Life In Accounting - The Where Accountants Go Podcast

Melanie Geist, partner with Ridout Barrett & Company, a CPA firm in San Antonio, joined us for this episode of Life In Accounting: The Where Accountants Go podcast. Peace Corp! While it’s not the main point of the interview, one of the interesting elements of Melanie’s background is that she took a short time off to travel with the Peace Corp right after college prior to returning to the states to start her professional career. The Peace Corp stationed her in Nicaragua, a destination she feels fortunate to have been given, and it was there that she formed some life-long relationships – one of which landed her in San Antonio and jump started her career! Ground floor opportunity… She returned to the US and decided on San Antonio partially because she was invited to join a start-up accounting firm ran by Steve Porter CPA, which eventually became Porter & Geist. It was a tremendous opportunity in that it took advantage of some basic skills Melanie had gained in a part-time job during college, but at the same time

John Sharbaugh, the recently retired CEO of TSCPA, joined us for this episode of Life In Accounting: The Where Accountants Go podcast. A unique guest… John was a different guest for us in that he didn’t start his career in the profession, but he has had a unique opportunity to study the accounting profession for a period of over 30 years. These 3 decades of involvement with the accounting profession are made up of employment with two state CPA societies prior to Texas (namely Florida & North Carolina), 12 years with AICPA, and then most recently 17 years serving as CEO for the Texas Society of CPAs. Trends in the profession John touches on several factors influencing the profession and goes into depth particularly in the following three areas: technology, globalization, and demographics.  We’ve had a few guests that touched on the demographic changes, but we haven’t had any guests as of yet comment on technology to the extent that John does in this interview, not to mention globalization as well. Personal con

This is a first for us… Derek Schriver of Schriver Carmona & Company, the partner of Chris Carmona – a previous guest, joined us for this week’s episode of Life In Accounting: The Where Accountants Go podcast. The rest of the story… After interviewing Chris Carmona a couple months back, I found the story of how they began that firm so interesting that I thought it would be beneficial to get Derek’s input as well on how they decided to start the firm as well as his own career journey of course. And for the record, Derek said Chris got the details “99% correct”.  You will be able to tell from both interviews that Schriver Carmona & Company definitely has a healthy culture and an impressive record given that it’s only been 6 years since they formed the company and acquired their first practice. Acquiring a practice… This interview was different in that I took the opportunity to find out many more details about the practice acquisition process and how they made those decisions. If you are considering starting y

Our guest for this week’s episode of Life In Accounting was none other than Bruce Howard, Career Advisor at Texas State University… and a former Accountant! A humble beginning in Accounting Bruce has come full-circle in that he originally graduated from Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State University) with his accounting degree. He started his career at Tesoro in a ‘rotational program’ where he was able to try out several different departments, and ended up choosing to work in corporate accounting.  Similar to our previous guest Bill Schneider that has built his career at AT&T by continuing to grow internally, Bruce worked his way through approximately 10-12 different roles in his 21 years at Tesoro and much enjoyed the experience. Developing the Accounting Workforce After his tenure at Tesoro, he changed the direction of his career and moved into the workforce development field. Since then he has worked in marketing and recruiting for a CPA firm, worked as an Associate Director in Career Service

David Holt, CE instructor and owner of HoltCPE, shared his time with us on this episode of Life In Accounting: The Where Accountants Go podcast. Since David generally gets paid for speaking on some of these topics, I very much appreciated him taking the time out to record this podcast. 24 years David’s entrance into the continuing education world started when he began teaching in-house classes for the CPA firm he worked for early in his career. He enjoyed teaching and so he expanded into providing courses after-hours while still working during the day, and then eventually went full-time into the business in 1993. Handling ethical dilemmas… We talk quite a bit in this episode about how to prevent ethical situations from arising in the first place, as well as how to navigate the issue when they unfortunately do come up. One of the comments I found most valuable is that David talks about how to make the situation a win-win by treating the situation as one where you are protecting the individual from getting int

