Reputation now grows through clarity and communication, not tenure.

Accounting Voices
With Rob Brown

After two episodes dissecting the Big Four’s AI arms race, the final chapter of the mini-series turns the lens inward. This episode of Accounting Voices makes the case that staying competitive in an automated profession has less to do with budgets and bots — and everything to do with judgment, visibility, and trust.

AI has changed what clients and employers value. Hours and output no longer differentiate. Clarity, confidence, and credibility do.

• MORE Accounting Influencers with Rob Brown

In accounting, reputation once followed hierarchy. Today, it follows visibility.

When a client, prospect, or employer searches your name, they are not just checking credentials. They are looking for proof of thinking. Insight. Perspective. Signals that you understand what the numbers mean — and when they should be questioned.

Training and growth—not just recruitment—will determine the profession’s future.

Gear Up for Growth
With Jean Caragher
For CPA Trendlines

When Jan Lewis, vice chair of the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), says, “The world is a complicated place, and who better than a CPA to help cut through the noise?” she’s not offering a slogan. She’s issuing a call to action.

• More Jean Caragher here | Get her best-selling handbook, The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms, here | More Gear Up for Growth
• More CPA Trendlines videos and podcasts here

In a wide-ranging and refreshingly candid conversation with host Jean Caragher on Gear Up for Growth, Lewis makes the case that this moment—right now—is one of the most consequential and opportunity-rich periods the CPA profession has ever faced.

One of Lewis’s strongest messages is also one of the most misunderstood: advocacy isn’t theoretical—it’s working.

Firms use AI, planning, and “hope” to make tax season more manageable.

Accounting ARC
With Liz Mason, Byron Patrick, and Donny Shimamoto
Center for Accounting Transformation

As firms head into tax season, the hosts of Accounting ARC make a case for lowering the temperature — and the workload — with practical tech choices, proactive planning and a stronger focus on people.

• MORE Accounting ARC: Return Season is the New Stress Test | Small Firms May Have the Biggest Advantage in 2026 | Downgraded: What the DOE Said About Accounting | Savage: Using Your License as a Megaphone | Baker: Interpreting Pricing Psychology | Don’t Get Fired by Your Own Automation | What Amazon Doesn't Tell You | Royalties, Residuals, and Reality Checks | ARC-SLC | Free Speech Is a Right; Respect Is a Responsibility | Cash Bags, Casinos & Audits: How First Jobs Shape Us | Gen Z Redefines Careers | Bootleggers, Baptitsts & CPAs: Rethinking Licensure

In a special Tax Season Readiness episode, Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA; joins co-hosts Liz Mason, CPA; and Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP, CGMA; to preview new tax platform research, spotlight emerging AI tools and talk candidly about what helps teams sustain momentum from January through April.

Shimamoto, founder and managing director of IntrapriseTechKnowlogies LLC and founder and inspiration architect for the Center for Accounting Transformation, sets the tone early. He says he intentionally avoids calling it “busy season,” noting that practitioners tell him the upcoming cycle may feel lighter than the past few years. The conversation that follows keeps returning to the same core question: What, specifically, helps firms reduce friction before deadlines hit?