Accounting Leaders Podcast

Dan Luthi is a partner at IgniteSpot Accounting, a virtual accounting and fractional CFO service firm. In this episode, Dan shares IgniteSpot Accounting's journey, his favorite client stories, and how accountants can provide a sense of clarity for clients in an increasingly unfathomable world.

• The genesis of IgniteSpot Accounting (01:00)
• Helping clients achieve 100x growth within 5 years (03:25)
• IgniteSpot Accounting's ideal client profile (05:26)
• Dan's preferred accounting tech stack (06:40)
• Going from hybrid to fully remote (07:51)
• Taking an organic, value-based approach to marketing and growth (10:08)
• Accelerated mergers and acquisitions post-pandemic (15:23)
• Making sense of the volatile economy (17:19)
• How to help small business clients through unpredictability (22:14)

Leah Roe is a CPA-turned-leadership-coach and organizational trust expert. In this episode, Leah and Stuart chat all things 'trust'. Leah shares how she unexpectedly got into the people and cultures space, the five behaviors that build trust in the workplace, and she turns the table on Stuart to find out how Karbon is rebuilding trust after a difficult company-wide layoff.

• From VP of Finance to VP of People Operations (00:30)
• Getting laid off during maternity leave (06:34)
• The evolution of finding her niche in trust and leadership coaching (10:23)
• Would you have gone into entrepreneurship had you known everything about it? (12:14)
• Leah grills Stuart on trust and leadership (20:00)
• 99% of your organizational issues are trust issues (21:55)
• The Five-Behavior Trust Operating System (25:21)
• Leah's 2023 professional and personal aspirations (46:57)

Jason Staats—accounting firm owner, content creator, automation expert and online community champion—joins the latest Accounting Leaders Podcast episode. Jason shares his journey in accounting, the power of surrounding yourself with like-minded people, automation and no code development, and why vendors need to make more data accessible.

Stuart and Jason discuss:

• The outdoors and writing off an RV (1:30)
• Raising 3 kids under 5 (4:30)
• The shortest path to an undergraduate is studying accounting (5:30)
• Starting in a local Oregon accounting firm at the age of 19 (8:20)
• Surrounding yourself with like-minded, entrepreneurial people  (10:00)
• Operational effectiveness and efficiency (11:45)
• Why you need cloud-native tools that give you access to your own data (13:50)
• Jason's tech stack (15:30)
• Automation and the role of accountants as quasi-developers (18:00)
• The power of online communities and learning from like-minded peers (24:30)
• An open-source accounting firm? (30:00)

Ben Taylor, a CPA-turned-tech-entrepreneur and founder of SoftLedger, sits down with Stuart to share his company's origin story, the landscape of a mid-market GL solution, how to enable accountants to 'do more with less', and the saving grace of having your best friend as your co-founder.

• Finding an interest in accounting in college (1:15)
• Early career experience at EY & Fannie Mae (2:00)
• How Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae started (3:10)
• The roller coaster real estate market around the world (4:00)
• The genesis of SoftLedger (5:42)
• The landscape of a mid-market general ledger solution (7:10)
• The advantages of the next-gen cloud accounting software (8:08)
• SoftLedger’s typical clients (8:51)
• Benefiting from COVID-19’s push towards remote collaboration (10:00)
• The investment landscape of SoftLedger (11:55)
• How to enable accountants to ‘do more with less’ (14:58)
• Running a startup with your best friend (16:00)
• SoftLedger's product roadmap (16:30)
• What excites Ben about the future (18:08)
• Gaining traction through SEO (20:30)

Karen Reyburn is no stranger to change. She grew up in Arizona yet found her home-away-from-home in Scotland. She began her career as an auditor but discovered her true spark in marketing—a realization that ultimately led her to founding The Profitable Firm, a creative agency dedicated to serving accountants. In this episode, Karen shares her journey of living in two worlds, the power of marketing for accountants, and her growth philosophy of 'better over more'.

