Tracey Golden is the new chair of the American Institute of CPAs and the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants. She’s also a CGMA and an audit partner with Deloitte. In her acceptance speech, after her election, she used the COVID-19 crisis as a backdrop for her thoughts on the role CPAs play as trusted advisors who will help lead us on a financial path forward and through this crisis. Here’s what she said: “We are truly living disruption – not incremental change but a ...
Aug 03, 2020•28 min•Ep. 106
Robbie Kellman Baxter has written the book—quite literally—on the Membership Economy and subscription-based business models. This is the way the world is going. In fact, it’s already gone. And it’s only a matter of time before it makes its way into the CPA profession and starts impacting accounting and finance. In some ways, it already is. Robbie recently released a book called “The Forever Transaction: How to Build a Subscription Model So Compelling, Your Customers Will Never Want to Leave.” An...
Jul 27, 2020•37 min•Ep. 105
The work of associations is right in the name: It’s about connections, it’s about relationships, and it’s about networks. These are the things that associations are designed to provide, and this is the time — a time of true crisis — in which those things are more important than ever. To explore all that an association can do, we sit down with Tom Hood, President and CEO of the Maryland Association of CPAs and the Business Learning Institute. He discusses how the work of associations shifted sign...
Jul 20, 2020•31 min•Ep. 104
Mark Koziel has been one of the most prominent voices at the American Institute of CPAs for nearly 15 years. He is executive vice president of firm services for the AICPA and a fixture on Accounting Today’s annual list of the most influential people in the profession. He’s been at the forefront of the profession’s response to the COVID-19 crisis—advocating on behalf of CPAs everywhere when it comes to Paycheck Protection Program loans, the designation as essential workers, and what our clients n...
Jul 13, 2020•28 min•Ep. 103
Inclusion remains a huge problem in our profession. As of 2016, just one percent of CPAs employed by public accounting firms were Black. And 0.3 percent of partners at those firms were black. Meanwhile, roughly 13 percent of our country’s population is Black. And the numbers for other people of color weren’t much better. We want our profession to look like the public it serves, but it isn’t close — and it isn’t making much progress, either. Our guests this week, Avonette Blanding and Kimberly El...
Jun 22, 2020•57 min•Ep. 102
What should we be doing with our money, with our investments, when things are as unpredictable as they’ve been lately? There’s a lot of advice out there — some of it good, some of it bad — and we wanted to speak to someone who knows what he’s talking about to sort it out. Lyle Benson is president of L.K. Benson & Company in Baltimore and a MACPA member who has been at the forefront of advancing planning services for individuals within the profession. He’s served with the AICPA’s Personal Fin...
Jun 08, 2020•27 min•Ep. 101
Daniel Burrus is all about one word: Anticipation. How can we anticipate future trends, how can we spot them early, and learn to take advantage of the opportunities those trends provide us? He has written about this skill in his bestselling book “The Anticipatory Organization.” He has built a learning system that’s designed to help us learn how to become more anticipatory. In spite of all of the anticipatory planning and guidance, we are currently struggling through a period of time that f...
Jun 01, 2020•41 min•Ep. 100
Before the coronavirus, we talked about disruption as something we had time to prepare for — advances in technology, future laws and regulations, and what will happen when all of the Boomers are gone and the Millennials take over for good. These are things we knew were going to happen, but it seemed we had time to prepare for them. David Bray was one of those people talking about disruption. In January, the AICPA brought David in front of its Executive Roundtable in New York City to talk about d...
May 25, 2020•51 min•Ep. 99
We are all facing trying times right now — whether you’re working from home, out of a job, or still working in public in the midst of a pandemic. This is a time when humans need to connect more than ever. We’re going to talk about all of that — how to make sure your teams are holding up, that they’re well, that they’re productive, and that they have all the resources they need in this very difficult environment. Facilitating that conversation is Richard Silberstein, the managing partner of SIG (...
May 05, 2020•32 min•Ep. 98
Emmanuel Gobillot is one of the world’s leading experts on leadership. He’s the best-selling author of a number of great books, including “ Leadershift ,” “ The Connected Leader ,” “ Follow the Leader ,” and “ Unleash Your Leader .” He has also recently co-authored a book specfically for this moment in time: “ Crisis Leadership: Principles and tactics for success when your world turns upside down .” There aren’t many leaders out there who can help their teams grow and thrive and feel more capabl...
