Change Your Mindset

Darren LaCroix is the only speaker in the world who is a Certified Speaking Professional, an Accredited Speaker, and a world champion of public speaking. He's also the co-host of Unforgettable Presentations podcast. Darren always stresses, "Don't go for the designations to get the letters after your name. Do it for the professional you will become in the process." Darren’s story of failed entrepre...

Ken "Mr. Biz" Wentworth is the host of a successful radio show, B2B Radio, which focuses on helping business owners. He’s developed expertise during 20 plus years in leadership positions while rising to the top 3% at a Fortune 15 company, and is the bestselling author of two business books. Ken works with small to medium-sized businesses that are really good at what they provide, but need some hel...

Dr. Mihaela Jekic is a money coach, author and TedX Speaker. Mihaela helps professionals and entrepreneurs transform their money mindset, help them get unstuck financially, and build a business and life they love. Her story of how she went from war-torn Bosnia, attending a school where she didn’t speak the language, and discover improv as a way to get her over her fear of public speaking and shatt...

Tara Clancy is a speaker, author, and sleep expert. Tara is also a member of the National Speakers Association and currently serves as the President of the Connecticut Chapter. Tara has a lot of great tips and advice for us to think about during our day as it relates to our daytime and our nighttime breathing in order to get a good night's sleep. She discusses the long-term ramifications of nightt...

Eileen Kahana is the Founder and CEO of a Chicago nonprofit, Room to Improv, a non-profit dedicated to raising the self-esteem of students, veterans, and seniors, and, ultimately, empowering them to enrich their lives. Improv had always been a part of Eileen, but it was only recently that she discovered its name and process. After retiring from an accomplished career as a teacher and mentor from t...

Chrissie Powers is the Founder of Powers Forensic Accounting LLC. Chrissie's experience includes investigations involving diversion of corporate assets, fraud examination and investigation, forensic accounting and record reconstruction, damaging claims analysis and documentation, and providing valuation of closely held businesses for purposes of divorce, estate, and purchase, or sale. Chrissie sta...

Ralph Picano is the CFO and a member of the board of directors for Wade Trim, an almost 100 year old engineering firm. As a CFO, the thoughts that keep Ralph up at night are the ones related to his company’s largest expense: It’s employees. The engineering industry bills hourly. They provide talented people to perform services for clients, and they charge their clients to create value and give the...

My guest today is Kevin McCarthy, author of the bestselling book, Blind Spots: Why Good People Make Bad Choices. Kevin works globally with industry leaders to reveal blind spots to unleash the potential in organizations and teams. Kevin spent 33 months in a federal prison for a crime he didn't knowingly commit. His boss at the time was committing stock fraud, and when Kevin discovered this, he rea...

My guest today is Dave Caperton. Dave is an author, speaker and thought leader on ways that joy drives success. Dave uses humor to teach corporations, associations, individuals, and groups how living and working with intentional joy is an act of leadership and a disciplined will. He has 20 years of real-world experience speaking, coaching, and writing about the benefits of a joyful mindset in a bu...

My guests today are Bill and Don Tomoff, who are both CPAs who like to say they aren’t your typical accountants. Bill Tomoff is currently a CFO for InstallNET International and a consultant with Invenio Advisors, focusing on training and professional development. Bill volunteers with and is on the board of directors of Special Love, an organization serving children and families fighting childhood...

Jay Sukow believes that the world will be a better place if everyone takes just one improv class - and I agree! Jay is trying to make that world a reality as the founder of Today Improv, where he teaches improv to actors, businesses, and everyone else around the world. He is currently on faculty at The Second City Hollywood and former faculty member at The Second City Chicago. Some of those he has...

Dr. Gleb Tsipursky is a disaster avoidance expert with over 20 years of experience dramatically empowering leaders and organizations to avoid business disasters by addressing potential threats, maximizing unexpected opportunities, and resolving persistent personnel problems. Gleb serves as the CEO of a boutique consulting and training firm, Disaster Avoidance Experts, whose clients range from Fort...

