CPA Trendlines Podcasts

Accounting leaders face pressure to choose a path that could reshape talent pipelines and firm culture for years to come.Accounting InfluencersWith Rob BrownDeloitte’s decision to dismantle its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) program for 173,000 U.S. employees is sending shockwaves through the accounting profession, exposing deep divisions on a global scale and forcing firm leaders to weigh politics against talent priorities. MORE Accounting Influencers with Rob Brown The move—ending DEI goals, disbanding related departments, eliminating annual reporting, and ordering staff to remove pronouns from email signatures—came just hours before Deloitte UK issued a memo affirming its commitment to DEI.

Trust, values, and local connections are fueling the national rise of one of accounting’s newest Top 50 firms.Gear Up for GrowthWith Jean CaragherFor CPA Trendlines“If we say we’re going to do something, we’re going to do it. And that’s how you build trust,” says Josh Tyree, president of Sorren, during an episode of Gear Up for Growth. Host Jean Caragher, president of Capstone Marketing, sat down with Tyree to discuss how the newly-formed Top 50 firm – created by the combination of 13 BDO Alliance firms – is navigating large-scale integration while laying the foundation for national growth. More Gear Up for Growth here. | More Jean Caragher here | Get her best-selling handbook, The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms, here | More CPA Trendlines videos and podcasts here The conversation reveals two critical lessons for CPA firms considering mergers or expansion.

Students push for networking, compensation clarity, and creativity as the path to success in a changing profession.Accounting ARC - Student-Led ConversationsWith Chayton FarleeCenter for Accounting TransformationWhen Dominic Piscopo, CPA, compared his first Big 4 paycheck to his weekend bartending income, he had one reaction: disbelief. “I clocked 100 hours during busy season, and the check wasn’t much different than what I made in two nights at the bar,” he recalls. MORE Accounting ARC: Bootleggers, Baptists, & CPAs: Rethinking Licensure | CPA Firm Ownership Under Fire | Walking Violation: When Showing Your CPA Gets You in Trouble | Audit Bags to TikTok Tags, Gen Z Talks Success | Students Challenge Accounting's Traditional Career Path | True Grit: Recognizing Struggles That Shape Our Successes | More Admins, Fewer Students, No Plan | What Career Advice Gets Wrong for Gen Z - And How to Fix It |Your Identity is Not a Liability | What Happens in Vegas… Gets Reported on a Tax Return | Burnout, Be Gone: Accounting Needs a Boundary Breakthrough | The Ultimate Business Hack You’re Probably Ignoring | Instead of shrugging it off, Piscopo started asking questions—lots of them. He gathered salary data from peers across firms and discovered his cohort was underpaid compared to the market. Presenting the numbers to leadership, he helped secure a raise of nearly 10 percent for his entire group.“That was the moment I realized transparency could change the profession,” Piscopo says.Piscopo shares the story on Accounting ARC: Student-Led Conversations, hosted by accounting student Chayton Farlee. The two explore how networking, pay transparency, and building side projects can help students and young professionals set themselves apart in an industry struggling to recruit and retain talent.

Stop reacting. Start Guiding. Move from Historian to Navigator with an AI-powered Business GPS platform purpose-built for growing CPA firm advisory.The traditional advisory model wasn’t built to scale-- 4impactdata changes that.Client Advisory Services at ScaleStart delivering scalable advisory in weeks — not months — with our 5-step implementation process.4ID is purpose-built to embed codified wisdom into your existing workflow — quickly and seamlessly. With our proven 5-step approach, your team can confidently move from insight to action without complexity or disruption.Advisory Beyond Dashboards.Built for What Comes Next. Old School: Dashboards report what happened. New School: We scale your advisory with recommendations.

This stealthy tax rule could hit clients starting in 2026.Quick Tax TipWith Art WernerCPE TodayEvery tax bill hides a few surprises, and the OBBB is no exception. According to tax guru Art Werner, one of those surprises could wallop high earners through the quiet return of the PEASE limitation.Click here for more Art WernerIn the newest episode of Quick Tax Tip, he breaks down this often-overlooked provision, its history, and what it could mean for your clients. 

