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The hot-topic podcast where firms, thought leaders, influencers, and research nerds converge, collaborate, speak out and dig into common challenges impacting accounting firms. We ask the critical questions on topics that matter—from the pipeline shortage and security threats to the “how–the–hell–can–anyone–keep–up” pace of technology change—and then work to amplify actionable guidance and takeaways for firms. Join TJ Lewis and other dedicated industry champions who all have a single, focused goal: Moving the profession forward.
Hi there, and welcome to the first episode
of our new season of the Modern Firm Podcast.
Uh, if you're new to the podcast,
we're glad you've joined us.
And for those that have been regular
listeners, we welcome you back.
Uh, so one of the core tenets of a modern firm,
which we'll discuss in more detail as we go
through this episode, uh,
is constant innovation and evolution.
And this episode of the Modern Firm Podcast Marks a new step
for us, sort of that, that next step in the evolution of
what the Modern Firm podcast is.
So, uh, I'm a new face, uh, for those that have been around.
So, uh, so, uh, today is kind
of an introductory episode into, uh, who I am
and sort of a reestablishment of
what the Modern Firm podcast is.
Uh, so I am really excited to be joining the podcast
as the host for this season.
Uh, my name is TJ Lewis.
I have spent the last decade, uh, meeting and talking with
and, and getting to know firm owners
and partners, uh, staff within hundreds
of accounting firms across the country.
Uh, I've also been fortunate enough to meet
and share the stage with a number
of the most influential people in the profession.
Uh, and I think that my various roles, uh,
have really given me the ability to meet
and get to know a number of the folks responsible
for building the many products that you all use
to help run your firms, uh, and,
and allow you to serve your clients.
Uh, and so it's really, uh, that breadth of experience
and those relationships that I bring to the table
and plan to leverage, uh, as we engage with some
of the brightest minds and, uh, the sharpest talent
that are helping to move the profession forward.
Uh, so I think it's really good, uh,
as we establish this new format, this new person in myself,
right, uh, to, to also just kind of reestablish
what we are talking about when we talk
about the modern firm.
Uh, so I think it's gonna be really helpful to establish
that and really understand and, and,
and be able to talk about where we're heading.
Uh, so I know I've heard this a lot, right?
And it's sort of become trite or, or maybe cliche,
but I still think it's important to acknowledge
that the rate of change
that we are experiencing is continuing to accelerate, right?
So that the challenges continue to evolve.
Uh, no longer are we,
are we simply talking about moving from paper to paperless?
You know, although that is still a
conversation in some of our firms.
Uh, but, but you know, we've moved beyond that and,
and we're kind of even moving beyond this idea that we have
to make sure everything is in the cloud.
Um, you know, that is also true,
but that's sort of becoming, uh, uh,
table stakes, if you will.
Um, so it's easy, you know, as a small
or maybe a medium-sized accounting firm to become
overwhelmed with everything that's coming at you, you know,
in addition to serving your clients and managing your firm.
Uh, so our goal is gonna be to bring the experts in a number
of areas to help you make sense of what's going on, uh, and,
and, and help you manage the change.
Uh, and hopefully, you know, beyond simply managing
that change, we want to be able to leverage all of this
to help you move your firm forward.
So, as we talk about becoming a modern firm,
I wanna be clear that, uh, you know,
we're not really talking about a physical place or,
or even a state of being, right?
Uh, becoming a modern firm is not necessarily a
destination, uh, in many ways.
I don't think it's even really the journey, um,
because the truth is the journey
that looks different for everybody.
Um, it's not as easy as having a checklist of items
that you need to do to become a modern firm,
because everybody's coming into this at a different place,
uh, at a different place along the spectrum, right?
Um, some of you may be just starting your firms.
You may have acquired a firm that
that was already up and running.
Um, you may have been in this for 30 years, uh,
and you, you, you sort of have your traditions
and your ways of doing things.
And so everybody is coming into this from a different spot.
And so it's hard to give a, a checklist of items
that you must do in order to become this modern firm.
So I think becoming a modern firm is really more about sort
of embracing a growth mindset.
It's understanding that, uh, change is the only constant,
and that really the only fit way forward is to,
to continue holding loosely, uh, everything you've learned
and committed to in the past.
And so that can be scary, right?
Uh, because if we're in a state of constant change,
how do we, how do we serve our clients in the best way?
How do we retain our staff and,
and make them feel like they're comfortable, right?
