Future-Proof

We spent last week talking about federal tax issues that you might need to know about as we head into this year’s Busy Season. This week, we’re going to do the same thing — but on the state tax side of the ledger.

So we sit down with Peter Franchot, comptroller for the state of Maryland. We also asked some of our MACPA members what questions they have for the comptroller, and we got a ton of responses. We were able to ask a few in this episode, but we hope to share answers to even more of your questions on the MACPA blog soon.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.

Resources:

• Prepare for tax season at MACPA.org/tax
• Start mastering Future-Ready skills now by visiting http://macpa.org/future-learning

Future-Proof is a production of Crate Media

Settle in and relax, folks, because this might be your last chance to chill until April.

Yeah, tax season is here. And yeah, you’re probably going to be busy — but today’s episode just might help.

Our guest is Cari Weston, director of tax practice and ethics for the American Institute of CPAs. She down with our host, Bill Sheridan, at the 2019 Digital CPA Conference to talk about the issues that will be impacting tax pros in 2020. This year, for a change, those issues go well beyond the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.

Resources:

• Prepare for tax season at aicpa.org/tax
• Connect with Cari on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cariweston
• Learn more at MACPA.org/future-learning 
• Find CPA tax training at MACPA.org/tax
• Accounting Today's 2020 "Year Ahead" survey
• Read: "2020 tax season filing preview”

Future-Proof is a production of Crate Media

Given the latest research within the profession — see our recent conversation with Lexy Kessler for details on all of that — there’s one thing that most accounting and finance professionals are thinking about: talent.

How to find talent, how to keep it, and how to figure out what the best talent wants in the first place. This last bit is really important, too, because what younger generations want is often different from what the older generations wanted. 

To learn more about this generational gap and what you can do to attract the best and brightest of the next generation of accountants, we sit down with Monique Malcolm-Hay, a senior consultant at PwC and founder of New-Gen Accountants.

If you have any interest in the future of this profession, this episode is a must-listen.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.

Resources:

• www.newgenaccountants.com
• LinkedIn: .linkedin.com/company/new-gen-accountants/
• Twitter: @NewGenAccount
• Instagram: @NewGenAccountants
• Learn more at MACPA.org/future-learning

Future-Proof is a production of Crate Media

This episode releases on the cusp of a new year — so, if you’re reading this in 2019, we want to wish you a very happy, healthy, and prosperous 2020. Here’s to you and yours.

Of course, with the new year comes New Year’s resolutions, and there’s one resolution that all accounting and finance professionals (and, really, most people) can benefit from: becoming a better delegator.

So we sit down with Emily Morgan, the mastermind behind a group called Delegate Solutions, which offers premium-level virtual assistant services for entrepreneurs. They tackle your distracting to-dos, create a strategic delegation plan for meeting your goals, and fully manage the virtual team assigned to your projects.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.

Resources:

• DelegateSolutions.com
• Download your FREE Delegate and Elevate worksheet
• Read: Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman
• Read: How To Be A Great Boss by Gino Wickman and Rene Boer
• Learn more at MACPA.org/future-learning

Future-Proof is a production of Crate Media

Client Accounting Services (CAS) are the services that CPAs provide because clients can’t do them, don’t want to do them, or just aren’t good at doing them. It’s that full-menu offering of taking over many of a client’s routine internal accounting chores. 

The popularity of these services is growing, too — to the extent that a lot of people in the accounting and finance profession consider CAS to be a new line of business, something they need to start exploring to keep up with the competition.

But these services really aren’t new at all. Some firms have been doing this stuff for years, and bear the battle scars to prove it. In the process, they have also learned a thing or three that the rest of us can benefit from.

So we sit down with one of these early vanguards of Client Accounting Services, Robin Thieme. Robin is the CEO and CAO — that’s Chief Anticipation Officer — of KBS CFO, a company that serves as a CFO, Chief Information Officer, and Chief Operating Officer for their clients. That might sound like a new concept, but Robin and her team have been doing this for the past 15 years. They were the Lewis and Clark of CAS. They were there before anyone else, trying to map this territory — and if we pay attention to what Robin has to say in this episode, we’ll be able to navigate this territory a little more easily.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.

Resources:

• KBSCFO.com
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kbscfo/
• Twitter: twitter.com/kbscfo
• Learn more at MACPA.org/future-learning

Future-Proof is a production of Crate Media

Today’s episode puts the P in CPA — because we’re talking about public practice! What is going on with CPA firms these days, anyway?

Quite a bit, as it turns out. The world is changing, and with every change that the world experiences these days, the folks who work at CPA firms seem to get a double dose of it. They have to figure out how to embrace these changes and disruptions inside their own firms, but at the same time, they have to help their clients figure out what to do about all of this complexity.