Mindset shifts, gut instincts, and the right mentors matter most when starting your own firm.The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrMaking the shift from employee to entrepreneur isn’t always easy, as Questian Telka, founder of ReQoncile Financials and co-host of the She Counts podcast, discovered. Besides the obvious pieces of getting business licenses and opening a business bank account, Telka believes it’s essential to keep your reason for starting your business – your why – firmly in focus. “If I lose sight of that why, then I am continually getting away from what it is that I enjoy about it, why I’m doing it in the first place,” she explains. MORE STREAMING: Woodard: Move Past Reports; Deliver Results | Baker: Find True Purpose to End Burnout | Brolin: The W.I.N. Leadership Formula | Gertrudes: How EOS & “Unreasonable Hospitality” Reshaped GrowthLab | Vilms: The Power of People in a Tech-Driven World | Dickerson: From Diagnosis to Disruption | Kapilovich: Treat People Like People | Martha Yasso: From Wall Street to Main Street | Jackie Meyer: Tax Plans in 90 Seconds? Believe It | Erica Goode: Build a $200K Firm in 15hrs/Week | For Telka, her why centered around “having a little bit more freedom and flexibility to spend time with family, being able to take on my ideal clients.” Without the centering influence of a strong why, entrepreneurs may risk working with clients who don’t fit their ideal client profile.  Besides a firm focus on your Why, the shift from employee to entrepreneur requires a complete mental overhaul. “It’s a huge mindset shift, being an employee versus running your own practice, in your own firm, because everything stops with you,” Telka says.

Stop reacting. Start Guiding. Move from Historian to Navigator with an AI-powered Business GPS platform purpose-built for growing CPA firm advisory.The traditional advisory model wasn’t built to scale-- 4impactdata changes that.Client Advisory Services at ScaleStart delivering scalable advisory in weeks — not months — with our 5-step implementation process.4ID is purpose-built to embed codified wisdom into your existing workflow — quickly and seamlessly. With our proven 5-step approach, your team can confidently move from insight to action without complexity or disruption.Advisory Beyond Dashboards.Built for What Comes Next. Old School: Dashboards report what happened. New School: We scale your advisory with recommendations.

Stop reacting. Start Guiding. Move from Historian to Navigator with an AI-powered Business GPS platform purpose-built for growing CPA firm advisory.The traditional advisory model wasn’t built to scale-- 4impactdata changes that.Client Advisory Services at ScaleStart delivering scalable advisory in weeks — not months — with our 5-step implementation process.4ID is purpose-built to embed codified wisdom into your existing workflow — quickly and seamlessly. With our proven 5-step approach, your team can confidently move from insight to action without complexity or disruption.Advisory Beyond Dashboards.Built for What Comes Next. Old School: Dashboards report what happened. New School: We scale your advisory with recommendations. Learn MoreSchedule a Demo

Trust outlasts spreadsheets.By Rory Henry CFP®, BFA™For CPA TrendlinesLike CPAs, financial planners have long been associated with numbers people. They’re highly trained to use mathematics to address a client’s risk tolerance, goals, time horizons, and a magic “retirement number.” But George Kinder, founder of the Kinder Institute of Life Planning, argues that most practitioners are overlooking the most obvious skill needed to be a successful advisor: listening.  MORE Rory Henry and The Holistic Guide to Wealth Management BUY the Holistic Guide to Wealth Management “Too many advisors take the math-first approach,” Kinder says. “Instead, they should be doing deep listening and building trust with clients to help them construct their ideal life. Only when that’s established should the math and money decisions be introduced."  Often called the “father of financial life planning,” Kinder is no touchy-feely guru. He began his career as a traditional tax preparer in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Harvard-trained math and economics student viewed the IRS code as a puzzle to master—one that required both precision and creativity. Over time, he realized that the most rewarding part of the work wasn’t solving the tax code but forming personal connections with clients. “When a client comes in, they typically think their biggest obstacle is money,” Kinder relates. “But in many cases, they’re their own biggest obstacle.” Kinder believes practitioners can uncover a client’s true priorities with three simple but powerful questions.

