The Ideal Practice Model: Seven Areas That Transform a CPA Firm

23 Years of Consecutive Growth: How One CPA Built a Firm Worth Merging Up

Frank Longobardi started a five-person CPA firm in Hartford, Connecticut on November 1st, 1984, with a first-year revenue goal of $300,000. For the next 23 consecutive years, the firm grew both top and bottom line, every single year. By the time he and his partner decided to merge up, they had built a $14.5 million firm with over 100 people and ten partners. In this conversation, Frank walks through every phase of that journey with the kind of candor that only comes from having lived it. He talks about the early days of working 3,000-plus hours a year, the moment he realized hating to lose a $400 tax return was holding his firm back, and why he told every partner the same thing: it is not your client, it is the firm's client. He also shares his perspective on the partnership model at scale, why private equity entered accounting, and what the profession's talent structure will look like as AI reshapes the work. The conversation covers: * How a five-person startup grew for 23 consecutive years without a single down year * Why hating to lose any client, even a $400 return, was the biggest early mistake * How to transfer client relationships to the next generation of partners without losing the client * Why he told every partner "it is not your account, it is the firm's account" and what shifted when they embraced that * How the CohnReznick mega merger came together and what it took to lead a $430 million combined firm * Why the traditional pyramid staffing model is evolving into a diamond shape as AI changes the work * How private equity entered accounting and what PE firms are actually looking for in acquisitions Frank's career is a rare example of someone who has seen the profession from every angle: sole proprietor, regional firm leader, mega merger architect, top 25 CEO, and now PE advisor. His perspective on what it takes to build something worth buying, merging, or leading is grounded in 40 years of doing exactly that. This episode is for firm owners curious about what the path from small firm to large firm leadership actually looks like, leaders wondering how to transfer client relationships without losing them, practitioners thinking about whether merging up makes sense for their next chapter, and anyone interested in how private equity is evaluating and reshaping accounting firms from the inside. TIMESTAMPS * 00:00 - Brannon Poe intro and podcast welcome  * 00:13 - Introducing Frank Longobardi, former CEO of CohnReznick  * 00:56 - Why Frank chose accounting: a blue-collar family, a high school course, and the University of Connecticut  * 01:55 - Frank's career path: regional firm, Big Eight, and starting his own firm in 1984  * 02:42 - The first business plan: $300K goal, five people, $40K salary each  * 03:02 - 23 consecutive years of top and bottom line growth at Longobardi and Company  * 03:27 - Merging into J.H. Cohn in 2007 as their entree into Connecticut  * 04:33 - Running industry groups and earning a board seat at J.H. Cohn  * 04:46 - The CohnReznick mega merger of 2012: combining a $240M and $190M firm  * 05:09 - Becoming a $430 million firm and one of the first mega mergers in the profession  * 05:43 - Running for sole CEO in 2015 and serving a four-year term with mandatory retirement at 65  * 06:01 - What the CEO years were really like: navigating the compliance-to-advisory shift and people challenges  * 07:01 - What Frank learned from wearing every hat at a small firm that big firm leaders never experience  * 07:27 - Strategic planning, partner coaching, and the reality of 1,500 to 1,600 charge hours a year  * 08:13 - Managing expectations during busy season: communicating with clients and keeping the team motivated  * 09:13 - The biggest challenges in growing from startup to $14.5 million  * 10:35 - Client service intensity and keeping good people for the long term as the two main growth drivers  * 11:07 - Home-grown partners and the value of developing talent from within the CPA firm  * 11:57 - The biggest mistake: hating to part ways with any client, including a $400 1040  * 12:13 - What managing at scale taught Frank about the discipline of bringing in the right accounting clients  * 12:31 - How difficult clients affect team morale and why post-Covid firms have gotten better at weeding them out  * 13:14 - Why technical CPAs struggle to let go and why letting go is how firms scale  * 13:46 - How to transfer client relationships to the next generation: patience, coaching, and making it a two-year process  * 14:42 - Clients belong to the firm, not the partner: why that mindset shift matters for CPA firm succession  * 15:27 - How Frank developed next-generation leaders by helping them build on their own strengths  * 16:17 - The partnership model: what works, what does not, and why 270 partners makes decision-making complex  * 17:26 - Why accounting has become capital-intensive and what that means for the traditional profit distribution model  * 18:01 - Retaining 5% of revenue inside the firm: why Frank pushed for it and why partners pushed back  * 18:35 - Why private equity entered accounting: capital needs, governance limitations, and the cost of M&A  * 19:25 - How accounting firm M&A economics shifted from deferred retirement payments to cash-heavy PE deals  * 20:05 - The profession is changing faster than ever: AI, private equity, and what that means for CPA firms  * 20:28 - Frank's post-retirement path: offshoring advisory, private equity diligence, and board seats  * 21:03 - Working with an offshoring firm post-Covid and watching augmentation services boom, then normalize  * 22:32 - The build-operate-transfer model for offshore accounting centers in India and South Africa  * 23:05 - The most critical principle in offshoring: treat the offshore team like any other office  * 23:40 - Consulting for private equity firms evaluating accounting acquisitions: 8 to 10 diligence projects  * 24:34 - Board seats at a PE-backed accounting firm in Rochester and a CAS firm in Salt Lake City  * 25:02 - What Frank has observed about how private equity grows organizations from the inside  * 25:34 - AI as the biggest trigger for change in the accounting profession over the next 3 to 5 years  * 26:08 - How AI will affect assurance, tax, advisory, hiring, and training in CPA firms  * 26:52 - The shift from a pyramid to a diamond: why mid-level technology and analytics talent will matter most  * 27:32 - Why AI is creating an opportunity to add more value to clients than ever before  * 28:25 - Accounting enrollment is increasing for the third year in a row: why that matters  * 28:50 - Starting salaries need to be competitive with private equity and investment banking to attract top talent  * 29:33 - Book recommendations: "The One Minute Manager" and "Who Moved My Cheese?" and a note on EOS  * 30:56 - Living your values as a leader: calling people out when they exhibit them, not just stating them  * 32:06 - Where to connect with Frank: LinkedIn and frank.p.longo@gmail.com The One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson [https://www.amazon.com/One-Minute-Manager-Kenneth-Blanchard/dp/0688014291]  Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson  [https://www.amazon.com/Who-Moved-My-Cheese-Amazing/dp/0399144463] Download Now: https://poegroupadvisors.com/accounting-practice-academy/increase-letter/ Price increases are nothing to fear. The real challenge is effectively informing clients of these changes. Our templates will help you demonstrate your value and help clients understand the increases necessary to keep your firm afloat. *Download now and receive:* - (1) Major Fee Increase Letter Template - (1) 20% Fee Increase Letter Template

