The Power of Authenticity in Attracting Talent and Changing Perceptions

In this episode of the Accountant’s Flight Plan Podcast, we interviewed fellow podcaster and reputation-building expert Rob Brown. Rob is the host of three accounting-related podcasts with a collective following of over 50,000 listeners and is the author of Build Your Reputation. He has spent over two decades working in business development and training for accountants, who he found to be passionate but often struggling with the interpersonal side of growing a firm.
After a life-changing stroke, Rob recalibrated his career to focus on helping accountants shape their stories, amplify their impact, and build personal brands that not only elevate their firms—but the profession as a whole.

Timestamps:
00:21 – Introduction of Rob Brown and his background
2:40 – How Rob moved from education to accounting business development
8:00 – The talent crisis and why firm branding matters
12:40 – Authenticity and representation in your firm’s story
17:19 – How to build a personal brand (without burning out)
26:46 – Scaling, saying “no,” and making space for growth
32:27 – Who’s responsible for the profession’s brand?
37:00 – Brannon shares why he chose accounting
40:00 – Funny personal story from Rob
44:30 – Book recommendation: Deep Work by Cal Newport

The Evolution of an Industry in Real Time

In this episode of the Accountant’s Flight Plan Podcast, Brannon Poe is joined by Dan Hood, Editor-in-Chief at Accounting Today, to explore the shifting tides of the accounting industry. From his start as a receptionist to laying out physical newspapers and magazines to leading one of the profession's most respected publications, Dan shares his unique vantage point on the industry’s past, present, and rapidly approaching future.

AI Is Here—But We’re Just Getting Started

Dan and Brannon dive into the transformative role artificial intelligence is beginning to play in accounting. While the AI boom is still in its infancy, the industry is already seeing an influx of capital and enthusiasm for automation, agentic AI systems, and data-driven insight. Dan emphasizes the importance of starting small—testing tools, cleaning data, and learning to interact with AI—to position CPA firms for long-term impact and return on investment.

Dan Hood is Editor-in-Chief at Accounting Today, where he’s spent decades covering the accounting profession’s biggest trends, challenges, and opportunities. You can connect with Dan via LinkedIn or visit AccountingToday.com to explore more of his work.

Timestamps:
00:42 – Introduction of Dan Hood, Editor-in-Chief at Accounting Today
01:50 – Dan’s career journey from receptionist to editor
04:22 – AI’s growing impact on accounting and data usage
11:20 – Starting small with AI: how to learn and scale
16:05 – Scaling your firm: "What got you here won’t get you there"
21:50 – The shift in revenue per employee as firms grow
24:20 – Letting go to grow: moving toward zero billable hours
26:10 – Advisory services, PE firms, and new ownership models
29:30 – The challenges of the traditional partnership model
32:00 – Wedding story: accountants aren’t boring!
34:48 – Book rec: Say Nothing
39:03 – Closing thoughts and where to connect with Dan

Providing Salary Transparency to Practitioners

In this episode of the Accountant’s Flight Plan Podcast, Dominic Piscopo shares with Brannon about his startup–Big4Transparency. This service provides accounting firms with data around salary compensation, breaking up the data by sector, geography, and position seniority. It is easy to use and accessible for firm owners who value their employees and want to compensate them fairly. They offer a tiered price model based on firm size and additionally offer recruitment services. To learn more, you can visit their website here: https://www.big4transparency.com/

Dom is the founder of Big 4 Transparency, the largest crowdsourced database of accounting salaries on the market with over 18,000 rows of cleaned, standardized data. Big 4 Transparency is where 250,000+ accounting professionals go for high-quality salary data. Dom created this based on his own experience as a CPA working in tax at Deloitte and his frustrations with how difficult it was to find proper salary data - he’s now built a business around it charging firms a subscription fee for access to in-depth analytics on this data set with quarterly updates, helping them set salaries without all the leg work of being involved in compensation surveys.

Following Your Passions to Find Balance

Brannon and Dom discuss their shared experiences starting out their careers in Big 4 Firms. In Dom’s experience working for a Big 4 before striking out on his own, he highlights the value of following all your disparate passions. He shares how his side business as a bartender and DJ for weddings led to cross-pollination with his tax work. With prospective clients meeting him through his side jobs and discovering the possibility of utilizing his tax services. The opportunity to find new and exciting opportunities outside of the traditional mold is important to keeping balance, as well as feeding your work-life balance.

Connect with Dom:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dopiscopo/

Email: dom@big4transparency.com

Big4Transparency: https://www.big4transparency.com/

Timestamps:

00:47 - Introduction of Dominic Piscopo and his service: Big4Transparency

8:30 - The Image Problem in the Accounting Industry

14:50 - How new technology provides an opportunity to add value

17:22 - Balancing a side business as a DJ with a Big 4 job

22:06 - Breakdown of how Big4Transparency works