Tim Sinclair is the Industry Consulting Director at the accounting firm WebsterRogers, and he has worked with more than 350 companies across the U.S. and in a variety of industries. He is passionate about helping business leaders advance and grow their companies so they can, in turn, improve the lives of their employees and their local economy. We discuss the skills you need to develop a business, how he helps the team at WebsterRogers sharpen their business development skills, and the role impr...
Dec 25, 2017•47 min•Ep. 82
Jerry L. Esselstein specializes in strategic planning, implementation strategies, personnel development, and performance measurement for private company owners, executives, and other senior management groups. Jerry has an extensive leadership background, and our conversation focuses on the critical leadership skills needed in the modern business landscape. Although we are discussing the future of the accounting profession, you don’t need to be an accountant to enjoy this episode because this inf...
Dec 18, 2017•41 min•Ep. 81
Boyd Search is the President & CEO of the Georgia Society of CPAs. Our conversation centers around how he approached changing the organization’s corporate culture, and the impact that the George Society is making on its members, associates, and the profession. On Boyd’s first day as CEO of the Georgia Society almost seven years ago, I was actually his first new paying member – and I am still a member because his changes haven’t ticked me off yet! So how (and why) is Boyd transforming the cul...
Dec 11, 2017•51 min•Ep. 80
Ryan Parker is the President & CEO of Endicott Clay Products and the newly installed chair of the Nebraska Society of CPA’s executive board. Our conversation focuses on the process of adding value to your organization as you grow your career, what you should be thinking about if you aspire to be a leader within your organization, and the challenges of replacing a seasoned CEO. How can you add value to an organization & grow as a leader? Some work is necessary, but doesn’t add value. “Whe...
Dec 04, 2017•53 min•Ep. 79
Jay Sukow believes that the world would be a better place if everyone took just one improv class – and I agree! Jay is trying to make that world a reality as the Founder of Today Improv, where he teaches improv to actors, businesses, and everyone else all over the world. Jay is also on faculty at M.i.’s Westside Comedy Theater and The Second City Hollywood, and co-host of the ImprovCast with Jay and Landon. In the 80’s and 90’s, there wasn’t a lot of understanding about what improv was. However,...
Nov 27, 2017•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 78
Colin Blalock, a shareholder with Jones and Kolb, is a CPA with a very unique set of skills: Colin has developed a talent for understanding the nonverbal messages that people are saying. That's right – He has developed the ability to read body language, and he has delivered a number of conference presentations on this topic. The importance of reading body language is underscored when you understand how people are interpreting your message: 7 percent is what you say, 38 percent is how you say it ...
Nov 20, 2017•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 77
Dr. David Brobeck (AKA The Problem-Solving Professor) is a professional speaker and a professor of graduate education at Walsh University. His current academic focus is researching various means to enhancing teaching and learning based on neuroscience. Regardless of the endeavor, David believes learning should be fun – and I agree! In this interview, Dr. Brobeck shares tips and techniques we can use to make learning fun in order to increase the audience member retention rate, whether we’re prese...
Nov 13, 2017•48 min•Ep. 76
What do a cow, a snapping turtle, and a goat have in common? Ohio State Football (really, we’re not kidding)! This is just one of the fascinating anecdotes you’ll find in the new book Buckeye Reflections: Legendary Moments from Ohio State Football. We’ve talked to both Jack Park and Maureen Zappala on previous episodes of the podcast (episode 13 and episode 39, respectively), but today they’re joining us together to discuss their two-and-a-half year journey co-writing Buckeye Reflections. Even i...
Nov 06, 2017•42 min•Ep. 75
Jennifer Briggs is currently the Senior Vice President and COO of the Indiana CPA Society, and she will be the CEO of the society beginning January 1, 2018. On July 1st, 2017, the state of Indiana signed House Bill 1467 into law, which “allows competency based learning through professional development opportunities to qualify accountants for accountant certificate renewal.” This all began years ago, around 2010, when the Indiana society created a board-level task force on knowledge management. J...
Oct 30, 2017•55 min•Ep. 74
Dr. Alan Patterson is the Founder of Mentoré, a consulting practice specializing in leadership and organizational development, and a thought leader at the Business Learning Institute. Dr. Patterson also wrote Leader Evolution: From Technical Expertise to Strategic Leadership, which defines the four critical stages needed by individuals with technical or specialist backgrounds to move into leadership positions. “So what can I say? I'm a lone ranger. Hired gun. You need help? The doctor is in.” –D...
