Are you charging $700 for a 1040 while working 70-hour weeks? Still telling yourself your market can't support higher rates? Megan Leesley's response: Stop it. The only real constraint isn't your market. It's your mindset. And when she challenged that belief, she doubled her revenue while cutting her client load in half. In this episode of Deduct This with Carrie and Lexi, Megan Leesley, Director of Tax at Dark Horse CPAs, reveals how advisory-first firms are charging $1,500 base rates, working normal hours, and proving that the only real constraint is your own mindset.

At Intuit Connect, Megan met a firm owner who charged $700 and worked 60-70 hours a week, convinced that higher rates were impossible in her market. Megan's response? 'Our base rate is $1,500. And we work normal hours.' The woman's reply: 'I can never do that in my market.' Here's the truth: 76% of clients want advisory services and will pay more for them. But only a small percentage of firms actually offer it. The gap isn't demand. It's a firm positioning.

Megan tested this herself. When transitioning to Tax Director, she raised rates across her entire practice, expecting significant client losses. She calculated she'd end the year at $48,000 in annual recurring revenue with her reduced client load. The actual result? $100,000 in ARR with significantly less work, tax firm profitability is also about value.. Double her target. The clients who wanted advisory services were already there. She just wasn't charging for them. She was her own bottleneck, putting constraints on clients that they never actually expressed.

Dark Horse went fully advisory-first two years ago, not as a marketing position but as an existential business strategy. Here's why: AI is rapidly absorbing compliance work. The firms staying compliance-focused are building businesses with shrinking futures. The shift to advisory isn't about adding services on top. It's about recognizing that compliance is now table stakes; the software handles it. Your differentiator is what humans do: build relationships, understand goals, demonstrate impact. That's where advisory-first wins.

Megan opens up about:

• Why a majority of CPA time is spent gathering and inputting data adds zero client value
• How Dark Horse's $1,500 base rate includes advisory touchpoints, not just compliance
• Why 67% of CPA time spent on data entry adds little client value, and how to eliminate it
• The "stop it" moment when she realized her market excuse wasn't real
• Why only a small percentage of firms offer the advisory services most of your clients want
• How ProConnect Tax and Intuit Tax Advisor eliminated context switching and SaaS soup
• Why AI builds data while empathy builds impact, and how the human element is your competitive advantage in an AI-first world
• Why April 15th is "false news" and how to schedule clients for actual work-life balance
• Her framework for Opportunity Season, instead of busy season survival mode
• How intuitive software with fast learning curves freed her team to focus on advisory work
• How to reframe 'busy season' as 'opportunity season,' a mindset shift that changes your entire approach to January through April
• Why the profession needs to shift perception from grind culture to a rewarding partnership

Are you working 70-hour weeks for $700 returns while other advisory-first tax and accounting firms charge double and work half the hours? Stop asking if your market supports higher rates. Start asking how you can shift to advisory-first and reduce your client load while doubling your revenue.
Explore Intuit Professional Tax Software to start: https://accountants.intuit.com/tax-software/

Follow Megan Leesley:
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/megan-leesley-cpa-25b67a9 
Website: https://darkhorse.cpa/