CPA Trendlines Podcasts

...And it has less to do with technical skills than firms expect.Accounting ARC - Student-Led ConversationsWith Arpan Grewal and Harshita MultaniCenter for Accounting TransformationAs the accounting profession continues to grapple with talent shortages, shifting expectations, and generational change, one podcast is addressing those challenges from a rarely centered perspective: students themselves.In an end-of-year episode of Student-Led Conversations, hosts Arpan Grewal and Harshita Multani reflect on a year of interviews alongside Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, founder and inspiration architect of the Center for Accounting Transformation. The episode serves as both a retrospective and a case study of what happens when students are entrusted with real platforms and real responsibility. MORE Accounting ARC: Downgraded: What the DOE Said About Accounting | Savage: Using Your License as a Megaphone |  Baker: Interpreting Pricing Psychology | Don’t Get Fired by Your Own Automation | What Amazon Doesn't Tell You | Royalties, Residuals, and Reality Checks | ARC-SLC | Free Speech Is a Right; Respect Is a Responsibility | Cash Bags, Casinos & Audits: How First Jobs Shape Us | Gen Z Redefines Careers | Bootleggers, Baptitsts & CPAs: Rethinking Licensure The idea for Student-Led Conversations emerged after Grewal appeared on an episode of Accounting ARC, where she interviewed seasoned professionals about their careers. What surprised her most was not the technical content, but the personal stories.“I realized accounting isn’t just about numbers,” Grewal says during the episode. “It’s about people.”That realization became the foundation for a student-hosted series that explores career paths, mental health, failure, advocacy, and professional identity — topics often absent from traditional recruiting or classroom discussions.

Real employee stories, not polished slogans, are winning the war for talent.MOVE Like ThisWith Bonnie Buol RuszczykFor CPA TrendlinesIn this episode of MOVE Like This, host Bonnie Ruszczyk sits down with Rob Brown, founder and host of the Accounting Voices podcast, to talk about what’s really driving change in the accounting profession. Speaking from the UK with deep experience across the U.S. and global markets, Brown shares what he’s seeing in firms of all sizes: pressure from talent shortages, shifting expectations from younger professionals, and the growing importance of a strong employer brand rooted in real stories, not slogans.  MORE MOVE Brown starts by outlining three major workplace trends. 

Firms built on heroics instead of systems eventually crack.The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrAshley Carroll thinks burnout is a design flaw, not a personal failing. “I’m a big believer that burnout is a business model flaw,” she says. In response, Carroll created Operations House to help founders reduce burnout and “step out of that role as the provider, the doer, the practitioner, and into an ownership level role.”  MORE STREAMING: Rampe: Build a Roadmap Even When the Road's Not There | Chang: Killing SALY, One Agent at a Time | Vanover: 5-Star Firms Don't Bill by the Hour | Kless: Profit Is a Result. Flourishing Is the Purpose | 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 According to Carroll, burnout stems not only from long hours but also from processes that lack four key qualities: reliability, efficiency, integration with existing systems, and psychological safety.

Firms that prioritize, listen, and align position themselves for better long-term outcomes. By Rory Henry CFP®, BFA™For CPA TrendlinesPhil Whitman, President and CEO of Whitman Advisory, works with hundreds of CPA firms and more than 230 strategic investors across private equity, family offices, wealth management aggregators, and publicly traded consolidators. He sees a profession undergoing unprecedented transformation, and Whitman has a front-row seat. In this episode of Holistic Guide to Wealth Management, Whitman shares his observations with me from his unique vantage point.   MORE Rory Henry and The Holistic Guide to Wealth Management BUY the Holistic Guide to Wealth Management Whitman points to 2021 as the inflection point for the profession’s transition. That’s when EisnerAmper became the first major CPA firm to accept private equity (PE) investment, followed shortly by Citrin and Cherry Bekaert. Those deals opened the gates for capital providers and ignited a wave of consolidation across firms of all sizes. The profession hasn’t looked back since. Transaction activity has since accelerated, creating unprecedented competition for deals and pushing accounting firm valuations into territory the profession has never seen before.

