Life In Accounting - The Where Accountants Go Podcast

For this episode of Life In Accounting, the Where Accountants Go podcast, we were joined by the soon-to-transition CEO of United Way of San Antonio & Bexar County, Lyndon Herridge CPA. Roots in the Commercial World Something that may surprise listeners is that while Lyndon is a very passionate about the manner in which United Way serves the community, he definitely didn’t start out his career with the long-term goal of being a leader in the non-profit world!  His career started as many do in accounting, in the tax and audit space with a firm that eventually merged into EY.  He then ventured out into industry and joined a family office for one of the heirs to the King Ranch in Texas.  This was a tremendous opportunity that he thoroughly enjoyed because it gave him the experience of working with many different types of industries due to their wide variety of holdings.  However, he knew that long-term he wanted to do something different with his career… Moving to United Way Another fact that may surprise listene

Jina Etienne joined us for this episode of Life In Accounting, a podcast production of Where Accountants Go.  Jina has had a tremendous career.  From building her own accounting practice, to serving our profession through working at both AICPA and NABA, to now joining Grant Thornton in the role of Director of Diversity & Inclusion!  Jina very openly shared her wisdom and insights with us on this episode, and we were fortunate to have her on the program. Is It Always This Easy? Jina started her career in accounting because the initial accounting course that she had to take as a business major ended up being a relatively easy subject for her.  After realizing she had natural ability in the accounting, and then hearing that it was a very stable career path, she decided to choose accounting as her career.  She started an internship with Touche Ross, and the rest is history. Opportunities Open Up After a few short years in public accounting, Jina decided to start her own practice.  She operated her firm for about

Ramsey Womack joined us this week to share his story of starting in the Army, to becoming a partner in a public accounting firm, to shifting into the consulting world in order to get more variety in his daily work life. Born Into Accounting Early in the interview Ramsey shares with us that he was “born into accounting” in that he had many family members that were CPAs in his family.  What’s interesting though is that he had an equal passion to serve our country, which was also something he acquired from his family origins.  For this reason, although he majored in accounting in college, he chose to start his career by serving in the Army for the first four years after college. Getting Back In… Moving back into the accounting world proved challenging initially for a few reasons.  He had a tremendous internship with Arthur Andersen during school, but after he served his 4 years in the Army, Andersen was on the brink of closing at that point.  Therefore, he couldn’t return for a full-time position as he had thoug

Robina Bennion, a CPA with a highly specialized business coaching individuals on the key areas of soul, self, and money, joined us for this episode of Life In Accounting, the Where Accountants Go podcast.  In addition to being a CPA, Robina is a Certified Money Coach (CMC) as well!  This episode is truly enlightening and has something for everyone. Early Career Robina started as many CPAs do.  She encountered an individual she admired greatly at an early age that happened to be a CPA.  It was through that interaction that she became interested in the career path, and after college went into public accounting doing both audit and tax work with a smaller firm.  The variety of experience that she gained while working at smaller firms seems to have served her well. Mergers Although Robina joined the firms we discussed mostly post-merger, we still get into a short discussion of what it takes to be successful at a firm after they have went through the merger process with another CPA firm.  Robina has some valuable

We were very fortunate this week to be able to interview Kimberly Ellison-Taylor, the Immediate Past Chair of the American Institute of CPAs, for this episode of Life In Accounting, the Where Accountants Go podcast. A Fortunate Turn of Events Kimberly knew from an early age that she wanted to be a CPA.  As early as 3rd grade, she realized that becoming a CPA would be a career that was both stable and financially sound.  Due to a miscommunication though, she ended up attending a university that did not have a formal accounting major path available, so she instead majored in Information Systems Management.  However, this path ended up to work out much better in the long-run.  She still followed her dream and acquired the additional hours she needed to take the CPA exam, and now has enjoyed a career that mixes both her financial & accounting acumen with her strong background in information technology. Failed the CPA exam at first! We include this note as a motivator for anyone that has had difficulty with the ex

