In this episode of The Accountant’s Flight Plan Podcast, we sit down with Jody Padar, known across the industry as The Radical CPA, to discuss how artificial intelligence is reshaping the accounting profession. Jody shares her journey from founding one of the first cloud firms in 2010 to working in tech startups like Botkeeper and now launching her newest venture, XcelLabs. Her mission is to prepare firms for 2030 by building AI-first practices that leverage automation to expand the capacity for empathy, client connection, and creativity in order to transform advisory work.
As Jody explains, the accounting world is at a pivotal crossroads. With private equity capital, fintech innovation, and a workforce on the precipice of retirement, firms must evolve or risk being left behind. AI, she says, isn’t just about automating bookkeeping. It’s about using tools like ChatGPT and Claude to think strategically, improve advisory quality, and enhance human connection at scale. By integrating AI into daily workflows, firms can serve clients with more empathy, precision, and insight. Enabling them to move beyond compliance into a true renaissance for the profession.
During our conversation, we explored the opportunities and mindset shifts required to embrace this change. From automating 85% of back-office tasks to leveraging AI for unbiased leadership feedback and real-time performance coaching. Jody highlights practical ways firms can grow stronger and smarter. She encourages accountants to stop fearing AI and start playing with it. Through experimentation, iteration, and discovery, these tools can amplify human potential for collaboration, building better, more personal firms.
Timestamps:
00:00: Using AI strategically to enhance advisory work
01:06: Jody’s career journey and launch of XcelLabs
04:00: PE capital, fintech, and aging leadership disrupting the accounting industry
08:00: How money movement and tech are transforming accounting
10:11: How to leverage AI to build deeper client relationships at scale
13:20: PE-driven competition for top accounting talent
14:26: Using AI to rewrite firm operations and scale
15:24: ChatGPT, Claude, and creative thinking over automation
23:20: Using AI for unbiased performance feedback
27:35: Book Recommendation: Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can and Can’t Do
Disclaimer: The following is an unedited transcription of the episode and has not been combed for errors.
00;00;00;00 – 00;00;27;20
Jody Padar
I think our value is is in thinking creatively and figuring out how to use just plain old ChatGPT or grok or Clod or whatever, and upgrading our thinking and using it strategically to help us be better advisors and asking it the questions of, you know, how would a firm owner of a $50 million firm handle this particular problem versus the way I’m handling it today?
00;00;27;26 – 00;00;41;25
Jody Padar
Right? Or how would, how should I approach my client in discussing these options with them, as opposed to kind of taking it the way that I would assume that I would have taken it before. Right. So
00;00;41;26 – 00;00;52;08
Jody Padar
I think that we should be using AI to make us stronger advisors and not necessarily worry about just automating all the work,
00;00;52;16 – 00;01;06;15
Brannon Poe
I’m Brandon Poe, and this is the county’s Flight Plan podcast, where you can enjoy engaging conversations about mergers and acquisitions in accounting, practice management. Listen in on strategies to build a more fun and valuable accounting firm.
00;01;06;18 – 00;01;30;08
Brannon Poe
Welcome to the Accountant’s Flight Plan podcast. I have a wonderful guest. Jody. Peter who? I believe you might have been on our podcast before. Maybe we did something together. Anyway, welcome everyone to, meet Jody. Jody, I’m going to let you tee this up. You, you got a lot going on. And tell us just a little bit about yourself.
00;01;30;08 – 00;01;51;26
Brannon Poe
And, and before we turn the camera on, there was a little bit of, a reveal. So we’re going to there is got some big news to announce. Yeah. So I’m Jody Pate are the radical CPA. I’m probably, you know, one of a handful of branded CPAs. I’ve been in the industry a long time. I say that I was the inventor of the cloud firm way back when, in 2010.
00;01;51;29 – 00;02;32;01
Jody Padar
I iterated through it, and I sold it in 2020. And for the last five years, I’ve worked in, venture funded tech startups. I was at barkeeper, where we automated bookkeeping. And then I was employee number one at April, which many of you are familiar with because we built tax software from scratch to compete with TurboTax. So on the consumer side, and then just recently, like I’ve left and I’m starting, new company, aside from being the radical CPA and doing all the, like, consulting and stuff that I normally do, we’re creating the AI movement and that is the whole idea of being AI first firm.
