Accounting Leaders Podcast

Alasdair McGill, Managing Director at Ashton McGill brings his client Colin Munro, Founder of Miconex, to share the journey they went on together that turned a small, local Scottish startup into growing global business.How Alasdair developed a service-oriented mindset at EY (02:00)Bringing a bespoke designer approach to accounting at Ashton McGill (04:34)Colin's journey from marketing to restaurants to a small business startup (07:30)The accelerated consumer desire to support the local economy (17:00)How Colin's firm, Miconex, is making it easy to shop local (18:55)When an accountant becomes a part of your firm's DNA (26:55)Do good work for good people (38:20)Where the future lies for Ashton McGill and Miconex (39:00)

Anton Colella's journey in accounting is unconventional. After 18 years as a religious teacher, he joined Scotland's Institute of Chartered Accountants and later became the CEO of Moore Global, one of the world's largest accountancy networks. In this episode, Anton shares his story as a religious teacher, a leader, and a man with a strong sense of a higher purpose.Episode notes:Anton's 18 years as a religious teacher and a sports coach (01:00)The profound fulfillment of being an educator (04:00)How a major crisis in the Scotland education system incidentally changed Anton's professional path (07:15)Transferring his persuasion skills from teaching to management (09:00)Changing the world by healing one broken childhood at a time (10:15)Anton's mission to bring social responsibility back to the accounting profession (17:30)Factors that influence the perception and growth of the profession (19:00)The importance of purpose and culture in an accounting firm (28:00)A leader's responsibility to help people and organizations go from good to great (34:00)

Carla Caldwell, Stuart's long-time friend and ex-colleague, joins him for a delightful conversation about her journey in accounting, accounting technology, consulting, and entrepreneurship.Reminiscing together (00:05)How family and mentors influenced Carla's accounting journey (01:55)Finding her superpower in accounting and technology (05:20)The game-changing opportunity to be a part of Xero's early days in the US (12:10)Carla's post-Xero venture as technology and process consultant for accountants (21:20)Harnessing the power of technology (rather than resisting it) (24:00)How the accounting industry might solve the talent challenge (27:30)Building meaningful, personal connections with your staff (30:00)How the 'Working Geniuses' model uplifts her staff (34:00)Carla's most memorable clients (38:30)

Meghan Blair lives and works in Nantucket, Massachusetts, a tourist town with a close-knit community. In this episode, Meghan and Stuart discuss COVID's impact on seasonal economies, what accounting professionals can do to help, and an exciting update for Meghan's firm—Fogged in Bookkeeping.The unforgettable experience of living on a cattle farm in Australia (03:17)The cultural and economic diversity in Nantucket, Massachusetts (09:20)COVID's impact on service-based, seasonal economies (12:57)Building sustainability, and social responsibility metrics into accounting processes (15:10)How COVID accelerated innovative, data-driven problem-solving in Nantucket's food and hospitality industry (18:29)Growing a remote accounting firm before it was popular (24:07)Karbon's instrumental role in Meghan's bookkeeping practice (29:00)Fogged in Bookkeeping's merger with GrowthLab (30:00)

Natalie Lennon, accounting firm owner, automation guru and podcaster, joins Stuart to discuss her career journey that led to Two Sides Accounting. They also chat about the talent shortage and what Natalie is doing to live the '4-day work week dream'.Natalie’s winding journey in accounting (2:00)Becoming a partner at 28 years old (6:10)The light-bulb moment that birthed Two Sides Accounting (7:15)A passion for working with startups and progressive businesses (9:00)Work smarter, not harder through automation (10:00)The talent shortage and coming full circle around remote work (13:30)COVID's financial impact on small businesses (17:00)Setting boundaries to enable the ‘4-day work week dream' (21:55)Finding equilibrium between work, life, and growth (23:30)

Leah Roe is a CPA-turned-leadership-coach and organizational trust expert. In this episode, Leah and Stuart chat all things 'trust'. Leah shares how she unexpectedly got into the people and cultures space, the five behaviors that build trust in the workplace, and she turns the table on Stuart to find out how Karbon is rebuilding trust after a difficult company-wide layoff.From VP of Finance to VP of People Operations (00:30)Getting laid off during maternity leave (06:34)The evolution of finding her niche in trust and leadership coaching (10:23)Would you have gone into entrepreneurship had you known everything about it? (12:14)Leah grills Stuart on trust and leadership (20:00)99% of your organizational issues are trust issues (21:55)The Five-Behavior Trust Operating System (25:21)Leah's 2023 professional and personal aspirations (46:57)

Ben Taylor, a CPA-turned-tech-entrepreneur and founder of SoftLedger, sits down with Stuart to share his company's origin story, the landscape of a mid-market GL solution, how to enable accountants to 'do more with less', and the saving grace of having your best friend as your co-founder.

Adam Pritchard of UK firm, Linford Grey, joins Stuart to share his unique journey from touring the country appearing in on-stage musicals to starting his own accountancy practice. Adam talks about the challenges of helping his clients navigate the global pandemic, moving from one crisis to the next, and how he is building the type of business that he is proud of, enjoys, and provides a platform for his staff to develop and grow.

Digital transformation expert, self-declared geek and fellow podcast host, Ryan Pearcy, joins Stuart to share his accounting journey. Together, they discuss the joys of empowering clients with the right business insights, the impacts of technology in accounting over the last two decades, and why the four-day workweek is less likely to be adopted by accounting firms than other businesses.

Greg Daley is the Chief Visionary at Parable, an accounting firm focussing on the church niche. In this inspiring episode, Greg discusses his journey from being a pastor to starting an accounting practice with his wife and growing that into a business that serves 230 churches across 42 US states. He shares why churches are similar to any business, his plan to grow to 1,000 clients, why the journey to the cloud has never been more apt, and the literal life-changing impacts that his firm has on its clients.

Susan Bryant is the Principal of MB Group, a public accounting firm headquartered in Plano, TX. Susan and her team are dedicated to transforming businesses by maturing their finance function. In this episode, Susan chats with Stuart about her journey to public accounting, leadership insights, and the secret recipe that consistently delivers financial success for her clients.

This episode marks the Accounting Leaders Podcast’s 50th release. To celebrate, we flipped the tables on our show host and Karbon CEO, Stuart McLeod. No question was off limits. In this episode, Karbon’s Content Marketing Specialist, Jess Marcello, and Marketing Development Manager, George Connor, had a lively conversation with Stuart about the hardest part of running a growing firm, how to find meaning and purpose in work, Karbon’s culture, Stuart’s favorite Karbon employee, and everything in between.