Bill Schneider, Director of Accounting Policy at AT&T in Dallas, joined us for this week’s episode of Life In Accounting: The Where Accountants Go podcast. Moving on up! One of the more rare aspects of this interview versus others is that we typically talk about the guest’s job changes as they have moved to different employers throughout their career. Bill is different though in that he’s invested the last 25 years of his career with the same company – AT&T – and it has paid off.  I was hoping to get some insight from Bill on how to manage one’s career when you want to stay at the same company but still continue to grow, and he definitely delivered in that area.  Bill shares some wisdom on how to better facilitate getting a variety of opportunities presented to you while still remaining at the same organization. Involvement Bill also talks quite a bit about the value of being involved in your professional association. Bill’s a little different from our previous guests in this respect as well – he’s actually b

The incoming Chair for TSCPA, Jim Oliver, joined us this week on Life In Accounting: The Where Accountants Go podcast. Not Being Afraid of Risk If you've interacted with Jim before, this may surprise you somewhat. Jim is a very conscientious, caring, and seemingly cautious individual, but if you look at his career he has taken several calculated risks that ended up working out well for him in business. Although he references "five or six" other ventures that failed, he successfully built Financial Life Advisors into a well-recognized and respected financial planning organization, as well as Jim Oliver & Associates, a successful niche CPA firm that recently merged with Calvetti Ferguson out of Houston. Jim's role in the newly-merged organization is that of a Partner in their High Net Worth Practice, which matches his pre-merger specialty. TSCPA - Growth Through Service Although Jim worked in public accounting prior to starting his practice, he worked entirely in audit and then started a practice comprised pri

Mark Rich, CPA & Director of Investments with Kimbell Art Foundation in Fort Worth, was our guest for this week’s episode of Life In Accounting. This episode was a little different in that while we talked about Mark’s career journey, we also took a deep dive into the demographic statistics of the CPA profession in Texas. Volunteer efforts Mark has been involved heavily in the Accounting Careers Education committee for the Fort Worth Chapter of TSCPA. In this capacity, he has been instrumental in getting professionals to do career-potential presentations at both the community college level as well as at the four-year universities. In addition, Mark volunteered to do a demographic analysis of the CPA workforce in Texas for the purposes of analyzing how baby-boomer retirements and the entry rate of millennials into the profession may ultimately affect the workforce. There are several conclusions that can be drawn from the analysis, and Mark goes into some of those possibilities in the audio interview. The impor

We were very fortunate to get on the calendar of the current TSCPA Chairperson – Kathy Kapka – for this episode of Life In Accounting: The Where Accountants Go podcast. Finding Your Calling at 50 This episode is about much, much more than just this topic, but one of the facts I found interesting about Kathy’s journey was that like many people, she tried out several career paths – tax, audit, governmental related accounting, etc – before finding what was truly the best fit for her – teaching future leaders in our profession. It was while developing the Internal Audit function at the UT Tyler campus that the Dean asked her to teach a course.  She was resistant at first – she was an auditor, not a teacher – but she decided to give it a shot.  It wasn’t long until she realized that the day she looked forward to the most each week was the day that she taught that one course on campus.  It was at this point – at about 50 years old – that she found her true calling. TSCPA Her involvement with TSCPA started purely as

Our guest this week was Chris Williams CPA of the CPA firm Williams Crow Mask (WCM). WCM is a 3rd generation firm in San Antonio that was built on the core purpose of “having a positive impact”.  It was clear throughout our interview that the positive impact Chris referred to was not just on the outside community, but within the firm as well as evidenced by the high number of long-term employees WCM has been able to retain. “I’m flattered, but no thanks” Chris comes from a family of CPAs – his grandfather, father, and mother were all in the accounting profession. However, and perhaps because of this, Chris initially avoided accounting as his career of choice.  His career actually started in the investment industry.  After joining an investment advising firm and becoming introduced to tax preparation through that position, he eventually decided that it would be a good opportunity to join his family’s practice as a part of a succession plan as well as to take advantage of the opportunity to spend more time wit

