Who's Really the BOSS?

Marilyn Melendez grew up in her mom’s accounting firm, and taking it over meant trading a “never say no to business” mindset for one built around fit, time, and peace of mind. She joins Marcus and Rachel to talk about honoring a founder’s legacy while changing how things are done, why her ideal client is a type of person rather than an industry, and how her accounting firm got smaller while still...

When an accounting firm is busy keeping up with changes in technology and the industry, its team and clients can quietly get pushed to the side. Returning guest Matt Kidd joins Marcus and Rachel to talk about staying intentional with both. He covers the flexibility and everyday appreciation that keep his team engaged and the deliberate choices he makes about which client relationships get his time...

SBA loan broker Eric Rabinovich joins Marcus and Rachel to break down what actually gets a bank to say yes to a firm acquisition, from debt service coverage ratios to the rule changes taking effect October 1st. They work through real numbers, including how a $400,000 firm can close for $20,000 out of pocket and why existing firm owners can sometimes finance a deal with no cash down at all. Connect...

A year after closing their second acquisition of 2025, Marcus and Rachel Dillon bring in Amy McCarty to tally up what actually happened once the ink dried. They walk through the KPIs that mattered most, the client and staff turnover nobody puts in the deal memo, and how the acquisition finally pushed DBA past a revenue plateau they'd been stuck at for years. It's a candid look at what integration...

Sandra Koch returns to share how she's built a firm around flexibility, trust, responsiveness, and genuine care for both her team and clients. She discusses leading a fully remote team, creating a people-first culture, and why aligning your firm with your own values is more sustainable than trying to follow someone else's blueprint. Introducing Collective by DBA https://collective.cpa https://www....

Marcus and Rachel break down their Tax Advisory Plan (TAP), the $500/month individual tax offering built for high-income clients, referrals, and business owners exiting their companies. They cover pricing, onboarding fees, the "team of three" structure, and why they deliberately cap new TAP clients at 10 per year and keep the service off their website. Sponsors Discover. AI -  discover.ai   Introd...

Fletcher Wimbush of Discover.ai returns to break down his FACT system for hiring at accounting firms: Focus, Attract, Candidate Evaluation, and Training. He explains why most firms don't have a job posting problem, they have a talent market access problem, and why waiting until you're desperate to hire almost always leads to a bad match. Marcus and Rachel dig into real examples from their own hiri...

Marcus and Rachel set a goal of 15 new monthly clients for all of 2026 — and blew past it by June, landing 20. They walk through the $101,415 in onboarding fees that came with those clients, why 85% of that growth traces back to referrals and existing relationships instead of paid marketing, and what a 75% jump in PTO usage tells them about their new flexible time-off policy. Sponsors Discover. AI...

Marcus and Rachel break down how Dillon Business Advisors moved from an owner-led firm to a director-led one, walking through the seven components they use to define every director role, from ownership and KPIs to the weekly question that keeps people accountable. They also share how scorecards and monthly reviews keep decisions from flowing back up to the owners. It's a practical framework for fi...

Marcus is back from five weeks on the conference circuit, from Collective's Recharge to Intuit and ADP councils to Accounting Today's Firm Growth Forum, and he and Rachel unpack what it signals for firms. They cover the surge in roll-ups and private equity moving down market, the tension between staying autonomous and centralizing operations, the AI agents landing inside nearly every platform, and...

Marcus and Rachel publicly unveil Streamlined OS, the operating system Collective by DBA built specifically for accounting firms to connect strategy, execution, measurement, and improvement in one place. They walk through how its 62-question assessment surfaces a firm's strengths and improvement areas, prioritizes three or fewer to tackle next, links each one to training and templates, and tracks...

Marcus and Rachel introduce the Automation Idea Generator from Collected by DBA, a free tool designed to help accounting firm teams identify what to automate, assess ROI, and get started without hiring a consultant. The episode walks through a live demo and breaks down a key distinction the whole firm needs to understand: AI designs the process, automation runs it. They also get honest about the r...

