Where Accountants Go - The Accounting Careers Podcast

Kelly Boswell, the Director of Tax Controversy with the San Antonio based accounting firm ADKF, joined us for this episode of Where Accountants Go, the Accounting Careers Podcast. Kelly accepted her new role as Director of Tax Controversy early last year, so we invited her on the show to talk more about that specific specialty.  “Tax controversy” specialists seem to be popping up with many firms in the marketplace, so it was time to do an episode that covered that area of interest in depth.  As you will hear in Kelly’s career story, many of her previous experiences helped build her into an ideal professional for this type of role, and we discuss some of that background in this interview so that those interested in the field can guide their own career in that direction. However, we also stumbled on another interesting facet of Kelly’s career journey:  the fact that she postponed her career for 12 years after finishing school.  Kelly was at the point right after college where her and her husband wanted to start a family, so she temporarily put her career on hold about the time most people are just getting started.  This made for an inspiring story though, as you will hear about the steps she took to help better her situation when re-entering the workforce.  There is tremendous value in that portion of the story as well. There truly is great value for many different types of professionals in this episode.  If you enjoy this interview, please also check out:  Shanikwa Davis and Elena Levario For more information on Kelly’s firm, you can visit https://www.adkf.com/ To listen in on this interview with Kelly Boswell, Director of Tax Controversy, please use the player below:

Jose Campos, a Partner with Deloitte in California, joined us for this episode of Where Accountants Go, the Accounting Careers Podcast. We were referred to Jose by a listener that heard him speak on the subject of diversity in the profession, and we certainly were not disappointed.  Jose has had an amazing career, staying with Deloitte all the way from starting as an entry-level accountant, to becoming Partner a while back.  Plus, he has been a leader with Deloitte in the area of Diversity & Inclusion, a true passion for Jose.  Interestingly enough, he almost chose a career working to advance the interests of minorities early in his life, and even though he chose accounting instead of that path, he has still been able to help the profession make significant headway in that area. In addition to Jose’s work as a Big 4 Partner and in the diversity area, he has also served on the State Board of Accountancy for the state of California, a job that carries with it tremendous responsibility as well.  We truly do get into a wealth of information in this podcast episode. To find out more about Deloitte specifically, visit https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en.html. For information on their D&I efforts, visit https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/about-deloitte/articles/deloitte-inclusion.html?icid=top_deloitte-inclusion For other episodes you may enjoy, make sure to listen to:  Joey Tackett and Amy Pitter To listen in on this episode with Jose Campos, please use the player below:

Ron Baker, Founder of the Verasage Institute and one of my absolute favorite podcast hosts, joined us for this episode of Where Accountants Go, The Accounting Careers Podcast. If you haven’t heard The Soul Of Enterprise podcast, you are missing out.  Ron Baker co-hosts the program with another brilliant thinker, Ed Kless, and provides some of the most thought-provoking content I have ever experienced.  It’s quite literally one of my favorite two podcasts. Ron started his career in public accounting, moved into industry, and then founded his own accounting firm.  It was during those early years that he began to severely dislike the concept of the billable hour and timesheets in public accounting.  That disdain for the billable hour led him to write a book, the first of many actually, and that launched his eventual consulting career working with firms to make the profession better.  He now devotes his full-time efforts to pricing strategy and related topics.  The organization he founded, the Verasage Institute, is a think-tank formed for exactly the purpose of reaching the tipping-point where the billable hour will become just a footnote in the history books.  And what’s interesting, is that it looks like we are there.  There definitely have been a large number of firms that have moved away from the billable-hour concept, and it appears that its eventual death is becoming a certainty. If you like a story of finding your passion, and devoting your efforts to making a difference in the world, you will love this episode. Make sure to check out the links above in the shownotes as well for Ron’s own podcast, as well as some of his books. To listen in on this interview with Ron Baker, please use the player below:

