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Maybe your accounting firm shouldn’t start a podcast

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Podcasting is the new blogging. Everyone’s doing it, and you should, too, right? Not so fast.

At the 2024 Digital Deep Dive conference in Atlanta, Georgia, Brandon Hall and I shared our experiences with podcasting and lessons learned. While our podcasts have seen remarkable success — my show, “The Accounting Podcast,” has notched millions of views on YouTube, and Brandon’s podcast, “Tax Smart Real Estate Investors,” generates 40-45% of new revenue for his firm — we wanted to emphasize that podcasting is not for everyone.

Before diving into podcasting, firms must carefully consider the significant time commitment, the need for a clear content strategy, and the challenges in measuring success to determine if starting a podcast aligns with their goals and resources.

It takes a lot of effort

One of the biggest challenges is the time commitment and consistency required to create a successful show. As Brandon pointed out during our session, “The top 1% of podcasts have 21 [or more] episodes. If you can hit the 21-episode mark, you’re now in the top 1% of all podcasts. When you talk about launching a podcast, everybody gets really excited. But what you don’t realize is that the results take a really long time.”

Many podcasts fail to make it past the first few episodes because the hosts severely underestimate the time required to keep the show running. After several years, Brandon’s show takes him about an hour and a half of his weekly time. But at the start, it can take a lot longer. Budget half a day per week to start. That will decline as you gain experience.

Committing for the long term is also critical. Brandon and I suggest planning to produce your podcast consistently for at least a year, if not longer, to give it the best chance of gaining traction.

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As for how often to record, Brandon recommends a weekly podcast schedule to keep listeners engaged and make it easier for your team to produce content. He noted, “You just get everybody into the habit of producing a weekly show … it ironically becomes easier.” 

You’ll also benefit from having your episodes at the top of the podcast player list. Subscribe to more than a handful of podcasts, and you’ll see how quickly new episodes get pushed below the first page of results.

It takes a long time to generate leads

Because a podcast takes a long time to generate leads, it must create value in other ways for your firm. And it can. Brandon noted, “If you pitch it as top of funnel or start thinking of it as top of funnel, it’s going to take a really long time for you to realize that goal.”

One way to maximize the value of your podcast is to repurpose its content into various formats, such as blog posts, videos, social media posts, and newsletters. Brandon said, “We think about our content in terms of whether we can talk about the same thing in multiple formats so that our potential buyers can consume our content in whatever way they find easiest. So we have videos, podcasts, Instagram and Twitter, TikTok, YouTube shorts, and newsletters. It’s all saying the same stuff, but you get to choose how you consume it.”

It’s difficult to attribute revenue

Measuring the success of your podcast and attributing leads and revenue directly to the show can be a challenge, too. As I argued during the session, “Don’t try to attribute business to your podcast. The podcast is just a way to create all the content that powers your content marketing engine.” 

In other words, your podcast should be a part of a larger content marketing strategy, not a standalone lead generation tool.

The difficulty in measuring podcast success and attributing leads and revenue is why many companies stop investing in podcasting. It’s hard to justify spending the money when the leads aren’t coming in the door. Having realistic expectations and understanding that your podcast’s impact may not always be immediately apparent or easily quantifiable is essential.

Is podcasting right for your accounting firm?

While podcasting can be a valuable tool for business growth and establishing thought leadership, it’s not the right choice for everyone. As more accounting firms explore podcasting as a marketing strategy, it’s crucial to approach it with realistic expectations and a well-defined plan.

Before starting a podcast, consider the following:

  • Do you have the time and resources to produce high-quality content consistently?
  • How will your podcast fit into your overall content marketing strategy?
  • What are your goals for the podcast, and how will you measure success?
  • Are you prepared to commit to podcasting for the long term, even if results aren’t immediate?

Firms that can commit to long-term investment and create valuable content for their target audience may find success in podcasting. However, it’s essential to carefully weigh the challenges and considerations before diving in.

If you still want to start a podcast after considering these challenges, email me at [email protected], and my team will work with you to ensure your podcast journey is successful.

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Accounting

IAASB tweaks standards on working with outside experts

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The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board is proposing to tailor some of its standards to align with recent additions to the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants’ International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants when it comes to using the work of an external expert.

The proposed narrow-scope amendments involve minor changes to several IAASB standards:

  • ISA 620, Using the Work of an Auditor’s Expert;
  • ISRE 2400 (Revised), Engagements to Review Historical Financial Statements;
  • ISAE 3000 (Revised), Assurance Engagements Other than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information;
  • ISRS 4400 (Revised), Agreed-upon Procedures Engagements.

The IAASB is asking for comments via a digital response template that can be found on the IAASB website by July 24, 2025.

In December 2023, the IESBA approved an exposure draft for proposed revisions to the IESBA’s Code of Ethics related to using the work of an external expert. The proposals included three new sections to the Code of Ethics, including provisions for professional accountants in public practice; professional accountants in business and sustainability assurance practitioners. The IESBA approved the provisions on using the work of an external expert at its December 2024 meeting, establishing an ethical framework to guide accountants and sustainability assurance practitioners in evaluating whether an external expert has the necessary competence, capabilities and objectivity to use their work, as well as provisions on applying the Ethics Code’s conceptual framework when using the work of an outside expert.  