Zoomers expect clarity, equity, and purpose—and they’re not afraid to walk if firms don’t deliver. Accounting InfluencersWith Rob BrownBy 2025, one in 10 managers will be from Generation Z. That’s right—the so-called “lazy, entitled” group born between 1997 and 2012 is already leading teams in accounting firms. But instead of wrecking the workplace, Gen Z might be exactly what the profession needs to survive its crossroads. MORE Accounting Influencers with Rob Brown On Accounting Influencers, host Rob Brown explores the rise of Gen Z and what their entry into the accounting workforce means for leaders, firms, and the profession at large.

Stop reacting. Start Guiding. Move from Historian to Navigator with an AI-powered Business GPS platform purpose-built for growing CPA firm advisory.The traditional advisory model wasn’t built to scale-- 4impactdata changes that.Client Advisory Services at ScaleStart delivering scalable advisory in weeks — not months — with our 5-step implementation process.4ID is purpose-built to embed codified wisdom into your existing workflow — quickly and seamlessly. With our proven 5-step approach, your team can confidently move from insight to action without complexity or disruption.Advisory Beyond Dashboards.Built for What Comes Next. Old School: Dashboards report what happened. New School: We scale your advisory with recommendations.

By starting with conversations and clean books, accountants can deliver clarity, confidence, and real results.It's Not Just the NumbersWith Penny Breslin and Damien GreatheadFor CPA Trendlines When accountants and advisors talk about “advisory services,” the conversation often drifts toward models, frameworks, and numbers. Advisory is explained through dashboards, KPIs, forecasts, and ratios. However, sometimes in our focus on data, we forget the human side —the fact that behind every balance sheet is a business owner who is stressed, overwhelmed, and often lonely.  MORE Penny Breslin and Damien Greathead MORE Advisory & Consulting BUY "It's Not Just the Numbers" That’s where voices like Steven Ladd’s come in. In a recent It’s Not Just the Numbers podcast “After Hours” session, Ladd shares his journey from engineer to entrepreneur to trusted advisor for small business owners. His insights reveal why advisory services are more than just financial analysis. They're about empathy, connection, and equipping business owners with clarity. 

Stop reacting. Start Guiding. Move from Historian to Navigator with an AI-powered Business GPS platform purpose-built for growing CPA firm advisory.The traditional advisory model wasn’t built to scale-- 4impactdata changes that.Client Advisory Services at ScaleStart delivering scalable advisory in weeks — not months — with our 5-step implementation process.4ID is purpose-built to embed codified wisdom into your existing workflow — quickly and seamlessly. With our proven 5-step approach, your team can confidently move from insight to action without complexity or disruption.Advisory Beyond Dashboards.Built for What Comes Next. Old School: Dashboards report what happened. New School: We scale your advisory with recommendations.

Four key strategies show how firms can lead with value, optimize for AI, test strategies, and show more humanity to win clients.Gear Up for GrowthWith Jean CaragherFor CPA Trendlines“Firms can’t afford to hide behind best practices or boring templates anymore,” says Jay Schwedelson, president and CEO of Outcome Media and host of the top-rated marketing podcast Do This, NOT That, during his appearance on Gear Up for Growth, powered by CPA Trendlines, and hosted by Jean Caragher of Capstone Marketing. More Gear Up for Growth here. | More Jean Caragher here | Get her best-selling handbook, The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms, here | More CPA Trendlines videos and podcasts here “It’s time to be bold, be human, and make sure you’re showing up where your prospects are actually searching, especially in AI,” he adds. Schwedelson shares four urgent takeaways for CPA firm leaders.

The accounting profession faces a reckoning as leaders debate whether CPA licensure protects the public—or stifles innovation and diversity.Accounting ARCWith Byron Patrick and Donny ShimamotoCenter for Accounting TransformationLicensure is one of the bedrock features of the CPA profession. But what if that bedrock is actually quicksand? In a provocative episode of Accounting ARC, hosts Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA; and Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP, CGMA,  sit down with noted author and thought leader Ron Baker to ask: Should CPAs even be licensed at all? MORE Accounting ARC: CPA Firm Ownership Under Fire | Walking Violation: When Showing Your CPA Gets You in Trouble | Audit Bags to TikTok Tags, Gen Z Talks Success | Students Challenge Accounting's Traditional Career Path | True Grit: Recognizing Struggles That Shape Our Successes | More Admins, Fewer Students, No Plan | What Career Advice Gets Wrong for Gen Z - And How to Fix It |Your Identity is Not a Liability | What Happens in Vegas… Gets Reported on a Tax Return | Burnout, Be Gone: Accounting Needs a Boundary Breakthrough | The Ultimate Business Hack You’re Probably Ignoring | Resilience, Real Talk, and the Road to Mental Wellness | Blockchain Could Still Reshape Accounting | What Gen Z Wants from Business | Firm Differentiation Depends Upon Client Service Baker begins with a history lesson, tracing professions back to ancient Babylon and the code of Hammurabi. A profession, he explains, rests on three pillars: a common body of expertise, autonomy with exclusion, and a duty of service to the public. By that definition, he argues, not all licensed occupations—such as florists or interior decorators—qualify.