John Bruce, Tax Partner with the San Antonio office of BKD, joined us for this episode of Life In Accounting. John’s story is an excellent example of achieving success through hard-work and investing in yourself. Finding your purpose John actually started as an Engineering major early in his college career, but after getting through the first couple years he didn’t feel that engineering was going to be his true calling. Instead of immediately switching to a different major though, he took some time off from school and went to work for a golf course.  This experience helped him to realize that he should buckle down and finish his education, so he worked with a counselor at the university and determined that accounting would be a better major to consider. Obviously that ended up being the right choice! Insights John shared several professional insights in this interview. Among them was that young professionals should be ready and willing to continue to invest in their own learning.  We are in an industry that

I've been wanting to interview the shareholders at ATKG about their unique take on CPA firm culture and how that fits into their overall strategy in the market for quite some time. When Accounting Today recognized them ... again... as one of the “Best Firms To Work For” nationwide, it became even that more important that we get them on the show. In this episode, I interview both Melanie Kirk and Teryn Grater of ATKG on their personal backgrounds as well as their philosophies about business and running a successful accounting firm. Client selection... Among the many aspects that are involved with running a successful firm and retaining your best people, one of the core issues Melanie and Teryn believe is key is to make sure your clients fit with your overall firm culture. While there is a part of them that wants to assist every client, and we all know there is always plenty work, they realized years ago that they wouldn't be the perfect fit for everyone.  And if they did accept any and all business, then it w

Chris Carmona, partner at Schriver Carmona and Company, was my guest for this episode of Life In Accounting. "Do you want to buy a practice?" Chris started Schriver Carmona and Company in 2010 when he was contacted by his now partner, Derek Schriver, by email asking him if he was interested in going in together to buy a practice from a sole proprietor that was retiring. Six months, and one SBA loan later, Chris and Derek were in business. "Knowing how to run a business" One of the insights that Chris shares in the interview is that although technical proficiency is obvious important in the accounting profession, knowing how to actually run a business is at least as important once you take the step to go out on your own. Personnel issues, strategy issues, and creating the culture you want become front of mind as you work towards growing the firm of your dreams. Family Chris credits much of his success to his positive family role models - his grandfather and his uncle. His grandfather was positive role model wi

Harriet Marmon Helmle was our guest for this 10th episode of Life In Accounting, The Where Accountants Go podcast. Harriet’s story would be interesting enough if we only covered her career, but what makes it vastly more intriguing is how she founded a local charity while dealing with a medical issue that caused her to have to endure multiple surgeries earlier in her life. An interesting start… Harriet’s career started outside of accounting, in retail operations. She found that the operational side of retail wasn't quite her calling, but was swayed to stay with the Joske's company by her boss who convinced her to try out the accounting department. It was only later in life that she started to pursue the CPA exam, a feat she took on while not able to work due to a medical challenge. When she returned to work, she joined PwC, eventually moved into industry, and later on joined Covenant Multi-Family Offices where she serves as "Client Relations", a role she thoroughly enjoys. San Antonio Youth Literacy Harriet

Susan Hough of PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) joined us for this episode of Life In Accounting: The Where Accountants Go podcast.  Susan’s career has spanned public accounting, private industry, consulting, and now even business development – an area that she excels in.  We learned a lot about Susan’s career journey as well as her foundational beliefs in this interview. I actually liked accounting… One of the quotes that caught my attention was that she had taken an accounting course and “actually liked it”. I found that both humorous and insightful.  It’s difficult to know what may appeal to you and become your true calling until you try a few things.  Accounting has obviously ended up being an excellent career choice for Susan. "If you don’t like it, you can always quit!" After 20 years at USAA, she decided to take big risk and do something entirely different. She was considering accepting a new role in business development with RGP, a consulting firm, when she sought advice from her friends and family.  The

