The Wize Way

Have you ever lost a great team member out of nowhere, with no warning signs and no explanation that made sense?

In this episode, Raul takes us inside the Wize Hub for a full walkthrough of the tools built to stop that from happening. From the team NPS to the career and energy audits, he shows how firm owners can get a true 360 view of how their people are really feeling, long before a resignation letter lands on the desk.

You'll learn:
✅ How to track your team NPS monthly and what the score is ac...

Every hire that goes wrong can usually be traced back to one step someone decided to skip. Not because they were careless, but because they were busy and it seemed like the step that mattered least.

In this episode of The Wize Way Podcast, Dani breaks down how to run a proper recruitment process without a recruitment team: working out who you actually need, getting the job ad written in minutes, screening properly, and testing before you commit.

You'll learn:
 ✅ How to decide whether your next hire should be an admin or an accountant

There is a version of your pipeline where every lead has a clear next step and someone responsible for it. Getting there takes 30 minutes a week.

In this episode of The Wize Way Podcast, Thomas walks through the sales meeting rhythm Wize teaches firm owners to run with their client managers, and why it works better than any CRM or automation your firm could buy.

✅ Why the purpose of a sales pipeline is focus rather than reporting
✅ The difference between a lead and a prospect and why the distinction changes how you follow up
...

Somewhere in your firm, there's a desk where every problem ends up. Maybe it's yours. Maybe it's your senior manager's. Either way, the work slows down every time a question lands on it.

In this episode of The Wize Way Podcast, Kristy breaks down the PUB Meeting, the Daily Productivity Unblocker. One structured hour a day where blockages get cleared, questions get answered, and your team learns to solve problems instead of passing them up the chain.

You'll learn:

 ✅ What the PUB Meeting is and how it picks up where your daily huddle lea...

Hiring in a panic is one of the most expensive things an accounting firm can do. And most firms do not even realise they are doing it until the damage is already done.

In this episode of The Wize Way Podcast, Dani walks through the hiring mistakes that hurt firms the most, why they keep happening, and the practical prevention strategies that change how you approach every hire from here on.

You'll learn:
 ✅ Why small firms feel bad hires harder than larger ones
 ✅ The three hiring scenarios that cost firms the most time and mo...

The noise around AI is getting louder, and most firm owners are not sure what to believe. In this episode of The Wize Way Podcast, Ed Chan draws on 40 years in the industry to cut through the noise and tell you exactly what AI means for your firm, your team, and your client relationships.

You'll learn:
 ✅ How every major technology shift has played out in accounting and what it means for AI
 ✅ Why the relationship with your client is still your most valuable and most overlooked asset
 ✅ How to lead a team that is anxious a...

How much time would you get back if your meetings actually worked?

In this episode, Kristy walks through the daily huddle, the simple meeting Wize teaches firm owners to run with their team every day, so you can build a quick daily touchpoint that keeps your team aligned and nothing slips through the cracks between conversations.

You'll learn:
✅ Why the daily huddle is one of the simplest habits that changes how a firm runs
✅ The difference between something you unblock right in the huddle and something that needs its own follow-up: the PUB meet...

What does it actually look like to run a meeting system that keeps your firm moving without everything falling through the cracks after every conversation?

In this episode, Thomas walks through the full meeting framework Wize teaches firm owners, from the daily huddle to the annual planning meeting, so you can build a clear cadence that keeps your team aligned and your action items from disappearing into thin air.

You'll learn:
 ✅ Why the daily huddle is one of the most powerful change management tools in your firm
 ✅ The difference between a daily huddle and a...

What does it actually look like to run a job interview that tells you whether someone is the right fit for your firm — before you make a decision you can't easily undo?

In this episode, Dani and Kristy break down the questions that go beyond the resume and what the answers actually reveal about a candidate, so you can walk into every interview with a clear process and walk out with the information you need to hire with confidence.

You'll learn:
 ✅ Why a 5-minute pre-screen call can save you hours in your hiring process
 ...

You have tried the ads. You have posted on social media. You have handed it to an agency. And yet here you are, still wondering why the leads aren't coming.

In this session, the Wize team breaks down exactly what it takes to build a marketing plan for your accounting firm that doesn't just look good on paper but actually gets executed week after week.

✅ Why 5% of your revenue should be dedicated to marketing and what that looks like at every firm size 

✅ How to identify who you are actually attracting before you spend...

When Melanie and her dad started One Stop, everything looked good on paper. But somewhere between the vision and the reality, things started to crack. What came next was a decision that changed everything, and a lesson most firm owners only learn the hard way.

