Blake Carroll: The CPA Exam Isn’t Testing How Smart You Are | Accounting Conversations

PwC consultant and CPA exam coach says success depends less on being the smartest person in the room and more on managing time, building effective habits, and continuing after setbacks.

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Accounting Conversations
With Chayton Farlee
Center for Accounting Transformation

The greatest obstacle standing between most CPA candidates and their licenses is not intelligence. It is time. That distinction matters, says Blake Carroll, CPA, a deployment consultant with PwC who helps aspiring CPAs develop the plans, habits, and mindsets they need to pass the exam.

“I truly believe anyone can pass it,” Carroll tells host Chayton Farlee on the Accounting Conversations podcast. “It’s not a test of intelligence. It is a test of endurance.”

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In the episode, Carroll and Farlee, an assurance associate at CliftonLarsonAllen, explore what makes the exam so difficult — and why the skills candidates develop while preparing for it can continue serving them long after they earn their licenses.

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Can Gen Z and Boomers Speak the Same Business Language? | ARC

As workplace language evolves, effective professionals know their audience and adapt their message.

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Accounting ARC
With Byron Patrick, Donny Shimamoto and Liz Mason

Center for Accounting Transformation

Every generation enters the workplace speaking a slightly different language.

For Generation Z, that language may include phrases such as “delulu,” “mid” and “fire.” For earlier generations, the dated vocabulary might sound different, but the underlying challenge remains familiar: How do people bring their authentic voices to work while still communicating professionally?

MORE Accounting ARC: Accounting Internships Need an Upgrade | The CPA Career Nobody Talks AboutConference Season Exposes Accounting’s Knowledge GapThe Feedback Mistake That Costs You Your Best People | Is Your Boss Really the Problem? | Most Accountants Are Missing This AI ShiftAI Can Fix Your Workflow—or Break It in Seconds | Efficiency Is the Wrong Goal for AI | Accounting’s Hidden Talent Risk: The Sandwich GenerationBuilt Fast. Sold Faster. Broken Later? The Truth About Accounting Tech | Recognize When You Need to Recharge Before You Burn OutValuing More Than the Balance Sheet

In this episode of the Accounting ARC podcast, Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA; Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP; and Liz Mason, CPA, examine the supposed language barrier separating Generation Z and baby boomers — and question whether it is really as new or insurmountable as some portray it.

Their conclusion is less about memorizing the latest slang and more about developing an essential power skill: adaptability.

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Shannon Stone-Winding: The Workforce Was Built for a Life That No Longer Exists | MOVE Like This

As caregiving responsibilities expand across generations and definitions of family, employers have an opportunity to rethink how work gets done — and keep valuable people in the process.

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MOVE Like This
With Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk
For CPA Trendlines Research

In this episode of MOVE Like This, Shannon Stone-Winding, President and CEO of the Business Alliance of Colleges and Employers (BACE), joins Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk to explore caregiving through a much broader lens: what does it mean for an organization to truly care for its people?

Shannon brings both a professional and deeply personal perspective to the conversation. In addition to her work connecting employers, colleges, and emerging talent, she has spent 20 years as the primary caregiver for her husband, a 100% service-connected disabled Marine Corps veteran.

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That experience has shaped how she thinks about caregiving, workplace culture, and what employees need to remain and thrive in their careers.

Shannon’s current caregiving research grew from a conversation at a diversity symposium, where accounting professionals began sharing examples of how firms were responding to employees’ changing needs.

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Mandy Gallagher: Caregiving Isn’t a Side Issue – It’s a Workforce Issue | MOVE Like This

“Flexibility should be used as a tool for success. It shouldn’t be the exception.” 

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 Radical Pricing by Jody Padar, CPA | See Today’s Special Offer

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MOVE Like This
With Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk
For CPA Trendlines Research

In this episode of MOVE Like This, Mandy Gallagher, lead manager of Women’s Initiatives at the AICPA, joins Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk to discuss why caregiving has become such an important conversation in accounting, what firms may misunderstand about caregivers, and how greater flexibility and support could influence retention and leadership pipelines across the profession. Gallagher’s work focuses on advancing women’s initiatives, supporting professional development, and amplifying women’s perspectives throughout the profession.

 

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One reason caregiving is getting more attention now is that it is both more visible and much broader than many people have traditionally assumed. Demographic shifts mean multiple generations are simultaneously balancing careers with responsibilities for children, aging parents, siblings, partners, friends, and others who rely on them. COVID also changed expectations around where and how work can happen. Employees experienced firsthand that they could remain productive while having enough flexibility to pick up a child or take a parent to a medical appointment. As more organizations return to traditional office expectations, those competing demands have become harder to reconcile.

 

The conversation challenges another long-standing assumption: that caregiving is primarily a women-with-young-children issue.

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Accounting Internships Need an Upgrade | ARC

As AI handles more routine work, how do young accountants develop judgment, communication and leadership?

Sponsored by Radical Pricing by the Radical CPA, Jody Padar | See Today’s Special Offer

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Accounting ARC
With Donny Shimamoto and Liz Mason

Center for Accounting Transformation

The accounting internship is due for an upgrade.

For decades, internships often give aspiring accountants their first real taste of the profession by dropping them into the work: Learn the process, complete the assignment, survive busy season and figure out the unwritten rules along the way.

But as artificial intelligence takes over more of the entry-level work traditionally assigned to new accountants, Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, and Liz Mason, CPA, argue the profession needs to reconsider what an internship is actually supposed to teach.

MORE Accounting ARC: The CPA Career Nobody Talks AboutConference Season Exposes Accounting’s Knowledge GapThe Feedback Mistake That Costs You Your Best People | Is Your Boss Really the Problem? | Most Accountants Are Missing This AI ShiftAI Can Fix Your Workflow—or Break It in Seconds | Efficiency Is the Wrong Goal for AI | Accounting’s Hidden Talent Risk: The Sandwich GenerationBuilt Fast. Sold Faster. Broken Later? The Truth About Accounting Tech | Recognize When You Need to Recharge Before You Burn OutValuing More Than the Balance Sheet

In this episode of the Accounting ARC podcast, Shimamoto, founder and managing director of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC and founder and inspiration architect for the Center for Accounting Transformation, and Mason, CEO of High Rock Accounting, explore why tomorrow’s accountants need more than technical proficiency.

They need what Shimamoto calls “power skills.”

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