Use hope to shift stress, strengthen culture, and keep talent.

Know-How Korner

With Donny Shimamoto

Center for Accounting Transformation

Know How Korner, hosted by Donny Shimamoto, aims to translate peer-reviewed findings into practical actions for firms. In a recent episode, Shimamoto interviews Dr. Katelynn Hopson, assistant professor of accounting at Arkansas Tech University, whose dissertation quantifies a deceptively soft concept—hope—and links it to how public accountants experience stress and consider leaving their firms.

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Hope, in the research literature, is not vague optimism. Psychologist C. R. Snyder frames it as goal-directed cognition comprising agency (“the will”) and pathways (“the ways”). Hopson studies state hope—how hopeful someone is about a specific time frame or event—rather than broad personality-level trait hope. State hope moves; it can be built or eroded by experience and context.

“People who have higher levels of hope are more likely to want to stay and less likely to feel burned out,” Hopson explains.

The deduction's previous cap of $10K jumps to $2.5M.

Quick Tax Tip
With Art Werner
CPE Today

If you thought Section 179 was already generous, buckle up. Tax guru Art Werner is back with a Quick Tax Tip that dives into one of the most business-friendly changes proposed in the “Big, Beautiful Bill” — a massive, permanent expansion of the Section 179 expensing limit to $2.5 million.

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That’s right. The deduction, which once topped out at a modest $10,000 (yes, really), could soon allow businesses to expense up to $2.5 million of qualifying property immediately. According to Werner, this is not just another routine adjustment — this is a seismic change in year-one expensing power.

And for the right business? It could be a game-changer.

Fieldguide’s AI rewrites the rules that have held audit back for decades.

The Disruptors

With Liz Farr

Like many auditors, Jin Chang didn’t enjoy the manual work. “Why did I get a four-year degree to do this matching exercise between evidence and samples being tested?” he recalls thinking. “Why aren’t machines doing this better and faster?”

So he founded Fieldguide, “the platform I wished I had, and the AI agents that we're building are the AI team members I wish I had to collaborate with.” His mission with FieldGuide is to automate the tedious work that drives talented people away from audit, allowing human practitioners to focus on judgment, strategy, and client relationships so “they have a promising career that I didn't see as attractive back then.”

• MORE STREAMING: Vanover: 5-Star Firms Don't Bill by the Hour | Kless: Profit Is a Result. Flourishing Is the Purpose | Whitman: Build Culture on 'Progress,' Not Change | Shein: No PE? No M&A? No Problem | Hood and Weber: Time to RISE | Proctor: Turn Dumb Ideas into Brilliant Solutions | Carter-Gray: How 1 Poor Review Strengthened the Firm |

As Chang explains, with audit and assurance, “there's this rising set of client demands and expectations.” Clients demand quality assurance at reasonable fees. However, “quality assurance and reasonable fees don't often go hand in hand. They're often opposite levers.” This tension creates what he calls “a downward spiral of burnout,” where junior auditors struggle to deliver quality work within tight budgets. This results in auditors questioning their career choices.

Adding to these pressures are uncompetitive salaries and unclear promotion paths. However, Chang views generative and agentic AI as a transformational technology that simultaneously enhances both quality and efficiency.

The most dangerous day of retirement is a psychological challenge more than a financial one.

By Rory Henry CFP®, BFA™

For CPA Trendlines

When most people think about retirement planning, they picture spreadsheets and savings targets. But as Dan Haylett, author of The Retirement You Didn’t See Coming and host of the Humans vs. Retirement podcast, explains, the real challenge of retirement is not mathematical—it’s psychological.

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“People focus on the numbers because they think that will solve all their challenges,” Haylett says. “But retirement is a complex human problem. Spreadsheets will not tell us who we are without a business card or what gets us out of bed in the morning.”

Haylett distinguishes between “complicated” and “complex” problems. For instance, he says a tax return is complicated but solvable, while retirement is complex—filled with uncertainty, emotion, and shifting identity. That’s a huge distinction, and Haylett argues that advisors who only solve the math side miss the messy human side of the client relationship.