So there are challenges, and, and,
and we will address those as we go through here.
Um, you know, as I mentioned at the start of the episode,
innovation is at the core of the modern firm.
Uh, and so while you, uh, are on your journey, you're going
to live in a constant state of moving from, from what was
to what will be.
Uh, innovators are constantly experimenting.
One of the key things to know when going into this is
that you will experience some failures.
Uh, you're gonna need to be willing to accept failures
and call them out and move on from them.
Uh, you know, it could be
that you've taken on a number of bad clients.
It's okay to identify them, get rid of them, you know,
sell them off or refer them.
Uh, it could be that you created a bad product,
or you need to modify how you deliver that product.
It's okay to stop offering specific services if it just
doesn't work for your firm.
It could be that you hired the wrong person, right?
That's a tough call to make.
But sometimes the best thing to do is
to move on from a bad hire.
Maybe you chose the wrong software.
You know, it, it is sort of a sunk cost situation, right?
You don't want to continue syncing more cost
into something that's not working.
Um, so it's okay to, to abandon ship
and find a new software and implement that.
So it's okay to hold all those things, um, loosely be able
to identify them and move on.
So, uh, identifying those,
understanding why they didn't work so you can move,
move forward, and make
better decisions going forward, right?
Obviously, we wanna make sure we do this in a way that,
you know, doesn't keep you from providing a world class
experience, uh, to your clients
or make your staff completely miserable,
is they're constantly adapting to new systems and processes
and software, et cetera.
So the good news is,
becoming a modern firm might be easier than you imagine,
because it may be just as simple as the simple shift
of a mindset or attitude.
Uh, you know, the bad news is you're never actually gonna
arrive at a modern firm
and be able to sort of check
that last box and say, I'm here.
You know, that said, I don't want to end on a downer there.
Uh, it's important to realize that every step that you take,
each incremental change, it's a step in the right direction
and, and a victory worth celebrating.
So let's define what we mean by the modern firm
as we are going to, to observe
and talk about it, um, throughout the course of the podcast.
Um, so these are some
of the components that we're talking about.
And I'm gonna start kind of at the higher level here,
30,000 foot view
before we maybe, um, dig in a little bit more to, uh,
to each of these pieces.
And these are really a no particular order,
because I think each of these is critically important
to the success of your firm, right?
So, uh, we'll start with the business model.
So this is your mix of products
and services, uh, so that's a key component.
And the next, you have your clients, right?
So that's the people that you serve,
whether they're businesses or individuals.
And then we're gonna have the staff, uh, within your firm,
partners, managers, bookkeepers,
preparers, admin, et cetera.
Uh, that's everybody within the firm, um,
that's playing an important role in keeping the firm running
and delivering world class service to your clients.
And then finally, we, we like to think about the technology
that's sort of woven in.
And throughout all of that, technology plays an important
role in our firms these days.
Uh, and that's both on the hardware
and the software side, and everything in between.
Uh, and, and those pieces are sort of woven in
and throughout everything that we just talked about
that make it all possible.
So as we move a little bit closer to ground level, you know,
as we look to explore business model,
we're gonna bring in experts that can help us, uh,
talk about what are the right products to, to be, um,
building within your firm, right?
The right services. How do we price those?
How do we deliver those products?
So as it relates to the business model,
we'll be bringing in various folks
who are much smarter than I am,
and I'll, I'll have really good guided discussions, uh,
with those folks to be able to
talk about your business model.
Uh, and then as we talk about clients, right?
It's how do you identify your ideal client?
What, what are your niche, uh, industries
that you want to focus on?
Um, where do you have already some expertise?
And, and how do we develop that expertise
and how do we communicate that expertise, right?
Um, and so all of that kind
of extends into marketing, et cetera.
So we'll bring in experts that can help us identify
and talk through some of those things.
And then on the staff side, right? Staff is super important.
And, um, we all know that staffing is
and continues to be one of the harder things to navigate.
Um, and so there are new thoughts
and models for how to staff, uh, you know,
whether it's in person or remote or outsourced.
However you staff your firm.
It's important to build a good culture.
Um, and we'll talk about those things
and talk about incentives and, and pay,
and how we do all of those things,
and giving you good ideas for how to create a,
a great staff in a modern firm.
And then the last thing, as I mentioned,
technology plays such an important role in all of our firms.
Uh, so we will discuss things related to your tech stack.
We'll talk about, uh, obviously AI is going to continue
to be a, a strong subject that we need to address, um,
automation, security, all the things that are very important
to dealing with the technology within your firm.
