The Accounting Leads Now Podcast

Lee Walker gave his firm two months' notice so his team and clients wouldn't be left hanging. Leadership's answer: "we're just going to let you go." Within weeks he had launched his own business, turned his Denver house into a 14-bed Airbnb, started learning Spanish and moved to Peru. His first paying client didn't come for nine months.

Episode 97 features Lee Walker, founder of Daily Driver Consulting, known as the CAS Doctor. He spent three years inside an accounting firm that grew from $1M to $10M in revenue, 10 to 50 employees and 300 to 900 clients without a single acquisition...

Referrals are great, but if they're your only plan, your growth is in someone else's hands. This week it's just me, no guest, and an announcement I've been sitting on for months.

Episode 96 is a solo episode with host James Donovan, founder of Accounting Leads Now. Four weeks out from episode 100, James shares what's been happening inside the business and makes the first official announcement of a new event for accounting and bookkeeping firm owners.

What you will take away:

1. Inner Circle Live: Nashville, November 20 and 21, co-hosted with Heidi Ryder of keepful and...

A fake Claude download. Three minutes later, the desktop was empty, the antivirus was off and every password saved in the browser was gone.

Episode 95 features Luke Kiely, founder of ComplyWise and a former law enforcement detective who spent his career investigating fraud, cybercrime and organised crime. ComplyWise is cybersecurity and compliance built specifically for accountants, bookkeepers and financial professionals, and Luke's GrowCon 2026 talk, Exploitation Economy, changed how a room full of firm owners thought about their own risk.

What you will take away:

1. Why nearly every attack Luke has investigated in the...

Your clients are telling you what they need next on every call. Most firms never hear it, because the notes go somewhere nobody reads.

Episode 94 features Camden Bean, CEO and co-founder of Ping, AI built only for accounting firms. Camden is the son of a CPA, worked with accounting firms at Divvy (later acquired by BILL), and helped raise and run a $100M early-stage venture fund before leaving to build Ping. Recorded live at Bridging the Gap, this is the show's first in-person episode, and Randy Crabtree , CPA and co-founder of Tri-Merit, pulls up a chair halfway...

His first year: one client paying $600. Five years later: a $500K tax practice, built in a city where he knew nobody. No referrals, no network, no warm introductions.

Episode 93 features Luke Frye, CPA and Accountant in Residence at Canopy. Luke was the first accountant hired at Bench, became the first account executive at Pilot to break $40K in MRR, and has helped platforms like Bench, Pilot and Puzzle reach thousands of firm clients. Today he works directly with firm owners on overcapacity, underpricing and the missing systems that keep them stuck.

What you will take...

When a company moves about 1% of the country's GDP in a year, you would expect its revenue chief to lean on experience. Jonathan Leaf says the opposite: the old principles, old ways of working and old decision frameworks all need rethinking, starting with his own.

Episode 92 features Jonathan Leaf, Chief Revenue Officer at BILL, the financial operations platform trusted by close to half a million businesses and more than 9,500 accounting firms. Jonathan owns BILL's entire global go-to-market organization: sales, marketing, customer success, support, revenue operations, enablement and partnerships. Before BILL he was Chief Revenue Officer at BambooHR...

Five women on one team became first-time homeowners. Not because of a bank, a nonprofit or a government program, but because their agency changed how it paid people.

Episode 91 features Madeline Reeves, Founder and CEO of Fearless Foundry, a global collective of senior strategists, storytellers and creatives serving fintech, B2B SaaS, professional services and technology. Madeline spent her earlier career on the business development side at Intuit, Avalara and Fathom, where she was Fathom's first US employee, before building Fearless Foundry into a boutique brand and production firm now approaching its 10th anniversary. She also created...

You built the team. Delegated everything. Followed all the advice.

And somehow you're more miserable than when you started.

Episode #90: Karen Reyburn built a marketing agency for accountants up to 21 full-time employees. Then she cut it down to six. Not because business was bad. Because she was sacrificing her health, her finances, and her own goals to keep everyone else happy.

In this episode, Karen walks through the exact moment she realized the team wasn't the problem, she was. The leading indicators she ignored for years. And why she now believes "20 seconds of...

What if your firm never ran a single ad, never sent a cold email, never hired a marketing agency, and still grew fast enough to expand across multiple states?

Episode 89 features Mike Payne, Chief Growth Officer at Haga Kommer, Ltd. and founder of BOSS Advisors, the first Arizona firm approved as an Alternative Business Structure. Mike is a lawyer and a CPA who ignored every colleague who told him to wear one hat, built a CPA firm and a law firm side by side, then sold to a group doing 30+ acquisitions with a $10M annual acquisition budget...