The Gap Between Financial Success and Fulfillment

Brian Gray made partner at a top 100 CPA firm, built a career advising billionaires and high-net-worth families on complex tax strategies, and then realized that none of it had made him any happier. Brian is a tax partner, award-winning CPA, frequent speaker at the USC Tax Institute, and the author of Suck Less, Laugh More. He has had a front-row seat to some of the world's most successful entrepreneurs and noticed a pattern: about 10% of them get the balance right and 90% are still searching. By his early forties, he recognized himself in that pattern. He was helping clients structure their legacies while his own family life was strained, and he had been telling himself that family came first when his actions said otherwise. This conversation goes deeper than practice management. Brian shares the specific moment that shifted everything, the exercises he used to identify the beliefs running in the background, and how he rebuilt his personal values, his family values, and eventually his firm's values from the ground up. His firm's core value landed on caring, and he and his business partner made the financial commitments to back it up, hiring for capacity and reinvesting in their team even when it meant reducing the bottom line. The conversation covers: * Why making partner didn't change anything and how that realization set off a deeper search * How having a front-row seat to entrepreneurial clients revealed the pattern: financial success rarely equals fulfillment * Why telling yourself family comes first when your actions say otherwise keeps you stuck * How writing down seven days of negative and positive emotions reveals the patterns running in the background * Why he moved "success" from his number one value to number six and replaced it with love * How his firm landed on caring as its core value and then made the hiring decisions to actually live it * The warrior and the wizard framework: why achieving eventually needs to give way to mastering your emotions TIMESTAMPS * 00:00 - Brannon Poe intro and podcast welcome  * 00:13 - Introducing Brian Gray: tax partner, speaker, author of "Suck Less, Laugh More"  * 00:48 - The gap between financial success and fulfillment: what Brian observed in wealthy clients  * 01:39 - Asking the question: when is enough, enough?  * 02:05 - Making partner and realizing it did not solve anything  * 03:07 - The Olympic gold medal pattern: achieving the goal and wondering what it was all for  * 03:32 - What the astronauts who went to the moon felt when they came back  * 04:02 - How alcohol became a way to numb the gap between achievement and meaning  * 04:51 - What it looks like when high-achieving CPA clients are financially successful but not fulfilled  * 05:10 - Growing as a way to become more, not just accumulate more  * 06:12 - The midlife reset: when it arrives, how long it lasts, and what kind of clarity it takes  * 06:51 - Helping clients structure their legacies while his own life needed restructuring  * 07:17 - The specific moment of clarity: "my family deserves better than I'm being"  * 08:21 - Being honest about what really came first: business or family  * 09:03 - The lies high achievers tell themselves and how the ego protects against discomfort  * 09:49 - Humility and gratitude as the antidote to self-deception  * 10:13 - How a core belief like "success equals happiness" gets installed and how to question it  * 10:55 - Shifting the number one core value from success to love, and what changed  * 11:17 - The seven-day emotion-tracking exercise from "Suck Less, Laugh More"  * 11:58 - What the exercise reveals about the emotional patterns running in the background  * 12:22 - The warrior and the wizard: why the achiever eventually gets tired  * 12:45 - Why high achievers are especially at risk of the burnout that comes from the warrior pattern  * 13:07 - Tony Robbins on emotion: you have already felt what you are chasing  * 13:26 - Why the satisfaction from external achievements lasts days, not months  * 14:04 - Stated values vs. lived values: how Brian approached this for himself, his family, and his firm  * 14:39 - Writing down eight family values with his kids in middle school  * 15:29 - How the firm's leadership team landed on "caring" as the number one company value  * 16:08 - What it actually means to live the value of caring: hiring for capacity and investing in the team  * 16:27 - Hiring and client decisions driven by values, not just targets  * 17:07 - Funny story: parenting teenagers and the wisdom of just saying yes  * 18:15 - Book recommendation: "Suck Less, Laugh More" by Brian Gray  * 18:42 - Additional recommendation: "Die with Zero" by Bill Perkins  * 19:03 - Where to connect with Brian: LinkedIn Book Recommendations: Suck Less, Laugh More by Brian Gray [https://www.amazon.com/Suck-Less-Laugh-More-Four-Part/dp/1963678125]  Die with Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life [https://www.amazon.com/Die-Zero-Getting-Your-Money/dp/0358099765] by Bill Perkins

