The Accounting Leads Now Podcast

The accounting industry has a growth problem. This podcast is the solution. The ALN Podcast is the premier show for firm owners and financial professionals who are serious about building something significant. Hosted by James Donovan, this is where the most successful operators in the industry stop gatekeeping and hand you exactly what's driving their growth. Every episode is built to be the most valuable 30-60 minutes of your week. Solo episodes deliver James's unfiltered analysis, field-tested frameworks, and the insights most people in this industry never get access to. Interview episodes go deep with elite firm owners, industry vendors, and the professionals quietly reshaping what modern accounting looks like, giving you a front-row seat to the conversations that used to happen behind closed doors. Lead generation. Client acquisition. Sales strategy. Pricing. Marketing that actually works. The real numbers behind fast-growing firms. If it mo

The Accounting Leads Now Podcast is a business podcast hosted by James Donovan, with 91 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

James Donovan hosts The Accounting Leads Now Podcast, a business show with 91 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #90

  How Karen Reyburn Fired 15 People to Save Her Own Agency

  Sep 10, 202636 minS5

  You built the team. Delegated everything. Followed all the advice. And somehow you're more miserable than when you started. Episode #90: Karen Reyburn built a marketing agency for accountants up to 21 full-time employees. Then she cut it down to six. Not because business was bad. Because she was sacrificing her health, her finances, and her own goals to keep everyone else happy. In this episode, Karen walks through the exact moment she realized the team wasn't the problem, she was. The leading indicators she ignored for years. And why she now believes "20 seconds of courage" is the difference between staying stuck and actually changing your business. You'll walk away with: The profit trends most firm owners never check How to spot resentment before it wrecks your business Why living out your real goal (even something as specific as buying a house on an island) can rebuild your entire pricing model Send us Fan Mail Tired of referrals that only show up during tax season? Most firm owners are one slow quarter away from panic. We fix that. We help accounting and bookkeeping firm owners build predictable client acquisition systems using paid advertising, so qualified prospects are coming to you year-round, not just when it's convenient for them. Book a free strategy call > accountingleadsnow.com We'll look at your firm specifically and map out exactly what it would take to build a pipeline that doesn't go quiet in July. Grab my book, Booked Solid > Get your copy here The digital marketing playbook built specifically for accounting firms. No theory. Just what works. Join our Skool community - 7 days free > Join here Get access to the exact systems we implement for our clients. Frameworks, templates, and a community of firm owners doing the work.

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  Episode #89

  30+ Acquisitions, a $10M Budget, and Zero Marketing Strategy | Mike Payne

  Sep 3, 202632 minS5

  What if your firm never ran a single ad, never sent a cold email, never hired a marketing agency, and still grew fast enough to expand across multiple states? Episode 89 features Mike Payne , Chief Growth Officer at Haga Kommer, Ltd. and founder of BOSS Advisors, the first Arizona firm approved as an Alternative Business Structure. Mike is a lawyer and a CPA who ignored every colleague who told him to wear one hat, built a CPA firm and a law firm side by side, then sold to a group doing 30+ acquisitions with a $10M annual acquisition budget. Today he leads growth for a platform that delivers CPA, legal, wealth management, banking and insurance under one roof. What you will learn in this episode: - Why "we will refer that out" quietly costs firms their most trusted client relationship, and what the one-roof model changes - How Haga Kommer grows through acquisition plus mining the relationships already sitting under their feet, no ad spend required - The "three C's" of accountability (curious, confused, concerned) for getting a team to actually follow the process - Why you should sell the result and never the how, and how that ends the fear of giving away free advice - The advice Mike ignored for years, and what it cost him before he reset If you are a firm owner who keeps referring work out, or one who is winning on referrals but has no repeatable growth engine, this one is for you. Connect with Mike: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelpaynejdcpa Website: https://themikepayne.com Firm: https://hagakommer.com Also: if you run a $1M to $2M CPA firm and want to hear about joining a multidisciplinary group, Mike is actively looking. Reach out to him directly. Send us Fan Mail Tired of referrals that only show up during tax season? Most firm owners are one slow quarter away from panic. We fix that. We help accounting and bookkeeping firm owners build predictable client acquisition systems using paid advertising, so qualified prospects are coming to you year-round, not just when it's convenient for them. Book a free strategy call > accountingleadsnow.com We'll look at your firm specifically and map out exactly what it would take to build a pipeline that doesn't go quiet in July. Grab my book, Booked Solid > Get your copy here The digital marketing playbook built specifically for accounting firms. No theory. Just what works. Join our Skool community - 7 days free > Join here Get access to the exact systems we implement for our clients. Frameworks, templates, and a community of firm owners doing the work.