But our guest Lexy Kessler has her fingers on the pulse of CPA firm challenges and opportunities more firmly than most people in the profession. Because, in addition to being a partner with Aronson LLC and a member of the Maryland Association of CPAs’ Board of Directors, Lexy is the current chair of the AICPA Private Companies Practice Section, a group that supports CPA firms in the everyday intricacies of running a practice.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.

Resources:

• Learn more at AICPA.org/PCPS
• Connect with Lexy: aronsonllc.com/person/lexy-kessler/
• Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen by Rita Gunther McGrath
• MACPA.org/future-learning

Future-Proof is a production of Crate Media

Today we’re asking an important question that every industry is going to have to ask sooner or later: What does future-focused leadership look like?

Our guest, Rachel Druckenmiller, is on a mission to humanize the workplace by igniting intentional leadership. She has made a name for herself nationally in the fields of workplace wellness and culture. In 2019, she was recognized as a 40 Under 40 Game Changer by Workforce Magazine, and in 2018, Employ Humanity named her one of “7 Wellness Leaders Making a Positive Impact.”

But all of this — wellbeing, wellness, culture — it all ties directly to leadership. And Rachel trains leadership teams to be more self-aware, curious, and connected so that they can have greater impact and influence at their organizations.

So, with those types of insights at our disposal, we wanted to find out from Rachel what a future-ready leader looks like.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.

Resources:

• www.RachelDruckenmiller.com
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/rachelbdruckenmiller
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/unmutedlife
• YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/racheldruckenmiller
• Twitter twitter.com/rachel_druck
• Learn more at MACPA.org/future-learning

Future-Proof is a production of Crate Media

So you know Simon Sinek? Best-selling author, leadership expert, the people-don’t-buy-what-you-do-they-buy-why-you-do-it guy?

Well, he has a new book titled The Infinite Game and our host, Bill Sheridan, has become a bit obsessed with this notion of playing the Infinite Game, of adopting an infinite mindset.

So we sat down with Stephen Shedletzky, chief of staff with Simon Sinek’s team at Start With Why. He supports leaders in creating environments where their people feel inspired to go to work, feel safe and valued while they are there, and return home at the end of each day fulfilled by the work they do.

Stephen and I talk about ALL of this — the difference between Finite and Infinite Games, the benefits of thinking more infinitely, and how traditionally Finite-based professions — LIKE accounting and finance — can get started down a path toward thinking more Infinitely.

Really good stuff this week. And if you can’t listen to Simon Sinek, then Stephen will definitely do. Here is Stephen Shedletzky.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.

Resources:

• Read: The Infinite Game
• Twitter: twitter.com/steveshed
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenshedletzky/?originalSubdomain=ca
• Watch Bill interview Simon Sinek: youtube.com/watch?v=g0ROzBuwoCo&feature=youtu.be
• Learn more at MACPA.org/future-learning

Future-Proof is a production of Crate Media

Back in episode 66, we spoke with Matt Loeb about digital transformation, and he brought up a great point — just because you’re enacting some digital solutions doesn’t make you a digital organization. There’s a difference between doing digital and being digital, which is about culture and mindset more than anything else.

Jeanne Ross is a principal research scientist at the MIT Sloan Research Center for Information Systems Research and co-author of a new book titled Designed for Digital: How to Architect Your Business for Sustained Success. And she says there’s a key reason why your organization isn’t crossing that digital divide, and one that really isn’t being talked about enough.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.

Resources:

• Read: Designed for Digital: How to Architect Your Business for Sustained Success
• Center for Information Systems Research: http://cisr.mit.edu/
• Connect with Jeanne https://mitsloan.mit.edu/faculty/directory/jeanne-w-ross
• Twitter: twitter.com/MIT_CISR

Today’s episode focuses on something a little different. Not the technology that’s going to prepare us for the future, not the hard trends that will affect change in the future, and not why we should stop panicking about AI putting all auditors out of work. Today, we’re talking about joy.

Because our guest is Richard Sheridan, co-founder and CEO of Menlo Innovations (and of no relation to our host Bill Sheridan), has written two books on the topic: Joy, Inc.: How We Built a Workplace People Love and Chief Joy Officer: How Great Leaders Elevate Human Energy and Eliminate Fear.

To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog.

Resources:

• Check out MenloInnovations.com
• Read: Joy, Inc.: How We Built a Workplace People Love 
• Read: Chief Joy Officer: How Great Leaders Elevate Human Energy and Eliminate Fear
• Learn more at MACPA.org/future-learning

Future-Proof is a production of Crate Media