✅ Why the external partnership model was costing them clients and what they did about it 

✅ What it looks like to have a coach who has already walked the same path 

✅ How stopping trying to figure it out alone and just working a proven plan changed the game 

✅ Why l...

Somewhere between setting the goal and achieving it, something breaks down. And it's almost never what you think it is.

In this conversation, Jamie sits down with Bren Ward for an honest look at what it actually takes to close the gap between where you are and where you want to be, and why the answer is simpler than most people think.

✅ Why the knowledge gap is the real reason people stay stuck, and where to go find it 
✅ How surrounding yourself with the right people shortcuts years of costly trial and error 
✅ Why moti...

What does it actually look like to build a hiring process for your accounting firm that finds the right person every time, without expensive software, without guesswork, and without starting from scratch every time a role opens up?

In this session, Dani and Kristy from the Wize team break down exactly how to take the chaos out of hiring, whether you are doing it yourself or working with a talent team, and why a clear process will always beat an expensive platform.

✅ Why AI screening tools can quietly eliminate your best candidates before you ever se...

From 3 people to 18. From one city to 10 states. From doing all the work to building a team that runs without you. Jeremy Eckert from Trail CPA has done what most firm owners are still trying to figure out, and in this episode, he breaks down exactly how it happened.

In this conversation, Jeremy sits down with us for an honest reflection on what it really takes to grow a remote accounting firm at speed, make the right hires at the right time, and gradually step back from the day-to-day without the wheels falling off.

✅ Why bu...

200 episodes. 21,950 downloads, over 40 countries. And it all started with a simple idea to help accounting firm owners build better businesses and better lives.

To mark this milestone, Bren Ward sits down with Jamie Johns for a candid reflection on the lessons that have shaped the Wize Way, the ones that matter most right now, and the mindset that separates firm owners who break free from those who stay stuck.

✅ What a 40km hike through the Grampians has to do with building a better business 

✅ The one lesson that keeps showing up after 10 years and t...

Avoid the mistake of thinking that working harder is the path to freedom, or you will keep trading your time for money while the business stays completely dependent on you.

In this episode of The Wize Way Podcast, Ed Chan sits down with Bren Ward to unpack the real reason most accounting firm owners never buy back their time. It is not a systems problem or a staffing problem. It is a thinking problem. Ed shares the exact withdrawal journey he used to remove himself from every division of his firm, the mindset shifts that made it...

Avoid the mistake of collecting timesheet data and doing nothing with it, or you will keep running a firm that feels busy but cannot tell you whether it is actually profitable.

In this episode of The Wize Way Podcast, Thomas breaks down the metrics that sit beneath your Fab Five and shows you how to use them to diagnose exactly where your firm is leaking money.

✅ What recoverable rate actually means, and why it is becoming the most important KPI in your firm 

✅ The difference between tracking write-ons and write-offs and truly understanding what...

Avoid the mistake of posting a job ad before you know what you are actually looking for, or you will either attract the wrong people entirely or watch great candidates talk themselves out of applying before they even reach out.

In this episode of The Wize Way Podcast, Danny Bray breaks down exactly what makes a job ad work, and what quietly kills your chances of finding the right person before the process even begins.

✅ Why too much information in your job ad is driving the right candidates away before they apply 

✅ The unrea...

Avoid the mistake of blaming the market every time a hire does not work out, or you will keep repeating the same costly cycle without ever fixing the real problem underneath it.

In this episode of The Wize Way Podcast, Ed Chan sits down with Bren Ward to cut through the noise on what is actually driving the people challenge in accounting firms right now.

✅ Why AI will not make accountants redundant, and the historical proof that efficiency gains have always created opportunity rather than unemployment

 ✅ The real reason you cannot find good peopl...

Avoid the mistake of rushing into a hire without a clear process — or you'll end up paying the price with bad hires, wasted time, and the whole exhausting cycle starting over again.

In this episode of The Wize Way Podcast, the Dani Bray breaks down their proven step-by-step hiring blueprint so you can find the right person every time.

✅ The capacity planner that tells you exactly what role to hire for before you post a single ad 

✅ Why a candidate scorecard removes emotion from the process and leads to smarter decisions 

✅ T...

Scaling your firm requires more than just generating leads, the services you offer determine whether growth is actually possible. If your model is built around high-end advisory work that only you can deliver, there's a hard ceiling on how far you can go.

In this episode of The Wize Way Podcast, Wize Growth mentor Jamie Johns breaks down how to build a service model designed for scale:

✅ Why advisory-heavy firms plateau and what to pivot to instead

✅ The #1 most scalable service in accounting (hint: it's not what most owners expect)

✅ How to use...