So we will discuss all of those things.
Like I said, I'll bring in, uh, other experts,
subject matter experts, to be able to speak to each
of those things in greater detail, to give you practical
and tactical guidance, um,
and insights into how to move forward.
So, one thing that I think is really important is to be able
to have candid conversations, uh, within your staff.
And so, uh, I, I'm gonna mention sort of a, a cool tool
that I had the, um, benefit
or ability to work on several years ago.
And, and that gave me some insight.
Um, and so several years ago,
I had the opportunity to be on a team.
Uh, we were building a tool we called the modern firm, GPA.
Uh, and so the idea was to rate on a scale from zero
to four, uh, four being world class, you'll hear that, uh,
that term quite a lot, uh, around here,
I think four being world class.
And, and the idea was across a number of different criteria,
uh, within various areas of your business.
And so the idea was to rate
and to, to have everybody in the firm participate so
that you could start to prioritize the changes
that you wanted to make within your firm.
Uh, and not only did it help to prioritize these items,
but it gave a voice to those in the firm who
may not have always felt heard, right?
So it's, it's very common, and,
and it's okay that this happens,
but often the direction for change is set by the partners.
It's sort of a top down change.
Uh, and, and it's possible
that other staff may be feeling different kinds of pain
that the partners don't really feel.
And so being able to sort of let them weigh in,
let the staff weigh in on the various, um, components
and pieces of your firm, uh, allows them to feel heard
and to be engaged in the process.
And so I learned, uh, several things during the course
of building, uh, and teaching people how to use this tool.
And I, I want to talk about a few of them real quick.
So one, everyone has a different opinion on
what world class is.
Uh, so for example,
I would almost never give a four to anything, right?
A four being world class, I would almost never
assign a four to anything.
Uh, in my, in my opinion,
world class is almost unachievable.
Uh, and so if you think about, you know, uh,
it's also subjective, right?
World class is also very subjective.
So I have different life experiences than you have,
and those lead me to, to have a very different opinion on
what world class is.
So for example, one of the things was
how do clients feel when they enter your doors, right?
Um, you know, when I go to the Ritz-Carlton, they're, uh,
often, they already know my name somehow,
and, uh, they're waiting with a glass of champagne.
Uh, if your firm is not doing that, is it world class?
Maybe still, right? It's, it's,
everybody has their own definition,
but it's a way to start to be able to say like, oh,
there is room for improvement.
Um, we can do things differently.
Um, and so while I would never assign a four to anything,
uh, or, or rarely, uh, it turns out that many,
maybe most people actually don't think like that.
We saw often people would be giving themselves fours across
a number of different categories.
And again, there's no right or wrong way to do this.
It's just how we think about this thing.
But that was one thing I learned, is
that world class is very subjective, and,
and different people have different thoughts
on how you rate things.
It's, you know, no different than everybody giving a five
to every Uber driver ever, right?
So you have to take it a little bit loosely,
but it's good, it's a good place to start the conversation,
which brings me to my next thing.
Uh, the second thing is that some people are scared
of the conversation that this kind of exercise might start.
Uh, because as it turns out, if you open these topics up
for conversation, there's a bit of an expectation
that things will get addressed,
or that they, uh, that their voices are being heard
and that things may change, right?
And so if you're not willing to, uh, to sort of have
that conversation, um, then, then you know, something
to, to evaluate.
And then the third thing is that some staff, uh, you know,
some people within your firm are insecure about sharing
critical perspectives on the state of things.
Um, you know, whether real or perceived.
Some people don't feel that level
of safety within their workplace to share that feedback.
Uh, and I think it's important to consider all
of those things as we're trying to identify how do we know
where to start, what to do, what are our issues?
Some things are glaringly obvious, right?
If, if you're having, uh,
clients complain about a specific thing all the time, it's,
it's a glaringly obvious thing,
but there may be some other processes
and procedures that your staff are doing that are painful
and you just don't know about.
Um, and so identifying sort of, uh, working
through a process like this to be able
to get those conversations going is really important.
Um, and I think it's really important within a modern firm
that it, it really does start by being able
to have these meaningful conversations sort of up across
and down all the way through the organization, um,
because you really need to have that highest level
of buy-in from everyone involved.
Uh, so I would recommend doing some sort
of exercise like this, at least getting the conversation
started, um, and,
and being able to, uh, open, open those lines of dialogue
and let everybody feel a, a part of the process.