John Bryan, CPA and now high school teacher in the Houston, Texas, area shared his career journey with us this week on Life In Accounting, the Where Accountants Go podcast! Started at PwC Although he has now been a teacher for 17 years, John’s career started out in the audit field. After moving from internship into a staff position with PriceWaterhouseCoopers and gaining experience for two years, he switched into industry and worked in internal audit for almost an additional decade before making the career change. Happiness While doing community service work through his employer, John found that he enjoyed the school atmosphere and decided to help out by teaching a class at church. He was given a 10th grade class to lead at church, and that further made him realize that he enjoyed teaching. Through an alternative certification process he was able to qualify to teach classes at the high school level and his 2nd career was born. He now teaches Accounting and other business-related courses such a

This week on Life In Accounting, the Where Accountants Go podcast, leadership coach Brian Kush, CPA, shared his career journey with us as well as some valuable insights on building a business and building your own leadership skills! “Forced to Learn About Business” As with many accountants, Brian’s career in accounting started with a position in public accounting – audit specifically. It was this experience in auditing that forced him to learn more about business in general and he started to realize where his passions lie from a career perspective.  The overall business acumen that was developed during these formative years ended up being a great foundation for his future career in coaching. Starting A Company After working in audit consulting through a couple different entities, Brian decided to launch his own executive coaching business: Moxie Partners.  Through Moxie Partners, as well as his partnership with Sarah Elliott in Intend2Lead, Brian helps executives with many leadership topics in the workplace i

We have a special episode of Life In Accounting, the Where Accountants Go podcast, for you this week! For this recording, we interviewed five different professionals that are leaders in the internship programs at their respective firms: - Adam Dimick from Briggs & Veselka in Houston - Tim Pike from Howard in Dallas - Sandra Ou from Maxwell Locke & Ritter in Austin - Sarah Markell from PwC in Austin, and - Adam Weingarten from Deloitte in Houston Each of these individuals shared their insights with us on what their firms look for in interns, what the expectations are, and what it takes to be successful. This episode is a little longer than most, but it has incredibly valuable information if you are about to enter the internship stage in your own journey. Expectations I was particularly intrigued by the conversation about what firms expect from their interns. The answers varied a little, but the overwhelming theme was that it truly is meant to be a learning experience.  They expect you to put in your best

Carrie Bradshaw of CD Bradshaw and Associates in Georgetown, Texas, joined us for this episode of Life In Accounting, a podcast production of Where Accountants Go! Maybe Accounting Will Be Easy! Interestingly enough, Carrie actually wanted to be a District Attorney until her senior year in high school. It was that year that she decided to take the high school accounting course because she felt it would be an ‘easy A’ (which is what all seniors want of course!).  However, she found that she had talent for accounting and went on to successfully compete in UIL competitions at the state level.  It definitely was her true calling. Building a career A few family moves landed her needing to find a job in the Georgetown area. Although she thought the discussion was just going to be a practice interview, the conversation with Brown Graham & Company went very well and she joined the firm.  Thirteen years into her tenure, they made her a partner in the firm. January 2017 Over the years Carrie had the burning feeling tha

Samantha Bowling from Garbelman Winslow CPAs in Maryland joined us on Life In Accounting, a podcast production of Where Accountants Go. In this episode, Samantha shares her journey from starting as an entry-level accountant, to becoming the first female partner at the 50-year-old full-service accounting firm. Opportunity For Women In Accounting Samantha initially became interested in accounting in her high school record-keeping course. She had an excellent teacher that influenced her to pursue the long-term goal of becoming a CPA due to high level of opportunity that existed for women in the accounting field.  She initially went the community college route in order to save money and be closer to home, but then moved on and finished her bachelors degree. Garbelman Winslow After graduating college, Samantha interviewed for a full-time position with Garbelman Winslow, a leading firm in their area. From this early point her career however, she knew that she wanted to be a partner.  Through much determination and

