Gear Up for Growth

Freeman, Dixon: What to Do When AI Steals Your Clients | Gear Up for Growth

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Every client relationship is now up for renewal—and every partner has to learn how to compete.

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“The relationship gets you in the door, but it doesn’t get you the work,” says Karen Freeman, chief product officer, DCM Insights, and co-author of Activator Advantage: What Today’s Rainmakers Do Differently, in this episode of Gear Up for Growth, powered by CPA Trendlines and hosted by Jean Caragher, president of Capstone Marketing. “Once it’s competitive, it’s a lot harder to differentiate based on your past relationship.”

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Gear Up for Growth is tailored specifically for public accounting firms with up to 100 team members looking to expand their practices intelligently and efficiently.

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Freeman and co-author Matt Dixon, founding partner of DCM Insights, reflect on what they have learned one year after the release of their bestselling book. They discuss how AI, changing buyer behavior and increasing competition are reshaping growth strategies for accounting and advisory firms. Firms that rely on traditional relationship-based growth models risk falling behind.

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Allan Koltin: What Elite CPA Firms Do Differently | Gear Up for Growth

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The best firms build accountability cultures, develop climbers, and make tough calls.

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Gear Up for Growth
With Jean Caragher
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“Some firms dream of being great but only are willing to make the commitment to be good,” Allan Koltin, CEO of Koltin Consulting Group, says in the new episode of Gear Up for Growth with host Jean Caragher. “Leadership is the delta that separates all.”

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Koltin says the gap between elite firms and average firms keeps widening, and leadership is the defining factor. Widely recognized as one of the profession’s top consultants, he argues that firms chasing high performance must stop avoiding hard decisions, embrace accountability, and rethink what leadership means.

“You can have the same clients, same talent pool, same market opportunities, and one firm ends up in the upper quartile while another struggles,” Koltin says. “The difference is leadership.” READ MORE →

Matt Rampe: Make Strategy Stick | Gear Up For Growth

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Five steps turn vision into execution.

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Gear Up for Growth
With Jean Caragher
For CPA Trendlines

On the latest episode of “Gear Up for Growth,” host Jean Caragher interviews Matt Rampe, partner at Rosenberg Associates and author of the forthcoming book, “CPA Firm Strategic Planning: Your Roadmap for Long-Term Success,” about how accounting firms can move beyond ad-hoc retreats to a disciplined, accountable planning process that sticks.

Rampe, who advises firms on strategy, succession, partner development, and profitability, said the book grew out of years of facilitation and coaching with firms of all sizes. “The book was in my brain for a long time before it got put on paper,” he says. “When I started writing, it actually came pretty quickly—but I learned there’s a lot more to making a book than a Word document.”

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Rampe argues that the profession has reached a disruption point, citing converging pressures including private equity, technology, staffing shortages, succession for retiring Baby Boomers, and a shift toward advisory services. “What worked for us 10 years ago isn’t going to work for us 10 years in the future,” he says. “The old model, where a few partners disappear into a room and come out with a plan, doesn’t work in this age. We need to be nimble.”

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Jen Cryder: Collapse of the CPA Firm Pyramid | Gear Up for Growth

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Relationships, Not Technology, Will Define Success.
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Gear Up for Growth
With Jean Caragher

“More than anything else, I think CPAs have this incredible opportunity right now to redefine our relevance in the future,” Jennifer Cryder, CEO of the Pennsylvania Institute of CPAs, says in the new episode of Gear Up for Growth with host Jean Caragher. “What CPA meant for the last hundred years was relatively static. All of that has changed.”

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Cryder says that the profession is at a pivotal moment. While artificial intelligence and new market entrants are transforming service delivery, Cryder stressed that the profession’s true competitive advantage lies in human connection.

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Ellen Choi: It’s ‘Go Time’ for AI | Gear Up for Growth

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AI Readiness Gap Threatens CPA Firm Competitiveness.

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Gear Up for Growth
With Jean Caragher

“This is a make-or-break year for AI in accounting,” says Ellen Choi, a co-founder of Aiwyn.ai, the AI-powered practice management platform. “Firms that don’t move now will start to see a widening gap between themselves and competitors who have already begun building these capabilities,” Choi tells Jean Caragher in the new episode of Gear Up for Growth.

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The serial entrepreneur and early-stage investor warns that timing is critical: Firms that delay risk falling behind. With even basic AI tools capable of delivering immediate productivity gains, firms that act quickly can improve efficiency, enhance client experience, and create capacity for growth. Choi identifies two additional critical issues firms must address now to remain competitive: AI readiness and workforce upskilling.

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