Most firm owners calculate the ROI of AI in hours saved. Blake Oliver says that math is exactly why the savings never show up in the bank account.

Episode 88 features Blake Oliver, CPA, founder and CEO of Earmark and co-host of The Accounting Podcast, the most popular show for accountants and bookkeepers in the world. Blake started as a cello major, talked his way into a bookkeeping job during the Great Recession, became one of the first Xero partners in the United States, sold his firm Cloud Sourced Accounting in 2015, and has been named to CPA Practice...

He has closed over 500 accounting firm acquisitions. Not 50, but 500. He knows exactly which deals fall apart and why.

Episode 87 features Shannon Hay, Senior Vice President of Commercial Lending at United Midwest Savings Bank, where he leads SBA and commercial lending for accounting and tax firms nationwide. Over 30 years in commercial lending, with stops at Bank of America and Live Oak Bank, and nearly $500 million in accounting and tax firm transactions behind him.

In this conversation Shannon explains why the SBA 7(a) program lets an existing firm owner buy another firm with no money down, what...

Most firm owners think the problem is the market. Sometimes the problem is that you do not believe the number you are about to say out loud.

Episode 86 features Marit Burmood, CPA, EA, MTax, owner of Flair Financial LLC in Salt Lake City. She holds a master's in taxation from Weber State, was named a 2026 Top U.S. Tax Advisor by Insightful Accountant, speaks at GrowCon and AICPA Engage, and writes for OnPay. She also tripled her firm's revenue in eight months, and not by finding a better niche or hiring a sales team.

In...

Most firm owners who feel stuck are not short on skill or short on clients. They are short on clarity about what they are actually worth, and what they actually want.

Episode 85 features Will Hill, founder and owner of Will Hill Consults, LLC, a coaching and consulting firm serving the tax and accounting profession. Will has been working with firms since 2001 and was named to Accounting Today's "Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting."

In this conversation, Will breaks down the two versions of stuck he sees on almost every first call, why "I keep changing...

It took him 15 years to build his book of business. He rebuilt the same thing in under two years after niching down.

Episode 84 features Emil Abedian, CPA, founder and CEO of Counsel CPAs, a firm that works with law firms only. Emil started his practice around 2009 in Los Angeles after beginning his career in Sweden, and for years he said yes to everything: tax, bookkeeping, payroll, sales tax, cash flow analysis. He was working 80 to 100 hours a week and building what he calls a high-paying job instead of a business. He is also the author of "Counsel...

He's an Enrolled Agent, a franchise firm owner, and a rapper. And the craziest part? His firm makes more money now that he's not involved in the day-to-day.

Episode 83 features Scott Scarano, the visionary behind Padgett Business Services in Raleigh, NC, also known as Scotty OKR (yes, OK Rapper). Scott grew Padgett NC to $1.5 million, replaced himself in every seat on the org chart, and then did something most firm owners only dream about: he walked away from operations entirely.

In this conversation, Scott breaks down how EOS helped him see the aspirational org chart...

He spent 22 years inside Intuit, co-hosts the #1 podcast in accounting, and now he's building the CPE app that lets accountants earn credits from any content with a play button. And his best career advice? "The procrastinators will be rewarded."

Episode 82 features David Leary, Co-Founder of Earmark CPE and co-host of the Accounting Podcast. David started at Intuit doing tech support at 21, took thousands of calls, climbed through QA, engineering, and product management, and had a George Costanza moment that changed how he builds everything: do the exact opposite of what everyone else is doing.

In...

She'll tell you straight up: she doesn't like bookkeeping. She built a successful bookkeeping firm anyway. Then she bought a marketing company.

Episode 81 features Heidi Ryder, a former middle school math teacher who started Healthy Books LLC in 2017 and replaced her teacher's salary within six months. Last year she acquired keepful, the marketing automation platform built to help bookkeepers, accountants, and tax pros organize leads, automate follow-up, and build stronger client relationships, all while homeschooling four kids.

In this conversation, Heidi breaks down the LinkedIn strategy that turned cold connections into referral partners and clients...

You ask clients to send a PDF through a secure portal. If they can't, they're not your client.

Sounds harsh. It's not, it's a filter.

Episode 80 features Christopher Papin, who runs a law firm AND a CPA firm at the same time, and somehow still keeps a third of his day for life outside the office. Forbes and Thomson Reuters have both recognized his work. He's also the author of "168 Hours" and host of the BLABO podcast.

