AI

Hiring Strategies for Your Dream Team

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Woman and man shaking hands across a desk

Who do you bring on first?

By Jackie Meyer

“A team is not a group of people who work together. A team is a group of people who trust each other.” – Simon Sinek, “Start with Why”

Building a successful advisory practice isn’t a solo endeavor. Yes, you might start as a one-person shop, but to truly scale your business, reclaim your time, and achieve the Balanced Millionaire lifestyle, you’ll eventually need a strong, capable team. Otherwise there’s a cap, or ceiling, on your revenue generation while you also burn all of your time.

MORE: The AI Revolution: Embracing Artificial Intelligence in Your Practice | Leverage Technology for Growth | Streamline Your Operations with Systems and Processes | Craft Tiered Service Packages for Maximum Impact | Master the ROI Method: Price for Value, Not Time | From Compliance to Advisory: Shifting the Value Proposition | Niche Down to Scale Up | How to Define Your Vision | How I Became an Accidental Entrepreneur | Build a Seven-Figure Firm in Four Hours a Week
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This article focuses on the critical process of hiring a team that aligns with your vision and values. We’ll explore how to identify what roles to hire for, craft compelling job descriptions to attract the right talent and conduct effective interviews to vet candidates.
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Marketing Success Depends on Curiosity, Collaboration, and Client Experience | Capstone Conversations

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Understanding the full picture delivers higher ROI.

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Capstone Conversations
By Jean Caragher
For CPA Trendlines

In this episode of Capstone Conversations with Jean Caragher of Capstone Marketing, Alex Miller, marketing manager at Lanigan Ryan and the Association for Accounting Marketing’s 2025 Volunteer of the Year, shares powerful insights about the evolving role of marketers in accounting firms. Her two top takeaways? Curiosity and collaboration drive career success, and client experience and artificial intelligence (AI) offer the profession’s biggest opportunities and challenges.

Follow Jean Caragher on CPA Trendlines here. | Get her best-selling handbook, The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms, here | Catch Jean Caragher’s other show, Gear Up for Growth, here. | And browse all the shows in the CPA Trendlines broadcast network here

“Curiosity has opened so many doors for me,” says Miller. “You have to ask questions – about your firm’s services, your teammates’ work, and your goals. When you understand the full picture, you can market more effectively and bring real value to your team.”

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Crosby, Johnston: A Human-First, Tech-Forward Future | Holistic Guide to Wealth Management

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Research shows that money activates more areas of the brain than sex, death, politics, or religion.

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By Rory Henry CFP®, BFA™
For CPA Trendlines

A recent McKinsey study found that the demand for holistic financial advice increased 60% from 2018 to 2023. Meanwhile, another McKinsey study projected a shortage of 100,000 financial advisors by 2034. That gap is leaving a massive opportunity for CPAs to step up as holistic advisors. 

MORE Rory Henry and The Holistic Guide to Wealth Management

BUY the Holistic Guide to Wealth Management

A recent Holistic Guide to Wealth Management book panel discussion with two industry luminaries showed that CPAs who are in the best position to thrive as holistic advisors are those who use technology to deliver deeper planning and relationship-driven advice. 

“Traditional econometric models were all predicated on this idea that people were rational,” notes psychologist, author, and behavioral finance expert, Dr. Daniel Crosby. “What we actually know is that it is perhaps least true of us when it comes to money.”  

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Is AI Contributing to Burnout?

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About 71% are feeling overwhelmed by A.I. (via Brainstorm Group, HB Publishing & Marketing Co.)

How you can cope and thrive

By Randy Crabtree

A new Cal Berkeley study of a 200-employee U.S. technology company found that AI didn’t free up workers’ time as promised. Instead, it expanded what workers felt capable of and willing to take on.

MORE Bridging the Gap, July 28-30, Charlotte, N.C.

I suspect we’re seeing the same thing in the accounting profession and other areas of professional services.

My firm’s annual CPA Career Satisfaction survey found that accountants overwhelmingly agreed that AI would benefit their firms long-term. However, most also felt AI would contribute to personal stress and burnout in the short run.

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Accountants Race to Tame AI before AI Outruns the Practice

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Only 1 in 5 firms has an AI strategy, leaving most firms with varying degrees of chaos.

Barely three years since ChatGPT launched, 98% of accountants are using AI regularly. 88% use it in client service.

By CPA Trendlines Research

With artificial intelligence now firmly embedded in the daily life of tax and accounting firms, the profession’s next test is whether practitioners can learn to run AI before AI outruns the practice.

A new crop of research studies and benchmarking surveys suggests firms have yet to fully govern the tools, price the work, train the staff and protect client trust under AI regimes. Reports from the AICPA, Karbon, CPA.com, Blue J, Intuit Firm of the Future, KPMG, Personiv, the ACCA, Rightworks, Business.com and Citrin Cooperman show AI adoption is no longer in doubt. Coping with it is.

MORE Artificial intelligence | Supkis Cheek: Most Accountants Are Missing This AI Shift | |Private Equity’s Big Bet Faces an AI Shake-Up | Doug Slaybaugh: How to Define “Values in Motion” | At ENGAGE 2026, a Profession Richer and Less Certain Than Ever. | Jen Cryder: From Membership Model to Market Maker | Big 4 Transparency | Three Tech Priorities with Rapid ROI | The Google Playbook for Young Accountants | AI Can Fix Your Workflow—or Break It in Seconds |

Karbon says 98% of accounting professionals use AI, up 15 percentage points from last year, with 55% using it several times a day and 74% using it daily or more often.

Intuit says 88% of accounting professionals used AI for at least one client service in the last 12 months, and 86% used AI for at least one firm operation. Some 46% of firms are investing in AI training, 21% have an AI policy, and 21% have an AI strategy. Intuit says 30% describe AI as embedded by default in daily work, while 54% use it only when it seems useful.

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