A campaign promise turns into tax code reality—but only for a limited time.Quick Tax TipWith Art WernerCPE TodayOn the latest Quick Tax Tip, tax guru Art Werner unpacks one of the buzziest provisions tucked into the “One Big Beautiful Bill”: the partial exemption of tips from taxation.Click here for more Art WernerDuring their campaigns, both former President Trump and Vice President Harris floated the idea of eliminating taxes on tips. Now, some of that rhetoric has made its way into law—but with caveats that every taxpayer, accountant, and employer in the hospitality sector needs to understand.

Stop reacting. Start Guiding. Move from Historian to Navigator with an AI-powered Business GPS platform purpose-built for growing CPA firm advisory.The traditional advisory model wasn’t built to scale-- 4impactdata changes that.Client Advisory Services at ScaleStart delivering scalable advisory in weeks — not months — with our 5-step implementation process.4ID is purpose-built to embed codified wisdom into your existing workflow — quickly and seamlessly. With our proven 5-step approach, your team can confidently move from insight to action without complexity or disruption.Advisory Beyond Dashboards.Built for What Comes Next. Old School: Dashboards report what happened. New School: We scale your advisory with recommendations. Learn MoreSchedule a Demo

Treating communication as a strategy, not administration, helps firms navigate M&A, private equity, and constant change.MOVE Like ThisWith Bonnie Buol RuszczykFor CPA TrendlinesOn the latest MOVE Like This, host Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk sits down with Alice Grey Harrison of AGH Consulting to talk about the people side of firm transformation. Harrison, a three-decade veteran of strategic communications and change management in the accounting sector, helps firms navigate M&A, private equity, leadership transitions, and system rollouts by focusing on how people experience change.  MORE MOVE Harrison’s central thesis: culture, clearly tied to mission–vision–values, is a growth engine. When people see how their daily work advances firm goals, they give “discretionary energy.” She illustrates this with a pivotal chapter from her big-firm years: after a streak of acquisitions, offices clung to local traditions and bespoke tax methods that trapped capacity. Moving to a true “one firm” model, aligned methodologies, systems, and talent, unlocked scale and accelerated growth that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. 

Stop reacting. Start Guiding. Move from Historian to Navigator with an AI-powered Business GPS platform purpose-built for growing CPA firm advisory.The traditional advisory model wasn’t built to scale-- 4impactdata changes that.Client Advisory Services at ScaleStart delivering scalable advisory in weeks — not months — with our 5-step implementation process.4ID is purpose-built to embed codified wisdom into your existing workflow — quickly and seamlessly. With our proven 5-step approach, your team can confidently move from insight to action without complexity or disruption.Advisory Beyond Dashboards.Built for What Comes Next. Old School: Dashboards report what happened. New School: We scale your advisory with recommendations. Learn MoreSchedule a Demo

From automation to document management, open source solutions can deliver enterprise-level value for free.Quick Tech TalkWith Steve YossCPE TodayWhat if you didn’t have to pay for Adobe Acrobat, Photoshop, or even popular automation platforms like Zapier? What if you could get the same—or even better—functionality for free, while also gaining full control over your data and privacy? That’s the promise of open source software, and it’s more accessible than ever. MORE Steve Yoss here | MORE TECH In the latest episode of Quick Tech Talk, you’ll learn how open source tools are transforming both personal and business technology use. From document management to automation, open source solutions provide cost savings, flexibility, and security—all without the hidden strings of paid SaaS products.Open source software means that the underlying code is publicly available. Anyone can use, modify, or share it. That freedom has given rise to an entire ecosystem of high-quality applications that rival the best-known commercial products.