Rubik Yeriazarian, Principal with Briggs & Veselka in the area of Forensic Accounting & Litigation Support, joined us for this episode of Life In Accounting, a podcast production of Where Accountants Go. Targeted the area early on… In the beginning of this episode, Rubik recounts the story of how he came to work in forensic accounting in the first place. He came from a family of accountants, and knew he was interested in “tracking money” early on in life.  He considered math as a possible interest initially, but then realized he didn’t enjoy that quite as much as he thought.  However, he had done well in UIL accounting competitions in school so he decided to choose the accounting career path instead.  As he neared the end of college, he had an internship at KPMG where he met some of the individuals in the forensic area and ended up getting the opportunity for a rotation in forensics.  It was there that his career got started in forensic accounting, and obviously it has worked out well for Rubik. Goldilocks ca

For this first episode of 2019, we revisited one of our early shows – number 10 in fact! Harriet Helmle, a CPA, the Director of Client Relations with Covenant Multi-Family Offices, and the Founder of San Antonio Youth Literacy, had joined us to share the story of her career journey as well as the very inspiring recollection of how SAYL came into existence. Harriet was a joy to interview, and given her commitment to the community as well as her profession, we figured it would be a great story to re-share as everyone is considering their goals for the new year. Harriet founded San Antonio Youth Literacy during a time of great personal difficulty in her own life.  She was going through health issues that had caused her to not be able to work full-time, but through that adversity she found the determination and motivation to start this not-for-profit organization that helps young disadvantaged children learn to read.  Although they started with just one school, they now serve many campuses and include students

In this short episode, I'm taking the opportunity to review some of the publications we've recently launched, and talk a little about upcoming episodes in January. We won't be posting new podcasts during the Christmas and New Year's weeks due the busy-ness of this time of year, plus everyone's uncertain schedules. However, we will be back in full force in January with several new episodes that are currently in production and will be finished up in early January. Look for more interesting guests, as well as a few SPECIAL EDITION episodes as well! (I just love creating suspense) In the meantime, if you haven't yet reviewed all our new publications at Where Accountants Go, make sure you check out these new offerings as well: 49 Tips For A Successful Accounting Career - In this book, available both here on our website and on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle editions, we cover the absolute best tips we've received from all our podcast episodes, plus a few insights of my own.  If you are looking for an imme

Phil Yaeger of Yaeger CPA Review is our guest for this episode of Life In Accounting, a podcast production of Where Accountants Go! Changing the Industry One of the themes that comes out early in the interview, and then continues throughout, is that Phil definitely feels that instructors should be able to capture and hold the participant’s attention. From the observations he makes early on about his initial accounting courses, to the quality requirements he later set for his own CPA review course, you can tell that keeping the students engaged so that they can better learn the material is of high importance for Phil. Blueprint Another important take-away from this interview is how important the AICPA blueprint is to successfully preparing for the exam. Phil explains it much better than I can here, but suffice it to say that his feeling is that it’s not enough simply to see the blueprint, you need to have an understanding of what’s important for you to learn from that blueprint.  His CPA review course is struc

Chris Rosas, the Vice President of Global Tax & Treasury with Rackspace, joined us for this episode of Life In Accounting, a podcast production of Where Accountants Go. A Different Path One unique fact about Chris’s career path is that he started in an industry position, and then later moved into public accounting, before moving back into industry in his position now with Rackspace. It’s not unusual to see individuals do internships in industry, but typically the next step isn’t public accounting.  This path worked very well for Chris though.  As you’ll hear in the audio interview, there was much to learn still when he did move to PriceWaterhouseCoopers, but it was definitely a move worth making.  That experience helped him to gain knowledge that he uses in his position to this day at Rackspace. International Tax Another interesting facet of Chris’s career is that he actually started in international tax. It’s extremely rare to start in the international side of tax, but the opportunity was available and he t