Oct 23, 2017•50 min•Ep. 73
Only 8 percent of CPAs believe that the profession is future ready, according to CPA.com’s study Welcome to the Fast Future. This is a rather concerning statistic because the future is coming, and it might be closer than you think. Bill Sheridan, Chief Communication Officer at the MACPA, is on the front lines trying to prepare CPAs for the future, and he recently published a new white paper that every CPA should read: Human Work in the Ages of Machines: Five Steps for Building a Future-Ready Fin...
Oct 16, 2017•48 min•Ep. 72
We’re doing something a little different today: Peter shares his favorite places to eat all over the country. He was inspired by former guest Clarke Price, who keeps a record of every restaurant he visits and often suggests new places for Peter to try. New Orleans: Gump Shop - GumboShop.com Mr. B's Bistro - MrBsBistro.com The Pelican Club - PelicanClub.com K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen - KPauls.com Drago's Seafood Restaurant - DragosRestaurant.com The Greater Baltimore Area: Cunningham’s - Cunningh...
Oct 09, 2017•34 min•Ep. 71
Annie Conderacci is a change management consultant and a passionate student of improv. She studied and performed improv at The Second City, Annoyance Theater, and IO Chicago, and she performs improv and sketch all around the city. As a change and management consultant, Annie frequently uses her improv skills to facilitate growth and positive change in organizations. Throughout the interview, she does an outstanding job of describing how improv can be applied to business, and discusses how you ca...
Oct 02, 2017•57 min•Ep. 70
Byron Patrick, Managing Director of CPA practice at Network Alliance, is a nationally-known industry thought leader and a multi-recipient of the CPA Practice Advisor's 40 Under 40 award. Byron has been an active member of the Maryland Association of CPAs since the beginning of his career, and he credits much of his professional success to the support and membership of the MACPA. Personally, I know I wouldn’t be where where I am today without my local association, and I wholeheartedly agree with ...
Sep 25, 2017•51 min•Ep. 69
We’re talking to returning guest Greg Conderacci, the energy management expert who wrote Getting Up!: Supercharging Your Energy and, at the age of 66, rode his bicycle across the United States in just 18 days. In Getting Up!, Greg writes about the important difference between time management and energy management. Doing more, and living a happier life, isn’t about having more time – It's all about having more energy. We don't get any more time, but we can all get way more energy. Throughout this...
Sep 18, 2017•51 min•Ep. 68
Tom Hood, CEO of the Maryland Association of CPAs and the Business Learning Institute, is on a mission to help CPAs make sense of this changing and complex world. Tom and I spoke on the third episode of this podcast, in June of 2016, and a lot has changed in that short period of time. We discuss how technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing are impacting the accounting profession (and the world), and how CPAs can begin transforming themselves into Anticipatory CP...
Sep 11, 2017•50 min•Ep. 67
Karen Eddington is a comedian, speaker, researcher, and the author of Understanding Self-Worth. She uses her experience in stand-up comedy and improv to teach laughter as a form of self-care. For 15 years, Karen has researched identity to look for patterns and create original solutions that help people “Under Pressure.” Although The Under Pressure Project started as an effort to understand the biggest pressures faced by teens, it has grown into a mission to heal the most universal and dangerous ...
Sep 04, 2017•48 min•Ep. 66
Debbie Peterson is a certified trainer of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and mindset expert who works with companies to increase bottom line results through greater clarity in communication and in leadership. We discuss how you can change the story that you’re telling yourself to transform negative self-talk into a positive thought process. We all suffer from this, at times, but Debbie provides proven strategies that will help change the dialogue in your head. Neuro-linguistic Programming On...
Aug 28, 2017•51 min•Ep. 65
Chris Shirer describes herself as a devoted champion of all things food, beverage, and guest experience… and she got my attention at “food!” Chris is the Founder of two companies: Madison + Fifth, a marketing agency, and the recently-launched JoinMyTable, a new platform for prepaid group dining created to encourage community and increase our time spent in real world conversation. JoinMyTable is a fascinating and unique concept: people who want to go out for dinner can pre-purchase off-the-menu d...
Aug 21, 2017•45 min•Ep. 64
Bob Dean, Founder of Dean Learning and Talent Advisors, returns to the show to talk more about virtual learning. Our conversation is framed around ThinkTank, collaboration, and an article that we wrote titled “The New CPE: Collaborative Learning Experiences.” Bob works as a practitioner consultant using ThinkTank, a collaboration-as-a-service software company. By providing a collaborative structure to the way people work together, ThinkTank enables leaders to transform business processes and cre...
