Episode #568 - Off the Cuff: Fifth Conversation with Greg Kyte

Ron and Ed welcome back Greg Kyte — yes, for the fifth time — because he keeps showing up with something new (and we keep letting him). Greg’s accounting resume is full of the usual letters (CPA, MBA), but his actual story is far from typical: from middle-school math teacher to stand-up comedian to fractional CFO managing medical office buildings. 

Greg doesn’t just talk numbers — he talks character, change, and the weird ways growth happens when you’re willing to laugh at yourself.

SHOW NOTES

Segment one

• Fun fact for TSOE bingo: Greg Kyte grew up in Mountlake Terrace, Washington https://www.cityofmlt.com/ 

• From AI (maybe it can be funny?): Fun fact: Ethics + accounting + stand-up comedy sounds like an odd mix… unless you’re Greg Kyte, CPA

• What is pig butchering as it relates to cybersecurity? https://www.staysafeonline.org/articles/what-is-pig-butchering-and-how-to-spot-the-scam 

• Greg did an Oh My Fraud! episode on pig butchering. Here is the link: https://ohmyfraud.com/episodes/we-re-not-a-bank-in-kansas-anymore 

Segment two

• Wait? Patreon members get to listen to the back channel conversation during the breaks, including our most recent HIPAA violation? Yes, that is correct. #satire

• “AI and comedy don’t work out.” —Greg Kyte. Challenge accepted. Please see the next post.

• From ChatGPT: 

• Here are a few very “Greg Kyte–style” jokes—dry, self-aware, and poking at accounting ethics:

• Option 1 (Classic Kyte energy):

• “I’m a CPA who teaches ethics, which means I spend my days explaining to people why the thing they really want to do is a bad idea.”

• Option 2 (Accounting pain humor):

• “People ask why accounting needs ethics. I usually respond, ‘Have you met accountants under deadline?’”

• Option 3 (Short, social-perfect):

• “I teach accounting ethics—basically couples therapy, but for CPAs and their conscience.”

• Option 4 (Comedian crossover):

• “I used to do stand-up comedy. Now I do accounting ethics. In both jobs, the goal is the same: keep people from making terrible decisions in public.”

• Option 5 (Very Kyte):

• “Ethics isn’t about knowing the rules. It’s about knowing which rule you’re going to Google after you get caught.”

• Here is the Breaking Country song, Walk My Walk. All AI generated. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwKmDH83qo0

Segment three

• Has Greg Kyte tried to use ChatGPT to create jokes? No. (That is all….just “no”)

• “My $20 a month subscription to ChatGPT saves me hundreds of dollars and so much time.” —Greg Kyte

• “I’m seeing in the next 5-10 years a resurgence of people wanting to see live performances […] because they know this is real.” —Ed Kless

• Meet Tilly Norwood, AI actress: https://www.leagueoffilmmakers.com/meet-tilly-norwood-the-first-ai-actor/ 

Segment four

• On comedians pushing the bounds more and more today: “Everyone is plugged into their phone so being polarizing doesn’t necessary mean that you don’t have an audience going forward.” —Greg Kyte

• “If you’re not polarizing then you don’t have a strong opinion. You need to have a strong value proposition, or else you’re just part of the noise.” —Greg Kyte

• A big THANK YOU to Greg Kyte for joining us. He does SOOOOOO many things. Maybe check him out on X and learn more about Comedy Church (and see it live in the Salt Lake City area) https://www.adambroud.com/comedychurch 

Bonus Content is Available As Well

Did you know that each week after our live show, Ron and Ed take to the microphone for a bonus show? Typically, this bonus show is an extension of the live show topic (sometimes even with the same guest) and a few other pieces of news, current events, or things that have caught our attention.

Click the “FANATIC” image to learn more about pricing and member benefits. 

Episode #567 - Break the Mold: Second interview with Alan Whitman

Ron and Ed welcome back Alan Whitman, former CEO of Baker Tilly and author of the new book Break the Mold. In his second visit to The Soul of Enterprise, we will talk about this book and the mold around the CPA profession. The mold is made up of the common conventions and the long-time operating principles that are shared across organizations. We are sure you will enjoy this in-depth conversation. 

SHOW NOTES

Segment one

• We are joined for a second time today by Alan Whitman. Break The Mold is available now! https://www.amazon.com/BREAK-MOLD-ACHIEVE-TRANSFORMATIONAL-SIMULTANEOUSLY/dp/B0FY4RJ2M3

• Break The Mold is a roadmap for how to change your mindset and preconceived notions on how to get things to a new way of achieving oversize results. https://www.amazon.com/BREAK-MOLD-ACHIEVE-TRANSFORMATIONAL-SIMULTANEOUSLY/dp/B0FY4RJ2M3 

• A great summary of some of Alan’s comments today: Shift from change management to progress management. Either-or to both-and. WORDS MATTER and are critical to changing people’s mindset.