Influence is becoming career insurance for professionals.Accounting VoicesWith Rob BrownThe accounting profession does not suffer from a lack of technical expertise. What it faces instead is a growing relevance gap. MORE Accounting Influencers with Rob Brown That tension sits at the center of Accounting Voices, the newly launched show formerly known as Accounting Influencers. Episode 1 opens a new season with a sharper focus and a clearer message: competence is assumed, but influence is what now protects careers.This is not a podcast about tax codes, audit standards, or software features. It is a show about the forces reshaping accounting and finance—and what professionals must do to stay ahead as those forces accelerate.

Here's how to label, package, and price the value you already provideGear Up for GrowthWith Jean CaragherFor CPA Trendlines“With AI, we finally have the tools to free up time for advisory, and clients are asking for it,” says Megan Leesley, director of tax at Dark Horse CPAs, during her appearance on Gear Up for Growth, hosted by Jean Caragher of Capstone Marketing. “They want more than a tax return. They want strategic guidance, and they’re willing to pay for it.”  More Jean Caragher here | Get her best-selling handbook, The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms, here | More Gear Up for Growth | More CPA Trendlines videos and podcasts here Leesley, a member of the Intuit Tax Council, recently presented at DCPA25 on transitioning from compliance to advisory, sharing practical steps to transform a traditional tax practice while increasing revenue, improving client relationships, and enhancing work-life balance. Leesley shares how she intentionally reduced her client base and tripled fees to focus exclusively on advisory work. “I reduced my book of business from $350K ARR with a plan to bring it down to $50K,” she explains. “I raised prices significantly, required advisory as part of all engagements, and still ended up at over $100K ARR, double my target, even after losing more clients than expected.” 

A new definition of “professional degree” limits loan access for accounting students and raises fresh alarms about equity, access, and pipeline. Accounting ARCWith Liz Mason, Byron Patrick, and Donny ShimamotoCenter for Accounting TransformationWhen the U.S. Department of Education released its negotiated language for implementing the “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act’s graduate loan reforms, most accountants probably did not expect to see their field at the center of a political storm. But in draft rules tied to the law, accounting master’s programs are not classified as “professional degree” programs for purposes of federal student loan caps.   MORE Accounting ARC: Savage: Using Your License as a Megaphone |  Baker: Interpreting Pricing Psychology | Don’t Get Fired by Your Own Automation | What Amazon Doesn't Tell You | Royalties, Residuals, and Reality Checks | ARC-SLC | Free Speech Is a Right; Respect Is a Responsibility | Cash Bags, Casinos & Audits: How First Jobs Shape Us | Gen Z Redefines Careers | Bootleggers, Baptitsts & CPAs: Rethinking Licensure | CPA Firm Ownership Under Fire | Walking Violation: When Showing Your CPA Gets You in Trouble |That classification matters. Under the new structure, beginning in July 2026, graduate students may borrow up to $20,500 per year, with a $100,000 lifetime cap, while “professional students” are allowed up to $50,000 annually and $200,000 total. Medicine and law make the professional list. Accounting does not. Neither do nursing, education, architecture, social work, nor several other fields that traditionally are seen as high-skill professions. In this episode of Accounting ARC, co-hosts Liz Mason, CPA; Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP; and Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA, unpack what that reclassification could mean for the accounting pipeline—and for how the profession sees itself. 