In this conversation, Chris breaks down the exact onboarding system that gets him a 70-80% close...

You've spent years building your firm. But if someone asked what it's worth today, could you actually answer that?

Most owners can't. And that gap is exactly where deals fall apart.

Justin Farmer is a licensed attorney and business intermediary who has helped close accounting firm transactions for over 12 years, with a 100% accepted-offer track record. He's sat at more closing tables than most CPAs will see in a lifetime, and he pulls zero punches about what separates a clean exit from a costly one.

In this episode: why not knowing your financial goal...

Your pipeline feeling a little thin? Clients suddenly asking more questions about price?

You're not imagining it. And you're not alone.

Since fall 2024, a perfect storm has been building, AI-assisted offshore firms, a softening economy, tariff anxiety, and clients who are now very aware there are cheaper options. The firms getting hit hardest? Bookkeeping and fractional CFO. And the old playbook of "raise your prices, show your value" doesn't always work when someone is genuinely watching their cash.

Erica Goode isn't here to sugarcoat it. Former KPMG auditor. Former Walgreens finance exec. Now...

Your prospects already know they need what you do. So why aren't they signing?

Most of the time, it's not your pricing. It's not your niche. It's that nobody picked up the phone.

Drewbie Wilson built a movement around three words, Call the Damn Leads, after watching a client demand a refund on 100 hot leads he never once called. In this episode, Drewbie breaks down how to figure out whether your prospect values time or money, why "playing it safe" in sales conversations is quietly killing your growth, and the real reason your referral partner...

You're exhausted. You keep telling yourself it's just tax season. But deep down, you know it's been longer than that.

Randy Crabtree pulled over at a phone booth to quit his job and become a CPA. He built a firm, burned out, sold it, co-founded Tri-Merit Specialty Tax and landed on the Inc. 5000 three years running. Then a stroke in 2014 forced him to rethink everything.

In this conversation, Randy gets real about what burnout actually looks like before it takes you down, why niching down accelerated his growth instead of limiting it, and the one...

A West Point grad invites you to shoot fully automatic machine guns and drink bourbon. You go. You meet a fractional CFO. Three months later, he's a multi-thousand dollar a month client.

That's not a marketing strategy. That's Sean Duncan's life and it's only the opener.

Sean built the largest accounting firm in Frisco, Texas, then torched two-thirds of his revenue on purpose and rebuilt around a fixed-fee, proactive advisory model before anyone in the industry had a name for it. In this conversation he breaks down exactly how he did it, what almost ended...

You're grinding through tax season wondering when it gets easier. What if the answer isn't working more, it's being more intentional about what you build and who you build it with?

Katie Helle walked away from a 15-year career at a traditional firm, launched Scaled Accounting, and hit capacity faster than she ever planned. Her growth engine? Referral partnerships with financial advisors, real relationships built at conferences, and online communities where firm owners actually send each other business.

In this conversation, she breaks down how she schedules tax prep to protect her 40...

Most accounting firms don’t lose deals because of price.

They lose them because they explain too much.

In this episode, Brian Merrill breaks down why prospects say “I need to think about it” and what’s actually happening on your sales calls.

Key takeaways:

If your calls are turning into long explanations instead of closed deals, this episode shows you exactly what to...

 We recorded 70+ episodes of CFO Chronicles. Incredible guests. Great conversations.

And we still hit pause.

Not because we ran out of ideas, because something wasn't working. So we scrapped the name, retooled the format, and came back with one rule: if you can't apply it by Monday morning, it doesn't make the show.

Welcome to the Accounting Leads Now Podcast.

In this episode, we break down exactly what's changing, what we're doubling down on, and what you can expect from here. Less theory. More leads. More clients. More episodes you can a...

Most accountants talk about innovation. Brian Clare actually builds it. From killing time tracking to launching his own payroll software for Canadian accountants, Brian isn't just running a firm, he’s engineering the next wave of how firms work.

In this episode:

🔍 Whether you’re stuck in legacy pricing or flirting with pr...

What if you could own a thriving accounting firm without a CPA, EA, or even industry experience?

Nik Watson did just that at 23 years old. After four failed startups and zero accounting background, he landed his first acquisition using a personalized pitch deck and the grit most people avoid.

In this episode, Nik shares:
 • Why value-based pricing and 3-tier offers aren’t optional in 2025
 • The exact tools and AI stack he’s using to stay lean
 • The mistake most buyers make that kills the deal
 • His transition from marketing agency to tax fi...