• “There is a core competency of leadership. Stop being a one-to-one person. Be a one-to-many person.” —Alan Whitman

• “Isolation also creates fractures between teams, killing any hope for collaboration at a broad strategic level." —Alan Whitman

Segment two

• “Strategy is the framework by which you decide where you’re going to make your investments, what type of people and platforms you’re going to have, what type of clientele you are going to attract. So it is the higher level, 30,000-foot framework, from which all of your tractors are built.” —Alan Whitman

• A great quote from Alan’s new book, Break The Mold: “Discernible transformation rarely happens when you’re confined to the past.” https://www.amazon.com/BREAK-MOLD-ACHIEVE-TRANSFORMATIONAL-SIMULTANEOUSLY/dp/B0FY4RJ2M3 

• Bravo, Alan! “The past should inform the future because the past is important to how you got here. But it shouldn’t restrict your ability to active those transformational steps towards the future.” —Alan Whitman

• “We need to permanently change the model and that’s only going to happen at scale if somebody has the guts to break the mold.” —Alan Whitman

Segment three

• Here’s an example of how Alan was able to affect change in a large firm: “I guaranteed somebody’s compensation for a couple years because I needed them to change out of what was comfortable.” Now THAT is a risk worth taking when you understand your strategy and where the firm is headed.

• “We’re always afraid of what we’re going to lose versus excited about what we’re going to gain.” —Alan Whitman

• Peter Drucker never said, “What you can measure, you can manage.” What Drucker did say is what you measure you’ll get. Good and hard. Even it if ruins your business.

• “That’s the one thing in professional services, in less mature organizations, that I’ve found. Oftentimes, people let things happen to them.” —Alan Whitman

Segment four

• From Alan’s website: What it Means to BREAK THE MOLD™ https://www.alandwhitman.com/newsletter/what-it-means-to-break-the-mold 

• “BREAK THE MOLD™ is in essence, a clarion call. It came about during my time at Baker Tilly as we were facing the pandemic and noticing the challenges it introduced highlighted many of the antiquated ways CPA firms (including us) were operating. It was an extreme example of the ways we've always worked being disrupted. We couldn't continue with ‘business as usual’. So I asked our team to be willing to BREAK THE MOLD™.” More here: https://www.alandwhitman.com/newsletter/what-it-means-to-break-the-mold 

• A big THANK YOU to Alan Whitman for joining us today. Take a look at some of those amazing quotes we pulled out for the show notes. If you like them, check out his new book: Break The Mold https://www.amazon.com/BREAK-MOLD-ACHIEVE-TRANSFORMATIONAL-SIMULTANEOUSLY/dp/B0FY4RJ2M3 

Buy on Amazon

Bonus Content is Available As Well

Did you know that each week after our live show, Ron and Ed take to the microphone for a bonus show? Typically, this bonus show is an extension of the live show topic (sometimes even with the same guest) and a few other pieces of news, current events, or things that have caught our attention.

Click the “FANATIC” image to learn more about pricing and member benefits. 

Episode #566 - From Numbers to Narrative: Interview with Dave Fionda

Ron and Ed sit down with entrepreneur, advisor, and educator David Fionda, founder of BizBreakthru.com, to explore what it really takes for business owners to break through their growth ceilings. With decades of experience guiding firms through transformation — from startups to global consultancies — Fionda brings both the discipline of a CPA and the curiosity of a strategist.

They discuss why most advisory work fails to scale, how to turn financial data into decision-making power, and the mindset shifts that separate incremental change from genuine breakthrough. This is a real-world architecture of growth, built from a lifetime of turning insights into action.

SHOW NOTES

Segment one

• Dave and Ed go back to the late 80s/early 90s. They met in Fargo, North Dakota at a Holiday Inn. Let’s put that on our TSOE Bingo card for a future get together.

• Dave Fionda on the software sales market: “You’ve gotta be top of mind.”

• Is “built from the ground up using AI” something that should be considered important in ERP software? “You can over adopt. People get so excited about AI.” —Dave Fionda

• “It’s not that we are going to fire all the CFOs and say we don’t need them. AI is a tool.” —Dave Fionda

Segment two

• “Where should the kid go to school? Is he good at math? Yeah. Then he should go to Bentley.” And that’s how Dave became an accountant. Compare and contrast with today’s college admissions process.

• Bentley was founded as an accounting school. It started in 1917 as the Bentley School of Accounting and Finance, with a first class of just 30 students. Its sole purpose was training accountants.

• “What the CPA does for you is it gives you a very strong business foundation.” —Dave Fionda

• What is Dave’s take on the billable hour? “You have go to in the value billing direction.”

Segment three

• “For most accounting software vendors, 80% of their business comes from 20% of their VARs.” —Dave Fionda 

• Questions of wisdom from Dave who has a lifetime of sales experience: “What is the opportunity to build a relationship with this customer? How does this potential customer see me?”

• In a sales conversation: “My mom told me one thing. You have two ears and 1 mouth. So you should be listening twice as often as you should speak.” —Dave Fionda

• One of Ed’s favorite questions in the sales process: “Do you view us as an extra pair of hands? Do you view us as an expert? Or do you view us as a collaborator?”

Segment four

• Check out the Deal Closers Playbook from Dave Fionda at this link: https://bizbreakthru.com/

• Dave also has a Proposal Success Scorecard which is only 2 minutes and easy to fill out. Check it out here: https://bizbreakthru.com/free-proposal-win-rate-assessment/ 

• A big THANK YOU to Dave Fionda to joining us today! Check out his Deal Closers Playbook and Proposal Success Scorecard at his website: https://bizbreakthru.com/ 

Bonus Content is Available As Well

Did you know that each week after our live show, Ron and Ed take to the microphone for a bonus show? Typically, this bonus show is an extension of the live show topic (sometimes even with the same guest) and a few other pieces of news, current events, or things that have caught our attention.

Click the “FANATIC” image to learn more about pricing and member benefits.