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 94 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

James Donovan hosts The Accounting Leads Now Podcast, a business show with 94 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 #93

  From One $600 Client to a $500K Tax Practice | Luke Frye

  Oct 1, 202639 minS5

  His first year: one client paying $600. Five years later: a $500K tax practice, built in a city where he knew nobody. No referrals, no network, no warm introductions. Episode 93 features Luke Frye , CPA and Accountant in Residence at Canopy. Luke was the first accountant hired at Bench, became the first account executive at Pilot to break $40K in MRR, and has helped platforms like Bench, Pilot and Puzzle reach thousands of firm clients. Today he works directly with firm owners on overcapacity, underpricing and the missing systems that keep them stuck. What you will take away: 1. Why "leads are the seeds": how to set up a simple CRM with a lead list and a 3 to 5 stage pipeline, and why a deal should not exist until the prospect is qualified against your ICP. 2. The three-sentence monthly email to lawyers, bankers and insurance contacts that can turn into a steady stream of referrals, and why you have to treat growth as an active sport. 3. How to find the bottleneck in your firm with an 11x17 sheet of paper, a pencil, and a value stream map that starts from "filed and paid" and works backward. Luke also shares why he would go in knowing it takes five years, not five months, why he closed his biggest deal on New Year's Eve, why sales and operations need productive tension, and the question he asks every client: what do you want to be when you die? Eliminate, automate, delegate. Connect with Luke: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukefrye/ Canopy: https://www.getcanopy.com 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 #92

  The Company Moving 1% of US GDP Says Your Old Playbook Is Dead | Jonathan Leaf

  Sep 24, 202640 minS5

  When a company moves about 1% of the country's GDP in a year, you would expect its revenue chief to lean on experience. Jonathan Leaf says the opposite: the old principles, old ways of working and old decision frameworks all need rethinking, starting with his own. Episode 92 features Jonathan Leaf , Chief Revenue Officer at BILL, the financial operations platform trusted by close to half a million businesses and more than 9,500 accounting firms. Jonathan owns BILL's entire global go-to-market organization: sales, marketing, customer success, support, revenue operations, enablement and partnerships. Before BILL he was Chief Revenue Officer at BambooHR, SVP of Commercial Sales at RingCentral, where he led a 600-plus person team supporting over $2 billion in annual recurring revenue, and a sales leader at AWS during the public cloud boom. What you will take away: 1. Why using AI to make old processes a little faster is "optimizing our past," and how to make bolder bets that redefine the work instead. 2. The unglamorous wins that matter most: an AI agent for W-9 creation that 175,000 BILL customers adopted almost immediately, and fraud prevention that has saved customers tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars. 3. Why, in a world where everyone is trying to AI everything, showing up, shaking hands and building trust is still the thing that cannot be replaced. Jonathan also shares why he believes the fastest learner in the seat now beats the best domain expert, what the cloud migration era taught him about which companies pull ahead, why pricing for firms is shifting toward outcomes over hours, and why his team probably does not want to work for an agent. Thank you to BILL for supporting the Accounting Leads Now podcast. eliminate, automate, delegate. Connect with Jonathan: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-leaf BILL: https://www.bill.com 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 #91

  She Lost $500K in Pre-Booked Revenue in 30 Days. Her Rebuild Made 5 Team Members Homeowners | Madeline Reeves

  Sep 17, 202638 minS5

  Five women on one team became first-time homeowners. Not because of a bank, a nonprofit or a government program, but because their agency changed how it paid people. Episode 91 features Madeline Reeves , Founder and CEO of Fearless Foundry, a global collective of senior strategists, storytellers and creatives serving fintech, B2B SaaS, professional services and technology. Madeline spent her earlier career on the business development side at Intuit, Avalara and Fathom, where she was Fathom's first US employee, before building Fearless Foundry into a boutique brand and production firm now approaching its 10th anniversary. She also created Advisory Amplified, the only US tour dedicated entirely to advisory, running across six cities from September 22 to October 9. What you will take away: 1. Why your logo is not your brand, and how a generic five-page website and a name made of three last names quietly repels the clients you want. 2. The operating model shift that changed everything: paying every team member a percentage of project revenue instead of hourly, which let Fearless charge properly, reward quality over hours and share both wins and losses with the team. 3. How to spot the pitch that will burn you. If someone promises a full rebrand in two weeks or hundreds of leads, ask the only question that matters: are they good? Madeline also walks through the hardest stretch of her ten years, losing roughly half a million in pre-booked revenue in under 30 days in 2022 and letting go of half her team, and why that loss is the reason the business works the way it does now. She closes on the skill she believes will decide the next era for firms: relationships. Get out from behind the books and in front of people. James's sign-off still applies: eliminate, automate, delegate. Connect with Madeline: Website: https://www.fearlessfoundry.com Advisory Amplified tour: https://www.advisoryamplified.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/madelinekreeves 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 #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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