesses, and continue doing the work I love—walking beside them, breaking down their bookkeeping challenges, and turning accounting gobbledigook into language that finally made sense.

Those bright-eyed “I finally get this!” moments never get old.

Working with entrepreneurs often brings me together with bookkeepers in my mentorship community too. When catch-up projects come in, I get to guide bookkeepers while they earn income and learn on the job—perfect, messy, real-life training that builds confidence fast. It’s one of my favourite parts of this work.

By February, questions about the 2025 Bookkeepers Conference started landing in my inbox. Then speakers reached out. The topics flowed easily. I even had a date—September 25—chosen through numerology, and it felt aligned.

Then life changed.

At the end of March, I learned my brother was very ill with cancer. I rescheduled what I could, wrapped up urgent deadlines, and flew to another province to see him. I’m grateful we had a few hours of conversation and laughter—just a brother teasing his sister about spending too much on a last-minute flight.

The next morning, he couldn’t speak. By 10:30 p.m. on April 8th, my baby brother passed away.

On the flight home, the conference disappeared from my mind. I decided not to hold it. I needed space to breathe, to grieve, and to figure out what I was being called into next.

Those weeks were filled with tears, prayer, anger, conversation with my brother, and a deep return to the spiritual practices that have carried me for years. I trusted the process, even when it didn’t make sense.

By the end of June, after multiple readings all pointing to the same message, I knew the conference was the next right step.
“This is something you’re meant to do. It will lead you to your next chapter.”

Then everything aligned.

The perfect venue opened with the perfect date.
Speakers confirmed.
Exhibitors stepped forward.
Sponsors showed up generously.
A wonderful team of volunteers came together like magic.

The blessings were undeniable. This wasn’t chance. This was alignment.

On the morning of the conference, the rain fell outside, but the sunshine showed up in the room. We worked like a well-oiled machine, preparing for attendees to arrive. When I stepped out with the mic to share a bit of my story, something extraordinary happened.

A rush of energy shot from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. A full-body knowing:
This is where I’m meant to be.
This is the right place, the right moment.
This is the work I was meant to do.

That was the real confirmation.

This wasn’t just a conference. It was a calling.
A reminder that elevating the bookkeeping profession is long overdue—and I’m meant to lead that work.

Bookkeepers deserve community.
They deserve mentorship.
They deserve standards that empower—not restrict.
They deserve to be seen as true partners to the business owners they serve.

And why me?

Because many years ago, as a young single mompreneur crying in the middle of my livingroom, I made a promise.
If I could get through the challenges ahead of me, I would help other women do the same—skip the suffering, shorten the learning curve, and build businesses with more confidence and less fear. Removing economic roadblocks that allow women to easily say YES to opportunities for themselves and their children.

I’ve kept that promise.
I’m still keeping it.
And the conference reminded me that helping bookkeepers rise is exactly where I’m meant to be.

That is why saying yes to the conference was the best decision I made this year.

It brought me home to who I really am:
a Bookkeeping Guide & Mentor here to help raise an entire profession.