Ben Loggins of Loggins, Kern, McCombs in Atlanta, Georgia, joined us for this episode of Where Accountants Go, the Accounting Careers Podcast.  In this episode, we discuss the growth and progression of Ben’s firm, and also his outside-of-work interest in the area of Roswell history and supporting US figure skating! We initially asked Ben to be on the show to discuss the progression and growth of his accounting firm because it has been a while since we had a long-term CPA firm owner on the program.  And we did have a good discussion of the history and changes with their firm over the years, including some talk regarding finding the right partners for your firm.  However, we also happened into a discussion surrounding Ben’s hobbies, both of which originated due to interests his daughter had.  His daughter was involved in figure skating for many years, and because of that Ben served on the Finance Committee for the US Figure Skating organization.  And in an even more interesting turn of events in our interview, we also found out that Ben speaks on the history surrounding extra-terrestrial events in Roswell, New Mexico – you know, alien stuff!  He’s done quite a bit of research on the topic, and even has a YouTube video about Roswell.  Check it out at: https://youtu.be/lQf8-AoAyoI This interview was fun on many levels. For more information on Ben’s firm, please visit their site at: https://www.logginscpa.com/our-firm/ I’m sure you will really enjoy this interview.  To listen in on the discussion we had with Ben Loggins, please use the player below:

Jaclyn Badeau of Badeau Consulting joined us for this week’s episode of Where Accountants Go, the Accounting Careers Podcast.  Jaclyn’s career spans public accounting, large industry, global travel positions, and now her own consulting practice.  There is something here for everyone! Jaclyn’s career started very early.  She actually had her first accounting clerk job while in high school!  She very much enjoyed that position, so majoring in accounting was a natural choice. After college, she worked in public accounting for six years, and then in industry with the Tempur Sealy organization for almost 9 years after that.  Through those various management roles, she continued to be involved in leadership training and coaching, which further refined her own leadership coaching skills.  Eventually, she decided in early 2020 to devote herself full-time to coaching others, and Badeau Consulting was formed.  Now she works with both groups and individual professionals who want to go the “extra M.I.L.E.”, an acronym that stands for motivate, inspire, lead, and empower.  You can tell that Jaclyn really enjoys helping others grow, so this was a natural next step in her journey. Learn more about Jaclyn’s company at www.badeauconsulting.com For other episodes you will enjoy, make sure to listen to:  Robina Benion and Brian Kush To listen in on this interview with Jaclyn Badeau, please use the player below:

Joey Ryan, the CFO and Co-Founder of a company working in the blockchain solution space, joined us for this episode of Where Accountants Go, the Accounting Careers Podcast. We haven’t touched on blockchain much yet on this show with the exception of an episode or two, so this was a refreshing topic.  Joey started his career in public accounting, but as he worked to keep up his knowledge of current issues in the profession, he became interested in blockchain and crypto-currency.  Fast forward a couple years and he was meeting the individuals he co-founded Gilded with at a crypto-currency Meetup event.  And as they say, the rest is history. Gilded creates accounting solutions for companies that transact business in crypto-currency.  Their products plug into existing accounting systems in order to enable functions such as billing and collections to be handled in crypto-currency mediums. If you want to know more about how crypto-currency affects the accounting profession from a very practical standpoint, this episode is for you. For another episode that may interest you, check out:  Shehan Chandrasekera To listen in on this episode with Joey Ryan, please use the player below:

It’s hard to believe that the time flew by so fast, but we are celebrating our 200th episode of Where Accountants Go, the Accounting Careers Podcast. If you’ve been a listener for a while, you know we’ve changed several things along the way.  We’ve changed our intro section a few times, our outro section many times, our website address, and even our intro music – which we like much, much better now!  But one thing that never changed is our commitment to bringing you great guests each and every week.  Until now that is… ha! For this episode, we decided to turn the tables and I (Mark Goldman, the regular host) asked a good friend to interview me for this particular show.  Sarah Elliott of Intend2Lead, a wonderful friend of the show, agreed to do the job of interviewing me for this one episode.  We discuss many things, and honestly it was a new experience for me.  It’s odd being interviewed for your own show 😊, however Sarah did a great job. In this celebration episode, we talk about how the show became reality, my own career journey, and some of the lessons and insights I’ve been able to glean from interviewing so many wonderful guests. I hope you enjoy this special episode.  And don’t worry, we will return to our regular format next week. To listen in on this interview with Mark Goldman, and hosted by Sarah Elliott, please use the player below:

