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 moves the needle for ambitious accounting professionals, we cover it.
This isn't background noise. This is the podcast you pause, rewind, and take notes on. Subscribe now and get an insider edge on the industry's most important conversations, before your competitors do.
Episodes
94 episodes
The Company Moving 1% of US GDP Says Your Old Playbook Is Dead | Jonathan Leaf
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, st...
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She Lost $500K in Pre-Booked Revenue in 30 Days. Her Rebuild Made 5 Team Members Homeowners | Madeline Reeves
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
How Karen Reyburn Fired 15 People to Save Her Own Agency
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...
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30+ Acquisitions, a $10M Budget, and Zero Marketing Strategy | Mike Payne
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 Mik...
The AI Math Every Firm Owner Is Getting Wrong | With Blake Oliver
Most firm owners calculate the ROI of AI in hours saved. Blake Oliver says that math is exactly why the savings never show up in the bank account.Episode 88 features Blake Oliver, C...
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The Banker Behind 500 Accounting Firm Acquisitions Says Buyers Get This Wrong | Shannon Hay
He has closed over 500 accounting firm acquisitions. Not 50, but 500. He knows exactly which deals fall apart and why.Episode 87 features Shannon Hay, Senior Vic...
The Fix for a Firm That Eats Your Whole Life? Charge More, Serve Fewer | Marit Burmood
Most firm owners think the problem is the market. Sometimes the problem is that you do not believe the number you are about to say out loud.Episode 86 features Marit Burmood, CPA, EA, MTax, owner of Flair Financial LLC in Salt Lake City....
He Named the Real Reason Firm Owners Stay Stuck (It Is Not Clients) | Will Hill
Most firm owners who feel stuck are not short on skill or short on clients. They are short on clarity about what they are actually worth, and what they actually want.Episode 85 features Will Hill, founder and owner of Will Hill Consults...
15 Years to Build His Firm. Under 2 Years to Beat It | Emil Abedian
It took him 15 years to build his book of business. He rebuilt the same thing in under two years after niching down.Episode 84 features Emil Abedian, CPA, founder and CEO of Counsel CPAs, a firm that works with law firms only. Emil start...
He Built a $1.5M Accounting Firm, Then Walked Away From Operations. Here's How | Scott Scarano
He's an Enrolled Agent, a franchise firm owner, and a rapper. And the craziest part? His firm makes more money now that he's not involved in the day-to-day.Episode 83 features Scott Scarano<...
His George Costanza Moment at Intuit Changed How He Builds Everything | David Leary
He spent 22 years inside Intuit, co-hosts the #1 podcast in accounting, and now he's building the CPE app that lets accountants earn credits from any content with a play button. And his best career advice? "The procrastinators will be rewarded....
The Bookkeeper Who Hates Bookkeeping (And Built Two Thriving Businesses Anyway) | with Heidi Ryder
She'll tell you straight up: she doesn't like bookkeeping. She built a successful bookkeeping firm anyway. Then she bought a marketing company.Episode 81 features Heidi Ryder, a form...
He's a Lawyer AND a CPA. Here's the One Question That Changed His Sales | with Christopher Papin
You ask clients to send a PDF through a secure portal. If they can't, they're not your client.Sounds harsh. It's not, it's a filter.Episode 80 features Christopher Papin, who r...
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The Man Who's Never Lost a Deal in 12 Years (Here's How) | Justin Farmer
You've spent years building your firm. But if someone asked what it's worth today, could you actually answer that?Most owners can't. And that gap is exactly where deals fall apart.Justin Farmer is a licensed attorney and business ...
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Something Quietly Hit Accounting Firms in 2025. Here's What to Do About It. | Erica Goode
Your pipeline feeling a little thin? Clients suddenly asking more questions about price?You're not imagining it. And you're not alone.Since fall 2024, a perfect storm has been building, AI-assisted offshore firms, a softening ec...
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The #1 Thing Accounting Firms Refuse to Do That Costs Them Clients | Drewbie Wilson
Your prospects already know they need what you do. So why aren't they signing?Most of the time, it's not your pricing. It's not your niche. It's that nobody picked up the phone.Drewbie Wilson built a movement around three words, C...
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He Had a Stroke. Then He Built a Conference. Here's What Accounting Got Wrong | With Randy Crabtree
You're exhausted. You keep telling yourself it's just tax season. But deep down, you know it's been longer than that.Randy Crabtree pulled over at a phone booth to quit his job and become a CPA. He built a firm, burned out, sold it, co-f...
He Landed a Client Shooting Machine Guns | Sean Duncan
A West Point grad invites you to shoot fully automatic machine guns and drink bourbon. You go. You meet a fractional CFO. Three months later, he's a multi-thousand dollar a month client.That's not a marketing strategy. That's
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She Left a 15-Year Career and Hit Capacity in Year One | Katie Helle
You're grinding through tax season wondering when it gets easier. What if the answer isn't working more, it's being more intentional about what you build and who you build it with?Katie Helle walked away from a 15-year career at a tr...
The Real Reason Prospects Say “I Need to Think About It" And How to Fix it, With Brian Mayoral
Most accounting firms don’t lose deals because of price.They lose them because they explain too much.In this episode, Brian Merrill breaks down why prospects say “I need to think about it” and what’s actually happening on your sal...
Why We Burned Down 70 Episodes and Started Over
We recorded 70+ episodes of CFO Chronicles. Incredible guests. Great conversations.And we still hit pause.Not because we ran out of ideas, because something wasn't working. So we scrapped the name, retooled the format, and c...
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This Accountant Built His Own Payroll Software, Because No One Else Would - With Brian Clare
Most accountants talk about innovation. Brian Clare actually builds it. From killing time tracking to launching his own payroll software for Canadian accountants, Brian isn't just running a firm, he’s engineering the next wave of how firms work...
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Miss This Window and You'll Regret It: Why He's Buying Firms in 2026 - With Nik Watson
What if you could own a thriving accounting firm without a CPA, EA, or even industry experience?Nik Watson did just that at 23 years old. After four failed startups and zero accounting background, he landed his first acquisition u...
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I Almost Shut It All Down in July. Here’s Why I Didn’t.
2025 nearly broke me.Clients dropped. Revenue cratered. My dream car? Totaled by a dump truck, with no one inside. At our lowest, we were bleeding over $12,000/month.But we didn’t quit. And by November, we closed 10 new cl...
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You’re Losing Clients in Every Meeting and Don’t Know It - With Jordan Vickery
Most firms treat meetings like a checkbox. Talk. Wrap. Move on.But what if the way you run and follow up on meetings is quietly costing you hours each week and revenue you don’t realize you’re losing?Jordan Vicke...
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