This episode of The Unique CPA is brought to you by BILL and BILL's Accountant Console. Accountants deserve tools that work as hard as they do. Learn more at BILL.com/uniquecpa and get a $250 gift card. Terms apply.

Small business clients are increasingly showing up to their accountants armed with AI-generated answers, and Ariege Misherghi thinks that's actually an opportunity. A Senior VP at BILL, Ariege has spent years watching the relationship between accounting professionals and their clients evolve, and she sees the current moment as the clearest stage yet for accountants to demonstrate what a professional truly brings. On Episode 275 of The Unique CPA, she and Randy also dig into what "AI native" actually means at BILL, why auditability is non-negotiable in financial automation, and why Ariege's number one piece of advice for AI-fatigued firms is to stop reading every email and start with one problem worth solving.

Get the full show notes and more resources at TheUniqueCPA.com

Additional support is also provided by Magnetic. AI prepared 1040s with remarkable accuracy and form coverage, so your team gets complete returns ready for final review. Check it out at MagneticTax.com.

Scott Showalter has spent more than 50 years in accounting, with 33 of them at KPMG, the last 22 of which were as a partner. Since 2008 he's been bringing that experience into the classroom at NC State's Master of Accounting Program. That unusual vantage point gives him a clear-eyed read on the talent pipeline debate: On Episode 274 of The Unique CPA, he pushes back on some of the doom-and-gloom narrative, pointing to graduate school applications up 72% nationally last year, and credits much of NC State's own steady enrollment to actively recruiting career-changers, including a Broadway makeup artist and a PhD violinist who found their way to accounting in search of stability. Host Terrell Turner also covers with Scott what firms get wrong when they recruit on campus and the limits of internships as a proxy for real work. They also look at why AI in accounting education is less about replacing fundamentals than about rethinking how those fundamentals get taught, and who's ultimately responsible when the technology gets it wrong.

Get the full show notes and more resources at TheUniqueCPA.com

Randy is put in the unusual position of being a guest on his own show at Bridging the Gap 2025, as Terrell Turner sits down with him just hours after a keynote that left much of the room in tears. On Episode 273 of The Unique CPA, our final entry in this special BTG series, Randy talks about his speech, which was years in the making and drew on pivotal moments from Randy's early career, including a firm where he was nothing more to them than a billable hour and the contrasting leadership that shaped everything that came after. There's also a lot of focus on BTG itself and what it's grown into. At the heart of it all is Randy's conviction that accounting can be the greatest profession there is, and that changing the culture, not just the workflows, is how we get there.

Get the full show notes and more resources at TheUniqueCPA.com

Terrell Turner sits down with Lisa Simpson of the AICPA, who leads the organization's Transforming Your Business Model initiative, live from Bridging the Gap 2025 on Episode 272 of The Unique CPA. Lisa makes a compelling case that the old model, with its long, billable hours where firms carry too many of the wrong clients, is not only unsustainable, but actively unnecessary. Firms that have right-sized their client base are almost universally earning more the following year, not less, because they can finally deliver the kind of advisory value clients will actually pay for. She traces how the pandemic's visible toll on practitioners sparked a broader reckoning inside the AICPA, and how that translated into concrete tools, peer stories, and low-cost resources now available to firms of every size. Lisa also touches on the cultural inertia that slows change down, and why technology is making that resistance increasingly hard to justify.

Get the full show notes and more resources at TheUniqueCPA.com

Recorded live at Bridging the Gap 2025 in Denver, Randy Crabtree sits down with founder of LiveCA, tech commentator, and full-time glamper Chad Davis for a wide-ranging conversation that captures exactly what makes BTG different from every other conference on the calendar. On Episode 271 of The Unique CPA, Chad talks about why he rerouted his entire week just to be there, and the two get into the real tension Randy is wrestling with: how do you grow something without killing the thing that made it worth growing in the first place? Shifting to Chad's upcoming session on what accountants should actually care about in tech right now, they discuss the mental health dimension of overwhelm that rarely gets named, and why having an operating framework like EOS changes what you actually do with the ideas you pick up at a conference. A candid and camp-themed conversation.

Get the full show notes and more resources at TheUniqueCPA.com

The Unique CPA is also supported by Magnetic. Magnetic's AI-prepared 1040s are built for accuracy with every return checked before it comes back to your firm. Learn more at MagneticTax.com.

Recorded live at Bridging the Gap 2025, Terrell sits down with Questian Telka, co-host of the She Counts Podcast and a late-diagnosed ADHDer, for a conversation that goes well beyond the typical conference interview. On Episode 270 of The Unique CPA, Questian talks candidly about what it meant to finally receive her diagnosis as an adult, the moment she describes as "my whole life makes sense to me now," and how understanding her own brain became less about labeling herself and more about having a user manual. She moderated a panel at BTG where three highly successful CPAs reframed ADHD not as something they succeeded in spite of, but often because of, like a "superpower." It's a perfect example of what Bridging the Gap does differently from other accounting conferences, and why the profession needs these conversations happening at all times, not just once a year in a hotel ballroom.

Get the full show notes and more resources at TheUniqueCPA.com

Continuing the conversation at Bridging the Gap 2025 in Denver, Randy Crabtree sits down with Krystal Joiner from the conference's marketing team on Episode 269 of The Unique CPA for an honest look at what goes into making BTG what it is. Krystal talks through the months of behind-the-scenes planning that attendees never see, and why the relaxed, connected energy on the conference floor doesn't happen by accident. The tone, she explains, gets set long before anyone lands in Denver, through social media, sponsor relationships, and every touchpoint along the way. There's also a candid moment about what it feels like to finally arrive at an event you've spent half a year building. With BTG Charlotte on the horizon, Krystal is confident the best is still to come: "We just get better."

Get the full show notes and more resources at TheUniqueCPA.com

Recorded live at Bridging the Gap 2025 in Denver, Terrell Turner sits down with wealth advisor and speaker Rory Henry on Episode 268 of The Unique CPA to talk about what he calls "return on relationship." "ROR" is the idea that when you genuinely invest in understanding the people you serve, the ROI takes care of itself. Rory makes a compelling case that the real work of financial professionals isn't in the numbers at all, but in the questions: What are your best hopes? What does your ideal life actually look like? Drawing on behavioral finance and values-based planning, he argues that money is rarely the point, but rather, meaning and wellbeing are. The conversation also takes in the energy of BTG 2025 itself, the growing wave of new talent in the profession, and why Rory is convinced that in-person connection remains one of the most underrated growth strategies available to any practice.

Get the full show notes and more resources at TheUniqueCPA.com