Sponsors Discover. AI -  discover.ai   Rachel and Marcus pull back the curtain on how DBA rebuilt their accounting firm from the ground up, moving from a structure where everything ran through one person to a three-tiered team model built for scale. They walk through each phase of the transition: defining roles, aligning consistent teams to clients, and building industry specialization that makes...

Marcus and Rachel introduce their rally cry for 2026, "lead change, create impact," and share the four Ps framework (Purpose, Picture, Plan, and Part) they've adopted at DBA and Collective to guide their team through rapid change. They get honest about past missteps, from announcing acquisitions without team buy-in to the temptation of initiating change without living through it. Along the way, th...

Marcus and Rachel Dillon pick up where they left off, walking through the third major chapter of Dillon Business Advisors: from the shift to fully remote work and the development of their Team of Three model, to two strategic acquisitions that pushed the firm past $6 million in revenue. Marcus also pulls back the curtain on the conversations he's having now with firm owners at every size, from $1M...

Marcus and Rachel Dillon reflect on 15 years of Dillon Business Advisors, tracing the firm's origins from a cold-letter acquisition of a $400K book in 2011 through two distinct five-year chapters of growth, tough lessons, and reinvention. They cover the early grind of building stability, a mentor acquisition that didn't go as planned, strategic client block sales, and the unexpected pivot that COV...

Sandra Koch founded Aurora Consulting Group in 2011 and spent years chasing the dream of a beautiful brick-and-mortar office — then sold the building, went fully remote, and eventually moved to a small coastal town in Baja California with dirt roads and 25 species of whales. She joins Marcus and Rachel to talk about the anxiety of going remote, the grief of letting go of a physical space, and why...

Rachel and Marcus pull back the curtain on how Dillon Business Advisors went from zero website leads after a botched domain migration to a packed January calendar full of prospective client meetings. They trace the full lead journey — from SEO recovery and HubSpot automation to referral partner relationships and the pre-call nurturing that warms prospects before Rachel even says hello. Sponsors Di...

Tax season doesn't have to mean overtime, blackout dates, and pizza-party morale boosts. Marcus and Rachel walk through the operational decisions and team structures that keep DBA running at 36 hours a week year-round. From Flex Fridays and unlimited PTO to ditching 1099 prep for annual-only clients, rethinking which client relationships to keep, and using video commentary and text messaging to me...

Marcus and Rachel sit down with Amy McCarty to unpack the reality of DBA's two 2025 acquisitions—from pre-close team meetings and tech stack migrations to payment processor transitions and the decision to space deals 90 days apart. They share specific timelines, technology consolidation wins and challenges. This is the acquisition conversation focused on what happens after everyone stops congratul...

Rachel and Marcus unveil the DBA Impact Fund, a donor-advised fund through National Christian Foundation that channels 1% of every revenue dollar toward charitable causes. They share how they chose Living Water International as their primary charity partner, including plans to purchase and install water wells with the team in 2027, and explain their unique approach to employee giving through $1,00...

Marcus and Rachel break down the five essential KPIs that drive firm value, using real data from over 200 accounting firms. They reveal how the average firm in their network decreased owner production hours by 12% while growing revenue by 10%, and share the exact backwards mapping framework they use to identify which levers to pull for improvement. Marcus also walks through DBA's 2024 price increa...

Rachel and Marcus break down their year-end team retreat planning process, from the leadership framework they used to set 2026 goals to the logistics of bringing 25+ remote team members together. They share what they celebrate with their team, why financial transparency has built trust, and how they structure two days to focus on relationships rather than technical content. After doubling revenue...

Nick Liguori shares how he transformed his New Hampshire accounting firm into a med spa specialist, growing to seven employees and approaching $1 million in revenue within five years. He discusses the strategic decision to niche down despite losing legacy clients, implementing Team of Three for better delegation and scalability, and cutting client onboarding time from 60 days to 30 days. Nick also...

Marcus and Rachel recap Gather 2025, their fall event that brought 105 firm owners, leaders, and team members together in Grapevine, Texas. They walk through the four Ps framework for change management (purpose, picture, plan, and part) and share highlights from sessions on KPIs, firm valuation, AI agents, and collaborative problem-solving. Sponsors Discover. AI -  discover.ai   Introducing Collec...