00;02;32;04 – 00;02;53;05
Unknown
And you lead yourself, then you lead your firm, and then we’re going to, morph the profession into being ready for the year 2030. It consists of both education and software to go along with it. So lot to talk about. This is kind of like the first time I’ve officially talked about it on a podcast, so kind of cool.
00;02;53;07 – 00;03;01;02
Unknown
But a lot’s coming and I want to be ready for the future. I want them to be ready for 2030. Yeah, I,
00;03;01;02 – 00;03;18;16
Unknown
I know enough about the to be slightly dangerous at this point, so, I’m looking forward to kind of getting into, your take on it, just from a super high level. Like the amount of investment going into AI in general is massive.
00;03;18;18 – 00;03;42;24
Unknown
I know I think people are definitely using some of the more common chats and things like that. I think chat that still has like, the lion’s share of small business traffic. But it’s an exciting time and it’s it’s, I don’t know, Jodie. Tell me, I think. Is it, is it going to stand up to the hype?
00;03;42;24 – 00;04;06;03
Unknown
You think so? I think that’s an interesting question, because I always say, like, we’re thinking about, like 2030. That’s what I’m building for. And being that I was like, I like I said at the beginning, like the inventor of the cloud firm, right. Like and the reality is still less than 10% of CPA firms today are, are not cloud, 100% cloud.
00;04;06;03 – 00;04;28;16
Unknown
So less than 10%. And we’ve been talking about the cloud for 15 years. Right. So what’s going to happen with AI. It’s moving a lot faster. It’s a lot more like the iPhone versus cloud, where cloud technology was still a little bit clunky, where this technology really just kind of goes like you don’t really have to learn it so much, right?
00;04;28;19 – 00;04;50;18
Unknown
You just kind of chat with it. So I think it’s going to move a lot faster. I think what’s happening in the profession, though, is like the perfect storm, and that’s why we’re so ripe for disruption today or I would even say a renaissance, not even call it disruption, a renaissance. So, you know, you have all these mergers and acquisitions happening on you have PE in the market, right?
00;04;50;18 – 00;05;16;16
Unknown
So there’s all this capital coming in. You have new technologies and VC money coming in to kind of fuel those new technologies and build new AI tools. So that’s interesting. You have like, I don’t know, whatever, 75% of the rest of the profession retiring in the next ten years, whatever that, you know, statistics is that all these old guys are just going to go away, right?
00;05;16;18 – 00;05;35;00
Unknown
And you have no talent. We have, like, no talent coming up in the pipeline. Right. And for as much as the AI, CPA is pushing, you know, more talent, get high schoolers involved. The reality is there aren’t enough CPAs to do the work today. So when you look at that. Oh, and one more thing. We have fintech in the world, right?
00;05;35;00 – 00;06;00;18
Unknown
So a lot of people don’t even consider fintech. And I would argue being that I was on the fintech side for the last three years, fintech is making a play in here because it’s the movement of money. It’s not just the accounting. Right. So when you think about the rose in the Mercury’s in like even bill.com and, you know, millio in all the, the, the money movement where they’re getting paid on money, right.
00;06;00;18 – 00;06;26;11
Unknown
That’s coming into technology. Right. So when you look at all those outside forces, something has to change because it’s not us as CPAs saying, gee, I want to adopt AI. It’s like the world is coming in on us. How are we going to evolve to to live in the world? That’s changed, right? And I think that’s the difference with this technology change.
00;06;26;11 – 00;06;49;07
Unknown
Then more so with the cloud. And like I would say, it’s more like the internet versus the cloud. Right? So it’s not much of a disruption. But to me that’s exciting because like why are we still the same. Like why have we not. You know, I’m like radical right? Like I push the bleeding edge, but why why have other firms not change?
00;06;49;07 – 00;07;13;19
Unknown
Why have other people like, not evolved the way they should have? And now guess what? Now they don’t have a choice because money’s pushing the market. Yeah, I have a theory that, people are just so busy that they don’t come up and look around, you know, they’re just they’re just so busy that they’re, not changing because they’re not looking at what they can do to change.
00;07;13;19 – 00;07;40;18
Unknown
And, and and they’re fat and happy. They make money. So, like, what’s what’s the change? I’m making money. And I have work to do. So far, so good. Right. And, I think yeah, I think all of those forces. I totally agree with you. I see it with our business. I mean, our businesses, mergers and acquisitions and, PE is definitely making a big impact there.
