The Wednesday Wire
Issue of , from Florida Professionals Association
Three weeks ago, Gaylord Palms was full of new faces, warm handshakes, and contact info changing hands faster than anyone could count. PIP26...
August 26, 2026
Three weeks ago, Gaylord Palms was full of new faces, warm handshakes, and contact info changing hands faster than anyone could count. PIP26 delivered exactly what it always does: a room full of people ready to do business together.
Here's what gets us every time, though. For most groups, that would be the whole story, everybody goes home, and the connections quietly fade. Not this one. Three weeks later, we're still hearing about it: texts turning into coffee meetings, a referral that closed because someone picked up the phone, two members who met in a hallway now working on a project together.
That's not luck. That's what happens when the people in the room actually follow through, and it's exactly the kind of community we set out to build.
Andy & Vanessa Rodriguez
Founders
Florida Professionals Association
EVERY THURSDAY 8:30 AM
FPA Connects
This Thursday at 8:30 AM, we're back for FPA Connects, an hour that moves with real purpose and real connection. No forced small talk, just business owners from across the state showing up, sharing what's working, and making the kind of introductions that turn into actual business. Whether you've got a specific connection you're chasing or you just want to start your day with some momentum, this is the room for it.
Jessica Croft has spent more than 25 years untangling other people's books, and at the end of 2020, a layoff during COVID pushed her to finally do it on her own terms. Bookkeeping had always been part of her work; she decided it was time to build a business around it and help other owners stay in business too.
Today she works with high-earning, service-based business owners whose QuickBooks accounts have quietly turned into a mess, getting their numbers back under control. She's seen just about everything cross her desk, and she has a gift for explaining complicated financial information in plain English (with a little color and sparkle, in her words) so owners actually understand what their reports are telling them.
What surprised her most about running her own business wasn't the numbers side, it was how invested she'd become in her clients' success. She sees herself as a partner in their business: keeping the data accurate, catching what they might miss, and being there for the moment a client finally says, "oh, now I get it." That moment, she says, is what she loves most about the work.
Right now, Jessica's ideal referral is a busy service-based business owner, think pest control, dog grooming, therapy practices, water and mold remediation, plumbing, electrical, and other trades, who needs someone to make sense of their books and give them their time back.
Connect with Jessica
Try FPA Free for 30 Days
Membership means more than a Thursday Zoom. It's a private chat that runs all week, a statewide referral network, AI coaching tools, and a member profile that puts your business in front of the right people. If PIP26 taught us anything, it's that the follow-up is where the real business happens. Try FPA free for 30 days and find out where yours leads.
DID YOU KNOW
Your Business Could Have an Assistant That Never Sleeps
There's a new category of software making the rounds called "AI agents," tools that don't just answer a question, they actually do the task: draft the follow-up email, update the spreadsheet, post to your socials, and hand you the finished result. Not a chatbot. A little coworker.
What this means for you: the business owners getting ahead right now aren't necessarily working harder, they're handing off the repetitive stuff to something that runs in the background. The learning curve is smaller than it sounds.
Members are already exploring what this looks like inside FPA, more on that soon.
FPA members are already exploring what this looks like inside the association as part of their membership. See what is included >
For more on AI and what is shifting for business owners, visit In The News >
PROFESSIONALS IN PARADISE 2027
July 29 - August 1 | Gaylord Palms, Orlando
The 7th Annual Professionals in Paradise is set for July 29 – August 1, 2027, at the Gaylord Palms Resort in Orlando. PIP27 is already taking shape: four days of statewide connection, hands-on education, and the same energy that had this year's group not wanting to leave.
Passes are moving through our Sneak Peek rate right now: $999. That rate closes for good on August 31, 2026, after that, it moves to Early Bird pricing at $1,399, for a limited time. If you know you're coming to PIP27, this is the lowest it will ever be.
The best way to know if this is your room? Try it before you commit, our 30-day free trial gives you full access.
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