Tax season doesn’t excuse bad preparation.

In this solo micro-episode of The Growth Minded Accountant, Lee Reams shares a practical 5-minute AI workflow to help you walk into every client interview informed, confident, and positioned as an advisor — even during your busiest stretch of tax season.

Most accountants don’t feel underprepared because they don’t care.
They feel underprepared because they’re overloaded.

Back-to-back meetings.
No time to reread prior returns.
No mental space to spot planning opportunities.

In this episode, Lee explains:

• Why “directional awareness” matters more than perfect prep
• How to use AI as a thinking partner — not a replacement
• A simple prompt you can use to summarize prior-year returns and financials
• How to generate thoughtful client questions in minutes
• Why better prep leads to better positioning as an advisor

This isn’t about outsourcing tax advice to AI.

It’s about using technology to show up sharper, ask better questions, and elevate the client experience.

Five minutes of prep can change the tone of the entire meeting.

Advisors don’t memorize clients.
They prepare for them.

—

Host: Lee Reams
Podcast: The Growth Minded Accountant
Topic: AI for accountants, tax season efficiency, client interview preparation

There’s a moment at the end of every tax interview that most firms rush through.

And it’s quietly costing them six figures a year.

In this episode of The Growth-Minded Accountant, Lee Reams shares a simple but powerful framework — the Post-Tax Bridge — that helps tax and accounting firms turn compliance conversations into advisory opportunities without selling, pitching, or slowing down tax season.

You’ll learn:

• Why most firms unintentionally close advisory doors in March
• The exact question to ask that creates continuity instead of closure
• How to sequence the conversation so the proposal comes after tax season
• The psychology behind pre-seeding advisory through your marketing
• How small behavioral shifts during tax interviews compound into meaningful revenue

This episode is for firm owners who want to grow beyond compliance — not by adding pressure, but by building systems.

Tax season isn’t just filing season.

It’s pipeline season.

If you’re building an advisory-forward accounting firm, this is a conversation you’ll want your entire team to hear.

Most firms treat the tax interview like data collection.

The smartest firms treat it like positioning.

In this micro episode of The Growth Minded Accountant, Lee breaks down a simple shift that can fundamentally change how clients see you. Not after tax season. Not when you launch a new advisory package. But in the first few minutes of your tax interview.

Clients decide what you are very quickly. If the conversation starts with forms, documents, and checklists, you are framed as a processor. If it starts with context, change, and forward-looking questions, you are framed as an advisor.

Same tax return. Completely different perceived value.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why the opening minutes of the tax interview matter more than you think
• The subtle mistake that keeps firms stuck in compliance positioning
• The simple three-minute shift that elevates the entire client relationship
• How consistent messaging through blogs, newsletters, and social reinforces your advisory role

Advisory is not a service you sell after April 15.

It is a narrative you repeat everywhere.

If you want to move from compliance to advisory, this is where it starts.

The Growth Minded Accountant is for firm owners who want to build firms that scale smarter, position stronger, and evolve beyond compliance.

Subscribe for weekly conversations on growth, advisory strategy, positioning, and building a firm that runs differently.

Capital decisions are some of the most important—and irreversible—choices a business owner will ever make. Yet many tax and accounting professionals don’t get pulled into the conversation until after the deal is already done.

In this episode of The Growth Minded Accountant, we break down how small and mid-sized businesses actually access capital today—and why accountants are uniquely positioned to guide these decisions before funding is locked in.

Host Lee Reams is joined by Sven Nelson, Founder & Owner of Aevi Business Capital, who brings over 20 years of experience in commercial finance. Sven shares how small business lending has evolved, why traditional banks leave so many healthy businesses behind, and where brokers fit into the modern capital landscape.

You’ll learn:

• Why “I need a loan” means very different things today
• The real differences between term loans, lines of credit, SBA loans, and alternative funding
• When higher-cost capital can make sense—and when it creates long-term risk
• Common mistakes business owners make before applying for funding
• Why payment structure often matters more than interest rate
• Where accountants fit into capital advisory without becoming lenders
• How early involvement helps protect cash flow, tax efficiency, and exit options

This episode is designed for growth minded accountants, advisory-focused firms, and business owners who want a clearer understanding of capital—without the hype or confusion.

🔗 Resources Mentioned

• Become an Aevi Business Capital Partner
  https://www.countingworkspro.com/part
  ...
• Take a Tour of the Capital Advisory Playbook
  https://www.countingworkspro.com/demo
  
  

If capital conversations are already happening with your clients—or happening without you—this episode will help you understand where you belong in the process and how to add meaningful advisory value.

🎙️ Thanks for listening to The Growth Minded Accountant.

In this episode of The Growth Minded Accountant, host Lee Reams II is joined by Rebekah Barton, Chief Visibility Officer, for a timely conversation on what actually drives firm growth in 2026—and why positioning alone is no longer enough.

Most tax and accounting firms understand positioning. They’ve defined their services, clarified who they serve, and invested in looking professional. But in a market crowded with competent options and shaped by AI-driven discovery, clarity alone doesn’t convert.