00;07;40;20 – 00;08;03;17
Unknown
And some say it’s not good and some say it’s good. And I think it’s both I think both of that’s true. But it’s disruptive. Right. And I’m really curious about the fintech because you’re the first person that I’ve talked to that has mentioned that that is also, something that’s really creating a lot of change. And I haven’t put much thought into that.
00;08;03;17 – 00;08;23;03
Unknown
I’d like to elaborate on that some more. Like, what do you think? How does that work out? I mean, obviously it streamlines the bookkeeping and it streamlines the payables and, well, well, so the interesting thing about fintech is fintech works because they make money on money, right? Because it’s like they get money based on the money transactions.
00;08;23;05 – 00;08;43;04
Unknown
So when you think about like into it, right into it’s doing corporate tax returns now into it’s hiring. And they’re actually acquiring firms as well for people to do that work. And Intuit makes money because it has a bank behind it. Right. So when you get a refund or you make a payment into it gets I don’t know, I’ll say $0.02.
00;08;43;04 – 00;09;16;08
Unknown
I know it’s more than $0.02, but $2, whatever the transaction fee is, right? All of those companies make money on selling money. And so because they’re making money on selling money, they invest more in the experience in how it works versus a CPA who isn’t making money, they’re not making transaction fees, or I would even say traditional software that we’ve been stuck using legacy software providers haven’t really invested in, like keeping up the tech because they’re they don’t have it.
00;09;16;08 – 00;09;45;18
Unknown
Right. But when you’re making money on money, all of a sudden there’s an incentive for you to have the latest tech and to have a better experience and all of that stuff. And so that’s why fintech is now moving into our market. And really, you know, some of the banks are partnering with CPA firms, but there are companies who are just going to take away that that that work, and it’ll be fine.
00;09;45;20 – 00;10;04;13
Unknown
And they can tie in the wealth management piece to it. If they’re big enough. They’ve got the wealth management piece, which is also a very profitable industry that, you know, and and if you’re a small CPA firm, I actually think people don’t go into wealth management unless you go in, in a, in a big enough way to make it work.
00;10;04;13 – 00;10;11;20
Unknown
Well, like don’t dabble in wealth management, right. Because it’s technical and you kind of have to know what you’re doing. And yeah. And
00;10;11;20 – 00;10;31;06
Unknown
so to me that’s where kind of like this eye movement comes from, right? It’s the idea that if fintech is going to take the compliance work away from us and, whether it be fintech or technology itself, because all that stuff is going to be automated for the most part, it already is automated.
00;10;31;06 – 00;10;52;27
Unknown
I could say what, before I sold my firm, you know, it was 85% automated. So like why people think it’s not going to just get automated away is beyond me. But when all of that stuff gets automated away, how do we, as CPAs and professionals show up to be the best advisors we can be? And that’s where I say, let’s put AI in it.
00;10;52;27 – 00;11;16;13
Unknown
Let’s let’s create empathy at scale. Let’s help us be the best advisors we can and use AI to help us. And that’s where we’re going to set ourselves apart from the Intuit’s of the world, from the other fintechs. Yeah, from kind of the machine, right, of just getting the work done because we already do it well in our like local CPA firms.
00;11;16;19 – 00;11;37;28
Unknown
But now what if we have AI to help us scale that, to teach empathy across your firm. So I, I liken it to the fact that every firm has 1 or 2 clients where you’ve been to like their, your client’s kid’s weddings or you’ve been to funerals with them. Right? Like you’re that close to those handful of clients.
00;11;38;03 – 00;12;01;01
Unknown
We’re like, you’re there, ride or die, and they trust you with everything. And they, you know, they’re always calling you. What if I allowed us to have that sort of empathetic relationship, that sort of tight relationship with every one of your clients? Yeah, because it gave you the opportunity to scale that. And to me, that that’s the cool stuff.
00;12;01;05 – 00;12;23;16
Unknown
That’s the stuff nobody’s talking about. That’s not automating away the bookkeeping, that’s saying, hey, help us be the best humans we can be and be able to have those deeper, more trusted business advisor relationships with everyone in our firm, not just with the three people who, for whatever reason, they’re attached to us and our cell phones. Right? Yeah.
