POPULARITY
Maryland's General Assembly is in session, facing a significant budget deficit. In this episode, State Senator Brian Feldman, CPA, breaks down the tough decisions ahead, including the potential taxation of professional services. He emphasizes why legislative advocacy is crucial for CPAs, who can influence tax policy and business decisions. Senator Feldman also explains how Maryland's legislative process is accessible, offering CPAs a chance to make a real impact. We also discuss how Maryland's economic, energy, and environmental policies will shape the future, making it vital for CPAs to be involved.Resources:Brian J. Feldman, Maryland State SenatorMACPA's annual CPA Day in AnnapolisMACPA editorial, "Fiscal concerns dominate Maryland's 2025 legislative session", by Bill Sheridan
“Accounting is not just about money, it's about what I do to make other people's lives better” Bill Sheridan Bill Sheridan is a knowledge hunter, content curator, and lifelong learner. As chief communications officer for the Maryland Association of CPAs, he created and co-authors the association's acclaimed blog, CPA Success; produces the MACPA's “CPA Spotlight” podcast; and manages the association's member communications and numerous social networks. Bill speaks regularly at national conferences on the future of the accounting and finance profession, the strategic uses of social media, and the evolution of communication, collaboration and education. He delivers frequent presentations on behalf of the Business Learning Institute and is a certified Insights to Action strategic facilitator. He is inspired by and in awe of his wife, Alison, and their daughter, Molly. They live in St. Louis, Mo. As accountants in an ever-changing world, we need to know the facts but the one thing we need in order to remain relevant is learn people skills, go beyond what you now to who you are working for and with. Building better relationships and anticipation of changes that happen with people. Knowing where we are in the technological scene, sooner or later we will be using it to crunch numbers in the accounting scenes and this means as accountants, we will have to develop necessary skills that machines cannot duplicate and do, making us relevant in changing times. You can catch Bill on his socials: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billdsheridan https://twitter.com/BillSheridan Listen to this and so much more in the episode; petermargaritis.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ben and Zach open the show discussing the craziness in the SEC, as Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher take turns going at each other for how their programs manage recruiting and NIL. They then unpack the Bill Sheridan situation, assessing blame where blame is due. Finally, the two talk about the state of the Wisconsin football program after Jesse Temple's fan survey, including whether the team is trending in the right direction and whether it can compete for a national titleSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Ben Kenney and Zach Heilprin sit in for the final hour of the Bill Michaels Show & begin discussing the Bill Sheridan situation--debating whether it should be viewed as a 'big deal.' The two then talk about the state of the Wisconsin football program, what the year-to-year expectation should be, whether the team needs to win more big games and more See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
WOZN sports director Zach Heilprin joins the show to start the hour, as he and Bill discuss the situation with Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher, Wisconsin's place in the NIL world and thoughts on this year's football team. Bill and Ben then discuss what's going on at the PGA Championship, Bill is joined by the president of Fisher House Wisconsin and Ben gives a quick preview for tonight's Kenney & Heilprin -- what in the world happened with Wisconsin ILB coach Bill Sheridan? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Wisconsin Badgers football major recruiting news as 2023 players Jaquez Keyes and Justin Taylor both commit. We also talk about Bill Sheridan and his abrupt departure from the Wisconsin football program.We open up with Jaquez Keyes, the 2023 RB commit from Ironton, OH. I talk about what he brings to the program, why he's a high floor player and how his physicality will serve him well in the Big Ten.With the Justin Taylor commit, did the Badgers just get a ball hawk at safety? Why his WR film should bode really well for his role as a safety for the Badgers defense. We also talk about the importance of getting a couple commits in the class to start building some recruiting momentum.Finally we discuss the quick departure of Bill Sheridan as the Wisconsin ILBs coach, why it happened and why the timing works out as well as it could for Wisconsin. We also discuss what type of coach might be a good fit for the role.Today's show is brought to you by:BUILT BAR● Most Built Bars contain: 130 Calories 4 Grams of Sugar 4 Net Carbs And 17 grams of ProteinCompare that to a candy bar which usually has around 240 Calories, 30 grams of sugar, and dozens of net carbs.● Mint Brownie, Coconut, Coconut Almond. And new for this month White Chocolate Cookies N Cream! They are all delicious, and new flavors are coming out all the time. If they think a flavor might be good, they'll make it. It will be delicious and it will be good for you.At Built Bar, they are all about the taste. They make it taste delicious first, then figure out how to make it healthy. And I don't know how, but they pull it off every time.