The Unique CPA

Over more than six years and 250 episodes, The Unique CPA has blossomed from "just an accounting podcast" into a community of thriving accounting professionals. With personal fulfillment and energizing, passionate work at the top of our list of priorities, we're keeping you at the forefront of the changing face of public accounting through conversations with fascinating leaders who understand that the one constant in the accounting profession is change: Change in our approach to the demands of the profession, change in the technology we use to more efficiently do our jobs, and change in our ability to express who each of us really is as a human being.

The Unique CPA is a business podcast hosted by Randy Crabtree, CPA, with 282 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.

Randy Crabtree, CPA hosts The Unique CPA, a business show with 282 episodes published.

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  Episode #282

  Helping the World by Helping People, with Justine Lackey

  Aug 18, 202633 min

  Randy Crabtree sits down with Justine Lackey, founder of The Incubator, on Episode 282 of The Unique CPA . Justine originally built one of the earliest virtual bookkeeping firms out of necessity, long before "remote," or even anything besides QuickBooks Desktop, became standard practice. Their conversation moves from the mechanics of scaling and selling a firm to the grief that follows a successful exit, and the anxiety that lingers even when everything goes right. Justine breaks down her four-S framework – systems, service, sales, skills – and makes the case for choosing the "right size firm" instead of chasing growth for its own sake. Threaded through it all is a shared conviction that accounting's stress gets ignored far too often, and that the profession's future depends less on compliance work than on the relationships built along the way. Get the full show notes and more resources at TheUniqueCPA.com

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  Episode #281

  Offshoring, Tech, and Bettering Lives, with Anshul Agrawal

  Aug 11, 202637 min

  Half of all offshoring relationships collapse within five years, and Anshul Agrawal has spent his career figuring out why. Randy Crabtree sits down with the founder of June15 Consulting on Episode 281 of The Unique CPA to unpack the real difference between renting offshore talent and owning it outright, as well as how that distinction shapes everything from culture clashes to client trust. Anshul explains why a "family emergency" means something entirely different in India than it does in the U.S., why firms chronically underestimate how long it takes an offshore hire to reach full productivity, and how AI will serve to expand the offshore talent pool, rather than shrink it. He reveals heartwarming anecdotes about everyone winning in these offshoring arrangements: what happened when one client's new hires gave him back his evenings with his kids, and what it looked like to double an employee's salary and watch him buy his first car. It's a conversation about building teams that actually work for everyone, wherever they're located. Get the full show notes and more resources at TheUniqueCPA.com

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  Episode #280

  What Actually Makes a Firm Valuable? Answers with Luke Frye

  Aug 4, 202625 min

  Randy Crabtree sits down with Luke Frye, who's gone from hand-stamping journal entries as a small-town government accountant to scaling Bench to thousands of customers, running his own firm through a messy business divorce, and now advising practices at Canopy. Their conversation on Episode 280 of The Unique CPA keeps circling back to a single, uncomfortable question: What actually makes a firm valuable, as opposed to just busy? Luke argues that key man risk, not revenue, is the real threat to most practices, and that hourly billing quietly rewards inefficiency while punishing the AI tools meant to help. He pushes clients to charge what they're worth instead of discounting out of fear, and to build systems, like a real CRM, that let a firm run without its owner chained to it. Randy's own transition out of the company he built nineteen years ago and into advisory adds real-world weight to the discussion. It's a candid look at pricing, succession, and the mindset shifts firm owners tend to avoid until it's too late. Get the full show notes and more resources at TheUniqueCPA.com

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  Episode #279

  Change Will Never Be This Slow Again, with Matt Rampe

  Jul 28, 202632 min

  Change has never moved this fast, and accounting firms are feeling it everywhere: AI eating into bookkeeping and tax work, private equity reshaping ownership, generational splits over who's willing to adapt. Matt Rampe, a change management specialist at Rosenberg Associates, joins Randy on Episode 279 of The Unique CPA to break down why partnership structures built for consensus often become anchors when speed matters most. He argues real transformation happens person by person, through vulnerability and trust rather than mandates from the top. While in theory, smaller firms can pivot like speedboats while giants struggle to turn, Matt points out that larger firms have their own advantages too, but both agree that billable hours must give way to value, tax preparers must at least consider becoming advisors, and that it takes a bit more than just an edict from above on "modernizing the firm" to get partners and associates alike past "that sounds great, but I've got a day job." Get the full show notes and more resources at TheUniqueCPA.com

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  Episode #278

  The Unique CPA Heads "Upstream": Leading the Way with Jeremy Clopton

  Jul 21, 202639 min

  Randy Crabtree steps away from tax season and toward retirement from Tri-Merit, joining forces with Jeremy Clopton of The Upstream Leader for a crossover conversation on Episode 278 of The Unique CPA . AI dominates firm conversations right now, but Clopton argues the real anxiety comes from chasing an uncertain future instead of holding onto what won't change: being the protector of public trust. That anchor reframes everything from staffing fears to succession planning. They dig into leadership structures at growing firms, the false choice between serving clients and running the business, and why hiring managers instead of developing them rarely works. Private equity and M&A come up too, with the two sharing a conviction that independent firms aren't going anywhere, and that the choice between selling, scaling, or staying small comes down to knowing who you actually want to be. Randy closes by dismantling the doom-and-gloom narrative around recruiting, pointing to rising enrollment numbers as proof the pipeline is healthier than the algorithm-driven headlines suggest. Get the full show notes and more resources at TheUniqueCPA.com

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