00;12;23;16 – 00;12;23;23
Unknown
I
00;12;23;23 – 00;12;51;02
Unknown
think, it goes back to the expression I keep hearing. It’s like AI is not going to put you out of business. A person using AI will. Right. And, I think that’s there’s some truth to that. And I do feel like this is still like we’re still in the early stages. This is the wild, wild west of it, but I see it, you know, I see it moving pretty quickly, and it’s going to move fast.
00;12;51;02 – 00;13;20;17
Unknown
Yeah, it’s going to move fast. And and I think with the other forces that you’re talking about, it’s going to feel like there’s a lot of change going on in this profession. People are going to feel it. And, you know, I think I think there’s going to be a bigger talent war. I think you’re going to see with the influx of capital into the industry, there’s going to be kind of a talent war like we’ve probably never seen in this profession before.
00;13;20;17 – 00;13;47;07
Unknown
And there’s going to be poaching and, there’s going to be more of that. And that’s that’s where it hurts people. That’s when they feel it. Right. And what about the people who don’t have capital. Right. So like that’s that’s the hard part. Right. Like that’s you know, you hear about the firms who aren’t taking PE and they’re like, well, but then how do we acquire other firms or how do we have the money to hire people or all of that?
00;13;47;07 – 00;14;07;02
Unknown
And you think, well, like, yeah, those are real other issues because capital has come in. And when you have money, you can buy more stuff. And and if you’re a CPA or you’re an employee, do you really know the difference between one firm or the other? Or are you like, you go to the firm that’s going to pay you a little bit more money?
00;14;07;02 – 00;14;26;12
Unknown
Or do you know, like it’s it’s going to be interesting. And I think you’re right. Yeah. I think there’s going to be a lot of disruption. But but it’s still unknown. A CPA firm is a great business. And and if you play your cards right, it’s going to be a wonderful time to own a CPA firm. And you’re kind of in the catbird seat.
00;14;26;12 – 00;14;55;13
Unknown
And it’s a, it’s a wonderful, it’s what you make of it. Right. Like but it can be awesome. Well, and my thought would be is if you own a firm like, think of this as a renaissance and think about how you can rewrite everything in your firm and make it more profitable using AI. Yeah. So like stop thinking old school and think about how you can use these new tools, these new technologies to help you, augment your labor.
00;14;55;16 – 00;15;24;20
Unknown
So instead of going to hire that next hire, you use automation and technology to replace 75% of the work that they were going to do. And and the reality is, is most firms don’t think that way. They think human. And now they’re thinking, go to India, go to the Philippines. They don’t think automation first. And I would argue you could get to $1 million per full time equivalent if you have the right tech stack and the right automation.
00;15;24;22 – 00;15;44;11
Unknown
What are the, what are maybe 1 or 2 of your favorite tools that you’ve seen so far that are AI, specifically for the accounting industry or bookkeeping industry? What what do you feel like is, you know, most exciting, that you’ve seen? Well,
00;15;44;11 – 00;15;53;26
Unknown
so I would like I think there’s cool tools out there, right, that are bookkeeping centric and like tech centric, but I don’t think that’s where our value is.
00;15;53;26 – 00;16;21;21
Unknown
I think our value is is in thinking creatively and figuring out how to use just plain old ChatGPT or grok or Clod or whatever, and upgrading our thinking and using it strategically to help us be better advisors and asking it the questions of, you know, how would a firm owner of a $50 million firm handle this particular problem versus the way I’m handling it today?
00;16;21;27 – 00;16;48;19
Unknown
Right? Or how would, how should I approach my client in discussing these options with them, as opposed to kind of taking it the way that I would assume that I would have taken it before. Right. So I think that we should be using AI to make us stronger advisors and not necessarily worry about just automating all the work, because, again, I think there’s lots of tools out there.
00;16;48;23 – 00;17;06;10
Unknown
There’s and they’re kind of pick your poison, right? Like there’s lots of flavors of it. And even if you’re old school or when I say old school, meaning you still have some sort of legacy based technology, even they’re incorporating AI in the tools themselves.
00;17;06;10 – 00;17;13;14
Unknown
Yeah, it’s coming into everything. And, yeah, if, if, I think the first place people usually start is chat, right?