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Accounting

Tariffs will hit low-income Americans harder than richest, report says

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President Donald Trump’s tariffs would effectively cause a tax increase for low-income families that is more than three times higher than what wealthier Americans would pay, according to an analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

The report from the progressive think tank outlined the outcomes for Americans of all backgrounds if the tariffs currently in effect remain in place next year. Those making $28,600 or less would have to spend 6.2% more of their income due to higher prices, while the richest Americans with income of at least $914,900 are expected to spend 1.7% more. Middle-income families making between $55,100 and $94,100 would pay 5% more of their earnings. 

Trump has imposed the steepest U.S. duties in more than a century, including a 145% tariff on many products from China, a 25% rate on most imports from Canada and Mexico, duties on some sectors such as steel and aluminum and a baseline 10% tariff on the rest of the country’s trading partners. He suspended higher, customized tariffs on most countries for 90 days.

Economists have warned that costs from tariff increases would ultimately be passed on to U.S. consumers. And while prices will rise for everyone, lower-income families are expected to lose a larger portion of their budgets because they tend to spend more of their earnings on goods, including food and other necessities, compared to wealthier individuals.

Food prices could rise by 2.6% in the short run due to tariffs, according to an estimate from the Yale Budget Lab. Among all goods impacted, consumers are expected to face the steepest price hikes for clothing at 64%, the report showed. 

The Yale Budget Lab projected that the tariffs would result in a loss of $4,700 a year on average for American households.

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Accounting

At Schellman, AI reshapes a firm’s staffing needs

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Artificial intelligence is just getting started in the accounting world, but it is already helping firms like technology specialist Schellman do more things with fewer people, allowing the firm to scale back hiring and reduce headcount in certain areas through natural attrition. 

Schellman CEO Avani Desai said there have definitely been some shifts in headcount at the Top 100 Firm, though she stressed it was nothing dramatic, as it mostly reflects natural attrition combined with being more selective with hiring. She said the firm has already made an internal decision to not reduce headcount in force, as that just indicates they didn’t hire properly the first time. 

“It hasn’t been about reducing roles but evolving how we do work, so there wasn’t one specific date where we ‘started’ the reduction. It’s been more case by case. We’ve held back on refilling certain roles when we saw opportunities to streamline, especially with the use of new technologies like AI,” she said. 

One area where the firm has found such opportunities has been in the testing of certain cybersecurity controls, particularly within the SOC framework. The firm examined all the controls it tests on the service side and asked which ones require human judgment or deep expertise. The answer was a lot of them. But for the ones that don’t, AI algorithms have been able to significantly lighten the load. 

“[If] we don’t refill a role, it’s because the need actually has changed, or the process has improved so significantly [that] the workload is lighter or shared across the smarter system. So that’s what’s happening,” said Desai. 

Outside of client services like SOC control testing and reporting, the firm has found efficiencies in administrative functions as well as certain internal operational processes. On the latter point, Desai noted that Schellman’s engineers, including the chief information officer, have been using AI to help develop code, which means they’re not relying as much on outside expertise on the internal service delivery side of things. There are still people in the development process, but their roles are changing: They’re writing less code, and doing more reviewing of code before it gets pushed into production, saving time and creating efficiencies. 

“The best way for me to say this is, to us, this has been intentional. We paused hiring in a few areas where we saw overlaps, where technology was really working,” said Desai.

However, even in an age awash with AI, Schellman acknowledges there are certain jobs that need a human, at least for now. For example, the firm does assessments for the FedRAMP program, which is needed for cloud service providers to contract with certain government agencies. These assessments, even in the most stable of times, can be long and complex engagements, to say nothing of the less predictable nature of the current government. As such, it does not make as much sense to reduce human staff in this area. 

“The way it is right now for us to do FedRAMP engagements, it’s a very manual process. There’s a lot of back and forth between us and a third party, the government, and we don’t see a lot of overall application or technology help… We’re in the federal space and you can imagine, [with] what’s going on right now, there’s a big changing market condition for clients and their pricing pressure,” said Desai. 

As Schellman reduces staff levels in some places, it is increasing them in others. Desai said the firm is actively hiring in certain areas. In particular, it’s adding staff in technical cybersecurity (e.g., penetration testers), the aforementioned FedRAMP engagements, AI assessment (in line with recently becoming an ISO 42001 certification body) and in some client-facing roles like marketing and sales. 

“So, to me, this isn’t about doing more with less … It’s about doing more of the right things with the right people,” said Desai. 

While these moves have resulted in savings, she said that was never really the point, so whatever the firm has saved from staffing efficiencies it has reinvested in its tech stack to build its service line further. When asked for an example, she said the firm would like to focus more on penetration testing by building a SaaS tool for it. While Schellman has a proof of concept developed, she noted it would take a lot of money and time to deploy a full solution — both of which the firm now has more of because of its efficiency moves. 

“What is the ‘why’ behind these decisions? The ‘why’ for us isn’t what I think you traditionally see, which is ‘We need to get profitability high. We need to have less people do more things.’ That’s not what it is like,” said Desai. “I want to be able to focus on quality. And the only way I think I can focus on quality is if my people are not focusing on things that don’t matter … I feel like I’m in a much better place because the smart people that I’ve hired are working on the riskiest and most complicated things.”

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