Russ:  Hi I’m Russ Capper and this is The BusinessMakers Show.  My guest today Karen Love of Karen Love + Co.  Karen welcome to The BusinessMakers.

Karen:  Thank you Russ, I’m really happy to be here.  This is an exciting time for me.

Russ:  Well I know it is for sure, that’s why we have you here.

Karen:  Thank you.

Russ:  To tell us about Karen Love + Co.

Karen:  New creation; it’s my next.  It’s all about – even from the beginning of my career where I had a Bonwit Teller buyer out of New York City tell me when she was mentoring me that I don’t have to be a queen bee and be aggressive in order to get a seat at the table and really influence others.  She said you can do things with care and love or Karen Love and that’s my tagline.

Russ:  All right, that’s cool.

Karen:  Thank you.

Russ:  And so to get a seat at the table is that what you’re business is about?

Karen:  It really is.  It’s helping all levels of individuals, particularly young women up to women past my age, to get whatever their next is.  My definition of a seat at the table was to be an equity partner, really one of the first equity partners, and in the accounting industry.  Not everybody wants to be a shareholder.  Some people just like to have influence, be an executive; so it’s whatever having a seat at the table means to them.

Russ:  And you are good at telling people your story and making recommendations, essentially a consultant.

Karen:  And that’s really kind of hard because sometimes you are of the opinion to keep your past history to yourself but what I’m learning through the blog I’ve created called Out of Three Suitcases, Life Lessons Unpacked is that my experiences are my experiences but they’re also there to help others.  And if others can learn from that then I’ve done what I wanted to do.

Russ:  Out of Three Suitcases.

Karen:  Correct.

Russ:  I take it there’s a big story there, I don’t know if we have time to go over it.

Karen:  There’s a big story.

Russ:  Share what you can.

Karen:  There’s a big story and it’s one time in my life I thought I had it all going on and I lost everything I had except for what was in three suitcases.  And the story of the Life Lessons Unpacked is things that I learned in every aspect of my life when I started reexamining my life and moving forward trying to move to my next at that time.

Russ:  Okay, so interesting.  So I expect a lot of people in our audience know that I’ve known you for a long time.

Karen:  A long time, yes.

Russ:  With PKF Texas and that’s where you made this sort of partner type relationship.  And you’ve moved to the next step so you no longer have anything to do with PKF?

Karen:  I am very proud to say that I am the first shareholder that’s transitioned that has also come back as a consultant.  So I’m very honored that they valued what I was providing so that I can be involved in women’s initiatives, private equity deals and also strategy working with my team members that I had worked with for so many years.

Russ:  Well in my opinion they should bring you back, you sort of changed the world of marketing and professional services and I’m not the only one that knows that in town too, but you put PKF on the map when hardly anybody else thought they needed to do marketing.  Was that the lay of the land when you got here?

Karen:  Well the lay of the land begins back in 1977 when accounting firms really didn’t market.  So the accounting marketing industry is really a very young industry and there were many times I was told that I wouldn’t be successful in it because I wasn’t a CPA.  But I was supporting the very astute CPAs in the industry by bringing what my level of expertise is to support them in an holistic approach.

Russ:  Okay.  I’m sure we have somebody right now watching that wants to get in touch with you, what’s the web address?

Karen:  Happy to give it to you.  It’s KarenLoveCo.com or you can email me at KLove@karenloveco.com.

Russ:  Okay. Karen I really appreciate you sharing your story with us, good luck and let’s stay in touch.

Karen:  Thank you, thank you; really excited.

Russ:  You bet.  And that wraps up my discussion with Karen Love of Karen Love + Co.  And this is The BusinessMakers Show.