You're exhausted. You keep telling yourself it's just tax season. But deep down, you know it's been longer than that.

Randy Crabtree pulled over at a phone booth to quit his job and become a CPA. He built a firm, burned out, sold it, co-founded Tri-Merit Specialty Tax and landed on the Inc. 5000 three years running. Then a stroke in 2014 forced him to rethink everything.

In this conversation, Randy gets real about what burnout actually looks like before it takes you down, why niching down accelerated his growth instead of limiting it, and the one client-list exercise that can change how you run your firm starting today.

If you're running on fumes right now, this one's worth your commute.

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A West Point grad invites you to shoot fully automatic machine guns and drink bourbon. You go. You meet a fractional CFO. Three months later, he's a multi-thousand dollar a month client.

That's not a marketing strategy. That's Sean Duncan's life and it's only the opener.

Sean built the largest accounting firm in Frisco, Texas, then torched two-thirds of his revenue on purpose and rebuilt around a fixed-fee, proactive advisory model before anyone in the industry had a name for it. In this conversation he breaks down exactly how he did it, what almost ended him in 2017, how he niched into medical practices and video game developers, and the one calendar habit he credits for every major decision he's made since.

You'll walk away with his "Work On the Business Day" framework, a new way to think about who you actually want as clients, and proof that shooting guns in Texas is a legitimate business development strategy.

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We help Bookkeepers, Accountants & Fractional CFOs generate consistent local leads, book perfect-fit appointments, and close premium clients, without cold outreach or ad guesswork.

Let’s map out your growth plan together → Book your free strategy call

You're grinding through tax season wondering when it gets easier. What if the answer isn't working more, it's being more intentional about what you build and who you build it with?

Katie Helle walked away from a 15-year career at a traditional firm, launched Scaled Accounting, and hit capacity faster than she ever planned. Her growth engine? Referral partnerships with financial advisors, real relationships built at conferences, and online communities where firm owners actually send each other business.

In this conversation, she breaks down how she schedules tax prep to protect her 40-hour weeks, why she intentionally doesn't want to scale into a massive firm, and what happened when growth came so fast she didn't have SOPs ready for the team she had to hire mid-tax-season.

If you're building a firm around your life instead of the other way around, this one's for you.

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Ready to turn your firm into a lead-generating, profit-driving machine?
We help Bookkeepers, Accountants & Fractional CFOs generate consistent local leads, book perfect-fit appointments, and close premium clients, without cold outreach or ad guesswork.

Let’s map out your growth plan together → Book your free strategy call

Most accounting firms don’t lose deals because of price.

They lose them because they explain too much.

In this episode, Brian Merrill breaks down why prospects say “I need to think about it” and what’s actually happening on your sales calls.

Key takeaways:

• why too much information kills deals
• how to simplify your offer so prospects say yes faster
• how to control the sales conversation without sounding pushy
• what top-performing firms do differently when selling

If your calls are turning into long explanations instead of closed deals, this episode shows you exactly what to fix.

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Ready to turn your firm into a lead-generating, profit-driving machine?
We help Bookkeepers, Accountants & Fractional CFOs generate consistent local leads, book perfect-fit appointments, and close premium clients, without cold outreach or ad guesswork.

Let’s map out your growth plan together → Book your free strategy call

We recorded 70+ episodes of CFO Chronicles. Incredible guests. Great conversations.

And we still hit pause.

Not because we ran out of ideas, because something wasn't working. So we scrapped the name, retooled the format, and came back with one rule: if you can't apply it by Monday morning, it doesn't make the show.

Welcome to the Accounting Leads Now Podcast.

In this episode, we break down exactly what's changing, what we're doubling down on, and what you can expect from here. Less theory. More leads. More clients. More episodes you can actually use.

We also want to hear from you, who should we bring on the show? What topics matter most to your firm right now? Drop a comment or send us a message.

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Ready to turn your firm into a lead-generating, profit-driving machine?
We help Bookkeepers, Accountants & Fractional CFOs generate consistent local leads, book perfect-fit appointments, and close premium clients, without cold outreach or ad guesswork.

Let’s map out your growth plan together → Book your free strategy call

Most accountants talk about innovation. Brian Clare actually builds it. From killing time tracking to launching his own payroll software for Canadian accountants, Brian isn't just running a firm, he’s engineering the next wave of how firms work.

In this episode:

• Why hourly billing is killing your margins
• How turning down the wrong clients changed everything
• The cost of hiring late and why he hired ops before he needed to
• Behind the scenes of building a brand-new payroll tool from scratch
• How he manages two companies without burning out

🔍 Whether you’re stuck in legacy pricing or flirting with product dev, this is a masterclass in firm design, ops delegation, and bold decisions.

📍 Learn more: https://www.xyblueprint.com

📱 Connect with Brian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/briangclare/

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Ready to turn your firm into a lead-generating, profit-driving machine?
We help Bookkeepers, Accountants & Fractional CFOs generate consistent local leads, book perfect-fit appointments, and close premium clients, without cold outreach or ad guesswork.

Let’s map out your growth plan together → Book your free strategy call

What if you could own a thriving accounting firm without a CPA, EA, or even industry experience?

Nik Watson did just that at 23 years old. After four failed startups and zero accounting background, he landed his first acquisition using a personalized pitch deck and the grit most people avoid.

In this episode, Nik shares:
• Why value-based pricing and 3-tier offers aren’t optional in 2025
• The exact tools and AI stack he’s using to stay lean
• The mistake most buyers make that kills the deal
• His transition from marketing agency to tax firm owner

This episode is for anyone who’s looking at M&A, firm expansion, or just done billing by the hour.

🔗 Connect with Nik: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nik-watson/

🎧 Listen now. You'll walk away with ideas you can actually apply.

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Ready to turn your firm into a lead-generating, profit-driving machine?
We help Bookkeepers, Accountants & Fractional CFOs generate consistent local leads, book perfect-fit appointments, and close premium clients, without cold outreach or ad guesswork.

Let’s map out your growth plan together → Book your free strategy call

2025 nearly broke me.
Clients dropped. Revenue cratered. My dream car? Totaled by a dump truck, with no one inside. At our lowest, we were bleeding over $12,000/month.

But we didn’t quit. And by November, we closed 10 new clients in a month and had our first $15K cash day.

In this special New Year’s edition, I walk through the real story behind the posts: the burnouts, breakthroughs, and the shift that brought us back.

What I cover:

• The exact moment I considered shutting it all down
• Why discounting for quick cash nearly wrecked us
• The “Mexico Meltdown” that set off the chaos
• The daily habits that pulled me out
• 3 muscles I had to build to survive the year

If you're in a tough season… listen to this.

You're not behind. You're not broken. You're being forged.

👉 Subscribe, share, and message me if this hits.
Let’s make 2026 the comeback year, together.

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Ready to turn your firm into a lead-generating, profit-driving machine?
We help Bookkeepers, Accountants & Fractional CFOs generate consistent local leads, book perfect-fit appointments, and close premium clients, without cold outreach or ad guesswork.

Let’s map out your growth plan together → Book your free strategy call