The Unique CPA

Randy Crabtree is putting his relationships and experience to work for companies he believes can make accounting better. On Episode 294, part two of a special episode of The Unique CPA, he tells Terrell Turner that as he takes on advisory and board roles, he's choosing partners whose passion for the profession goes beyond profit. He explains how those relationships become hands-on work, from regular calls about a company's priorities to introductions that get its people in front of the right audiences. And when organizers ask Randy to build conference panels, he brings some of those partners along. The opportunities are growing, but he's setting limits on travel to make the pace sustainable. Underneath it all is a condition he brings to every partnership: "Be nice and have fun." Randy's next chapter is taking shape around helping others move forward without losing sight of how he wants to work. Get the full show notes and more resources at TheUniqueCPA.com

Randy Crabtree left Tri-Merit after nearly 40 years in the profession, and the shift hit him before he knew it. At Bridging the Gap 2026 in Charlotte, he came to realize he was quietly mourning the loss of a firm he built, without even recognizing the feeling. And yet nine or ten weeks later, people keep telling him he looks younger, so Terrell Turner, Episode 293's host, and Randy, unpack why. On part 1 of this special two-part episode of The Unique CPA, they start with the audience's overwhelming vote to rename the podcast, then trace Randy's path from that sense of loss to genuine excitement about his next phase. Randy urges anyone in the second half of their career to stop riding it out and make the transition from "doer to mentor, to an advisor." He challenges what leaders get wrong about change: they communicate far less than they think, so the people around them feel that gap. His plain message to us all is that we have to better communicate what's going, touching base "100 times" more often than we think we need to, to keep that gap from broadening. Episode 293 also begins with a special announcement about the future of the show – don't miss it! Get the full show notes and more resources at TheUniqueCPA.com

Rob Brown returns on Episode 292 of The Unique CPA to unpack, among many other things, what he calls the "alignment gap," the chasm between decisions made behind closed doors and what the rest of the firm actually sees, feels, and hears. When partners spend months absorbing a deal or preparing for a big change, and all staff get is a 30-minute town hall, panic sets in. Rob identifies three breaks: a time gap, a language gap, and a channel gap. Partners talk capital and succession, but staff rightly ask one question: "What happens to me?" Randy connects this to survey data showing that middle managers have been hit hardest by stress during periods of change, particularly the current one where that change is so rapid. Rob also lays out red flags that leaders miss when managing change: quiet town halls, the "meeting after the meeting," the subtle shift from "we decided" to "leadership has decided," indicating a lack of ownership, and discretionary effort quietly disappearing. And the biggest indicator, turnover, is a lagging indicator, because by the time someone resigns, they lost faith six months ago or a year ago. The fix starts with honesty and goes from there. Get the full show notes and more resources at TheUniqueCPA.com  

Randy and Terrell team up on Episode 291 of The Unique CPA, as each of them sat down with a returning BTG attendee at Bridging the Gap 2026 in Charlotte. Angela Jenkins found the conference through a tip from Nayo Carter-Gray, who told her it was the only accounting conference focused on wellness. She booked it that same day. Angela recalls the yoga room, the speakers who weren't parceled off from attendees, and the boundaries she took back to her remote team, like hours of operation between eight and four and no late-night client conversations. M. Katie Helle, a three-time attendee, tells Terrell why the conference's small size matters for networking, particularly for introverts, and raves about Jennifer Diamond's improv session that peeled back layers accountants rarely show at the office. She also shares the little workflow takeaways she picked up from Al-Nesha Jones' session, which didn't amount to a full overhaul, but rather a few aha moments she could implement the very next week. Get the full show notes and more resources at TheUniqueCPA.com

After 25 years in accounting and finance, Lisa Poslusny discovered that switching careers didn't switch off the pressure. The same overwhelm she felt juggling deadlines and deliverables followed her right into health coaching, which led her to mental fitness. On Episode 290 of The Unique CPA, she explains that mental fitness is not mere positive thinking, but rather, the ability to catch the unhelpful thought patterns that drive automatic reactions. Randy and Lisa dig into how the strengths that make accountants great, like high standards, analytical thinking, having answers for clients, being a trusted advisor, and so forth, can spill over into perfectionism and self-judgment that drain energy without producing better work. Lisa walks through what those patterns look like in real moments, like the accountant who glances at a client email at eight o'clock and feels compelled to respond instantly. But there is a simple alternative: ten seconds of focused attention to shift your brain out of stress mode. Get the full show notes and more resources at TheUniqueCPA.com