• OFFER: Go to Built.com, use promo code LOCKED15 and get 15% off your order. Use promo code LOCKED15 for 15% off at Built.com.And:BETONLINE2) BetOnline.net is your #1 source for all your betting needs and sports info. From all the latest odds, contests and player props you name it.3) BetOnline remains the BEST spot for all of your latest Sports developments, including podcasts and reviews for all the leagues this season.4) And its not just Basketball! BetOnline is your continued source for all your sporting wagering information needs, including Live Betting and your favorite Vegas Casino games,5) Head to the website today or use your mobile device to learn more about the trends and action.6) BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!Please personalize this read. Share your own experience and/or look up odds and betting lines on items related to your team. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Wisconsin Badgers football major recruiting news as 2023 players Jaquez Keyes and Justin Taylor both commit. We also talk about Bill Sheridan and his abrupt departure from the Wisconsin football program. We open up with Jaquez Keyes, the 2023 RB commit from Ironton, OH. I talk about what he brings to the program, why he's a high floor player and how his physicality will serve him well in the Big Ten. With the Justin Taylor commit, did the Badgers just get a ball hawk at safety? Why his WR film should bode really well for his role as a safety for the Badgers defense. We also talk about the importance of getting a couple commits in the class to start building some recruiting momentum. Finally we discuss the quick departure of Bill Sheridan as the Wisconsin ILBs coach, why it happened and why the timing works out as well as it could for Wisconsin. We also discuss what type of coach might be a good fit for the role. Today's show is brought to you by: BUILT BAR ● Most Built Bars contain: 130 Calories 4 Grams of Sugar 4 Net Carbs And 17 grams of Protein Compare that to a candy bar which usually has around 240 Calories, 30 grams of sugar, and dozens of net carbs. ● Mint Brownie, Coconut, Coconut Almond. And new for this month White Chocolate Cookies N Cream! They are all delicious, and new flavors are coming out all the time. If they think a flavor might be good, they'll make it. It will be delicious and it will be good for you. At Built Bar, they are all about the taste. They make it taste delicious first, then figure out how to make it healthy. And I don't know how, but they pull it off every time. • OFFER: Go to Built.com, use promo code LOCKED15 and get 15% off your order. Use promo code LOCKED15 for 15% off at Built.com. And: BETONLINE 2) BetOnline.net is your #1 source for all your betting needs and sports info. From all the latest odds, contests and player props you name it. 3) BetOnline remains the BEST spot for all of your latest Sports developments, including podcasts and reviews for all the leagues this season. 4) And its not just Basketball! BetOnline is your continued source for all your sporting wagering information needs, including Live Betting and your favorite Vegas Casino games, 5) Head to the website today or use your mobile device to learn more about the trends and action. 6) BetOnline – Where The Game Starts! Please personalize this read. Share your own experience and/or look up odds and betting lines on items related to your team. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
On today's episode of Bucky's 5th Podcast, we've got lots to recap after a busy weekend. To start, we talk about the latest pickup for Greg Gard and Wisconsin basketball as they nabbed a new 2022 walk-on commit. After that, we get into some football news starting with inside linebacker coach Bill Sheridan resigning from his position amid an NCAA investigation into his time at Air Force. Later, we continue on with the big news as Wisconsin picked up two new commitments in the 2023 class from running back Jaquez Keyes and athlete Justin Taylor to push the class number to four commits. To round out the show we continue our spring position outlook and dive into a look at the defensive line for this upcoming season. Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Bill Sheridan is a major player in the accounting sphere. He's what we'd call an "honorary CPA," and is currently the Chief Communications Officer for the Maryland Association of CPAs. Although he's a journalist first, he's been extremely influential for CPAs around the country. He shares with Jason the changes he's sees coming soon for the accounting field. Listen to this episode to stay ahead of the game! Follow Thriveal on social media: Twitter: twitter.com/THRIVEalCPAs Instagram: instagram.com/thrivealcpas/ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/thriveal/ Facebook: facebook.com/THRIVEal Join the Thriveal community: thriveal.com/apply/
Hunter Doyle interviews 2021 NFL Draft Prospect Max Richardson, Linebacker from Boston College Hunter's FanSided Profile: https://insidetheiggles.com/author/hdoyle/ TIMESTAMPS: 1:54 - Get to know Max 3:01 - Max's journey to the NFL Draft 4:39 - Overcoming Adversity 6:25 - Boston College memories 8:17 - Playing for Jeff Hafley, Bill Sheridan, Steve Addazio, Sean Duggan, etc. 10:45 - Former BC Linebackers: Luke Kuechly, Matt Milano 12:01 - Max's Playstyle 13:13 - Mike, Sam, Will and Special Teams 14:25 - NFL Linebackers to watch 15:11 - 2019 vs Syracuse: 8 tackles, 1.5 TFL, 1 sack, 1 FF 16:01 - Locker Room Chemistry 17:11 - No NFL Combine in 2021 18:45 - Strengths/Weaknesses 20:12 - What NFL teams are getting in Max Richardson
Since the spring of 2020, the Gensler Research Institute has been conducting surveys of workers across the globe to understand worker’s needs and make informative real estate and design decisions on the future of the workplace. In these surveys, many workers expressed evolving expectations for the future of work and the physical workplace. In today’s episode, we’re re-broadcasting our Regional Consulting Practice Area Leader Cheryl Duvall’s interview on the Business Learning Institute’s Future-Proof podcast with host Bill Sheridan, of the Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants (MACPA), where Bill and Cheryl discuss key findings from Gensler’s 2020 Workplace Surveys. As we look to the future, our data helps us explore how employers and their workplaces can best support their employees in a post-pandemic future.
