Hi, Randy Crabtree here. Before we start today's episode, I just wanted to give you a quick update. The Bridging the Gap Conference is coming up soon, July 22nd, 23rd, and 24th in Rosemont, Illinois. I want to thank our sponsors, our Diamond sponsor, which is FreshBooks, and our Platinum sponsors, Rateworks, and Intuit. We couldn't do this conference without their support, so I want to thank them tremendously.
And ask you to go visit their website so you can get more information and help us support them. And now on to the episode. Hello and welcome to the Unique CPA with special host Rob Brown of the Accounting Influencers podcast. In this series of Bonus Friday episodes, Rob will be interviewing major voices in the accounting profession that will be appearing at the Bridging the Gap Conference 2024, scheduled for July 22nd to 24th in Rosemont, Illinois.
We thank Rob for his collaboration and hope you enjoy the show. Hello, you wonderful accounting world. This is Rob Brown, host of the Accounting Influencers podcast. I am here on behalf of Randy Crabtree and the Tri-Merit team who are running Bridging the Gap. It's one of the go-to events in the accounting calendar, and I'm here with four of the distinguished speakers, who are going to be on the podium sharing their insights with you, the audience at this very special event.
We're going to interview them, find out what they're talking about, find out where they're going. I'm going to let them do a little introduction, just so you know who we've got on the roster here. Chad, can I start with you? Just tell the audience watching and listening what you do, sir. Sure. We own a CPA firm in Canada. That's the most exciting thing about me. Not. When it comes to living life, I follow Roman's philosophy of full sense.
That's why I am on lovely Vancouver Island this week as we travel across North America with our family and our RV going into our seventh year. Wow. And isn't that part of life? Not just working hard, but playing hard, having a little bit of downtime to do the things that are important. We love that, Chad, and great to get your perspective because you're on the front line. You are a CPA. You're an accountant. You run a firm, so you have a particular perspective. Roman, you are next on my screen.
A little introduction, sir, please. Yeah. So quick introduction for me. My name is Roman Villar. The best way to describe my life right now is that I'm a father of a three-year-old boy, a two-year-old business, and an eight-month-old daughter. On the work front, I run a company called FullSend Finance, an accounting and data consultancy focused for growth stage businesses. That's nicely done. I'm a father of two daughters.
When I talk to people that have daughters, I ask them the question, what is your best advice on bringing up a daughter? And the best wisdom I ever got was to keep your mouth shut and your wallet open. So you've got it all to come, Roman. Alisha, lovely to have you with us. Please tell us who you are, what you do. Yes, I'm Alisha. I'm also a CPA and I run an accounting, tax and advisory firm right here in New Jersey. I think I have you all beat for now.
I have three children, two daughters, and one son. My children are eight, 10, and 12, so I like to say I have three kids, two pets, and only one spouse. That's all I've got capacity for at the moment. That's all you need. One spouse is more than enough. Fabulous. Hithendra, you and I go way back. Tell the audience what you're all about, Seth, please.
My name is Hithendra Patil and I lead the global offshore outsourcing business of Datamatics Business Solutions and we sell exclusively to CPA firms, only not to their clients directly. I also happen to be one of the top 100 most influential people in accounting as recognized for the last seven years and I wrote three different books exclusively for accountants.
And I'm in your neck of the woods now, so I'm going to be going on the London Eye and people say I have an eye for accountants, so here I am. Nicely done, Hithendra. Thank you. Yes, you're in London for AccountX, which is one of the biggest events in the world. Over two days, there will be 10,000, 12,000 accounting types descending on a big arena in London. So we're talking about the second annual Bridge in the Gap conference, it's July 22nd to the 24th. You four are all speaking there.
Chad, you've addressed many stages in the past and there are many events in the calendar year. What stands out for this event for you? Why have you chosen to participate? One reason is because I don't get judged when I wear shorts and a t-shirt on the presentation panel. That's nice. It's a huge, huge reason to pick a conference these days. If you're speaking in the UK, though, you've got to wear a pinstripe suit and a bowler hat. As long as they buy it for me, tailor it, I'm okay.
It's a different style of event, Chad, isn't it? Bridge in the Gap. It is. And I know there's a lot to go around, so I won't steal from the other participants, but it's the one event I look forward to every year. Anisha, you're a CPA, you're on the front line, you're busy running a business, running a family, but you're taking some time to speak here. What attracts you about this event? I love the focus on mental health. I feel like we just don't talk about it enough.
