In episode 38 of Built by Margin, Laurie Chen sits down with Johnny Terra, CPA, Partner at LPT CPAs and Advisors, for a conversation about tax strategy, risk management, AI, leadership, and the personal growth that comes from taking bold professional risks.

Johnny shares his journey from growing up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to coming to Texas on a basketball scholarship, building a solo accounting practice from a pantry office, and eventually merging into a larger CPA firm. He talks about the mindset shift required to move from solo practitioner to firm partner, including the responsibility of leading staff, serving more complex clients, and building a sustainable firm culture.

A major theme of the episode is risk. Drawing from his background as a bank risk manager and auditor, Johnny reframes risk management as a tool that enables speed rather than prevents action. He compares risk controls to brakes on a car: the point is not to stop movement, but to give leaders the confidence to move faster without crashing. He also expands the classic risk formula by adding two modern factors: velocity, or how fast a risk hits, and persistence, or how long the pain stays in the system.

Laurie and Johnny also dive into how AI is changing tax research, tax preparation, and firm operations. Johnny shares how he uses tools like Thomson Reuters’ AI research platform, NotebookLM, Gemini, and other AI systems to speed up complex tax research while still verifying sources and applying professional judgment. They discuss why AI can increase efficiency, but why trust, source quality, and context remain critical in tax and advisory work.

QUOTES

• “Risk is having those parameters in place so you can move that car as fast as possible and still have the confidence to know that you're not going to crash.” - Johnny Terra
• "“It’s not about what might happen anymore. You have to add two more factors to it: how fast it hits and how long that pain stays in the system.” Johnny Terra
• “The coolest thing of it all is the person that you become in this journey.” Johnny Terra

Laurie Chen

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauriechencpamba/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauriechen/

Risk Worthy: https://www.riskworthy.co/

Johnny Terra

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnnyterracpa/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnnyterracpa/

LPT CPAs and Advisors: https://www.lpt.cpa/

In episode 37 of Built by Margin, Laurie Chen speaks with Rafael Fernandes, Co-Founder and CEO of Compass Health, a membership-based healthcare company launching in Tampa, Florida. Rafael shares how his background in operations, supply chain, and large-scale corporate growth shaped his leap into entrepreneurship, and how the Duke Fuqua network helped him move from idea to execution.

Rafael explains the core problem Compass Health is solving: healthcare access is slow, fragmented, and difficult for patients to navigate. Compass Health was built around four major pain points — access, coordination, navigation, and trust — with a model designed to connect patients to best-in-class specialists within three to five business days while providing high-touch care coordination throughout the process.

The conversation also explores how AI is changing healthcare and startup operations. Rafael discusses how AI can make healthcare more personal by helping patients understand their own data, while still preserving the essential role of physicians in diagnosis, treatment, and trust.

QUOTES

• "Success for Compass Health means ensuring patients get timely access to quality care." - Rafael Fernandes
• "If you're not well, your company is not well." - Rafael Fernandes
• "It was about creating these connections and these relationships that really made me understand what exactly it is that we could build." - Rafael Fernandes

Laurie Chen

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauriechencpamba/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauriechen/

Risk Worthy: https://www.riskworthy.co/

Rafael Fernandes

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecompasshealth/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rafaelfulton/

The Compass Health: https://www.thecompasshealth.com/our-team

In episode 36 of Built by Margin, Laurie Chen sits down with Landon Lynch, founder and principal of Motive, to explore what it really takes to build high-performing leaders and scalable organizations.

Landon shares his unconventional path from nonprofit leadership into executive coaching and consulting, where he now works with founder CEOs, investor-backed companies, and leadership teams to strengthen their “people infrastructure.” The conversation dives into the realities of leadership development—why defining your personal version of success is foundational, and how effective coaching goes beyond frameworks into real behavioral change.

A major theme throughout the episode is the intersection of leadership and AI. Landon explains why AI adoption is less about technology and more about change management, and how leaders can use it to enhance decision-making, streamline operations, and even improve personal relationships—like using AI to facilitate better financial conversations at home.

Laurie and Landon also unpack:

• The challenges of scaling a service-based business beyond the founder
• How to build and position a high-impact team
• Why executive assistants can become profit centers when paired with automation
• The power of weekly automation thinking (“What are you automating this week?”)
• Risk-taking in business, including when it makes sense to work below market rate for the right opportunities

Landon closes with a powerful leadership insight: the importance of embedding consistent feedback loops into everyday operations—not as a formality, but as a core system for growth, accountability, and performance.

This episode is a deep dive into building companies that scale through people, not just processes—and how the best leaders combine strategy, self-awareness, and adaptability to win long-term.

QUOTES

• "If you can lead volunteers, you can lead anybody, because you don't get to hang a paycheck over their head." - Landon Lynch
• "At the heart of the AI question, it's not primarily a tech question. It needs to be reframed first and foremost as a leadership and a change management question." - Landon Lynch

Laurie Chen

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauriechencpamba/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauriechen/

Landon Lynch

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/landonclynch/

Motiv People Strategies: https://www.motivstrat.com/our-team

WEBSITES

Risk Worthy: https://www.riskworthy.co/

Advanced CFO: https://www.advancedcfo.co/

Built By Margin: https://www.builtbymargin.com/