Byron Patrick is a chameleon of sorts, changing his specialty with the times and staying ahead of the curve. He’s a good friend of our host, Bill Sheridan, who met him in 2006 as the Director of IT for KatzAbosch in Maryland. He had just created a virtual office for the firm in an online virtual world called Second Life. Virtual space is a great place to teach and learn, and other platforms have come along since then and proved it right. Byron was thinking about this concept long before anyone else in the profession. He went on to co-found an organization that focused on remote work technologies and solutions in 2008, also well before remote work became a popular idea. He joined the Board of Directors for the Maryland Association of CPAs and eventually chaired that board during the 2013-14 fiscal year, becoming one of the youngest MACPA chairs ever in the process. In 2019, he joined the team at Botkeeper, which provides automated bookkeeping and accounting solutions for firms, as their director of pre-sales and solutions. In this conversation, he talks about automation, A.I., and what they allow firms to do that they can’t or haven’t thought about before. To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit https://blionline.org/blog (blionline.org/blog). Resources: https://www.botkeeper.com/ (botkeeper.com) https://www.linkedin.com/in/byronpatrick (linkedin.com/in/byronpatrick) Future-Proof is a production of http://crate.media (Crate Media)
Will and Paul are joined by EOS implementor and the CCO of the MACPA, Bill Sheridan. Together they chat about EOS and it’s relevance for accounting firms – even the smaller ones.
Settle in and relax, folks, because this might be your last chance to chill until April. Yeah, tax season is here. And yeah, you’re probably going to be busy — but today’s episode just might help. Our guest is Cari Weston, director of tax practice and ethics for the American Institute of CPAs. She down with our host, Bill Sheridan, at the 2019 Digital CPA Conference to talk about the issues that will be impacting tax pros in 2020. This year, for a change, those issues go well beyond the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog (https://blionline.org/blog) . Resources: Prepare for tax season at aicpa.org/tax (http://aicpa.org/tax) Connect with Cari on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cariweston (https://www.linkedin.com/in/cariweston) Learn more at MACPA.org/future-learning (http://macpa.org/future-learning) Find CPA tax training at MACPA.org/tax (http://macpa.org/tax) Accounting Today's 2020 "Year Ahead" survey (https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/hoping-for-a-smoother-tax-season) Read: "2020 tax season filing preview” (https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2020/jan/2020-tax-filing-season-preview.html) Future-Proof is a production of (http://crate.media)
So you know Simon Sinek? Best-selling author, leadership expert, the people-don’t-buy-what-you-do-they-buy-why-you-do-it guy? Well, he has a new book titled (https://simonsinek.com/product/the-infinite-game/) and our host, Bill Sheridan, has become a bit obsessed with this notion of playing the Infinite Game, of adopting an infinite mindset. So we sat down with Stephen Shedletzky, chief of staff with Simon Sinek’s team at Start With Why. He supports leaders in creating environments where their people feel inspired to go to work, feel safe and valued while they are there, and return home at the end of each day fulfilled by the work they do. Stephen and I talk about ALL of this — the difference between Finite and Infinite Games, the benefits of thinking more infinitely, and how traditionally Finite-based professions — LIKE accounting and finance — can get started down a path toward thinking more Infinitely. Really good stuff this week. And if you can’t listen to Simon Sinek, then Stephen will definitely do. Here is Stephen Shedletzky. To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog (https://blionline.org/blog) . Resources: Read: (https://simonsinek.com/product/the-infinite-game/) Twitter: twitter.com/steveshed (https://twitter.com/steveshed?lang=en) LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenshedletzky/?originalSubdomain=ca (https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenshedletzky/?originalSubdomain=ca) Watch Bill interview Simon Sinek: youtube.com/watch?v=g0ROzBuwoCo&feature=youtu.be (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0ROzBuwoCo&feature=youtu.be) Learn more at MACPA.org/future-learning (http://macpa.org/future-learning) Future-Proof is a production of (http://crate.media)
Today’s episode focuses on something a little different. Not the technology that’s going to prepare us for the future, not the hard trends that will affect change in the future, and not why we should stop panicking about AI putting all auditors out of work. Today, we’re talking about joy. Because our guest is Richard Sheridan, co-founder and CEO of Menlo Innovations (and of no relation to our host Bill Sheridan), has written two books on the topic: (https://www.amazon.com/Chief-Joy-Officer-Leaders-Eliminate/dp/0735218226) . To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog (https://blionline.org/blog) . Resources: Check out MenloInnovations.com (http://menloinnovations.com) Read: (https://www.amazon.com/Joy-Inc-Built-Workplace-People/dp/1591847125) Read: (https://www.amazon.com/Chief-Joy-Officer-Leaders-Eliminate/dp/0735218226) Learn more at MACPA.org/future-learning (http://macpa.org/future-learning) Future-Proof is a production of (http://crate.media)