Building a thriving accounting firm is impossible without the right systems - but most firm owners are still creating SOPs from scratch, one painful document at a time.

In this episode of The Wize Way Podcast, Kristy and the Wize Team break down the real secret to scaling your firm without chaos and it all comes down to building a centralised policy factory.

✅ Why having an SOP for your SOPs is the most important system you'll ever create 

✅ The simple impact vs. ease framework for knowing which SOPs to tackle first 

✅ How to d...

Remote work sounds like the dream but without the right communication rhythms and cadences, even the best accounting teams fall apart.

In this episode of The Wize Way Podcast, Dani and the Wize Team break down the real secret to making remote and hybrid work actually work and it all comes down to communication rhythms and cadences.

✅ Why senior staff thrive remotely but juniors struggle (and what to do about it) 

✅ The simple meeting cadences that keep remote teams connected and accountable 

✅ How to onboard remote staff without losing culture...

You're doing everyone else's job but your own. Client requests pile up, tasks that should belong to your team keep landing on your desk, and no matter how hard you work, the list never gets shorter.

In this episode of The Wize Way Podcast, we break down a powerful delegation framework that helps firm owners finally get the right work to the right hands:

✅ Why 80% of what you do daily probably isn't your job as CEO 

✅ The "task bucket" exercise that reveals where your firm's work really belongs 

✅ The difference between delegati...

Is your team “busy” but still out of sync, because nobody has a simple daily rhythm to align priorities and surface issues early?

Most firm owners try to fix productivity with bigger meetings, more tools, or more chasing. The result is the same: scattered communication, silent bottlenecks, and leaders carrying the mental load of the whole firm. A Daily Huddle solves that by creating a short, repeatable moment where the team reconnects every morning.

In this episode of The Wize Way Podcast, the Wize coaching team breaks down how 15 minutes a day c...

Is your firm suffering unnecessary churn because you’ve lost real connection with your staff?

Most firm owners try to grow their teams without ever building the connection rhythms that actually keep people engaged. The result? Surprise resignations, scattered communication, and leaders stretched thin trying to hold everything together.

In this episode of The Wize Way Podcast, the Wize coaching team breaks down how just 30 minutes a week can transform retention, performance, and clarity across your firm, sharing practical insights on:

✅ Why weekly one-on-ones (through your leadership chain, not all on you) are crit...

Are you tracking dozens of numbers but still unsure how your firm is really performing? More data does not equal more clarity. What matters is knowing which five metrics actually drive decisions.

In this episode of The Wize Way Podcast, Wize Mentor Thomas breaks down the Fab 5, the five high-level KPIs every firm owner should be watching if they want clarity, control, and sustainable growth:

✅ Why revenue and profitability only matter when viewed through the right lens
 ✅ How fees won and lost reveal your future hiring needs months in advance
 ✅ The hidden story behind W...

Are you keeping track of the metrics that actually drive profit and control…
 or getting sidelined by vanity metrics that make you feel busy?

In this episode of The Wize Way Podcast, Thomas breaks down the Fab 5 KPIs and why they’ve been refined over the last 10–15 years into a simple scoreboard that gives firm owners a full-spectrum view of how the business is really performing.

You’ll learn:

✅ Why output metrics matter more than input metrics (and how to spot the difference)
 ✅ The Fab 5: Revenue, Profitability, Lockup, Sales...

Most firm owners don’t hit a growth ceiling because they lack talent in their team.

They hit it because they haven’t built ownership in their team yet. 

The result? Managers who stay dependent. Performance conversations that feel emotional. And a firm that can’t scale because everything still rolls back up to the owner.

In this Wize Coaching Call, Tim breaks down the simplest (and most powerful) lever to create alignment and accountability in your firm: a monthly strategic meeting built on objective KPIs — plus the “no bypass” rule that stops you from acci...

Most firm owners try to scale by tracking more numbers yet still feel stuck in the weeds. The result? KPI overload, inconsistent results, and a business that still depends too heavily on the owner.

In this episode of The Wize Way Podcast, we unpack how SOPs are the missing link between KPIs and real performance. Not as paperwork, but as the operational muscle that turns targets into daily behaviour. Drawing from a live Wize coaching session, this conversation explores:

✅ Why KPIs fail when systems don’t support them
 ✅ How SOP ownership drives account...

Most firm owners think leadership is about driving harder, fixing problems faster, and holding everything together themselves.

But real freedom doesn’t come from doing more, it comes from lifting others to lead.