Right People, Right Seats: How EOS Helps CPA Firm Owners Build Teams That Scale

Meghan Hickman has spent over three years as our EOS implementer at Poe Group Advisors, and this conversation is one we have been looking forward to sharing. Meghan works with entrepreneurial leadership teams to help them build structure, create accountability, and scale with intention. She has helped over 40 organizations do exactly that, including ours. The conversation covers: * How a career in politics taught Meghan to recognize when your work is bringing out the worst in you * Why the "right person, right seat" framework gives leaders language for decisions they already sense but can't articulate * How the Accountability Chart reveals the structure a firm actually needs vs. the one it has outgrown * Why the Vision Traction Organizer works where traditional strategic plans fail, because it evolves every 90 days * How to distinguish between head signals and heart signals when deciding whether to restructure or exit * Why the companies that scale fastest are the ones willing to run toward hard problems and simplify relentlessly * How vulnerability-based trust separates teams that break through from teams that stay stuck Timestamps: 00:36 - Meghan's background: from US Senate press secretary to entrepreneur 01:26 - How a copy of "Traction" in 2014 changed the direction of Meghan's career  01:52 - Growing an EOS company by 62% in five years and launching her own practice  03:12 - Starting in the least entrepreneurial environment possible: bureaucracy vs. the private sector  04:43 - The moment Meghan knew it was time to leave: the night Osama bin Laden was captured  06:09 - Sending out resumes at 1:00 in the morning and the one that changed everything  07:48 - Effective self vs. destructive self activity: the exercise that explained everything  09:28 - What working in the private sector revealed about her unique abilities  11:14 - Core value alignment: using values to attract the right people like a magnet  13:04 - Why the press secretary seat was the wrong one and what EOS language helped her understand  15:21 - Burnout vs. readiness to sell: how to tell the difference  17:04 - Head signals: the business is running you, things feel harder than they should  19:14 - The prescription for heart signals: a leap, whether that is a transition, a sale, or a new chapter  22:02 - Meghan's own red flags: road rage, everyone seems difficult, an unmade bed  25:37 - What the Accountability Chart actually does and why it matters past five or ten employees  28:08 - The value of an outside perspective: seeing the game when you cannot see it from the field  30:22 - The Vision Traction Organizer: a two-page strategic plan that actually gets used  33:17 - How your ideal clients evolve as your firm evolves, and why revisiting matters every 90 days  37:20 - Why firms that obsess over simplification and say no more than yes scale the fastest  40:05 - Meghan's memorable career story: getting her senator to the Today show in the nick of time  45:06 - There is no learning in the comfort zone, and no comfort in the learning zone  45:48 - Book recommendations: "Traction," The Five Minute Journal, and "The Gifts of Imperfection." 📚 Book Recommendations: 📚 * Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman [https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Get-Grip-Your-Business/dp/1936661837] * The Five Minute Journal by Intelligent Change [https://www.amazon.com/Five-Minute-Journal-Happier-Minutes/dp/0991846206] * The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown [https://www.amazon.com/Gifts-Imperfection-Think-Supposed-Embrace/dp/159285849X] Download Now: https://poegroupadvisors.com/accounting-practice-academy/increase-letter/ Price increases are nothing to fear. The real challenge is effectively informing clients of these changes. Our templates will help you demonstrate your value and help clients understand the increases necessary to keep your firm afloat. *Download now and receive:* - (1) Major Fee Increase Letter Template - (1) 20% Fee Increase Letter Template

