The Disruptors

Kless: Profit Is a Result. Flourishing Is the Purpose | The Disruptors

By

In the age of AI, conversations, not calculations, will define the future of the profession.

This is a preview. The complete 1-hour video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
Sponsored by CPA Trendlines Go PRO – Get More. Go PRO!   See Today’s Special Offer

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google/YouTube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Player FM, Audacy, RSS
Unlock site-wide, 24/7 access to more than 7,000 articles and millions of tips, tricks, news, trends, commentary, checklists, and how-to guides. Plus: Daily news, research, analysis, and commentary. Bonus: Free gifts, great discounts, and special reports.

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

Ed Kless believes accountants can do much more than monitor the numbers. Together with Ron Baker, their latest venture, Threshold, is a community that aims to support professionals in facilitating transformations in their customers. As Kless explains, transformations occur when someone makes lasting changes in one or more of the domains of human flourishing.  

MORE STREAMING: Whitman: Build Culture on ‘Progress,’ Not Change | Shein: No PE? No M&A? No Problem | Hood and Weber: Time to RISE | Proctor: Turn Dumb Ideas into Brilliant Solutions | Carter-Gray: How 1 Poor Review Strengthened the Firm | Hartman: Upwork to “40 Under 40” in 3 Years | Telka: Transform Fear into Fuel | Woodard: Move Past Reports; Deliver Results | Baker: Find True Purpose to End Burnout | Brolin: The W.I.N. Leadership Formula | Gertrudes: How EOS & “Unreasonable Hospitality” Reshaped GrowthLab | Vilms: The Power of People in a Tech-Driven World | Dickerson: From Diagnosis to Disruption | Kapilovich: Treat People Like People | Martha Yasso: From Wall Street to Main Street | Jackie Meyer: Tax Plans in 90 Seconds? Believe It  | Erica Goode: Build a $200K Firm in 15hrs/Week |

GoProCPA.com Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

“The purpose of business is to promote human flourishing. Profit is the result of a business. And there’s nothing wrong with that,” Kless says. “I think profit is good, but it’s the result. It’s not the purpose.” Drawing from Benjamin Franklin and economist Russ Roberts, Kless explains that human flourishing has four domains: making people healthier, wealthier, wiser, or helping them live with more purpose.  

READ MORE →

Whitman: Build Culture on ‘Progress,’ Not Change | The Disruptors

By

Language, collaboration, and leadership training turned competition into cohesion.

This is a preview. The complete 1-hour video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
Sponsored by Poe Group Advisors: Helping accountants buy, build, and sell exceptional firms. See Today’s Special Offer

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google/YouTube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Player FM, Audacy, RSS
Poe Group Advisors consistently excels in helping our clients find the right accounting practice sales opportunity.

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

When Alan Whitman became Baker Tilly’s CEO, he was caught between two warring camps. On one side were the legacy partners who had built the organization and “wanted to continue doing things the way that we’ve always done them because we’ve been so successful.” That side was afraid of “losing what they had built.” In the other camp were the new partners who wanted to change “to what they were promised, what they signed on to by becoming part of Baker Tilly.” The newcomers wanted “to move faster and do it differently.” 

MORE STREAMING: Shein: No PE? No M&A? No Problem | Hood and Weber: Time to RISE | Proctor: Turn Dumb Ideas into Brilliant Solutions | Carter-Gray: How 1 Poor Review Strengthened the Firm | Hartman: Upwork to “40 Under 40” in 3 Years | Telka: Transform Fear into Fuel | Woodard: Move Past Reports; Deliver Results | Baker: Find True Purpose to End Burnout | Brolin: The W.I.N. Leadership Formula | Gertrudes: How EOS & “Unreasonable Hospitality” Reshaped GrowthLab | Vilms: The Power of People in a Tech-Driven World | Dickerson: From Diagnosis to Disruption | Kapilovich: Treat People Like People | Martha Yasso: From Wall Street to Main Street | Jackie Meyer: Tax Plans in 90 Seconds? Believe It  | Erica Goode: Build a $200K Firm in 15hrs/Week |

GoProCPA.com Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

As Whitman describes in his new book, “Break the Mold: How to Achieve Transformational Change Scale and Grow Simultaneously, the conflict was resolved over time, one conversation, one small meeting at a time. “It would be more evolution, not revolution,” Whitman says.  

READ MORE →

Shein: No PE? No M&A? No Problem | The Disruptors

By

There’s more than one way to scale.

This is a preview. The complete 1-hour video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
Sponsored by Poe Group Advisors: Helping accountants buy, build, and sell exceptional firms. See Today’s Special Offer

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google/YouTube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Player FM, Audacy, RSS
Poe Group Advisors consistently excels in helping our clients find the right accounting practice sales opportunity.

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

Steve Shein thought small accounting firms need a different option than private equity or the traditional M&A route. So he founded Franklin Alliance, which operates differently from either of those models.  

Unlike traditional private equity models that typically focus on cost reduction and mandate immediate process changes, Franklin Alliance operates as an investment partner with a fundamentally different structure. “We’re trying to build this intentionally, with the goal of being a differentiated partner, specifically for small firm owners who care about things like culture, autonomy, and their firm identity,” Shein explains. 