Once a prospect knows a firm might be for them, the real decision begins:
Do I trust these people?
Do I like how they think?
Would I confidently refer them?

This episode explores why relatability has become the missing layer—the factor that turns relevance into selection and good clients into consistent referrals.

Lee and Rebekah break down how buying decisions now happen long before a first conversation, why safe and neutral messaging often leads to being forgettable, and how firms that feel human, easy to describe, and aligned with their clients’ mindset stand out in a crowded market.

They also clarify a common misconception: relatability isn’t oversharing or personal branding fluff. It’s a deliberate system—built into messaging, content, reviews, and client experience—that helps the right people feel confident choosing and recommending your firm.

This conversation is especially relevant for small and mid-sized tax and accounting firms that rely on referrals, want better-fit clients, and are navigating how marketing, trust, and AI intersect in today’s buying environment.

As the profession becomes more automated, this episode makes one thing clear: being unmistakably human isn’t a risk—it’s an advantage.

Most tax and accounting firms don’t actually have a pricing problem.

They have a pricing system problem.

In this episode of Growth Minded Accountant, we break down why traditional pricing models — hourly billing, fixed fees, even “value pricing” — keep breaking as firms grow, adopt AI, and move toward advisory services.

👉 Download the Pricing System Playbook (Free PDF):
https://tinyurl.com/CWPwhitepaper

You’ll learn:

• Why hourly billing collapses as efficiency increases
• The hidden costs of broken pricing systems, including partner bottlenecks, advisory burnout, and revenue without leverage
• Why pricing without clear positioning creates resistance
• How narrative, education, and content prepare clients to expect higher-value pricing
• The difference between pricing models and pricing architecture
• How modern firms price outcomes instead of effort

This episode is for small to mid-sized tax and accounting firms that want to:

• Move beyond hourly billing
• Offer tax advisory or CFO advisory services
• Scale without burning out partners
• Attract better-fit clients who understand their value

If your firm feels busy but not scalable, this episode explains why — and what to do next.

Pricing isn’t a rate card. It’s an architecture.

🔗 RESOURCES

The Pricing System Playbook (Free PDF):
https://tinyurl.com/CWPwhitepaper

📌 WHO SHOULD LISTEN

CPA firms
Enrolled Agents & Tax professionals
Accounting & Bookkeeping firm owners
Advisory-focused firms

If you’re interested in building a pricing system that actually scales with your firm, this episode lays the foundation.

Overtime deductions became one of the most misunderstood tax topics coming out of the last election cycle—and that confusion is heading straight into tax season.

In this episode, Lee Reams II and Lee Reams Sr. break down what actually qualifies as deductible overtime, why state overtime rules don’t automatically apply for federal tax purposes, and why the 2025 tax season will be far more labor-intensive for firms than most people expect.

This isn’t about complicated tax law.

It’s about time, communication, and preparation.

What we cover:

• Why not all overtime qualifies for the federal deduction
• State overtime rules vs. FLSA rules—and why the difference matters
• Why weekly overtime analysis creates major prep bottlenecks
• A real-world example where “earned OT” still results in no deduction
• The hidden trap with time-and-a-half vs. double-time pay
• Why 2025 puts the burden on firms—not employers
• How structured worksheets and standardized intake save hours per return
• The curveball many firms miss: tipped occupations
• The advisory opportunity hiding inside a compliance headache

The big takeaway:
Firms that educate clients early, collect cleaner data, and use smarter systems will avoid chaos—and have better advisory conversations with better outcomes.

This episode is a must-listen for tax and accounting professionals who want fewer surprises, better client experiences, and stronger margins heading into the 2025 tax season.

Download the overtime worksheets:

PDF:
https://images.client-sites.com/WS-OvertimeDeduction.pdf

Google / Excel:
https://images.client-sites.com/Overtime_Deduction_Worksheet.xlsx

Learn more about tech-enabled firm growth at CountingWorks PRO:

https://www.countingworkspro.com/

Thanks for listening—and for doing the work to build a smarter, more proactive firm.

It’s 2026—and most accounting firms are still trying to grow advisory revenue by chasing new clients.

More leads.
More traffic.
More strangers.

But the most profitable advisory opportunity most firms have isn’t out there.

It’s already inside their client list.

In this episode of The Growth Minded Accountant, Lee Reams II and Rebekah Barton explain why existing clients are your biggest advisory advantage—and why firms that understand this grow faster, charge more confidently, and build advisory practices that actually scale.

You’ll learn:

• Why current clients are 3–5x more likely to buy advisory services
• The real difference between compliance and advisory, and why it changes how you sell
• Why most advisory proposals fail—even with trusted clients
• How education “foams the runway” before advisory conversations
• Why advisory works best as a portfolio of client moments, not a single offering
• How systems and playbooks make advisory predictable instead of effort-based

If advisory feels harder to sell than it should, this episode will help you understand why—and what to do differently in 2026.

Your best advisory revenue isn’t in future leads.
It’s already in your relationships.