Haylett urges advisors to help clients plan beyond their finances – for instance, how they will structure their days in retirement, as well as their relationships and purpose. “Retirement is an emotional human transition,” Haylett says. “It requires people to think about who they are, what they are doing, and how their relationships might change.”

Success depends on making deliberate choices.

It's Not Just the Numbers
With Penny Breslin and Damien Greathead
For CPA Trendlines

Client Advisory Services (CAS) remain the strongest revenue driver for accounting firms. Yet, building a thriving CAS practice goes far beyond adding bookkeeping or management reporting to your services. Success depends on how you select clients, manage teams, communicate value, and adapt to the realities of technology and outsourcing.

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In a recent episode of It’s Not Just the Numbers, co-hosts Damien Greathead and Penny Breslin unpack some of the most pressing challenges facing firm owners as they scale CAS. Their conversation highlights practical lessons on team transparency, client selection, vertical specialization, and even how to address the growing role of AI.

One of the key questions from listeners was whether firms should share profitability data with their teams. The consensus is that full transparency isn’t always necessary, but clarity around scope and efficiency is critical.

Instead of disclosing exact margins, Greathead and Breslin suggest teaching your team what makes a service profitable, and what erodes that profitability.

Smarter, shorter, and more focused podcasts help firm leaders turn listening time into a competitive edge.

Accounting Influencers
With Rob Brown

In today’s crowded attention economy, time is the rarest currency. Every minute you spend consuming content needs to work for you. That’s why accounting leaders are turning to podcasts—not as entertainment, but as a professional advantage.

In this episode of Accounting Influencers, host Rob Brown explores how podcasting is evolving and what that means for accountants and firm leaders who want to stay sharp, visible, and ahead of the curve.

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The podcast industry is booming—worth an estimated $47 billion globally and projected to triple in the next few years. But as Brown explains, this growth isn’t about quantity; it’s about quality.

“The best podcasts,” he says, “cut through the noise. They know who they’re for, and they deliver the goods.”

Listeners today average seven podcasts in rotation, but loyalty is increasingly tied to the relevance of the content. The most trusted shows focus on niche audiences and deliver actionable value.

Gone are the days of meandering interviews and filler content. The top-performing podcasts are shorter, tighter, and built for multitasking professionals.

Brown notes three key shifts redefining the medium.

When you're too tired to lead, step aside.

Gear Up for Growth
With Jean Caragher
For CPA Trendlines

“Leaders who realize they’re too tired to keep managing change should recognize that it might be time to transition to somebody who has that energy,” says Carrie Steffen, CEO of the Iowa Society of CPAs, during her appearance on Gear Up for Growth, hosted by Jean Caragher of Capstone Marketing. “The longer you hang on when you don’t have the energy for change, the more of a disservice you’re doing, not only to your firm, but to the profession as a whole.”

• More Jean Caragher here | Get her best-selling handbook, The 90-Day Marketing Plan for CPA Firms, here | More Gear Up for Growth
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In addition to highlighting self-awareness as a key leadership skill, Steffen offered valuable insights for CPA firm leaders navigating today’s dynamic environment.

In her interview, two major takeaways stood out.

Price discrimination segments customers by what they value most.

Accounting ARC - Student-Led Conversations
With Harshita Multani
Center for Accounting Transformation

On Accounting ARC – Student-Led Conversations, host Harshita Multani interviews Ron Baker—author, educator, and sought-after speaker—about price discrimination and the psychology behind everyday pricing. Across coffee shops, hotels, streaming platforms, and movie theaters, Baker says the same principle repeats: value is subjective, so pricing must be, too.

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Baker argues that pricing “behaves like art” because people don’t act like predictable particles. The goal is not perfect prediction, but rather constant testing: offering options, observing behavior, and refining strategy. That framing aligns with a growing body of hospitality research that shows how subtle cues—like removing the “$” symbol—change spending patterns. Cornell researchers find diners spend significantly more when menus list numerals without currency signs, a choice many premium venues intentionally make.