There are two key ingredients to success: Building strong customer relationships and having the mindset of being a lifelong learner. Ethan Spadino, Spotlight Reporting’s North America Business Development Manager knows all too well about these core aspects of forging a strong business.
With many travel and work experiences under his belt, and with a passion for growth, Ethan first came to the world of cloud accounting software through Xero as a Partner Onboarding Specialist. When he made the move from Australia to New Zealand, the role at Spotlight Reporting jumped out at him. Now, some two years later, Ethan has become an expert in fostering customer success and more recently, cloud accounting software education.
Pursuing success and growth
For his first one and a half years at Spotlight Reporting, Ethan held the role as Customer Success Administrator, focused fully on gathering success stories, wins and struggles from accounting firms around the world, with the overarching intention of assisting accountants to maximize the use of their cloud accounting software.
As part of his role, Ethan looked at how accounting firms could roll out their advisory services or improve the consultancy aspect of their practice, including establishing standardized guidelines, defining their vision and strategy, and utilizing cloud accounting software to get results.
From Czech Republic to New Zealand: Into the unknown
In his personal life, Ethan is passionate about venturing into the unknown for insights, adventure and growth. This has led him to travel widely, and live and work in other countries. He’s worked in the Czech Republic, Australia and New Zealand. In a romantic turn of events that ended bittersweet, Ethan met his wife, who was originally from the Czech Republic, in Australia where they fell in love and eventually married in the picturesque destination of Hawaii.
Ethan’s travels taught him wisely, reaffirming that when we go through adversity, and into what we may be afraid of, we are rewarded with rich growth. He says, “One of the easiest ways to be met with adversity is through travelling, because you’re going to a destination where you likely don’t know anyone, with an entirely different culture to what you know, and perhaps a different language, customs and food, and this takes a lot of adjustment.”
Having a growth mindset has also helped Ethan in customer relationships. He says when it comes to building out business offerings or developing internal advisory services, it is at times, a completely new experience and requires business leaders to be up for change and to go where they haven’t gone before. To Ethan this is personally relatable, and he celebrates it - in business and in life.
Crossing the bridge into education
Now back in his homeland of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Ethan is branching out into the world of education. In a new role with Spotlight Reporting, he’s focused on teaching people in different states how to best apply cloud accounting software and get the most out of their solutions.
To maximize support of its users, Spotlight Reporting has an educational platform called Transform in Action, and an in-depth Help Centre complete with an extensive repository of information. However, it is also the likes of Ethan, who is dedicated to helping customers realize great results, that ensures tailored support and ongoing wins for users.
The marrying of passion, skill and values
Ethan’s career story and role at Spotlight Reporting also reveals his passions and values. Whether it’s the importance of being well-rounded spurred on by learning mixed martial arts as a kid, facing adversity through travel and seeing how this mentality enhances customer success, or being willing to step into the unknown and try something new, these values steer Ethan through his work and the different phases of life. In his new role, Ethan is shifting gears into education and training, and helping Spotlight’s users to grow their advisory services and success.
If you’d like to learn more about how Ethan and our training team can help you in your accounting practice, get in touch today.
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