The number one complaint isn’t pricing, it’s confusion..Big 4 TransparencyBy Dominic Piscopo, CPAFor CPA TrendlinesFor many business owners, finding the right accountant feels like an impossible task. You’re trusting someone with your finances, your future, and sometimes even your peace of mind. But in an industry dominated by word-of-mouth and vague Google listings, Sam’s List has emerged as a game-changing alternative: a review-based directory for CPAs, bookkeepers, fractional CFOs, and financial advisors, designed to make trust and transparency easier for everyone.  MORE Dominic Piscopo | MORE Private Equity | MORE Pay & Compensation In this episode of Big 4 Transparency, host Dominic Piscopo speaks with co-founder Kimi Green, who shares the wild story of how the viral idea from entrepreneur Sam Parr (of My First Million) turned into a thriving lead-generation platform - and how she found herself leading it with no prior experience in accounting. “I despised accounting,” Green laughs. “I didn’t even ask follow-up questions when someone told me they were a CPA.” 

Only disciplined planning, accountability, and open communication will cut through the industry’s rapidly thickening fog.The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrMatt Rampe sees the accounting industry as one “under a lot of pressure to change, and it’s changing very quickly.” The combination of a staffing crisis, retiring baby boomers, AI, private equity, and tax law is creating “the fog,” a period in which the path forward isn't just unclear; it's fundamentally unknowable. To address “the fog,” his new book, CPA Firm Strategic Planning: Your Roadmap for Long-Term Success, lays out a framework grounded in decades of consulting experience with Rosenberg Associates, combined with research on organizational change, leadership psychology, and what drives team performance. “Strategic planning, in my mind, is the venue by which you analyze and think through those issues, put them up, not just out of reactivity,” Rampe explains. It means “really stepping back and looking at the big picture of the industry and your firm and your situation, and then making choices that you're aligned with.”  MORE STREAMING: Chang: Killing SALY, One Agent at a Time | Vanover: 5-Star Firms Don't Bill by the Hour | Kless: Profit Is a Result. Flourishing Is the Purpose | 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 |According to Rampe’s research, strategic planning fails most often at the execution stage. Nearly two-thirds of respondents reported that “execution fails after the planning meeting.” Firms gather, generate good ideas, identify priorities, and then get pulled into their day-to-day work, and nothing happens. Or they put off strategic planning altogether until some imaginary day when they might have time.  “One of the insights is you need to spend time working on the business, not just in the business, because the in the business is going to drown you,” Rampe explains. The way you solve that is "not working harder in the business. It's working, prioritizing, working on the business.” Rampe’s book outlines his Five I framework, which helps firms work through strategic planning and implement those plans by developing accountability throughout the firm. Each of the I’s has a main question attached to it, designed to invite curiosity.  

Understand the legal tax hack the IRS actually wants you to use.The Concierge CPAWith Jackie MeyerFor CPA TrendlinesIn a recent edition of the Concierge CPA podcast, host Dr. Jackie Meyer and guest Acen Hansen delivered a detailed, no-nonsense exploration of using the Backdoor Roth IRA and the Mega Backdoor Roth to harness tax-free growth — particularly for high-income earners and those focused on legacy planning. More Jackie Meyer Catch Jackie Meyer and other thought leaders on Dec. 10 at Tax Season Readiness: Practical Steps for a Smoother Busy Season |1.5 CPE  A Backdoor Roth IRA isn’t a special new account — it’s a workaround. As Dr. Meyer, founder of TaxPlanIQ, and Hansen, a wealth advisor for Legacy Wealth Management, explain, it allows people who earn too much to contribute directly to a Roth IRA to still access the benefits of a Roth by first contributing to a traditional IRA (on a non-deductible basis) and then converting it to a Roth IRA.Once the funds are inside a Roth IRA, they grow tax-free and — assuming account and timing requirements are met — distributions in retirement are tax-free.For high earners with incomes above IRS thresholds for direct Roth contributions — which, for 2025, prohibit single filers with MAGI above roughly $165,000 and married couples filing jointly above about $246,000 — the Backdoor Roth remains a viable path.“It’s kind of surprising how many people don’t know about the ability to do a backdoor Roth,” Hansen says. “Most of the time, it’s, ‘Oh, I don’t qualify for Roths so I’ve got to figure something else out.’"