• Karen's journey from the US to Scotland (1:28)
• Connecting with a culture that's not your own (2:15)
• A temporary move that turned permanent (3:00)
• Enjoying the natural beauty of Arizona and Scotland (5:30)
• Karen's first job as a state auditor (8:00)
• The worthy challenge of immigrating to a place you love (11:10)
• How Karen got into marketing as an accountant (13:00)
• Filling the marketing gap for accountants (16:00)
• Not chasing growth for growth's sake (17:10)
• Using marketing to attract ideal clients (18:00)
• Bad marketing kills referrals (19:45)
• Helping accountants reveal their greatness through marketing (21:30)
• Consistency is the key to success (23:08)
• Karen's favorite client success stories (24:00)
• Top marketing tips for accountants (26:00)
• The joys of working with clients who align with your values (31:00)
• When in Rome, do as the Romans do (35:50)
• The quirks of living in two cultures (38:30)
• Beautiful places to visit in Scotland (41:30)

Adam Pritchard of UK firm, Linford Grey, joins Stuart to share his unique journey from touring the country appearing in on-stage musicals to starting his own accountancy practice. Adam talks about the challenges of helping his clients navigate the global pandemic, moving from one crisis to the next, and how he is building the type of business that he is proud of, enjoys, and provides a platform for his staff to develop and grow.

• Wedding bells (1:30)
• Life through the pandemic for Linford Grey (4:00)
• A journey from singing and dancing to accounting (5:10)
• Prioritizing marketing to drive growth (8:00)
• Favorite musicals and a national tour for "Jesus Christ Superstar" (9:50)
• Starting in accounting by starting your own firm (12:40)
• Why the name Linford Grey? (15:15)
• A niche in using technology to transform businesses (42:20)
• Helping hospitality clients navigate the pandemic (21:30)
• Running a business during COVID, Brexit, a declining economy, the war in Ukraine, an energy crisis and other macro challenges (26:20)
• Adam's proudest client success story (32:00)
• Dealing with bad clients (35:30)
• A message to Linford Grey staff (36:00)

Zach Gordon is the VP of Accounting at Propeller Industries, an enterprise-grade financial service firm for high-growth startups. In this episode, he shares how he developed a speciality in cannabis and crypto accounting, the intricacies of serving clients in these highly regulated industries, and his plan for making accounting an attractive profession for young people again.

• Moving from public accounting to private equity (2:15)
• Zach’s first B2C tech startup experience (4:00)
• How Zach got into the crypto and cannabis accounting field (6:05)
• The intricacies of cannabis accounting and taxes (9:42)
• Overlap between two highly regulated industries (11:50)
• Helping clients navigate crypto assets on the balance sheet (13:00)
• What makes Propeller Industries special (16:24)
• Making an impact for clients in the boardrooms (20:50)
• What’s next for Zach (22:15)
• Attracting fresh talent to the accounting profession (23:00)
• The fallacies of billable hours (28:00)

• First meeting at Accountex London 2018 (1:00)
• Ryan's journey to accounting (2:00)
• Moving from a small to a large to a mid-tier firm (5:20)
• Empowering clients with the right business insights (9:00)
• Harnessing the power of technology with SB Digital (14:50)
• The benefits of being vendor agnostic (17:00)
• Can the 4-day work week come to accounting (19:20)
• Has the accounting talent pool shrunk? (20:00)
• The most significant impact of accounting technology (23:00)
• What impact will the UK leadership turmoil have on HMRC? (27:40)

Lynda Steffens found her calling in accounting at a young age. She saw the impact of a good accountant early on through her family's farming business. In this episode, Lynda sits down with Stuart to look back at her journey from running her own practice to uplifting other accounting firm owners. They exchange thoughts on the image problem of the accounting industry today and share ideas on how we can make accounting sexy again.

Episode notes:

• Backpacking across Europe (01:48)
• How Lynda found her calling in accounting at 14 years old (02:19)
• How her family’s farming business cultivated her work ethics (03:20)
• Lynda’s first accounting job at a regional firm (06:15)
• Connecting with local business clients (07:20)
• The accounting industry’s image problem (11:23)
• Being willing and able to embrace change (14:46)
• Why automation won’t replace humans (17:06)
• Making accounting sexy again (20:00)
• Lynda’s deep passion for helping others succeed (21:54)
• The role of personal development in entrepreneurship (25:08)
• How Lynda enabled a client to transition from compliance to advisory services (29:57)
• The fulfillment of aligning your work with your purpose (34:45)

You can learn more about Lynda and The Small Business Project here: https://thesmallbusinessproject.com.au/