In this episode of The Wize Way Podcast, Jane Pollard shares an honest reflection on leadership, legacy, and what changes when a firm owner stops centering the business around themselves and starts building people instead.

You’ll hear Jane unpack:

Most firm owners think pricing is a “numbers problem”… so they copy what the last accountant charged, slap on a fixed fee, and hope it works out.

The result? Scope creep, shrinking margins, and a team that’s flat-out busy while the profit quietly disappears.

In this episode of The Wize Way Podcast, Bren Ward sits down with Jamie Johns to break down the Wize approach to pricing, including:

✅ Why COGS % is the KPI that decides whether you live or die
 ✅ The real truth about value pricing vs fixed fees vs time billing (all...

Most firm owners try to improve performance by pushing harder, hiring more, or firefighting their way through the week. But the real bottleneck isn’t effort - it’s the lack of structure. Without clear systems and consistent meetings, your team is left guessing, and you end up carrying the weight alone.

In this episode of The Wize Way Podcast, we break down how effective meetings become the backbone of your SOPs and your leadership.

You’ll learn:

✅ Why meetings are the fastest way to uncover missing SOPs
 ✅ How 1:1s help new hires settl...

Most firm owners try to “scale the business” by working harder or hiring faster - but never fix the structural ceiling that keeps them stuck.
 The result? Constant firefighting, team bottlenecks, unpredictable results, and a firm that can’t run without them.

In this episode of The Wize Way Podcast, we break down the real blueprint behind building a scalable, self-running firm - the same principles used inside $7M practices. You’ll learn:

✅ Why growth stalls when there’s no deep-and-narrow team structure
 ✅ How weak SOPs and unclear roles quietly destroy capacity
 ✅ The two divisions t...

Most firm owners hear the noise about AI and panic. They’re told their jobs are disappearing and the industry is on borrowed time. But the reality is simpler: AI isn’t replacing accountants,  it’s reshaping how firms think, make decisions, and deliver value.

In this episode, Brenton Ward and Thomas Phabmixay break down what AI actually does in a firm, why it’s more “translation engine” than threat, and how it can scale judgement, not just automate tasks. Thomas shares how he uses AI inside his own practice to analyse work, improve communication, and speed up decision-m...

 Most firm owners don’t realise they’re the most expensive employee in their own business.
They jump into client work thinking they’re helping — but every time they do, the firm’s most valuable time is spent on the least leveraged task.

In this episode, Ed Chan breaks down why firm owners should never be billable. He explains how doing client work turns your time into the most expensive cost in the business — and why your real value lies in coaching the team, not doing the work.

You’ll learn:
✅ Why the owner’s time is t...

Firm owners don’t realise they’re building a business that depends on them because they never truly delegate. They hand off tasks thinking they’re freeing themselves but without training, clarity, and follow-up, the work boomerangs right back, and the cycle of overwhelm continues.

In this episode, Ed Chan breaks down the difference between delegation and abdication. He explains why doing 100 percent of a task or giving it away with no guidance keeps owners stuck, stressed, and unable to scale. And he shares the 20% Rule he used to reduce his workload, build a high-performing team, and grow a...

Most firm owners don’t realize they’ve built habits that keep them trapped inside their own business.
They’re working harder, staying later, and solving every problem themselves - but every time they step in, they take the job back.

In this episode of The Wize Way Podcast, Ed Chan breaks down the #1 habit that’s holding firm owners back - bypassing their team. He explains why every time you answer a client directly or fix an issue for your staff, you’re actually stopping your business from working without you.

You’ll learn:
✅...

Most firm owners try to “fix the business” by working harder, staying later, and holding everything together with sheer willpower.

But if you’re the bottleneck… no amount of effort will set you free.

In this episode of The Wize Way Podcast, we are joined by Megan Sexton, owner of MJO Bookkeeping, and she shares a raw and powerful journey from burnout to freedom through hiring and building a trusted offshore team.

✅ The wake-up call that made her rethink everything
✅ The messy middle of failed hires, doubt, and holding on t...

Most firm owners try to “fix the business” without ever fixing the real ceiling that’s holding them back. The result? Burnout, endless busyness, and a business that feels more like a cage than freedom.

In this episode of The Wize Way Podcast, Gay Hendricks, best-selling author of The Big Leap, shares powerful insights on:

✅ The Upper Limit Problem that keeps even successful people stuck
✅ How stored emotions and limiting beliefs sabotage growth
✅ What life looks like inside your Genius Zone (and why most never get there)
✅ The simple daily commitment that can unlock ext...