My guest today is Brian Wagner, Founder and CEO of A Radical Vision, an organization with a powerful mission statement: "It took a crippling disease for us to understand that we have no vision. Losing our sight allowed us to gain vision. That was the greatest gift that's ever been given. We can't hide from our adversity. Our goal is to help others recognize their adversity, go blind, and gain visi...

My guest today is Robin Thieme, the Founder of KBS CFO, which is an outsourced CFO and accounting department solution for growing sustainable and profitable businesses. She has over 30 years of financial and accounting experience, a passion for the efficiencies that new technologies enable, and a dedication to small businesses. One of the things that really impresses me about Robin and KBS is that...

My guest today is Phillip Lovegrove, who's a partner in the personal financial planning firm of Vorisek Financial Corporation. Now, many of the financial planners that I've interacted with in the past could not or would not adapt their conversation to meet the needs of their clients. Instead, many only seem to be serving their own needs and, at times, come across condescending. Phil is just the op...

My guest today is Amy Franko, who is a strategic sales expert, author, and keynote speaker. Amy had a successful business-to-business sales career with global technology companies like IBM and Lenovo before, in 2007, she pivoted into entrepreneurship and launched the training firm Impact Instruction Group. Now, Amy works with professional service firms, helping them grow business development resul...

My guest today is Samantha Bowling, who's an Audit Partner at the accounting firm of Garbelman Winslow in Maryland and the current Chair of the Executive Board of the Maryland Association of CPAs. This episode is focused on public accounting, but it also has great implications to business and industry accounting professionals. So, I encourage anyone in accounting – or just interested in how AI is...

Today I have the pleasure of introducing you to Kimberly Ellison-Taylor, a powerhouse in the accounting profession whose drive, energy, and passion is unparallelled. Kimberly is currently a Global Strategy Leader at Oracle, and she has held positions at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Motorola, KPMG, as well as having a role in government in Prince George's County, Maryland. On top of that, fr...

Cara North is a learning experience designer at THE Ohio State University and the President of the Central Ohio Chapter of the Association for Talent Development. However, I did not invite her to be a guest on this podcast because of her day job. I invited her to be a guest because, as she says, "I love connecting others to people and opportunities."  She loves networking, making connections, and...

I've been out of public accounting for a number of years, but one thing I remember vividly was the busy season 10: the additional 10 pounds I gained because of all the pizza, the fast food, and the lack of exercise. So today, I asked licensed and registered dietitian and nutritionist Lucy Hayhurst to be our guest and provide us with some strategic tips on how to avoid the busy season 10. Lucy is c...

Jennifer Elder works with financial leaders to become more strategic, stay ahead of the competition, and be more successful. As a consultant and keynote speaker, Jennifer is known for being energetic and enthusiastic, and she has the natural talent for taking complicated topics and making them simple, practical, and immediately implementable. CPA Practice Advisor named Jennifer one of the Top 25 W...

Bill Sheridan is the Chief Communications Officer at the Maryland Association of CPAs and the host of Future-Proof, a podcast in which Bill has interviewed a wide variety of leading thought leaders in the accounting profession and in corporate America. We discuss whether the profession is moving in the direction of becoming more future-proof, or future-ready, through the lens of the conversations...

We would like your feedback on today's podcast by answering this quick two-minute survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MS2T6P6. Thank you so much for your support.   My guest today is a gentleman who knows more about fraud than just about anyone else in the accounting and finance profession: Gary Zeune, CPA, Managing Director of The Pros & The Cons.   The Pros & The Cons is the only speaker bure...

Jennifer Briggs is the CEO of the Indiana CPA Society, and we talked about a year ago about the State of Indiana’s House Bill 1467, which allows competency-based learning through professional development opportunities to qualify accountants for accountant certificate renewal.   Today, we follow up on that conversation to check in on the progress that they have made, learn about any unforeseen chal...

Happy New Year, everyone! As I thought about 2019, I wanted to get off on the right foot – and I wanted to try something a little different. So today, I interview three wonderful guests at the same time. And you know what? It was a blast!   Our guests are Allen Lloyd, CEO of the Montana Society of CPAs; Boyd Search, CEO of the Georgia Society of CPAs; and Chris Jenkins, CEO of the South Carolina A...