This week we did a special format just for Thanksgiving. Instead of interviewing a VIP in the accounting world, I chose to do something I’ve been needing to do for a while now… beg for feedback!  :) I very, very sincerely appreciate all the listeners to the Life In Accounting podcast as well as the users of the Where Accountants Go site. Since launching on October 1st, we have had 700 unique visitors to the website, and over 1000 downloads of our podcasts!  I’m very humbled by how fast the listenership has grown. Feedback One thing that would be very helpful is to get your feedback on both the podcast and the website itself. I’ve built the site and podcast in an effort to provide a unique service to the accounting community, but I know there is much, much more we can do with it.  If you could give us feedback on some of the following, it would be much appreciated and highly valued: What have you found beneficial? What improvements would you like to see? How did you find us? If there was 1 thing you

One of the joys of being involved in associations is seeing new professionals getting started in their careers and still making the time to give back to the community. In this episode, I interviewed both Bryan Morgan and Sara Vargas about their experiences serving in the Student Auxiliary for the San Antonio CPA Chapter, as well as how they navigated their own internship opportunities and successfully landed at a national accounting firm. Paying it forward… Sara & Bryan were instrumental in the creation of a mentor program for community college students in the San Antonio area that were going to be transitioning to UTSA. Being that both them were ‘non-traditional’ students and had transferred in from community college, they realized that having someone to guide you on the right path was extremely helpful in making that transfer. With the support of the SACPA staff, Bryan and Sara created a program whereby students already far along in their pursuit of a CPA-qualifying 5 year degree at UTSA could mentor and

We were able to interview Blythe Arguez from the talent acquisition team at the national accounting firm – RSM for this episode. Blythe’s career started in finance actually, and then she figured that accounting would be a better fit for her long-term career and she ended up deciding to go back to school to finish out the requirements to sit for the CPA exam based on her job prospects with Deloitte at the time. Finding your path… Blythe’s story is an excellent example of trying several different areas over time in order to find out what the best fit is for your long-term interests. She started in financial planning, moved into tax with a national firm, tried third-party recruiting for a while, and then settled into a position with Padgett Stratemann (now RSM) where all her experience and strengths mesh well with the duties and responsibilities she handles in talent acquisition. Pursue your CPA… One of the pieces of advice Blythe passes on is to make sure that you fully understand the coursework and other requ

In this episode of Life In Accounting, the Where Accountants Go podcast, I sat down with Michael Tompkins, CPA, of CPA Tech Group. Michael's career transition... Michael started at his parent's CPA firm in Houston but quickly moved into systems work. He has degrees in both accounting and information systems from Texas A&M, which made it easier for him to enter the IT arena.  After working in IT audit for a few years with Deloitte, he felt a calling to start his own IT consulting firm in New Braunfels when visiting family and decided to start CPA Tech Group in 2013. We're all in sales... One of the nuggets of wisdom that Michael shares is that we all are in sales in some way or another, and particularly if you are self-employed. Many people start a business by building infrastructure and overhead prior to making the first sale.  Michael is a believer in quite the opposite - building the sales first. Michael's friend - Mr. Wonderful... Well maybe friend is too strong a word, but Michael does share his experienc

In this episode of Life In Accounting, the Where Accountants Go podcast, Bobby Rios joins us from Bartlett Cocke General Contractors in San Antonio. Bobby serves as the Chief Financial Officer for Bartlett Cocke and is very active in the community as well. In this episode, Bobby shares his journey from getting into accounting "by chance" :) , through several increases in responsibility, to eventually becoming the CFO of this large general contractor. In addition to his professional career, Bobby serves on the board and as a volunteer for several non-profit organizations such as the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), the Children's Bereavement Center, and Schreiner University. I hope you enjoy the interview with Bobby Rios. It is a story of how you can achieve a successful career as well as balance giving back to the community in a highly meaningful way. If you have an interest in the 5K fundraiser for the Chldren's Bereavment Center he mentions, you can get details at: http://cbcst.org/event/brew-ha-roun