2025 nearly broke me.
Clients dropped. Revenue cratered. My dream car? Totaled by a dump truck, with no one inside. At our lowest, we were bleeding over $12,000/month.

But we didn’t quit. And by November, we closed 10 new clients in a month and had our first $15K cash day.

In this special New Year’s edition, I walk through the real story behind the posts: the burnouts, breakthroughs, and the shift that brought us back.

What I cover:

Most firms treat meetings like a checkbox. Talk. Wrap. Move on.

But what if the way you run and follow up on meetings is quietly costing you hours each week and revenue you don’t realize you’re losing?

Jordan Vickery, co-founder of Vinyl, joins the show to reveal how firms are reclaiming 30-40 minutes per meeting, identifying hidden sales opportunities, and coaching their teams using nothing but meeting transcripts.

If you’ve ever felt buried in post-call admin, or suspect your team is missing the mark in QBRs and sales convos...

Hourly billing isn’t just outdated, it’s blocking your growth.
In this episode, Dylan from Fabbi breaks down how his firm ditched time-based pricing, scaled past 500 clients, and became the go-to financial team for business owners who want more than just “books and taxes.”

You’ll learn:

Still billing by the hour and afraid to raise prices? That’s exactly why you’re stuck.

Michael Ly, founder of Reconciled, joins CFO Chronicles to dismantle outdated firm models and share the mindset shifts that helped him scale a nationally recognized cloud accounting firm. From team turnover to pricing psychology, Michael opens up about the real work it takes to grow and why value-based pricing isn’t just a buzzword, it’s the future.

In this episode:

✅ Why hourly billing traps you in low-value work
✅ How to confidently raise prices (even...

Why are so many firm owners flat broke in Q4, even after six-figure tax seasons?

Tony Proctor’s been running a firm for 20 years, and he’s seen it all: tax pros who bleed cash every December, clients who push for fraud, and practitioners who won’t raise prices because they’re scared to lose “friend” clients.

In this episode:

Most accounting firms are burning cash on cold leads and broken outreach funnels, but what if that’s not your real growth problem?

In this episode, I sit down with Kwame Agyei, founder of Appoynt, to reveal what actually scales firm growth: community, relationships, and real conversations. Kwame´s built a global team across Africa and shares how showing up in person has done more for growth than any automation ever could.

We talk about:

Most firm owners stay stuck under $10K/month because they think “good work” is enough. It’s not.

Cameron Williams got fired while expecting his first child. Since then, he’s built KynLi Consulting, helped clients save $2M+ in taxes, and built a lean CFO firm with a 7-person team.

In this episode, he breaks down the real steps that helped him scale, without relying on referrals, ads, or undercharging. We talk:

Most accountants are losing business and don’t even realize it.

In this episode, we break down the 3 silent killers that are costing firms revenue, retention, and referrals, starting with outdated pricing models and ending with what your clients actually care about (hint: it’s not your reconciliations).

Debra Kilsheimer joins to share what actually drives client loyalty, why she ditched hourly billing decades ago, and how she built her firm "Behind the Scenes Accounting" that runs on relationships, not reports.

You’ll learn:

You’re not invisible. You’re just not on Google.

In this special workshop episode, you'll learn the exact strategy that's generated:

If you’re tired of referrals drying up or watching competitors win business that should be yours, this is your blueprint.

You’ll learn:

Most accountants aren't losing to AI, they're losing to their own bad systems.

In this episode, we sit down with Justin White, founder of JBookkeeping and a former trades business owner who’s now built a fast-growing remote firm on precision, responsiveness, and no-BS service.

He shares:

Lost your office, denied by FEMA, and broke? Here’s how Brandon Adjei bounced back and saved his clients over $3 million in the process.

In this episode, Brandon shares how Hurricane Harvey nearly wiped out his firm and how pro bono work with the IRS transformed his business forever.

What we cover:
 • How one client’s $1.3M IRS bill became just $150K
 • The planning mistake that cost another family $300K
 • What entrepreneurs get wrong about tax strategy
 • Why social media advice is killing business owners
• The growt...

You’ve done the work. You’ve climbed the ladder. So why does the CFO title still feel out of reach?

Kevin Appleby, COO of GrowCFO and mentor to hundreds of finance leaders, reveals:

• The 3 invisible blockers keeping smart finance pros from stepping up
• Why “imposter syndrome” shows up right after your promotion
• What most people get completely wrong about becoming CFO
• The mindset shift that separates future execs from spreadsheet managers

🚨 This isn’t theory. Kevin’s helped hundreds make the leap and he's breaking down the playbook.

🔗 Co...