And I started my career in Big Four accounting, where I kind of felt pushed out when I became a mom, that there really wasn't space for me anymore. So I love that they've taken a big initiative on focusing on the mental health and overall well-being and finding success on your own terms. That's super important to me, and I think it's really important to other accountants in our field.
We're going to change the industry by changing sort of how we work and how we find space for all the things that bring us joy. That's a great point. Randy Crabtree and his team are very big on the mental well-being side of things, and they'll be prioritizing at the conference, so hence giving you some podium time to talk about that. He turned to you, Grace, many stages. You could be speaking anywhere, but you prioritized Bridge in the Gap this year. What attracts you about the event?
A couple of real key things here. One is the name of the conference itself is a very directive kind of a thing. You need to bridge the gap. As a participant in the profession, when I see the dots not connecting, I know there is a gap, and I try my level best to research wherever I can and bridge that gap. So it was a natural thing for me to be there. The second thing is Randy and his team have been focusing on this mental health challenges and things like that.
I've been working with accountants for 25, 30 years now, and I've seen the kind of sanity loss during those peak seasons and whatnot. And that's where precisely I fit in in terms of what business I'm leading right now with the solution that we provide for overcoming the capacity crunch is also giving the talented people in the profession their sanity back. So it all worked out very well for me. I'm going to ask you all in a moment exactly what you're speaking about.
Roman, for you, you occupy a number of spaces in this world, and you've got a lot of things you could talk about, a lot of stages you could grace. What attracts you here? Yeah, so last year, the first annual year of the conference, I sat in one of Chad's sessions, and he won't brag on himself a bit, but it's one of the most impactful sessions that I've learned from and remember to this day out of all of the conferences that I attended last year.
So the caliber of content that exists is top notch. The other side is really the intimate connections. It's a little bit of a smaller conference, yet the quality of the individuals that attend is bar none the highest concentration of any conference. And that intimate venue, the smaller number of attendees, I think provides a really good environment to be able to really dive into relationships, build connections and help you solve problems. That's a good point, Alnesha, isn't it?
We go to these events, we suck up a huge amount of information, we come back and we feel overwhelmed and the inbox is full and it's back to business as usual, and you really don't have time to do anything. But hopefully with an event like Bridging the Gap, we can learn some new stuff and apply it to make us better, right? Yep. Agreed. I try to block some time off after every event I go to, and I don't like to overwhelm myself with events.
I don't go to 50 events a year, but for every event I go to, I block that next week. So I immediately have implementation time, otherwise it just sort of evaporates into the universe until I hear it again and I'm like, that's a great idea, I should try that. So I find that to be a great way to get it all in. Chad, you're very plain speaking. There's a lot of bull out there, isn't there?
There's a lot of myths that need busting and everyone's telling you they have this silver bullet, they have their answers. The roster at Bridging the Gap, it's stuff that works. It's also vulnerable. I think Robin hit it right on the head when he said that it's intimate, it's small enough where you can create the right connections. And to that point, people will call you out if it does not sound genuine. People will not go to your session if it's not genuine.
People will not connect with you afterwards if it's not genuine. And when I mentioned this is what I look forward to, it's because you can really peel back the layers of what's not working, commensurate and brainstorm and come up with some really great ideas for your specific situation over a deep dish pizza. What's better than that? And Robin, we monitor the influencer space here at the Accounting Influencers Roundtable.
We have a database of four or five thousand people that are out there speaking into and around the accounting profession. There's a lot of hot air, there's a lot of misinformation, there's a lot of fake news and there's a lot of people that haven't done it. They've just regurgitated stuff. But the speaking panels and what's going on at Bridging the Gap, these are the real deal.
These are authentic people that lived it, breathed it, got the battle scars faced down in the mud with arrows in the back for having tried things. That's the world you come from, isn't it? It is. And I recall a session last year, you know, that there's one element of talking about the challenges that we face as firm runners and trying to navigate through that
world. Then there's the community aspect where in this particular session, it was mourning the loss of a friend in the industry and and the way in which the community rallied around supporting this individual's family, the firm, and seeing that really come to life through that session, talking about that experience, I feel like really enabled that authenticity that Chad's talking about and enabled further connectivity to understand like this is far greater than just people that we're going
to to solve our firm's problems. You can reach into many depths of relationships through this context. And it's a it's powerful. Yeah. Hey, Chandra, just finally on this, before we go into the detail of your talks, you're an acknowledged influencer, you're a published author, you've spoken a lot of events. Influence is a currency. Some people have it, some people don't, some people earn it, some don't.