My guest today is Robin Thieme, the Founder of KBS CFO, which is an outsourced CFO and accounting department solution for growing sustainable and profitable businesses. She has over 30 years of financial and accounting experience, a passion for the efficiencies that new technologies enable, and a dedication to small businesses. One of the things that really impresses me about Robin and KBS is that she was creating a virtual organization long before cloud computing was a mainstream term – and she takes the same innovative and thoughtful approach to establishing efficiencies and solutions that fit the current business environment for her clients. The old mindset – although many still use it – is that having a CFO is too much money for a small- to medium-sized business. As it turns out, Robin says, small businesses have some pretty big problems or big decisions, too! And they may not need a full-time CFO, but they do still need someone to help guide them financially. “We're really meeting a need of businesses that are struggling to run their businesses; they love what they do, and are really good at it, but just need some help on the back end.” An Anticipatory CPA & OrganizationYou know Robin is a member of the Maryland Association of CPAs because she describes herself as an “anticipatory CPA” – something we’ve talked about in past episodes with Bill Sheridan, as well as other guests. Robin defines an anticipatory CPA as “one who is looking out towards the future, anticipating trends, and is really focused on what's going to happen next, instead of being a historian for our clients... And, ultimately, when you think about it, from its most basic elements, a successful business should always be thinking about where they're going and not where they've been. So, I live in that world,” and we should all be living in this world. Everywhere in the accounting and finance profession, and really almost any profession, people are having conversations about change; changing demographics, changing technologies, changing societal expectations, etc. And, especially when it comes to technology, our profession tends to see this change as a threat – but that’s just our fear of the unknown talking. Robin compares this to autonomous vehicles, something that still feels futuristic and foreign to many of us, although there are already autonomous vehicles driving on our roads. Robin envisions a future where not only do autonomous vehicles become popular, but it might even become illegal for humans to drive because it will be a safety risk. And you know what? That change doesn’t hurt our ability to commute or get places – it gives us more time! The same thing is true for the technologies that are going to transform the way we do work in our profession, although the transition might be difficult to wrap our heads around. So, what will you do to become more future-ready? What steps will you take to change your mindset and get out of your comfort zone? What risks are you willing to accept in order to be prepared for tomorrow – all the while knowing that, in order to enact change, it takes baby steps? Resources:Learn more at https://www.kbscfo.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kensingtonbusinesssolutionsTwitter: https://twitter.com/kbscfoLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kbscfo/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“What we do isn’t really going to fundamentally change over time. How we do it is going to change tremendously.” In this episode of Accounting Marketing Doesn’t Suck, host Hugh Duffy talks with Bill Sheridan, chief communications officer at the Maryland Association of CPAs. Bill has been with MACPA for nearly two decades and shares his perspective on how artificial intelligence is impacting the accounting profession, content marketing (and outsourcing the marketing function, in general) as well as why firms should be concerned with RONI (Risk of Not Investing) rather than the typical ROI. Tune in! Bill Sheridan Chief Communications Officer Professional EOS Implementer Maryland Association of CPAs / Business Learning Institute Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn Bill Sheridan is a knowledge hunter, content curator, lifelong learner, and EOS implementer. As chief communications officer for the Maryland Association of CPAs and the Business Learning Institute, he created and co-authors the association’s acclaimed blog, CPA Success; he created and hosts the MACPA’s weekly “Future-Proof” podcast; and he manages the association’s member communications and numerous social networks. He was named one of Accounting Today’s “100 Most Influential People in Accounting” for 2016. Bill speaks regularly at national conferences on the future of the accounting and finance profession, the strategic uses of social media, and the evolution of communication, collaboration and education. He delivers frequent presentations on behalf of the Business Learning Institute and is a certified Insights to Action strategic facilitator. Accounting Marketing Doesn't Suck is produced by Build Your Firm, leaders of marketing for accountants. Questions or Feedback? Email us at podcast@buildyourfirm.com