00;17;13;14 – 00;17;34;16
Unknown
And learning how to get answers from chat. I, I had this interesting little use case for it that I’ll share is this is a personal experience. So we have a, rental property, and. Well, we just bought this property, and I’m trying to think, okay, how much can I make if I was Airbnb in this property versus regular rent?
00;17;34;16 – 00;18;08;16
Unknown
I asked chat, and it came up with, like, all of the sort of average rates for this location, and it came up with how many days you could expect to rent. And it gave you a range of like, okay, if you are 60% rented or 80% rented, this is what your numbers would look like. And and then I did I did find some errors and some of the information though I’ve found that, it didn’t incorporate the, county restrictions on short term rentals.
00;18;08;23 – 00;18;27;13
Unknown
So like in Charleston County, where I am, you can only rent it for like 162 days or something like that. It did not incorporate that tidbit of information. So, I think it’s, but you know what? I think chat’s going to get better and better and better. I mean, it’s the worst right now. It’s the worst you’ll ever see it, right?
00;18;27;13 – 00;18;46;27
Unknown
It’s only going to get better. Well, and I think two people have, like, they expect it to be perfect. If you were to call the guy on the phone, let’s just say you have a guy. Right? And you were to ask him that same question. He might have rattled off all the same things ChatGPT did and omitted that one piece about, like, your specific county regulation or whatever.
00;18;47;03 – 00;19;05;08
Unknown
And no one would be like, oh my God, that guy is so dumb, you would have walked away saying, oh my God, like, I just got all this information and it was amazing. And yet people have this expectation that ChatGPT should be perfect. You’re still a person. You still have to use your own, you know, judgment, your own understanding.
00;19;05;12 – 00;19;25;14
Unknown
And I would argue, probably had you followed up with another question saying, is there anything that I haven’t asked you that you should be or whatever taken that prompt down the line, you might have gotten that information. And so what I think happens is people get like caught in that it’s not perfect the first time. And then they say, does it work?
00;19;25;14 – 00;19;42;21
Unknown
Right. And the reality and not that you said that, but I’m just saying, like, I think that’s the expectation. Are they they walk away and say, oh, it’s not perfect. And I would say if you talk to your colleague in the cube next to you, does he give you 100% of his information? Correct? No. He gives you like 30% of it.
00;19;42;21 – 00;19;46;12
Unknown
And you still think he’s amazing, right? No, that’s a really
00;19;46;12 – 00;20;05;00
Unknown
good point. It’s just like your expectations. And it is all about the prompting. Like, right. Learning how to prompt this. And another thing I don’t I don’t type anything. I literally just talk to it. I’ve got it on my phone. You hit the button, you hit the little mic, you talk into it, you just freely talk into it.
00;20;05;00 – 00;20;26;28
Unknown
And it’s just amazing what it comes back with. I mean, if, if anyone listening has not done that, like just try talking to chat about random random problems or random, you know, things that you come up with in life. My, I was with my cousins last weekend and they found a stray and they took the stray in.
00;20;26;28 – 00;20;44;20
Unknown
And so they have this dog, whatever. And we took his picture and we just uploaded it, and it told us what kind of mutt it was. Right? Like so it was so funny. They’re like, how did you do that? It was like it just we took a picture of the dog and then said that the dog was, I don’t know, some sort of, shepherd herding dog and part husky.
00;20;44;20 – 00;21;10;14
Unknown
Right. And like, it was just so cool. Right. Take a picture of the dog and see what kind of dog it is. Yeah. It’s and it’s and we’re just in the infancy of all this, like the amount of capital coming that’s going to continue to make these tools even better. And, and the ones that are going to come and that are competing with these ones that we have now, like it’s it’s mind blowing.
00;21;10;16 – 00;21;26;14
Unknown
Yeah. It’s really cool. That’s why I said it’s a renaissance. And that’s why I think people need to get like out of the not that everybody’s in this mindset. But then, oh, it’s going to take my job or I’ve heard even like not even that it’s going to take my job. Oh I don’t have to worry about it because I’m retiring.
00;21;26;14 – 00;21;55;07
Unknown
Right. Like I, I hear that like, oh like not my not my problem. Right. And my thing is, is like just covered it with a curious attitude and think about, like, how cool would it be if you could use this tool and only work a little bit, even during your retirement or whatever, right. Like that. Like, I don’t know, it’s to me it’s exciting and we should be thinking about how the tools can help us, upskill us, rather than like, be so afraid of them.