How do you cut through the hype to find out somebody that is the real deal that you will go and watch and pay to be in the audience of? And I think the simplest thing that I look for is whatever they express as the audience is going to get from it. And I'm going to go back and say, can I implement that? Can I see an impact of that on my business or my practice? If I cannot figure out, I'm not going there. So influence is of no use unless the influence results in a measurable impact.
So I think that's my currency. Well, let's talk about what you will be speaking about the event. Roman, give us an outline of your talk and maybe two or three of the key takeaways that people will go away with. Yeah. So one of my sessions is on building a next generation culture, particularly focused around Gen Z, how have shifts occurred from the generational changes that occur in business succession planning? How do you attract and retain talent in this next generation?
What are those elements of culture that need to be present? And that's beyond just the value word cloud that's on the wall. It's how tactically do you create connectivity from your brand, your mission, your values to this up and coming generation of leaders in the accounting space? And so I'm really excited to chat about how changes are occurring in firm culture in order to stay relevant with the next generation. So that's one session that I'm giving.
And then I have another session with Chad Davis on EOS. Chad Davis, I've heard that name somewhere. He's an influencer, isn't he? Tell us what your session is. It sounds like you're also running multiple sessions. Yeah, I'm really lucky to be trusted with two just like Roman. And the EOS panel is what I'm really excited about, because... EOS, sorry, just for the benefit of the audience, Chad, let's not talk sharp. EOS? Sure. It's all the fad right now.
It is entrepreneurial operating system or entrepreneurial operating system. And what will happen during that session is we'll just share the journey. There's a lot of different ways of going about implementing this, the structure inside of your company, and there's no right or wrong way to do it. I mean, if you ask EOS, there's a wrong way to do it. But I think when you're amongst friends, it's OK to decide what's working and what's not working.
And that's what this discussion is really going to lean into. But the reason I'm excited is because for the last eight years, almost every presentation that we've given sort of publicly has had one slide on it that has, you know, three three words. Like work is greater than the greater than sign. And life is greater than work. Freudian slip there. And we've designed our company around that philosophy that people are here for a means to have an actual life.
Some gain a lot of value from being at work and sharpening skills and making connections. But ultimately, you know, we all started with family and kids. That's what life is about to me, too. And that's the culture we're trying to bring. And we've we've implemented EOS with that philosophy. And I'd like to share that with Roman. The second session is my pet passion and hobby. And it's heavily influenced by Roman, actually.
He provided some incredible feedback last year that said, hey, the tactical nature of walking through automation and AI builds in an accounting firm actually helped me and not even a week later. Roman came back with this complicated Google script that he built for a really cool integration with Slack. And he said it was because of that session.
So I'm hoping that by, you know, actually creating one live using maybe an audience's idea and not being incredibly structured and planned out just to show someone how I think about walking through an automation build and then actually doing it inside of an hour will be right up the alley of, hey, this is authentic. It's not all going to go perfect, but it is going to show people this is how you think about it. This is the tools you use.
This is how the output will look like and how it can all be done in under an hour. That's terrific. And there are some accounting types that will be geeking out and loving that very precise, prescriptive nature of how do you look under the hood, if you like, and and see how things really, really work. So in contrast to that, Alisha, it sounds like you're going to be concentrating on the softer brain, mind, emotion side of things.
Tell us a little bit about your session and what people will take away. Yeah, I'm really excited because I don't get the opportunity. I feel often enough to talk about the softer side of things, but I'll be touching on the mental and physical overall health that you need to maintain in order to run a strong and sustainable firm. I think we talk a lot about the skill set and the talent you need to run a business.
But quite honestly, if you're all burned out, you're not running a successful business in the least bit. And having worked in a big four firm and having worked for a Fortune 100 company before starting my own firm, I know exactly what that looks like. And I vowed not to be back there. So I want to share some things to be considering on how to prioritize the biggest asset you have in your business, which is you and how you protect that so that you can be more sustainable.
And I also have the pleasure of co-hosting the award ceremony, which I'm really excited for as well. I don't know if I'm a co-host, but I'm pretty cool and funny. So I'm hoping that gets me by. You got it. You signed up. That's terrific. And I hope in your talk, you mentioned protection there. We don't protect our own time enough and our own sanity. Say no to things. Accountants are wonderful people. They are servant hearted. They do want to make a difference.