Greg Kyte, a CPA in Utah that does stand-up comedy, serves as host for several conferences, and still works his full-time day job as a Controller, joined us for this episode of Where Accountants Go, The Accounting Careers Podcast. I first encountered Greg through the “mind-numbingly repetitive” commercials he has done for one of my own personal favorite podcasts – “The Soul of Enterprise”.  I didn’t know this until the interview, but the commercial spots he recorded for that show were supposed to be used for a short time (or so he thought), but ended up being so impactful that they continued to be used over and over for years.  If you haven’t listened to that particular podcast, please check it out.  They have great content, and you will crack up when you hear Greg’s 3 commercial spots – they truly are hilarious. Greg works as a Controller for a medical building management company full-time as well.  However, that doesn’t stop him from being the comedic host for conferences such as Xerocon, or from recording comedic CPE sessions for online providers.  He’s found the best of all worlds! One take-away for me personally was that Greg has been able to pursue his passion because he was willing to put himself out there and be judged.  Whether it was in the initial years doing stand-up, or the letters he wrote to the editor of the Journal of Accountancy, Greg hasn’t been shy about expressing himself and waiting to see how it’s received.  And obviously it’s been received well – he really is a funny guy. If you enjoy this episode, make sure to also check out:  John Garrett and Geni Whitehouse To listen in on this interview with Greg Kyte, please use the player below.

Stephen Oliver, a CPA that focused his career early on in consulting areas such as forensic projects, litigation support, and merger/acquisition analysis, joined us for this episode of Where Accountants Go, the Accounting Careers Podcast. I’ve personally known Stephen for many years, but even I learned quite a bit from this interview. Stephen started his career with a small start-up accounting firm in an intern role, but it wasn’t the type of work you may expect.  Due to the focus and start-up nature of that firm, he ended up working with clients on business planning very early in his career.  That experience, coupled with some valuable relationships, ended up landing him another internship with Arthur Andersen in consulting & litigation support immediately afterwards.  As you can tell, he was becoming a specialist even as an intern, so when he graduated and began working full-time, he was able to continue working on consulting projects instead of the typical tax or audit roles, which was exactly what he wanted to do. Fast forward many years now, and he has been able to become a well-respected subject matter expert in the areas of litigation support, forensics, and mergers & acquisitions.  He’s worked at both large and small accounting firms, and large & small companies in industry.  He’s also been a featured panel speaker at local business owner focused events. Gethsemane Partners, Stephen’s own practice that he launched several years ago, is now expanding into fractional CFO offerings as well, which is a natural evolution given his own personal background. For more information on Gethsemane Partners, please check out:  https://g-ptrs.com/ For other related podcast episodes, please listen to:  Robin Thieme and Ramsey Womack To listen to this interview with Stephen Oliver, please use the player below:

Twyla Verhelst joined us for this episode of Where Accountants Go, the Accounting Careers Podcast.  As you would expect, we discussed FreshBooks and how that accounting solution has expanded in recent years, but we also cover Twyla’s earlier career history as well.  Twyla has had an amazing journey, spanning typical accounting roles, to starting several businesses, to founding a charitable endeavor, to her role now with FreshBooks.  It truly is an amazing journey. I confess that I typically thought of FreshBooks as a micro-business solution for solo-preneurs.  However, I was mistaken.  Make sure you listen all the way to the end on this episode.  Twyla gives us a great overview of the platform changes they have made in recent years, and how that has enabled them to handle much larger enterprises in the small & mid-market space. If you enjoy a story of entrepreneurism, you will love this episode as well.  Twyla co-founded a cloud accounting company, a software application company, a charitable organization, and even a mortgage company early in her career.  She definitely has an entrepreneurial streak. Once you listen to this episode, if you would like more episodes on similar topics, make sure you check out:  Mike Whitmire and Amanda Aguillard To listen in on this episode, please use the player below.