00;21;55;09 – 00;22;14;01
Unknown
Right? I totally agree. And and if you don’t have chat on your phone, like just go down and download the app, right? Just stick it on your phone and you can use the free version. Two. You don’t even I mean, the paid version is only like, I don’t know, 20 or $30. It’s not expensive, but even the free version gives you quite a bit for free.
00;22;14;03 – 00;22;33;11
Unknown
And it keeps your history of your searches. So like I can go back to my Airbnb search right now and, and and then I can elaborate on it, like, oh, I didn’t ask it this question. Maybe I need to just keep going. So it’s like it keeps a little log of what you’re talking to it about. That’s really crazy.
00;22;33;13 – 00;22;52;17
Unknown
Well, all right, so I want to add, is there anything else like that you feel like you really want to talk about with your new company launch and do you feel like you’ve given a. Okay. Yeah. So so our company is going to be teaching AI basics. It’s going to be teaching treating AI as your business best friend.
00;22;52;23 – 00;23;20;00
Unknown
It’s going to be teaching you all about your IQ, which is your. So think of like if you have IQ and IQ, your IQ is how do you connect, your curiosity, your kind of uniqueness to AI, to kind of like get a bigger, better result. So we’re going to be teaching about that and unstructured data. So all of that, it’s going to it’s going to lead us into leadership and advisory stuff.
00;23;20;03 – 00;23;54;16
Unknown
So like you’re going to learn how to use data driven things to actually make yourself a better advisor. So like you can either train your team to be better advisors or think about like if you were to upload, zoom call or fireflies call. Like a lot of people have. AI leaders are like the recorders. Now that take the, you know, the the notes and you get the transcript after if you were to take that transcript and upload it and get an immediate score and how well you did in that advisory conversation, and it would be unbiased.
00;23;54;16 – 00;24;15;21
Unknown
So it’s not like from your manager who maybe likes you, maybe doesn’t like you or whatever. Right? And you get unbiased, unbiased, real time feedback. Well, probably like right after. But even so, to see how you did, how you could improve. And to me, if you think about like, okay, the bookkeeping is going to go away, the tax work is going to go away.
00;24;15;23 – 00;24;35;15
Unknown
But how do we get that next gen up to being an advisor? You know, in year one, year two, as opposed to having to do the work for ten years. And these are the tools that’s going to help us evolve the profession faster. So you’re not going to have to have 20 years of experience to be an amazing advisor.
00;24;35;21 – 00;24;52;05
Unknown
And people say, oh, well, they didn’t do the work. How are they going to be an advisor? Guess what? You don’t have to. You just have to be able to interpret the data. And so we’re going to have to support them as leaders. Right. Kind of get advisory faster. But these are the tools that are going to help us get there.
00;24;52;05 – 00;25;18;17
Unknown
So like to me that’s the exciting stuff. Yeah, it’s very exciting. And I imagine you’ll discover all sorts of new use cases as you as your company grows. And so yeah, so one of the things that people don’t realize AI is, is AI is really pattern recognition. And so you as a leader show up in a certain way just because that’s like the way you are.
00;25;18;17 – 00;25;37;20
Unknown
It’s like, that’s what makes you you. Right. And when you start using AI to understand your patterns, you can then like correct them or choose not to correct them. Right. But part of like being a better leader is just awareness, right? So now if you know what makes you you, you can then choose how do you show up.
00;25;37;20 – 00;25;57;22
Unknown
So there’s so many things that I can do to help you make more, to help you be more human, that are amazing. And like, nobody’s talking about that. They’re all talking about automating bookkeeping and automating tax. And like like, I don’t know, I just think that, like, the human element is so much more exciting. Yeah. Human in the loop needs for AI.
00;25;57;22 – 00;26;21;06
Unknown
Human. Humans got to be in the loop too, right? For sure. Well, all right, Judy, I’ve got a couple of, little closing questions here. So, do you have any interesting stories from any time in your career that you can share with our audience? Because being a CPA and being in this industry can be pretty interesting.
00;26;21;08 – 00;26;40;00
Unknown
I’ve heard so many fun story. So for sure. So when I, when I own my firm, I had a client and, you know, I’ve written three books, and so she was asking me about what it was like to write a book, and she was thinking about writing a book, and she owned a catering company. So, I was like, yeah, I’ll tell you about writing a book.