And you will get a different level of buy-in.
You know, we'll talk about mindsets and things like that,
and it's really important, you know, that, you know,
we talk about everybody in the boat rowing the same
direction, those kinds of things, um, you know, are,
are cliche, but it's so, so true.
If you get one person that's just, you know, not
engaging in the right way, it can really hamper your, uh,
mission to, to improve things.
So, um, I really do think that the pursuit
of a modern firm can be so much fun.
Uh, right? So even, uh,
or especially when everyone is involved, um,
because you all feel like you're in it together, uh,
definitely doesn't mean it won't be stressful.
It doesn't mean it can't be overwhelming at times,
and sometimes a little defeating.
Uh, but as I've seen over the last several years, um,
you know, just watching firms push through that time
and time again, they're able to look back at
what they've accomplished with a real sense
of accomplishment and, and be able to celebrate that.
And it really helps develop those strong bonds and, uh,
and can contribute to a great culture, uh, and,
and be able to help you serve the clients,
your clients in the best way possible.
Um, so coming up,
we've got several great episode episodes already lined up
with some fantastic thought leaders and experts.
Uh, really excited to have a chance to sit down with them,
uh, and have really great conversations about
how they think about pur pursuing the modern firm, uh,
in each of their areas of expertise.
Uh, and we're gonna make this relevant for right now.
Obviously, we're in the middle of busy season right now, um,
but we're also gonna ensure that as we exit busy season
and we move on throughout the rest of the year, that this,
this advice, uh, is practical, uh, and,
and you're able to carry that through the rest of the year.
Alright, so one last thing
before we wrap this first episode.
Uh, it's never too early to start preparing
for the post busy season season, right?
So when we start looking ahead, if,
if we already start looking ahead to May, June, July, uh,
there are a number of events scheduled throughout the summer
months, uh, I would encourage you to find one,
uh, or two, right?
Uh, different events have different purposes
and different, uh, audience and things like that.
Uh, these events are a great way to meet
with like-minded individuals to learn the latest
and greatest, uh, and take some intentional time away from
the office to work on your business.
Uh, this time is super important, uh,
especially coming right out of the gate in May.
And, um, you know, I'll make a quick plug
for the right now conference in Nashville, Tennessee.
Uh, it's happening May 19th to the 21st.
This is one of the first conferences of the season,
and that's by design.
Uh, we are, our goal is to give you insights
and guidance, uh, with the most time left in your calendar
to be able to implement what you take away
before you go heads down, uh, again in the fall.
And then, uh, and then rolling right into, uh,
to busy season in 2026.
So, uh, I will drop a link in the show notes.
You can take a look at that conference.
Um, and then the other really important piece, uh,
that I find that really helps, uh, in the pursuit
of a modern firm is finding your people.
Uh, right? So there are a ton of communities out there.
Uh, they're all helping to make sense of all the change
that we're experiencing, the different technologies
and ways of thinking and introducing, you know,
different exit strategies and things like that.
And they each have their own distinct characteristics.
Uh, these communities are really great
for helping support you in pursuit of your goals.
Uh, they help provide accountability, um, allow you
to get some feedback and suggestions,
and sometimes it's just a shoulder to cry on.
Uh, it's important that you don't go it alone, right?
So we want, we want you to, to, um, feel supported
and, uh, right works has a community.
Again, uh, I'll, I'll give a quick plug here.
So feel free to give the right works community a try.
And, uh, I'll also include that link to the show notes
or, or in the show notes.
Um, so feel free to take a look at those links.
Uh, absolutely. We'd love to see you, uh,
participate in our community.
We'd love to see you it right now.
I will be there, uh, I'll be on stage,
I'll be doing various things throughout the conference, uh,
would love to meet, uh, and chat.
So that's a wrap on the first episode of this, uh, season
of the Modern Firm Podcast.
We hope that you'll join us as we continue to explore
what it means to be a modern firm, uh,
and strive to provide you with practical guidance in each
of the areas that we've talked about earlier.
So, if you like what you've heard
and you wanna make sure you don't miss any
of our upcoming episodes, do make sure to follow
or subscribe in your favorite podcast app.
Uh, give us a rating and feel free
to comment if there's any specific
content that you're looking for.
Um, you can, uh, comment.
We'll, you know, feel free to, to suggest anything you like,
uh, anything is open for us.
Uh, so really appreciate you joining us this week,
and I will see you on the next episode.