They do want to serve their clients. They've got very noble aims. But we hear a lot about stress and overload and overwhelm. And you guys are all on the front line and saying no to stuff in the right way is a very big part of protecting that mental health. So I'm sure that will come out, Alnisha. Hitendra, what will you be speaking about at Bridging the Gap? Yeah, I'm speaking on the Epic talent shortage in the U.S. specifically, but I see that's happening everywhere.
And there's data that will back those numbers right from census and labor department, all that stuff. The natural reaction to that is one, which was a big surprise to me when I ran a research survey with accountants, hundreds of responses, and 40 percent of them said, we're turning away new clients because we just don't have staff to handle all of that. And the second is now there's no talent around. So look for the talent everywhere.
And which is actually a good thing, because after the pandemic, we're working from home. Everybody kind of recognized first hand that work can be done from anywhere. So now you have talent right there at your office or wherever they are. And you put them in the back room, not in front of your clients, is not a good solution. Instead, leverage the talent from anywhere in the world. Make sure your clients are getting the best of your brains, right? And your experience and expertise.
So we make that happen. But at the same time, there is so much to look at. There's too much choice in the market. You don't know how to evaluate outsourcing providers, there are horror stories out there. And I come from right within that world. And I'm going to disclose what I call the insider truth on every single thing. OK. And which is what is not marketing speak. You will know whether this is the right thing for you or not. And if not, how do you make it right for you?
What care you should take, what risk you should manage and things like that. There's a lot of on ground practical insights that I'm going to be sharing so that if you feel that you want to go that route, you want to grow your firm without losing your sanity, without overworking yourself. There is a big choice out there. How the heck do you best leverage it? That's what I'm going to share. That's great. One of my shows is the Accounting Talent podcast, and we do discuss things like that.
It's very much a hot topic and will be for many, many years. A couple more questions for all of you. And Chad, I'll start with you on this one. You've been to many conferences. Accountants are time poor, just like everyone else. What advice would you give for people taking a few days out an event like this? It's out of the office. You really want to make it count. They're going to meet a lot of people. They're going to take in a lot of information.
There's ways to completely waste a few days and come back and think I spent all that time and all that money and what have I got to prove for it? Where's my ROI? So what would be your one tip that you would give to people that are going or thinking about going to make the best from an event like Bridging the Gap? Fair question. I believe that if you're open to friendship, I think this is the conference where you just might meet a really good friend. And who doesn't need a good friend?
Who doesn't need a good friend? So we'll keep it short because there's a lot, there's lots to go around, but I'll leave it there is that I go to this conference to hang out with my friends, to think about the industry in a different way and just to get exposed to new ideas and it's in such a small intimate place that those types of friendships are easier to make and I believe that's the reason why a lot of other people come as well.
Yeah, and not just deepening your existing relationships, but making some new friends as well. That's what this is all about. It's a lonely game, particularly at the top. So having champions and advocates, people in your corner, it's a really important part of it, so that's a wonderful notion. He turned to what about you? What tip would you give to people watching this to get the most out of an event like Bridging the Gap?
You know, when I was four years old, my dad once told me, look, the sky is yellow and I look up and say, no, the sky is blue. No, it is yellow. So no, you're lying to that. And then they put that yellow glasses on my eyes and I say, yeah, it is yellow. Right? So what I tell people is go out there, but just leave your sunglasses at home. Don't come with any filters. Try and absorb as much information as possible.
Otherwise you'll try to just prove yourself by finding the information that matches your thoughts and that doesn't help you anywhere. Yeah, that's very good. Al Nisha, I'm a former high school math teacher. I'm a part qualified accountant. One of the reasons I came out of teaching was that I ended up coaching kids to pass tests. It wasn't why I became an educator, but it became the game that you had to play.
And all too often I find myself in classrooms where I would metaphorically slice the top of a child's head off, fill it with information, sew it back up again and send them on their way. You can go to an event like this and there is so much to take in and you can feel like overwhelmed and overpowered and I don't know what to do next. What advice have you got for us on getting the best out of an event like Bridging the Gap?
And I think this could work for any conference, but what I tend to do is I always check the agenda beforehand and I start to plan out the day, right? I think it can be a little overwhelming to just stand in the middle of the hallway and you're trying to read, this is track A, this is track B. Where do I want to go?
Look at the agenda in advance and pick what it is that you're looking for and then set aside some time, be it the plane ride back, which I'll almost never do because plane rides for me are for movie watching and snack eating, but set aside some time to then pass us the information, right?