Bill Sheridan is the Chief Communications Officer at the Maryland Association of CPAs and the host of Future-Proof, a podcast in which Bill has interviewed a wide variety of leading thought leaders in the accounting profession and in corporate America. We discuss whether the profession is moving in the direction of becoming more future-proof, or future-ready, through the lens of the conversations he’s been having with his guests for nearly a year. So, let’s get right to it: is the profession future-proof? The short answer is no, we're not future-proof or future-ready yet – but we're getting there. However, we might be getting there a little slower than Bill and the other folks over at the MACPA hoped. “It seems like they're starting to realize that this stuff is real. It's not going away. In fact, it's starting to impact them right now, and they need to pay attention to it. So, that's encouraging that they are starting to pay attention,” Bill says. And in a way, this seeming reluctant to look forward makes sense for the accounting and finance profession. “When you think about the profession itself, accounting and finance will spend their entire careers looking behind them. By definition, they're accounting for things that have happened in the past. “So, turning around, and looking through the windshield, and noticing what's coming at you, isn't a muscle that they've spent a lot of time building. And so, they're just starting to do that now. And the more they do it, the better they'll get at it.” Becoming future-ready starts with being aware of what's going on. It comes back to the idea of the anticipatory organization, an idea championed by MACPA President and CEO Tom Hood. In this sense, anticipation a three-step process: aware, predict, and adapt. So, first step, being aware of change. That involves asking questions and start to understanding it. Next is predicting what will happen. So, now that I'm aware of it, what kind of impact is this going to have on me and the people that I work with? And then, finally, adapting. What can we actually do about it? For example, here's a question for accounting and finance pros out there: how can you take advantage of 5G in a way that will benefit the people that you work with? “That's the muscle that we have to start building. We know this is coming, and in very short order. So, what are the opportunities embedded in something like that? And we need to start thinking about that now before it hits mainstream and evolves into something else.” So becoming anticipatory is the practice of building that muscle – because change is going to happen over and over. “We need to be able to help walk our clients and customers into the future. In order to do that, we need to be there before them,” Bill says. Change Your Mindset is now being distributed on C-Suite Radio. You can find Change Your Mindset and many other outstanding business podcasts on C-Suite Radio by going to www.c-suiteradio.com. Resources: Listen to Future-Proof: https://blionline.org/blog/ | Apple Podcasts LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billdsheridan/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillSheridan Take Sally Hogshead’s assessment: howtofascinate.com/you (use code “FutureProof” to take it for free) Read: The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle Read: When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel H. Pink Read: The Excellence Dividend: Meeting the Tech Tide with Work That Wows and Jobs That Last by Tom Peters Read: The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey by Hal Burrows, Kenneth H. Blanchard, and William Oncken Read: The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya Parker Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This week, we’re going to spend a little bit of time talking about our host Bill Sheridan’s profession – the association world. Bill works for the Maryland Association of CPAs, which means he doesn’t technically work in the accounting and finance profession. But when it comes right down to it, it’s like splitting hairs. These two professions are remarkably similar in how they operate, in their state of future-readiness, and in their willingness to embrace change. Accountants and association folks are kindred spirits in a lot ways. And so we’re excited about this week’s guest, Reggie Henry, the chief information and engagement officer with the American Society of Association Executives, which is like the association for associations – which in itself serves as proof that there really is an association for everything. There may not be a more future-ready individual alive today than Reggie Henry. Not only in what he does – embracing all things new before almost everyone out there – but also in how he thinks. He is constantly on the lookout for new trends that will impact our businesses, our clients, and our lives, and that makes him the kind of person we want to talk to on this show. We don’t just want to know what we need to be doing, but what we need to be thinking about – and that’s what Reggie’s all about. He’s going to change the way you think about your world, we guarantee it. To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit blionline.org/blog. Resources: Learn more at (http://asaecenter.org/) Future-Proof is produced by Podcast Masters
Rebekah Brown is the Director of Development for the Maryland Association of CPAs and the Business Learning Institute. Rebekah frequently presents to groups both locally and nationally on the future of the accounting profession and, as a certified Insight to Action facilitator, she has guided firms, nonprofits, and accounting professionals in the United States and Canada in their strategic planning process. On top of all the work that Rebekah does, she’s just downright passionate about the profession, taking a “rising tide raises all ships” philosophy to everything she does to train and educate her fellow and future accountants. Rebekah focuses on what she calls the three P’s: People – “I develop people! I am passionate ... about helping people find their strengths and find their place in the accounting profession. So, on an individual basis, with each of our members, I want to help develop them and develop their