A fake Claude download. Three minutes later, the desktop was empty, the antivirus was off and every password saved in the browser was gone.

Episode 95 features Luke Kiely, founder of ComplyWise and a former law enforcement detective who spent his career investigating fraud, cybercrime and organised crime. ComplyWise is cybersecurity and compliance built specifically for accountants, bookkeepers and financial professionals, and Luke's GrowCon 2026 talk, Exploitation Economy, changed how a room full of firm owners thought about their own risk.

What you will take away:

1. Why nearly every attack Luke has investigated in the last two years started with a phishing link and no multi-factor authentication, and why cybercriminals smash and grab instead of quietly waiting.

2. What IRS Section 7216 means before you put client data into ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude, plus the technical and governance controls every firm should have in place.

3. How Luke sells cybersecurity without fear tactics, with a free assessment that runs like a business conversation, and what firm owners can borrow for their own sales calls.

Luke also shares the insider threat case where an organised crime gang coerced an employee into stealing card details, why the cybercriminals he tracked down were often teachers, doctors and business owners, and his one piece of advice for every firm owner listening.

Eliminate, automate, delegate.

Connect with Luke:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/luke-k

ComplyWise: https://www.complywise.online

Book a call with our team: https://accountingleadsnow.com

Grab my book, Booked Solid: https://a.co/d/02rch7Qz

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.

Your clients are telling you what they need next on every call. Most firms never hear it, because the notes go somewhere nobody reads.

Episode 94 features Camden Bean, CEO and co-founder of Ping, AI built only for accounting firms. Camden is the son of a CPA, worked with accounting firms at Divvy (later acquired by BILL), and helped raise and run a $100M early-stage venture fund before leaving to build Ping. Recorded live at Bridging the Gap, this is the show's first in-person episode, and Randy Crabtree , CPA and co-founder of Tri-Merit, pulls up a chair halfway through to become our first two-time guest.

What you will take away:

1. Why note taking is "the very bottom" of what AI can do for your firm, and how meeting and email data can surface upsell and cross-sell opportunities your staff would miss.

2. Why "advisory" is too broad to sell, and how a specific playbook (like a sales tax practice built on tools like Zamp or Kintsugi) turns it into a real offer.

3. How to actually find advisory clients: Randy's relationship-first approach and Camden's top, middle and bottom of funnel view, where it all starts with new leads.

Camden also shares how a jacket covered in ping pong balls got him escorted out of Intuit Connect, why Ping said no to every industry except accounting, and his advice for firm owners tired of AI hype. Randy explains the one mistake he made when he started his first firm, and the simple phone test for spotting your ideal client.

Eliminate, automate, delegate.

Connect with Camden:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/camden-bean

Ping: https://www.pingassistant.com

Connect with Randy:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/randy-crabtree-cpa-1945a67/

Tri-Merit: https://tri-merit.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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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, CPA, founder and CEO of Earmark and co-host of The Accounting Podcast, the most popular show for accountants and bookkeepers in the world. Blake started as a cello major, talked his way into a bookkeeping job during the Great Recession, became one of the first Xero partners in the United States, sold his firm Cloud Sourced Accounting in 2015, and has been named to CPA Practice Advisor's 40 Under 40 twice and Accounting Today's Top 100 Most Influential People.

Three takeaways:

1. Time saved is not money earned. Speeding up prep while client document collection and partner review stay clogged just moves the bottleneck. Fix the constraint, not the easy part.

2. Great marketing exposes every weakness behind it. If a firm has no documented processes and no spare capacity, more leads can make the firm worse, not better.

3. Raise your prices before you change anything else. Price creates the margin, margin creates capacity, and capacity is what lets you actually serve the clients you keep.

Blake also gets honest about burning out at $1M, why he wishes he had held on, and the day two friends died and he started logging off at 3PM and got sharper, not slower.

Connect with Blake:

Blog and newsletter: https://blakeoliver.com

LinkedIn: Blake Oliver CPA

The Accounting Podcast: on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube

Free CPE app: https://earmark.app

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.