Don't just take it all in and say, wow, that was fantastic and then never revisit it, take some time to process that information and then because my memory is so terrible, I even write down what I liked and what I didn't like. I just debrief by myself because that'll remind me for future events, you know, what am I more drawn to and maybe what I should perhaps steer clear of. What did I do wrong? That's how I learned that I don't like to go back to back sessions.
I like to take little breaks by myself because that's how I recharge. So just write down the things that worked for you and did not work for you and set out some time to implement things before they all sort of leave your mind. Yeah. And it's a great thing to check out the agenda. It's btgconference.com. You can see all the speakers and all the schedule there. Roman, what about you? What's your big tip for people to get the most from events like Bridging the Gap? Certainly.
So accountants by nature are very ROI driven. And if you go into this conference or any conference with a mindset of I'm spending X dollars, I expect to get Y in return, that mindset going into this event is not going to yield you the ROI that you're looking for.
And so I would certainly encourage others to go into this setting with an open mind, discover what friends you can make, understand how you're going to approach the sessions, understand what problems that need to be solved and make sure that you're strategic about that, but also going into the very open mindset of I could come out of this with something that I can't even imagine today. And I think that leads to a little bit more curiosity and openness when it comes to meeting new people.
Yeah, this is terrific. Thank you all so much for your insights today. I'm going to ask you all for some parting comments about what excites you most about going to Bridging the Gap in July. What are you most looking forward to about it? How are you justifying two or three, four days out of your calendar and all the prep time that you'll be doing? What's going to be most enjoyable for you? Hitenra, let's start with you.
Yeah, first and foremost, meet the same common friends that you see on videos. You talk to them, but you get to meet them not so often. So first and foremost, make new friends, of course, make lots of new connections and just be speaking with as many people as possible. That's, I think, pretty important. I've been speaking to my computer ever since the pandemic broke out, you know. That's good. I don't know too many accounting types that are into networking, but yes, that's exactly what it is.
This is a relationship game for sure. Raman, what about you? What are you most looking forward to? I'm looking forward to Alnisha and Nayo, I believe, is co-hosting the rantes, the awards ceremony. One thing we haven't hit on at all is that it's a lot of fun. And so really excited for that. It was a great time last year and I'm very much looking forward to seeing Alnisha and Nayo present the randies on the closing ceremony. Wait a minute, Alnisha, did Raman just say fun then? Is this fun?
Isn't it supposed to be fun? I know, that's crazy, right? But I had such a good time last year. I cannot wait. Honestly, just to close, Alnisha, what are you most looking forward to at Bridging the Gap? Yoga, to start my day off as part of the conference. I don't have to find it elsewhere. And then I find that the sessions here are not your typical sessions. I feel like you could kind of like copy and paste conference after conference, the same topics.
I think the topics here are really intentional and now I'm looking forward to Chad's session because I need to see this automation build out in an hour. So that's also on my list. This is such a big loving with all of these speakers here. I love it. Chad, let's leave the last word for you. You've attended many of these things, some you remember, some that you've done. What's going to be the most memorable thing for Bridging the Gap for you in 2024?
We think about how this enables you to do the things that you want to do in your life. If you think of who allows this to happen, it's Randy. It was his idea, right? He's putting this together. There are very few people in this industry that have the love and admiration of absolutely everyone that he meets. I think Randy and himself is just the most genuine human being you'll ever meet. He's fantastic. So much so that last year, he said, yes, Chad, bring your 12-year-old daughter.
Expose her to this. She went to all the sessions with me and she was helpful and it was absolutely amazing. I'll be cheeky and say, I'm actually looking forward to seeing Randy again. And it really will be fun to think about that a year has gone by. So much has happened in his life, has happened in our life, and he'll be just as interested to speak to me as he will all the other hundreds of people that will be coming and it's just a testament to how great of a person he is.
That's a really nice touch and a wonderful way to finish. Shout out to Randy Crabtree who has conceived all of this and over the last couple of years, really got it off the ground to be one of the premier events of the year. Thank you all so much for sharing your passion and your insights today and we look forward to seeing you at Bridge in the Gap 2024. Thank you for joining us today on The Unique CPA.
You can find the show notes for today's episode and learn more about TriMerit at theuniquecpa.com. Remember to subscribe and leave a five-star rating on your favorite podcasting app and join us next time for more expertise and insights on The Unique CPA. ProfessionalProductions.net