careers.” Pipeline – MACPA is over 100 years old, and in that time they’ve learned that we have to be constantly thinking about and developing future CPAs. So a lot of Rebekah’s work involves talking to college students, high school students, and even elementary school students about the accounting profession. “So, I’m always thinking about who is our next generation CPA, who's our next generation member, and preparing them for the profession.” Profession – The MACPA isn’t solely focused preparing accounting and finance professionals in Maryland. “We really believe that the rising tide raises all boats. So, we want the profession to grow to be successful, to be anticipatory, to be future-ready. And so, as we do that all over the world, we believe we are benefiting Maryland, and we believe that Maryland CPAs are even better positioned to be future-ready because of that.” Speaking of the future of the profession, there was an article in Accounting Today titled “Melancon: It’s time to reimagine accounting” covering a presentation that Barry Melancon, the President and CEO of the AICPA, made this year at the AICPA ENGAGE Conference. My favorite quote from this article is when Barry says, "We've changed significantly just in the past year, and we're never going to see the pace of change that's slower than what we're seeing now. And, you know, we won't be obsolete, particularly, if we embrace these changes." Just let that sink in. How does that affect you and your business, and how does that affect you as an accounting financial professional as we move forward? I highly recommend reading the article and listening to Barry's podcast interview with Bill Sheridan on Future-Proof, a podcast for accounting and financial pros. After doing so myself, I have decided to invest my CPE time and dollars into learning more about blockchain and artificial intelligence. I've been somewhat reluctant to do this, but I want to have this better understanding of this technology. Resources: Learn more: MACPA.org | BLIonline.org Connect with Rebekah: Twitter | LinkedIn Listen to Peter on Episode 19 of Future-Proof & subscribe on Apple Podcasts -- Change Your Mindset is produced by Podcast Masters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Matt Patricia is still not yet the head coach, with the Patriots headed to the Super Bowl, but heads have begun to roll in the coaching department. The Senior Bowl is coming up this week and the remaining Lions coaches will have theireyes trained there... TJ Lang has been named as an injury replacement to the Pro Bowl Bleacher Report has been having their continuing series on the NFL 1000, with Darius Slay being the #3 ranked CB There are only 2 head coaching vacancies left There are five remaining Lions assistants that are representing the team at the Senior Bowl (Al Golden, Robert Prince, Delvin Fitzsimmons, Evan Rothstein and Payton McCollum) The team has let go of QB coach Brian Callahan, LB coach Bill Sheridan, CB coach Tony Oden and S coach Alan Williams Erik addresses the rumors of future Lions assistants Joe and Erik review Jeff Risdon's latest Mock Draft A slew of questions concerning Matt Patricia The second pile from the mailbag is full of questions surrounding players the Lions will look to draft or sign during free agency Just a reminder, if you like our show you can subscribe to iTunes, Google Play or Stitcher. https://detroitlionsbreakdown.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/DLB_Ep47.mp3 As always, thanks for listening. Tweet us (@erikschlitt, @JoeKania_DLB, @lionsbreakdown)
Day 2 of the live event coverage of the VeraSage Symposium. Every two years, the Fellows of VeraSage gather to learn from one another. It is rare to find so much knowledge and wisdom in one place, at one time. You have the chance to sit in the same room and participate in two days of mind-blowing sessions. VeraSage Institute is the revolutionary think tank for professional knowledge firms. We challenge people to break free of practice methods that marginalize their professions, undermine their purposes, and fail their clients.
Day 2 of the live event coverage of the VeraSage Symposium. Every two years, the Fellows of VeraSage gather to learn from one another. It is rare to find so much knowledge and wisdom in one place, at one time. You have the chance to sit in the same room and participate in two days of mind-blowing sessions. VeraSage Institute is the revolutionary think tank for professional knowledge firms. We challenge people to break free of practice methods that marginalize their professions, undermine their purposes, and fail their clients.
Day 2 of the live event coverage of the VeraSage Symposium. Every two years, the Fellows of VeraSage gather to learn from one another. It is rare to find so much knowledge and wisdom in one place, at one time. You have the chance to sit in the same room and participate in two days of mind-blowing sessions. VeraSage Institute is the revolutionary think tank for professional knowledge firms. We challenge people to break free of practice methods that marginalize their professions, undermine their purposes, and fail their clients.
Day 2 of the live event coverage of the VeraSage Symposium. Every two years, the Fellows of VeraSage gather to learn from one another. It is rare to find so much knowledge and wisdom in one place, at one time. You have the chance to sit in the same room and participate in two days of mind-blowing sessions. VeraSage Institute is the revolutionary think tank for professional knowledge firms. We challenge people to break free of practice methods that marginalize their professions, undermine their purposes, and fail their clients.