The Ideal Practice Model: Seven Areas That Transform a CPA Firm

Joe Woodard has trained over 150,000 accounting professionals and spent his career studying what separates firms that grow from firms that stay stuck. His answer? It almost always starts with pricing. In this conversation, Joe walks through the Woodard Ideal Practice Model, which focuses on seven key areas of operational excellence: brand, services, clients, technology, process, engagements, and team. But the most actionable insight he shares is simpler than a seven-part framework. He says the very first lever any firm should pull is pricing, and he lays out a specific strategy for doing it. Double the price on your bottom 20% of clients. If half of them stay, you have the same revenue. If all of them leave, you get the capacity back. Either way, you win. Joe also shares a measured perspective on AI adoption, noting that mass adoption in accounting is still 12 to 18 months away and that the best thing practitioners can do right now is learn directly from the developers of the platforms they already use. This episode is for firm owners curious about how to create capacity without hiring, practitioners ready to revisit their pricing strategy before the next busy season, leaders wondering where to start with advisory services, and anyone interested in a practical framework for building a more valuable practice. Timestamps 00:14 - Introducing Joe Woodard: founder of Woodard, host of Scaling New Heights  02:03 - How Joe's practice led to Scaling New Heights and a coaching and consulting division  04:01 - The shift from compliance to advisory: what is holding CPA firms back  06:01 - Skill set and mindset working together: cash flow projections, dashboards, and KPIs  07:16 - The downward spiral: too busy to invest in new skills, team pressure, and turnover  09:18 - Applying the Pareto Principle to your CPA firm client base  10:42 - How to move methodically through the full client base after creating capacity  12:19 - How pricing improvements affect CPA firm valuation: revenue per FTE and clients per million  13:33 - Why the mindset block comes back around when targeting larger advisory clients  16:34 - How to reinvent your service structure instead of just improving the existing one  19:05 - Why most accounting firms are under-contracted and what to do about it  20:13 - AI adoption in accounting: where the profession is now and how fast it is moving  22:30 - Xero, QuickBooks, and Intuit: how AI integrations are already changing daily workflows  24:08 - Joe's story: his daughter, a butterfly named Alicia, and a mockingbird  27:01 - Book recommendation: "A World Without Work" by Daniel Susskind  29:03 - Where to find Joe Woodard online: woodard.com Download Now: https://poegroupadvisors.com/accounting-practice-academy/increase-letter/ Price increases are nothing to fear. The real challenge is effectively informing clients of these changes. Our templates will help you demonstrate your value and help clients understand the increases necessary to keep your firm afloat. *Download now and receive:* - (1) Major Fee Increase Letter Template - (1) 20% Fee Increase Letter Template

Focus Works Every Time: Brannon Poe and Ian Brennan Close Out the Power of Focus Series

Seven episodes. Dozens of real-world examples. One recurring answer. Brannon Poe and Ian Brennan sit down one more time to close out the Power of Focus series. Throughout this series, the pattern that emerges is hard to ignore: the firms that get results are the ones that get intentional about where they put their energy. This episode is for accounting firm owners who have listened to the series and are ready to identify their first move, practitioners curious about how the 80/20 Principle applies to their client list and services, leaders wondering how to build a team culture that attracts and retains the right people, and CPA firm owners ready to shift from working in the firm to working on it. Timestamps:  * 01:04 - Welcome to the final episode of the Power of Focus series  * 02:20 - Ian opens the conversation: recurring themes across the Power of Focus series  * 03:40 - Why focus is a simple concept with a powerful and consistent payoff  * 04:40 - Why creating capacity is the essential first step for any CPA firm transformation  * 05:25 - Where Brannon's focus on focus came from: the 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch  * 07:06 - Letting go: Greg Toner and Bill and Chris Murphy as standout examples from the series  * 07:54 - Staffing in a shrinking talent pool: why culture is the most durable retention strategy 08:54 - How client selection and service mix affect team morale and turnover in CPA firms  * 09:39 - Why sharing a clear vision with your team matters more than most firm owners realize 10:27 - What Brannon has observed about vision when selling accounting firms in the M&A space  * 12:30 - How a focused vision makes your CPA firm more attractive to job candidates  * 14:04 - Why being a jack of all trades limits margins and exhausts accounting firm owners  * 15:57 - Greg Toner's growth model: how knowing the recipe made scaling repeatable  * 16:21 - Brannon's closing thought: find a mastermind and surround yourself with other firm owners  * 17:08 - Ian closes the series: seven episodes, real results, an invitation to dive in