Libby King of Libby King & Associates in Austin, Texas, joined us for this episode of Life In Accounting, a podcast production of Where Accountants Go. If you’ve ever daydreamed about how you could use your industry accounting background to service clients in a self-employment or contractor capacity, this episode is for you. US GAO One of the interesting parts of this discussion for me personally was actually Libby’s first job out of college. She worked as an Auditor with the United States General Accounting Office.  I had always wondered what a position with the GAO may be like, and Libby shared some of her experiences with us on the show.  There are way to many details to share in the show-notes here, but suffice it to say that one of the organizations they audited was so large that anything under $80 million dollars was considered an immaterial item with regards to the audit.  Truly an amazing experience I’m sure. Her Eureka Moment When asked about how she decided to start her business, Libby said it truly

Professor Mansour Farhat of Youtube fame joined us for this episode of Life In Accounting, a podcast production of Where Accountants Go. 34,000 Subscribers & Growing! We usually start at the beginning in the shownotes, but this time we are jumping right to one of the major points. If you haven’t yet found Professor Farhat’s accounting lectures on Youtube and you are an accounting student, or even a recent student, you may be among the minority!  Mansour started his Youtube channel simply as a way to make his lectures in one class available to students at another university where he was teaching as well.  To his surprise though, the channel grew far past just the students in his class and as of this recording he has surpassed 34,000 subscribers to his Youtube channel!  Definitely a testament to how helpful his content is. In Service of Students It’s important to note that all of his material is free… yes, free. There are videos of common courses such as Intermediate Accounting and Auditing, as well as lessons

Sandi Smith Leyva from the Plano area joined us for this episode of Life In Accounting, a podcast production of Where Accountants Go. We explore how her career path started in accounting and has now ended up with her owning companies focused on marketing technology and training.  We also delve into some of her personal pursuits such as traveling around the world co-piloting a single engine airplane, and also visiting over 100 countries! Started in Industry Sandi mentions this at one point, but it’s a detail that may have escaped us otherwise had she not pointed it out. Sandi started her career in bookkeeping roles for private companies, and then transitioned into a position with Frito-Lay in Dallas as an assistant to their Controller.  Although she became a CPA early in her career, she never worked in public accounting and doesn’t seem to regret it.  There is a lesson in here for all soon-to-be-graduates.  Public accounting can be an excellent way to start a career, but it’s just one path.  There are many opp

Marcus Dillon of Dillon CPAs in Katy, Texas, was our guest for this week’s episode of Life In Accounting, a podcast production of Where Accountants Go. Building a Firm For the record… the implication in the title of this podcast is 100% solely something I wrote – not a quote from Marcus. I suspect Marcus would feel like that statement is a little egotistical, which is why it’s not something you would hear him say.   As you will be able to tell from the audio interview, Marcus is a very humble individual.  However, you will also notice from the audio interview that he and his team believe in growing a firm that meets the needs of the specific clients they wish to serve as well as the internal employees.  It’s not a firm that values growth simply for the sake if growing.  Purpose is much more important to Marcus than growth. Analysis To Find The Right Firm Another aspect of this interview that you may find interesting is that although Marcus looked for a firm to acquire by signing up for broker newsletters and

Anneliese Schumacher, Director in the campus recruiting function with EY, joined us to share her insights on this episode of Life In Accounting, a podcast production of Where Accountants Go. It Was Meant To Be… Anneliese started her career with a Bachelors in Psychology, and in her search for the right Human Resources role she landed in Tax Operations at Andersen. Shortly thereafter Andersen started going through their turmoil, and she was able to land a full-time role with another Big 4 firm in the portion of the job she most enjoyed – campus recruiting.  At the time of this recording, Anneliese is approaching 15 years with EY! How To Land The Position You Want Much of our interview time on this podcast is dedicated to talking about the campus recruiting process itself, and what it takes to be successful. It’s impossible to cover all the content in this short article, but some of the key points Anneliese mentions are professional maturity, communication skills, and perseverance.  Personally I found the menti