Only 8 percent of CPAs believe that the profession is future ready, according to CPA.com’s study Welcome to the Fast Future. This is a rather concerning statistic because the future is coming, and it might be closer than you think. Bill Sheridan, Chief Communication Officer at the MACPA, is on the front lines trying to prepare CPAs for the future, and he recently published a new white paper that every CPA should read: Human Work in the Ages of Machines: Five Steps for Building a Future-Ready Finance Team. Basically, the paper asks what happens when more and more of the things that accounting and finance professionals are trained to do are being done by machines, and what does that mean for our profession? Because these technological changes are going to happen whether we like it or not, there's nothing we can do except learn how to do the things that machines can't do and work with them (or go out of business). We have to go beyond being just number crunchers and become number interpreters; we have to be able to understand what we're viewing and become better communicators. The futurist Peter Sheehan puts this another way: we've entered an age when humans should only do work that only humans can do, and everything else is going to be automated. This means that CPAs will need a new set of eight core skills, if they want to remain relevant going forward: Communication Leadership Critical thinking and problem solving Anticipating and serving evolving needs Synthesizing intelligence to insight, or providing the insight to the numbers Integration and collaboration Tech savvy and the ability to analyze data Functional and domain expertise. 6/8 of these skills were also identified in the Horizons 2025 project. We tend to ignore stuff like that until it's almost too late – until the stuff that is on the horizon suddenly gets closer and is threatening to steamroll us. We waited, and now it’s crunch time. Bill doesn’t believe that the problem with CPAs is that we’re too introverted to learn these soft skills. Bill believes the big problem holding us back is that accounting is a rear-facing profession. We've been trained to look in the rearview mirror, and so that's what we've done for decades and decades. Now we're at a point where we have to start looking through the windshield a little bit more and learn how to become a more forward-facing profession, which means figuring out what we need to do to stay relevant tomorrow rather than just accounting for what happened yesterday. Bill developed the Five C’s for staying relevant through the change: Context - What are the big changes going on around us? There’s three hard trends converging: technological advances, changing demographics, and new legislation. Certainty - What can we be certain will happen? The futurist Daniel Burrus says your odds of succeeding go up and the risk of failing goes down, when you start basing your strategy around things that you know are going to happen. Capacity - It’s going to take time for us to learn how to become future ready, and we're all busier than ever before. But we make time for the things that are important to us. Competencies - As discussed previously, we're going to have to learn an entirely new set of skills. Key among them is anticipation: learning how to spot future trends before they happen and position our organizations to take advantage of them, before the competition, is actually a skill that you can learn. Core Values - In a world where everything seems to be changing around us, it's really kind of comforting to know that there are some things that should never change: our core values. The core purpose of this profession, as established by Vision Project, is to make sense of a changing and complex world. How to Take Your First Steps Towards the Future Trying to become future ready all at once is overwhelming, and more or less impossible. However, now is a great time to start building future-ready habits. Bill suggests you start with a simple exercise: schedule one hour a week for yourself, and actually put it in your calendar. During that hour, do something like read a book that will help you prepare for the future, or ask your team what productivity apps they like and start implementing them. In the resources below, you will find a number of valuable books and resources to learn from during your weekly time block, including Human Work in the Ages of Machines. Resources: Connect with Bill on LinkedIn Human Work in the Ages of Machines: Five Steps for Building a Future-Ready Finance Team The Second Machine Age by Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson Humans are Underrated by Geoff Colvin Only Humans Need Apply by Thomas Davenport and Julia Kirby The Fourth Industrial Revolution by Klaus Schwab The 2020 Workplace by Jeanne C. Meister Traction by Gino Wickman Thank You for Being Late by Thomas Friedman Brain Rules by John Medina -- Production & Development for Improv Is No Joke by Podcast Masters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Tom Hood, CEO of the Maryland Association of CPAs and the Business Learning Institute, is on a mission to help CPAs make sense of this changing and complex world. Tom and I spoke on the third episode of this podcast, in June of 2016, and a lot has changed in that short period of time. We discuss how technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing are impacting the accounting profession (and the world), and how CPAs can begin transforming themselves into Anticipatory CPAs. What is blockchain? Tom says that blockchain is best described as the Internet of Value. Using secure peer-to-peer data, blockchain basically conveys transactions of value with multiple parties to, effectively, create a public ledger. This is a real example of a supply chain using blockchain technology, which may help you understand how it works in practice: There’s fishermen in a boat off the coast of Malaysia, and they have smartphones. When they catch a tuna, they use their smartphone to take a picture. The phone geo locates the photo and it creates the first block of data. The data says this tuna was caught at this location, at this point in time, with these people, and it includes the picture. On the dock, the fishermen hand the tuna off to a processing plant, and that creates another block of data showing it was transferred. Now it’s being processed. The really good meat is going to go to the sushi restaurant and the other stuff is going to be processed further down to canned tuna. The sushi tuna is in another block of data that says it's going on a truck, and it is delivered to some number of sushi restaurants. Each one of those restaurants is another element of data all about that fish. The restaurant owners and customers can trust, with certainty, that the fish is fresh and high quality. In the canning center, the cans come out with a bar code that basically connects it back to that block of data. When someone picks that can off the shelf, they can trace it back to that tuna on that day in that place off the coast of Malaysia. Consumers can