Touching Grass: Connection and Resilience During "Opportunity Season"

No Borders: Lessons from the Global Team

Heath Alloway is joined by Maynard Maduli and Ariel Orio from Sorren PH in the Philippines, who bring decades of experience to their roles overseas. The conversation on Episode 14 of Common Threads ranges from burnout and the importance of recharging—with Ariel's Japan trip getting a mention—to what keeps both of them genuinely passionate about the profession after all these years. A significant thread running through is the reality of remote, cross-timezone collaboration: what it actually takes to build trust when your counterparts are logging on as you're logging off. Maynard's framing is simple, that trust is built in the small everyday interactions, and silence is one of the fastest ways to break it. The episode also touches on hard conversations, client confidence, and the EBP practice that Sorren PH is now helping to build out for Sorren globally. Get the full show notes and more resources at CommonThreads.Sorren.com [http://commonthreads.sorren.com]

Helping, Not Pitching: Sales and Trust

Tyler Horn stumbled into accounting almost by accident. He chose Legacy Acuity over a Charlotte firm in 2015 largely because the other job required a suit and Acuity didn't. Eleven years later, he's one of the few people at Sorren whose entire focus is bringing in new clients, and his approach to that work is shaped less by traditional sales instincts than by a genuine obsession with helping people. In this conversation with Heath Alloway on Episode 13 of Common Threads, Tyler talks through what it actually looks like to build trust with strangers over video calls. He stresses the value of preparation, asking better questions, and being upfront about what you don't know. He gets into fee objections, the growing role of AI in client conversations, how Sorren's expanding network lets him route the right clients to the right people, and why he nearly reconsidered his role during COVID before a reframe from his CEO reminded him of the bigger picture. Get the full show notes and more resources at CommonThreads.Sorren.com [http://commonthreads.sorren.com]

Elevator Operators, Excel, and the History of Tech in Accounting

OJ Laos joins Common Threads five weeks into his tenure at Sorren and jumps straight into the question hanging over nearly every professional field: what happens when AI stops being a novelty and becomes part of the way work gets done? He talks to Heath Alloway on Episode 12 about how he's drawn on a career that runs from law school to software, consulting, and the founding of an AI lab, making the case that the real shift isn't about replacing people so much as changing the shape of their work. From debate club and distance running to billable hours, client value, security, the danger of treating experimentation like something to hide, and more, what emerges from this conversation is a grounded view of AI inside accounting: messy, fast-moving, and full of practical possibility for a firm like Sorren that's willing to learn in public and rethink what expertise looks like. Get the full show notes and more resources at CommonThreads.Sorren.com [http://commonthreads.sorren.com]

Common Threads, Common Ground: Uniting Assurance

Ryan Gregory didn't plan to become a CPA, but a chance visit to a campus recruiting event changed his trajectory entirely. Now, as Sorren's National Assurance Managing Partner, he's drawing on three decades of experience at Ernst & Young, CBIZ, and beyond to build something he never quite found elsewhere: a firm that actually functions as one. On Episode 11 of Common Threads, he talks candidly about the unglamorous work of unifying eight different audit methodologies, why the answer to new opportunities is almost always yes, and what it really means to communicate value to clients as AI starts compressing audit timelines. There's also a frank conversation about the profession's tendency to undervalue its own expertise, and why that has to change. Somewhere in there, a four-on-four basketball game also gets scheduled. Get the full show notes and more resources at CommonThreads.Sorren.com [http://commonthreads.sorren.com]

Touching Grass: Connection and Resilience During "Opportunity Season"

A quick phone call about tariffs turned into a half-hour conversation about supply chains, overseas partnerships, and the real challenges keeping a client up at night. Renae Davis didn't wait for the client to reach out, she spotted the moment and acted on it. That's the difference between being busy and being present. On Episode 10 of Common Threads, she talks to Heath about growing up in rural Oregon, leading Legacy KDP's Chicago office, and how her unexpected background influences her work in public accounting. Her original path toward child protective services still shapes how she thinks about removing barriers and defining success on other people's terms. They dig into what gets lost when firms communicate decisions without explaining the why, the discomfort of giving honest feedback when you'd rather protect feelings, and the professional cost of withholding truth. Renae's directness cuts through the usual careful language, landing somewhere between "Radical Candor" and practical wisdom about what actually builds resilience during the hardest seasons. Get the full show notes and more resources at CommonThreads.Sorren.com [http://commonthreads.sorren.com]