Apr 29, 2020•38 min•Ep. 97
Lack of self-confidence is a key reason why many of us don’t get what we want — that promotion, that raise, that speaking gig. Our guests this week are trying to change all of that. They are Kate Boorer and Fiona Pearman, two leading Australian business experts who have joined forces to write a book aimed at helping people “own their talents, face their fears, and create their futures.” That’s the sub-head of their extraordinary book Core Confidence . We discuss why that happens, and what ...
Apr 20, 2020•43 min•Ep. 96
This week we’re talking about the Paycheck Protection Program. A provision of the CARES Act — the massive coronavirus relief bill that was signed into law on March 27 — the PPP is a loan that’s designed to be an incentive for small businesses to keep their workers on the payroll. We know some of our listeners may be applying for it, and if you are, you probably have a few questions. So we sat down for a conversation with two people who can help put this all into proper context. Erik Asgeirsson i...
Apr 14, 2020•39 min•Ep. 95
The world has been slowly transitioning towards remote work, but we are suddenly in an era where many of us have been forced to adopt remote work practices in a very short time. Some of us weren’t ready for this, and we could all use a little guidance in making the leap. Here to help us through that is Greg Rittler, the founder of Blue Ocean Ideas. We learn what it takes to lead a fully-remote team like this under very difficult circumstances, and he has some great insights into how to lead a re...
Apr 13, 2020•28 min•Ep. 94
Amidst all the chaos of the coronavirus, we are all trying to maintain some semblance of normalcy in our day-to-day lives. One way people are trying to maintain as much of the status quo as possible is through remote work. Our guest this week, Tina Garza, has some great guidance for businesses and employees alike when it comes to working remotely and returning to business as usual. To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog . Resources: Accountingprose.com linkedin....
Mar 23, 2020•34 min•Ep. 93
The coronavirus has caught everyone’s attention, and not in a good way. Most of what you read out there largely falls somewhere between paranoia and panic and — given the reliability of the “news” we see in our social feeds — that’s not good for anybody. Jennifer Elder of the Business Learning Institute has compiled a list of questions that business leaders can use to help their organizations prepare for the potential impact of the coronavirus. And now is the best time to do it because things ar...
Mar 16, 2020•38 min•Ep. 92
When you’re talking about life in an exponential age, there are few skills that are as important as anticipation — the ability to spot future trends early, before they become truly disruptive, and take advantage of the opportunities they offer. One person who truly understands the importance of anticipation is our guest today, Rita McGrath. Rita is a longtime professor at Columbia Business School and a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review. She’s considered one of the world’s top expert...
Mar 02, 2020•37 min•Ep. 91
Bots are the name of the game this week. They are all the rage, and they’re setting their sights on the accounting and finance world. No one knows that more than our guest this week. Jody Padar built her “Radical CPA” brand as chief executive officer of New Vision CPA Group near Chicago. But then, in January she was named vice president of strategy for Botkeeper. We ask Jody about the potential of bots to transform this profession. As a future-focused accounting and finance professional, this is...
Feb 24, 2020•30 min•Ep. 90
When we had a whole show highlighting blockchain last year, the hype around it was sky-high. It was supposed to transform our profession and, in fact, many professions. It seemed like there was no problem that couldn’t potentially be solved through the use of blockchain technology. Now, things have cooled off a bit, but people in our profession are still very interested in how blockchain might transform what we do. Keith Nichols, General Manager for small to mid-size firms with Thomson Reuters, ...
Feb 17, 2020•31 min•Ep. 89
We spend a lot of time talking about exponential technologies and the disruptive impact they’re having on our world — but today’s guest turns the tables on the mindset and focuses, instead, on the importance of exponential thinking . Jeffrey Rogers is the Principal Facilitator at Singularity University , which is a global learning and innovation community that uses exponential technologies to tackle the world’s biggest challenges. To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blion...
Feb 10, 2020•55 min•Ep. 88
In this episode, we’re talking about innovation in CPA firms — and, no, this isn’t the punchline to a knock-knock joke. It’s happening, believe it or not, and on a pretty serious scale. Joining us to about it is none other than Jonathan Kraftchick. Jonathan is the partner of assurance services in the Raleigh office of Cherry Bekaert, where he is known (informally) as the firm’s Innovation Partner and heads up the firm’s Innovation Team. Jonathan has some great insights into what innovation...