Aug 14, 2017•45 min•Ep. 63
Today our guest is Patrick Donadio, MBA, CSP, and MCC. For the past three decades, he has guided leaders and their organizations with powerful presentations and one-on-one business communications coaching. In his desire to help leaders grow their people, Patrick has taken his decades of experience and crafted a results-based process for his new leader’s guide, Communicating with IMPACT, focused on improving communication, increasing profits, and boosting performance in less time. Patrick’s proce...
Aug 07, 2017•58 min•Ep. 62
Chris Jenkins, CEO of the South Carolina Associations of CPAs, joins us today to discuss how you can better engage an audience of any size when you are speaking, and to discuss how we can improve association management. Although Chris is a technology guy – we originally met when he served as the Chief Information Officer at the Ohio Society – he believes that Associations, and business professionals in general, are relying on technology far too much, and using it improperly. Professional organiz...
Jul 31, 2017•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 61
Today’s returning guest, Karl Ahlrichs, is a human capitalist consultant and a far-thinking and future-planning individual. Back in episode five, we discussed some of the storms he sees coming on the horizon, particularly where HR and the next generations of employees meet. In this episode, we once again look to the future of human resources. Although our current economy is far greater now than it's been in a while, Karl sees quite a few potential problems on the horizon that we need to be bette...
Jul 17, 2017•49 min•Ep. 59
Today’s interview is love at first improv. Allison Estep is a former Creative Services Associate for the Indiana Society of CPAs and a graduate of the conservatory program at Second City in Chicago. Our conversation focuses on the everyday application of improvisation skills to help us combat fear, take risks, work as a team, and become a more well-rounded person. Allison strongly believes that every person should take an improv course at some point in their life – it’s simply a great way to lea...
Jul 10, 2017•51 min•Ep. 58
Today’s guest, Jason Michaels, is a professional entertainer, speaker, and author with astounding experience in the arts of deception. A storyteller by heart, Jason loves to blend impossible mysteries with unforgettable tales. Diagnosed with Tourette's Syndrome at the age of six, Jason overcame the impossible and became an award-winning sleight of hand artist and professional speaker. He motivates audiences to see beyond their challenges and self-imposed limitations and inspires them to take act...
Jul 03, 2017•47 min•Ep. 57
In this episode we are talking to Clarke Price, a retired CEO of the Ohio Society of CPAs and the very first guest on this podcast one year ago. We discuss how the prevalence of social media (and the decline of respectful debate) creates new challenges for leaders and we provide suggestions on how you can overcome these challenges to provide strong leadership in your organization. The Ohio Society’s record of innovative leadership during Clarke’s tenure was recognized by the American Society of ...
Jun 26, 2017•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 56
Today we’re pulling back the curtain to reveal the Wizard of Pod(casts), Cody Boyce, Founder of Podcast Masters. Cody and his team produce podcasts for entrepreneurs, small businesses, and other organizations that want to create brand authority, connect with an audience, and sound great doing it… including this one! We discuss why podcasts are a powerful medium, for both hosts and listeners, and how the industry is likely to change over the next few months. One of the most important pieces of po...
Jun 19, 2017•46 min•Ep. 55
Today's guest is Allen Lloyd, the new CEO of the Montana Society of CPA's and the former Senior Manager of the Board of Executive Operations at the Ohio Society of CPA's. In this interview, you will learn how Allen employed principles of improvisation to build trust, create new opportunities, learn new skills, and grow as a leader. We also have some fun (and learn a little bit more about two-way communication) by playing an improv game! You can find instructions to play that game with your team ...
Jun 12, 2017•52 min•Ep. 54
Today’s episode is about something very close to me: diagnosing, managing, and informing others about Diabetes. I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes later in life, and my son was diagnosed at the age of 16. We were lucky that I was paying attention, knew the symptoms, and took action quickly… but everyone isn’t that lucky. Cathy Paessun, Executive Director for the Central Ohio Diabetes Association and former Executive Director of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, is on the show to discu...
Jun 05, 2017•37 min•Ep. 53
Today’s returning guest is Gregory Lainas, Senior Vice President and Division Director of Robert Half Management Services, a division of Robert Half International. Greg is an incredible networker – so good, in fact, that he networked his way into the novel Flashback and was the first person in the history of Robert Half to obtain $20 million in gross margin – and this interview is packed with helpful tips and stories about networking for business development. When we say networking, many of you ...
May 29, 2017•53 min•Ep. 52
