The Wize Way

A new team member's impression of your firm starts well before their first day. If their email isn't set up, the team doesn't know they're arriving, and your SOPs are buried where no one can find them; even a strong hire can start to wonder whether they've made the right move.

In this episode, Dani Bray, Head of WizeTalent, and Kristy Fairbairn, Wize mentor, break down what a strong onboarding process looks like in an accounting firm. They cover what to sort before day one, how to set clear goals for the first 90 days, and the early...

Ed Chan started his firm from a home office with no money for marketing and grew it to around $2.2 million in three years on referrals alone.

This is the habit that built it.

In this episode of The Wize Way, Ed breaks down how he turned every job into a referral, why the last 20 minutes of the work matters more than the hours before it, and what he built afterwards so the clients kept arriving without him.

You'll learn:
 ✅ Why relationship work earns referrals and transactional work does not
 ✅ The 20 minutes of a j...

Plenty of firm owners walk into their weekly team meeting having prepared the numbers themselves, then spend the hour explaining figures nobody else has looked at. Wize mentor Thomas argues it works better the other way around, with the team bringing the evidence and the owner arriving with fresh eyes and a set of questions.

In this episode, Thomas breaks down the weekly team sync for accounting and bookkeeping firm owners. He covers the six core agenda items, why 60 minutes is a litmus test for how disciplined your firm really is, and how to keep the conversation...

Jamie Johns is in his accounting firm about one day a week, and he still gets a tip out to his clients every week without setting aside hours to write it. He spent close to ten years sending technical newsletters that went almost entirely unanswered, and when he finally changed what he was writing about he found the marketing took less time and gave him far more back.

In this episode, Jamie breaks down how accounting and bookkeeping firm owners can market consistently without finding hours they do not have. He covers the habit he built from...

A firm can run for twenty years without anyone looking closely at profitability. Revenue grows, the team grows, everyone is busy, and the assumption is that it must all be working. Then a big client leaves, or wages climb, and suddenly the only question that matters is where the money actually goes.

In this session, Tim Causbrook works through how to answer that properly, one team at a time. Tim is a Wize mentor and the owner of Causbrooks Chartered Accountants, and he opens up the capacity planner to show what a profitable team looks like on...

Marketing is the one part of a firm that most owners have already tried and already given up on. They hired an agency, or handed the socials to a junior, or committed to a weekly email that lasted about three weeks. It cost them, the leads never showed, and the conclusion they drew was that marketing doesn't work for firms like theirs.

In this episode, Bren Ward pulls apart why that keeps happening inside accounting and bookkeeping firms, from the knee-jerk push that never survives lodgement season to the weekly email that quietly stops going out. He...

Have you ever finished a training, felt completely clear on what to do next, and then looked up three months later to find nothing in your firm had actually changed?

In this episode, Raul takes us inside the WizeHub for a full walkthrough of the
tools built to close that gap. From the Freedom Map steps to the Task Hub, he
shows how firm owners turn what they've learned into work that has an owner, a date, and a place to be followed up, so freedom gets built one step at a time instead of...

Before Tim met Ed Chan in 2019, hiring at his firm worked the way it does in
most firms. Someone said "we need more staff," so they threw more bodies at the problem. No structure, no org chart, no way of knowing whether anyone was in the right seat. Then he and Ed spent five hours mapping every person in the firm, strength by strength, weakness by weakness, and placing each one in position.

That exercise is what this episode is about. Wize mentor Tim walks through how firm owners can answer two questions that sound like...

Kristy Fairbairn wrote her vision, mission, and values early in her business journey. She pinned them above her desk and told nobody. Not her team, not her clients. For years, they changed nothing about how the firm ran. 

In this episode, Kristy walks through what she does differently now, and how those three statements became the filter for who she hires, which clients she takes on, and when she makes her next hire. 

✅ The difference between vision, mission, and values, and why owners collapse all three into one vague paragraph 

✅ The fill-in-the-blanks prompt for wri...

Someone once told Ed Chan he should write a checklist. He was working 100 hours a week, so his answer was the obvious one. Where was he supposed to find the time?

Everything that eventually got him out looked like that. The checklist. Training the hire. Writing the policy. All of it sat in the pile he would get to once things calmed down, and things never calmed down. Ed explains what changed his thinking, and how far it took him.

✅ Why the work that never feels urgent is the only work that changes anything
✅ The...

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...