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  Episode #88

  The AI Math Every Firm Owner Is Getting Wrong | With Blake Oliver

  Aug 27, 202644 minS5

  Most firm owners calculate the ROI of AI in hours saved. Blake Oliver says that math is exactly why the savings never show up in the bank account. Episode 88 features Blake Oliver , CPA, founder and CEO of Earmark and co-host of The Accounting Podcast, the most popular show for accountants and bookkeepers in the world. Blake started as a cello major, talked his way into a bookkeeping job during the Great Recession, became one of the first Xero partners in the United States, sold his firm Cloud Sourced Accounting in 2015, and has been named to CPA Practice Advisor's 40 Under 40 twice and Accounting Today's Top 100 Most Influential People. Three takeaways: 1. Time saved is not money earned. Speeding up prep while client document collection and partner review stay clogged just moves the bottleneck. Fix the constraint, not the easy part. 2. Great marketing exposes every weakness behind it. If a firm has no documented processes and no spare capacity, more leads can make the firm worse, not better. 3. Raise your prices before you change anything else. Price creates the margin, margin creates capacity, and capacity is what lets you actually serve the clients you keep. Blake also gets honest about burning out at $1M, why he wishes he had held on, and the day two friends died and he started logging off at 3PM and got sharper, not slower. Connect with Blake: Blog and newsletter: https://blakeoliver.com LinkedIn: Blake Oliver CPA The Accounting Podcast: on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube Free CPE app: https://earmark.app Send us Fan Mail Tired of referrals that only show up during tax season? Most firm owners are one slow quarter away from panic. We fix that. We help accounting and bookkeeping firm owners build predictable client acquisition systems using paid advertising, so qualified prospects are coming to you year-round, not just when it's convenient for them. Book a free strategy call > accountingleadsnow.com We'll look at your firm specifically and map out exactly what it would take to build a pipeline that doesn't go quiet in July. Grab my book, Booked Solid > Get your copy here The digital marketing playbook built specifically for accounting firms. No theory. Just what works. Join our Skool community - 7 days free > Join here Get access to the exact systems we implement for our clients. Frameworks, templates, and a community of firm owners doing the work.

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  Episode #87

  The Banker Behind 500 Accounting Firm Acquisitions Says Buyers Get This Wrong | Shannon Hay

  Aug 20, 202626 min

  He has closed over 500 accounting firm acquisitions. Not 50, but 500. He knows exactly which deals fall apart and why. Episode 87 features Shannon Hay , Senior Vice President of Commercial Lending at United Midwest Savings Bank, where he leads SBA and commercial lending for accounting and tax firms nationwide. Over 30 years in commercial lending, with stops at Bank of America and Live Oak Bank, and nearly $500 million in accounting and tax firm transactions behind him. In this conversation Shannon explains why the SBA 7(a) program lets an existing firm owner buy another firm with no money down, what actually kills a deal before closing, and the tax advice that makes accountants wince: if you plan to sell in the next three to five years, stop mitigating so hard and start dropping income to the bottom line, because margin drives value and banks lend on the last three years of returns. He also breaks down why it is still a seller's market, what buyers get wrong in the letter of intent, how private equity consolidation is changing the lower market, and why his philosophy is education first, sales second, including the trade show he called a waste of time that turned into a $3 million loan three years later. His number one action item: never stop learning, and never stop teaching. Connect with Shannon: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-hay-accounting-tax-leader X: @shaysba Email: shay@umwsb.com Cell: 614-648-9199 United Midwest Savings Bank: https://umwsb.com/about/experience/shannon-hay Send us Fan Mail Tired of referrals that only show up during tax season? Most firm owners are one slow quarter away from panic. We fix that. We help accounting and bookkeeping firm owners build predictable client acquisition systems using paid advertising, so qualified prospects are coming to you year-round, not just when it's convenient for them. Book a free strategy call > accountingleadsnow.com We'll look at your firm specifically and map out exactly what it would take to build a pipeline that doesn't go quiet in July. Grab my book, Booked Solid > Get your copy here The digital marketing playbook built specifically for accounting firms. No theory. Just what works. Join our Skool community - 7 days free > Join here Get access to the exact systems we implement for our clients. Frameworks, templates, and a community of firm owners doing the work.

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  Episode #86

  The Fix for a Firm That Eats Your Whole Life? Charge More, Serve Fewer | Marit Burmood

  Aug 13, 202631 minS5

  Most firm owners think the problem is the market. Sometimes the problem is that you do not believe the number you are about to say out loud. Episode 86 features Marit Burmood, CPA, EA, MTax, owner of Flair Financial LLC in Salt Lake City. She holds a master's in taxation from Weber State, was named a 2026 Top U.S. Tax Advisor by Insightful Accountant, speaks at GrowCon and AICPA Engage, and writes for OnPay. She also tripled her firm's revenue in eight months, and not by finding a better niche or hiring a sales team. In this conversation Marit explains how imposter syndrome quietly set her pricing for years, why she chased an EA and then a CPA hoping credentials would finally make clients respect her advice, and the mindset shift that changed everything: raise your prices so you need fewer clients, which buys back the time you thought building a firm would cost you. She breaks down how to price the intangible value you are already giving away for free, why you should test a new price on your least favorite client first, and how she got to the point where she can say her range out loud without wanting to barf. Then it turns to marketing. Marit shares the advice she got from a seven-figure firm owner at GrowCon about niching plus showing up at industry events, why visibility beats credentials, and the line every firm owner needs to hear: making a social media post is not marketing. James adds the Nine Two Media side of raising prices, why the best kept secret in town never gets the phone call, and why the firms you dislike are winning on visibility alone. Her number one action item: block half a day every single week for your own firm and your own growth. She blocked every Friday and calls it the best decision she has made. Connect with Marit: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marit-burmood Instagram: @the_extroverted_accountant Send us Fan Mail Tired of referrals that only show up during tax season? Most firm owners are one slow quarter away from panic. We fix that. We help accounting and bookkeeping firm owners build predictable client acquisition systems using paid advertising, so qualified prospects are coming to you year-round, not just when it's convenient for them. Book a free strategy call > accountingleadsnow.com We'll look at your firm specifically and map out exactly what it would take to build a pipeline that doesn't go quiet in July. Grab my book, Booked Solid > Get your copy here The digital marketing playbook built specifically for accounting firms. No theory. Just what works. Join our Skool community - 7 days free > Join here Get access to the exact systems we implement for our clients. Frameworks, templates, and a community of firm owners doing the work.

  ListenShow Notes

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