When I was growing up, financial security mattered to me because I knew what it felt like not to have much of it. My mom was a single teacher, and I knew early on that I wanted to find a path where I could take care of myself financially. That…
One part of this throwback conversation really caught my attention. She talked about entering cannabis accounting in 2017, when the industry was still developing and many of the rules were being written in real time. At first, she felt like a fraud. She thought that as a CPA, she should…
d you become, the faster you may be able to recognize a problem and solve it. Under a purely hourly model, that can create a strange result. You become better at your work, spend less time doing it, and potentially get paid less for the outcome. That never made much…
This is a throwback to an interview I did with Jeff Crilley when I had just finished my doctorate in biblical leadership at Regent University. At the time, my final project had turned into a 63,000-word book called The Balance Sheet of Life. And yes, I was basically doing all…
If anything I've said hit a nerve, that's a good sign. It means you're ready for more than just survival mode. If y'all are ready to find out where your burnout is actually coming from, I created a free SHIFT Scorecard assessment just for this. It'll help you identify which…
99% of accountants report burnout. That's not a statistic I'm making up. That's almost everyone in the profession. 60 to 80 hour weeks. Caffeine as a food group. Feeling like your firm owns you instead of the other way around. I had over 200 clients. Growing firm, great credentials, and…
Everything shifted for me the day I made one decision: stop selling my time and start charging for my impact. I cut my client list from over 200 down to 56. My revenue tripled. And I got my life back. Picture Easter weekend years later. Instead of being chained to…
The number that hurt most wasn't the $50 effective hourly rate. It was the quiet question behind it: Is this it? Is this what success is supposed to feel like? Burnout wrapped in spreadsheets? Here's what I need every CPA, EA, and tax advisor to understand: we don't burn out…
For years I wore every hat across my CPA firm and coaching company and called it hustle. The truth is I was just exhausted. I did all of it. Vision, operations, sales, delivery. And for a long time I told myself that's what building something requires. But there's a version…
Y'all, I can do both visionary and integrator work. I did both across my CPA firm and coaching company for years. But by my third business I knew immediately I had to step away from operations. Not because I couldn't do it. Because I was finally honest about what it…
Y'all, these two roles are more different than most people realize. And understanding which one you are is genuinely one of the most useful things you can do before you try to scale anything. Visionaries focus on the bigger picture. They thrive on innovation, momentum, possibility, the what-if. Their strengths…
Success doesn't start with working harder. It starts with knowing who you are. Y'all, that's not a tagline. It's the thing most entrepreneurs genuinely skip when they're trying to figure out why growth feels so heavy. Whether you're a visionary or an integrator, growth moves through three stages of alignment.…
Y'all, if your business feels stuck right now, I want you to pause before you touch the marketing or rework the offer or decide you just need to work harder. Because most of the time, it's none of those things. It's a mismatch between who you are and how your…
For years I missed every holiday. Tax season swallowed everything whole. Easter, spring break, all of it. I was either buried in work or so exhausted that even when I was physically present I wasn't really there. Then one year my calendar had personal time blocked on a Tuesday afternoon…
Y'all, this is the question I wish someone had asked me before I spent years burnt out trying to be both. When I started my advisory firm I did what most founders do. I ran everything. Vision, systems, sales, delivery, all of it. I called it hustle. The truth was…
Y'all, this is where TaxPlanIQ stops being a data entry tool and starts being a planning engine. It starts with the platform surfacing something like this: "There are 6 strategies that could save this client $23,000 a year. Want to learn more?" You didn't go looking for that. It came…
Y'all, I've been working toward this version of TaxPlanIQ for a long time. Seeing it actually come together is something I don't take for granted. Everything is in one platform. TaxPlanIQ and Projections combined, RAMP and Wrap all under one roof. No more jumping between tools or piecing together workflows…
Y'all, I want you to actually try this right now. Score yourself honestly from 1 to 10 in four areas. Social life. Health. Finances. Time freedom. Then look at your lowest number. That's your flat tire. And here's the thing about flat tires: it doesn't matter how well the other…
Y'all, while the next version of TaxPlanIQ is being built out intentionally, because there's genuinely nothing else like it in the market and we're not shipping something just to ship it, the version you already have is more powerful than most people are actually using. Here's what I want every…
I felt guilty for admitting I wasn't happy. I had every external reason to be. So instead of sitting with that feeling I built a framework to actually measure what counts. Thirteen survival animals. And I've genuinely been every single one of them at different points in my life. Before…
Y'all know I'm obsessed with ROI. I built a whole value pricing method around it. But today we evolve that conversation into something that matters even more. Return on you. In the SHIFT framework there's a small I right in the center. That I is you. The individual. The asset…
Y'all, I'm going to say something I don't usually say out loud. I am a hermit crab. Over the last couple of years I've lost a lot of my local friendships. My kids are 12 and 9. Between work and constant soccer and baseball tournaments there was just nothing left…
I'll go first. So y'all don't have to wonder how real is allowed. For years the numbers said I made it. My gut always felt otherwise. And I was afraid to admit that. I felt guilty for it, honestly. Because by every Western definition of success I had every reason…
I saved my client $150,000 in taxes and invoiced him a few hundred dollars. That was the night I knew the hourly model was done for me. I was billing $150 an hour. The work took a few hours. Clean, straightforward invoice. My client walked away keeping $150,000 that would…