trust that these fish weren’t caught using illegal or morally questionable practices. The Convergence The real power of blockchain technologies is realized when it converges with cloud computing and artificial intelligence. If you’re not aware, “the cloud” isn’t just for storing data – cloud computing harnesses the power of any connected device to process tasks more quickly than any single computer possibly could. This exponential increase in processing power has made artificial intelligence significantly more tangible. Oracle, for example, have a machine called Hana. It could process every tax return in the history of the world, since 1957 to now, in under four minutes. If accountants can leverage these technologies to do the grunt work in a matter of minutes, or even seconds, they can focus their time and energy on delivering substantial value to their clients by interpreting and analyzing that data. On top of that, blockchain databases will create an extra layer of trust and accountability, possibly even removing the need for audits entirely in many areas of the accounting industry. Be an Anticipatory CPA The idea of being anticipatory is to be aware, predictive, and adaptive. Do you even know that the trend is real? Can you predict what it might do for you or your client or your company? And then what would you start doing to adapt to it? A CPA’s greatest value is taking complex information and putting it in a context that somebody who doesn't have that knowledge can understand. To help prepare you, the Maryland Society of CPAs is working with IBM to create a future-ready learning portal for CPAs to learn about artificial intelligence, big data, data science, deep machine learning, and blockchain. The portal will give CPAs a familiarity with the technology and an understanding of the terms so that, as this technology starts to unfold, they'll be able to see the potential and understand the major concepts well enough to communicate with the people controlling these technologies. Resources: Learn more: Maryland Association of CPAs Business Learning Institute Five Steps for Building a Future-Ready Finance Team [PDF] - by Bill Sheridan, CAE (Business Learning Institute) -- Production & Development for Improv Is No Joke by Podcast Masters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Welcome to the Improv is No Joke podcast. Today’s guest is Bill Sheridan, the Maryland Association of CPAs’ Chief Communications Officer, editor, and resident social media cheerleader. He is creator and co-author of the association’s acclaimed blog, CPA Success; Certified Association Executive and thought leader at the Business Learning Institute; and manager of the association’s numerous social networks. Today we’re talking about what Bill sees on the horizon for information and technology, and how CPAs and other business professionals will need to adapt as technology changes. “I see a lot of change. It's going to get crazy, and it's going to get crazy really, really fast.” In 1965, Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel, observed that the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits had doubled every year since their invention – or, more simply, the processing speed of computer technology is doubling every year. This observation is called Moore’s Law, and 51 years later it still holds true. “It's doing more than giving us really cool gadgets to play with. It's fundamentally changing everything.” Moore’s Law suggests that computer technology experiences exponential growth, which can be hard to comprehend. In The Future of Professions by Daniel & Richard Susskind, they illustrate exponential growth with a simple mental exercise: imagine folding a piece of paper in half over and over and over again (it’s not actually possible to fold a piece of paper more than a few times, but this exercise gives you an idea of what exponential growth looks like). 4 folds = thickness of a credit card 11 folds = thickness of a soda can 21 folds = taller than Big Ben 31 folds = tall enough to reach outer space 43 folds = tall enough to reach the Moon 100 folds = thickness of 8 billion light years “Things are are changing radically, and they're changing for CPA's as well.” CPAs will have to come to terms the fact that computers will outperform them on some tasks, but nothing will change the fact that people will still need accounting services. CPAs need to adapt to new technology and clients’ changing needs, and if you don’t adapt then the generation below you will – so you’ll still be out of a job. The profession will still exist, but CPAs will need entirely new, adaptable skillsets. CPAs will need to be better improvisers. “I'm not here to tell anybody that you have to do this stuff, because you don't, but you also don't have to stay in business.” The young professionals who are going to be leading the CPA profession in a very short period of time are completely comfortable with moving from new technology to new technology, because that's just the way life is for them. The pushback from the old guard is fine and it's not unexpected, and very soon the accounting profession is going to shift to something that's much more capable of embracing new things, just because of the shift in leadership. “If we can get there first, if we can figure out how to become a little bit more future ready and then show our clients and customers how to do that as well, then our role as trusted business advisors just gets stronger.” As Chief Communications Officer, Bill’s philosophy is that the MACPAs needs to be wherever their members are and reach them in whatever way that they like to be reached, and they try to do that across all of the different platforms. By reaching out to their audience and adding value to their social media experience, Bill helps the MACPAs maintain their role as trusted business advisors when information is more available than ever. At CPA Success they write about what members of the MACPA need to know today – breaking news, new standards, etc. At the Business Learning Institute they focus on what might be happening down the road that they should be paying attention to. Similarly, they shared important news on their Twitter feed and engage more personally with their clients on Facebook. I always enjoy sitting down to talk with Bill, and I greatly appreciate him taking the time out of his busy schedule. We’re going to touch bases again on the podcast, in about a year, to see how technology is changing and discuss how we have adapted. Resources: Follow the CPA Success blog Get educated with the Business Learning Institute The Future of Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts by Daniel Susskind & Richard Susskind A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger The Second Machine Age by Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson Humans are Underrated by Geoffrey Colvin Production & Development for Improv is no Joke by Podcast Masters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Change is Certain featuring guest Bill Sheridan. January 2014.