00;26;40;00 – 00;27;00;19
Unknown
Whatever. What do you want to know? And then I was like, are you going to write a book about catering? Or like, what? Are you going to write a book on? And then she told me that she was a dominatrix, and I was like, whoa. Like, okay, so this is a whole new world. So I don’t know if the book ever got written or whatever, but that was like something that I, I don’t think I wanted to know and somehow came into our firm.
00;27;00;19 – 00;27;10;26
Unknown
So I always say, you’re in your you’re in your client’s financial underwear drawer. And that one just like kind of pushed me over the top.
00;27;10;28 – 00;27;35;16
Unknown
Yeah. That’s funny. That’s, So did it make sense? Like when she said that you’re like, oh, that checks out, or, like, just shocking? I was I was actually quite shocked. I was like, I don’t know. I don’t know what like it was. It was not what I was expecting. Yeah. That’s funny. Well, speaking of books, do you have a good book recommendation for our audience?
00;27;35;18 – 00;28;01;23
Unknown
Yeah. So, I have to tell you that I am not the best reader. I start books, and then I get bored, or I never finish them. But the book that’s on my bookshelf right now is this I snake oil. What artificial intelligence can do, what it can’t do, and how to tell the difference. And, I think it’s pretty good because I think it kind of cuts to the chase about there is a lot of hype about AI, but there’s also a lot of real stuff there.
00;28;01;23 – 00;28;19;19
Unknown
And so I think it kind of helps you understand. And it’s from like an engineering perspective as well as a business perspective. What the a I can do today and it’s today. Right. Versus like so that’s that’s the hard thing about AI is everything changes so fast. So
00;28;19;19 – 00;28;23;29
Unknown
just because it can’t do it today, that doesn’t mean that it won’t be doing it in six months.
00;28;24;01 – 00;28;46;27
Unknown
And so it just it keeps evolving. But to me, you know, you have to you have to have your risk cat on. But don’t let the risk don’t don’t let being a CPA and being risk averse keep you away. Because I think, you know, there’s a huge opportunity for for us to like, explore it and to really like evolve the profession as a whole.
00;28;46;29 – 00;29;15;20
Unknown
And I think if we don’t have if we don’t get curious about it, like, I think we’re actually we’re going to be in a worse spot then, you know, like I think doing nothing is not a good thing. I think just play with it. Like have a start. Just play with it. Like have some fun, you know, because, you know, you always have things in life that are you always have this going on vacation can be there puzzles to solve on that, right.
00;29;15;20 – 00;29;31;28
Unknown
Like, you know, how do you get one of the best restaurants close to me? Or you can take a picture of your closet and you can have it suggest what you should keep, what you should get rid of, and how to clean it. I mean, like all this, like stuff like like, I don’t know who I don’t want to say.
00;29;32;02 – 00;29;55;01
Unknown
I heard someone like, give that an example. I was like, oh. And then I tried it and it was pretty cool, right? Like, and I don’t know what I would have done before, I, I probably would just stood there and like, done nothing. Yeah. Yeah. So now I actually uploaded to AI and then I did nothing but still like it was like, I think there’s so many things just get creative and like see what it comes back with.
00;29;55;01 – 00;30;22;11
Unknown
Yeah. Awesome. Well, Jodie, how can people, connect with you online or how can they find you? So the easiest way to find me is just that, LinkedIn. Like, you can connect to me on LinkedIn. If you go to radical dot CPA, you can sign up for my newsletter. And it’s like a blog too. And then, like, we’re talking about everything I first firms and then, yeah.
00;30;22;11 – 00;30;29;05
Unknown
So just find me on LinkedIn or connect to me on the website. Awesome. Thank you so much. Awesome. Thank you.
00;30;29;15 – 00;30;43;25
Unknown
Thanks for listening to the Accountant’s Flight Plan podcast. You can keep the momentum going by subscribing and sharing your thoughts with us. Visit our website at PPL Group advisors.com for more resources, and tune in next time for more exciting conversations like this one.
00;30;43;27 – 00;30;49;26
Unknown
This podcast was produced and edited by Liesl Eppes of her group advisors. Thanks for listening.