Feb 04, 2020•34 min•Ep. 87
We spent last week talking about federal tax issues that you might need to know about as we head into this year’s Busy Season. This week, we’re going to do the same thing — but on the state tax side of the ledger. So we sit down with Peter Franchot, comptroller for the state of Maryland. We also asked some of our MACPA members what questions they have for the comptroller, and we got a ton of responses. We were able to ask a few in this episode, but we hope to share answers to even more of your q...
Jan 20, 2020•20 min•Ep. 86
Settle in and relax, folks, because this might be your last chance to chill until April. Yeah, tax season is here. And yeah, you’re probably going to be busy — but today’s episode just might help. Our guest is Cari Weston, director of tax practice and ethics for the American Institute of CPAs. She down with our host, Bill Sheridan, at the 2019 Digital CPA Conference to talk about the issues that will be impacting tax pros in 2020. This year, for a change, those issues go well beyond the Tax Cuts...
Jan 13, 2020•32 min•Ep. 85
Given the latest research within the profession — see our recent conversation with Lexy Kessler for details on all of that — there’s one thing that most accounting and finance professionals are thinking about: talent. How to find talent, how to keep it, and how to figure out what the best talent wants in the first place. This last bit is really important, too, because what younger generations want is often different from what the older generations wanted. To learn more about this generatio...
Jan 06, 2020•30 min•Ep. 84
This episode releases on the cusp of a new year — so, if you’re reading this in 2019, we want to wish you a very happy, healthy, and prosperous 2020. Here’s to you and yours. Of course, with the new year comes New Year’s resolutions, and there’s one resolution that all accounting and finance professionals (and, really, most people) can benefit from: becoming a better delegator. So we sit down with Emily Morgan, the mastermind behind a group called Delegate Solutions, which offers premium-le...
Dec 30, 2019•29 min•Ep. 83
Client Accounting Services (CAS) are the services that CPAs provide because clients can’t do them, don’t want to do them, or just aren’t good at doing them. It’s that full-menu offering of taking over many of a client’s routine internal accounting chores. The popularity of these services is growing, too — to the extent that a lot of people in the accounting and finance profession consider CAS to be a new line of business, something they need to start exploring to keep up with the competiti...
Dec 23, 2019•50 min•Ep. 82
Today’s episode puts the P in CPA — because we’re talking about public practice! What is going on with CPA firms these days, anyway? Quite a bit, as it turns out. The world is changing, and with every change that the world experiences these days, the folks who work at CPA firms seem to get a double dose of it. They have to figure out how to embrace these changes and disruptions inside their own firms, but at the same time, they have to help their clients figure out what to do about all of this c...
Dec 16, 2019•35 min•Ep. 81
Today we’re asking an important question that every industry is going to have to ask sooner or later: What does future-focused leadership look like? Our guest, Rachel Druckenmiller, is on a mission to humanize the workplace by igniting intentional leadership. She has made a name for herself nationally in the fields of workplace wellness and culture. In 2019, she was recognized as a 40 Under 40 Game Changer by Workforce Magazine, and in 2018, Employ Humanity named her one of “7 Wellness Leaders M...
Dec 09, 2019•34 min•Ep. 80
So you know Simon Sinek? Best-selling author, leadership expert, the people-don’t-buy-what-you-do-they-buy-why-you-do-it guy? Well, he has a new book titled The Infinite Game and our host, Bill Sheridan, has become a bit obsessed with this notion of playing the Infinite Game, of adopting an infinite mindset. So we sat down with Stephen Shedletzky, chief of staff with Simon Sinek’s team at Start With Why. He supports leaders in creating environments where their people feel inspired to go to work,...
Dec 02, 2019•31 min•Ep. 79
Back in episode 66 , we spoke with Matt Loeb about digital transformation, and he brought up a great point — just because you’re enacting some digital solutions doesn’t make you a digital organization. There’s a difference between doing digital and being digital, which is about culture and mindset more than anything else. Jeanne Ross is a principal research scientist at the MIT Sloan Research Center for Information Systems Research and co-author of a new book titled Designed for Digital: Ho...
Nov 25, 2019•35 min•Ep. 78
Today’s episode focuses on something a little different. Not the technology that’s going to prepare us for the future, not the hard trends that will affect change in the future, and not why we should stop panicking about AI putting all auditors out of work. Today, we’re talking about joy. Because our guest is Richard Sheridan, co-founder and CEO of Menlo Innovations (and of no relation to our host Bill Sheridan), has written two books on the topic: Joy, Inc.: How We Built a Workplace People Love...
Nov 18, 2019•40 min•Ep. 77