MORE STREAMING: Hood and Weber: Time to RISE | Proctor: Turn Dumb Ideas into Brilliant Solutions | Carter-Gray: How 1 Poor Review Strengthened the Firm | Hartman: Upwork to “40 Under 40” in 3 Years | Telka: Transform Fear into Fuel | Woodard: Move Past Reports; Deliver Results | Baker: Find True Purpose to End Burnout | Brolin: The W.I.N. Leadership Formula | Gertrudes: How EOS & “Unreasonable Hospitality” Reshaped GrowthLab | Vilms: The Power of People in a Tech-Driven World | Dickerson: From Diagnosis to Disruption | Kapilovich: Treat People Like People | Martha Yasso: From Wall Street to Main Street | Jackie Meyer: Tax Plans in 90 Seconds? Believe It  | Erica Goode: Build a $200K Firm in 15hrs/Week |

GoProCPA.com Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

“We built this platform as an operating company specifically so we’re not a fund,” Shein explains. “It’s backed by venture capital and family offices, which basically means that the profile of the investors that we’ve taken capital from has a longer-term time horizon.” 

This structure enables what Shein calls a “culture of growth rather than a kind of cost rationalization,” which is a better fit for many small firms. The approach contrasts with acquisitions by regional firms, where acquired firms are generally forced to adopt new processes, workflows, and technology within 90 days. 

READ MORE →

Hood and Weber: Time to RISE | The Disruptors

By

RISE2040 challenges the accounting profession to stop reacting and start shaping its own future.

This is a preview. The complete 1-hour video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
Sponsored by Poe Group Advisors: Helping accountants buy, build, and sell exceptional firms. See Today’s Special Offer

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google/YouTube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Player FM, Audacy, RSS
Poe Group Advisors consistently excels in helping our clients find the right accounting practice sales opportunity.

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

What will the future of accounting be like? As listeners to The Disruptors know, I’ve been asking accountants about their predictions for the state of accounting in ten years. However, a new initiative from the AICPA and CIMA, RISE2040, is taking that further by asking accountants worldwide for their vision of accounting in 2040. I recently spoke with Tom Hood, CPA.CITP, CGMA, executive VP of Business Growth and Engagement for the AICPA, and Lexi Weber, CPA, senior manager for Emerging Professionals Initiatives at the AICPA, about RISE2040. 

CPA TRENDLINES CELEBRATES:The 100th Episode of The Disruptors

MORE STREAMING: Proctor: Turn Dumb Ideas into Brilliant Solutions | Carter-Gray: How 1 Poor Review Strengthened the Firm | Hartman: Upwork to “40 Under 40” in 3 Years | Telka: Transform Fear into Fuel | Woodard: Move Past Reports; Deliver Results | Baker: Find True Purpose to End Burnout | Brolin: The W.I.N. Leadership Formula | Gertrudes: How EOS & “Unreasonable Hospitality” Reshaped GrowthLab | Vilms: The Power of People in a Tech-Driven World | Dickerson: From Diagnosis to Disruption | Kapilovich: Treat People Like People | Martha Yasso: From Wall Street to Main Street | Jackie Meyer: Tax Plans in 90 Seconds? Believe It  | Erica Goode: Build a $200K Firm in 15hrs/Week |

GoProCPA.com Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Hood explains, “This is a project to co-create a vision for the global accounting and finance profession writ large. That means public accounting, management accounting, CPAs, and CGMAs globally.” The timing reflects the convergence of three events: the conclusion of Horizons2025, the maturation of the AICPA-CIMA joint venture created in 2011, and new leadership under CEO Mark Koziel. 

Weber sees this as an empowering project for younger accountants. “From the emerging professionals’ perspective, I think it’s a really beautiful project, because we have a say in what the future is going to be like.”

READ MORE →

Proctor: Turn Dumb Ideas into Brilliant Solutions | The Disruptors

By

Reward curiosity, encourage experimentation, and involve the team in every step of firm transformation.

This is a preview. The complete 1-hour video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to PRO Members | Go PRO here
Sponsored by Poe Group Advisors: Helping accountants buy, build, and sell exceptional firms. See Today’s Special Offer

Subscribe to CPA Trendlines podcasts anywhere: Apple, Google/YouTube, Spotify, iHeart, Deezer, Amazon Music, Audible, Player FM, Audacy, RSS
Poe Group Advisors consistently excels in helping our clients find the right accounting practice sales opportunity.

The Disruptors
With Liz Farr

Like many guests on The Disruptors, Tony Proctor didn’t start out as an accountant. His firm, Proctor and Associates, started as a side hustle in 2007 when he was working in IT management. As a testament to the client service focus of his tech-forward firm, his very first paid client remains his customer. 

“They are actually still on the roster, and so I’m very excited about that, and I’m excited that they are still willing to pay what today’s price is, and they are not stuck on what the price was in 2007, so I love that,” Proctor says.  

CPA TRENDLINES CELEBRATES:The 100th Episode of The Disruptors

MORE STREAMING: Carter-Gray: How 1 Poor Review Strengthened the Firm | Hartman: Upwork to “40 Under 40” in 3 Years | Telka: Transform Fear into Fuel | Woodard: Move Past Reports; Deliver Results | Baker: Find True Purpose to End Burnout | Brolin: The W.I.N. Leadership Formula | Gertrudes: How EOS & “Unreasonable Hospitality” Reshaped GrowthLab | Vilms: The Power of People in a Tech-Driven World | Dickerson: From Diagnosis to Disruption | Kapilovich: Treat People Like People | Martha Yasso: From Wall Street to Main Street | Jackie Meyer: Tax Plans in 90 Seconds? Believe It  | Erica Goode: Build a $200K Firm in 15hrs/Week |

GoProCPA.com Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Proctor, like many of today’s forward-thinking accountants, thinks like an entrepreneur. As he explains, accountants are “usually very risk averse and very honed in on the details, and it’s like compliance first,” while entrepreneurs are “what I would call risk tolerant, and so they usually are seeking the risk and figuring out what opportunities are presented from that.” 

Thinking solely like an accountant, Proctor says, can lead to paralysis.

READ MORE →