What's Next For Accounting? - Issue #129

Author

Jason Staats
April 04, 2024

🤖 How An AI Clone could mean PASSIVE REVENUE for your Accounting Firm

I made an AI assistant that’s trained on all 200+ episodes of my podcast. It’s a shockingly accurate avatar of.. me!

It mimics my tone and gives answers that are nearly indistinguishable from what I’d actually say.

And it’s because for every question I throw at it, it instantly fetches the most relevant things I’ve said across 100+ hours of audio, and synthesizes it into a clear response with sources.

It isn’t making up an answer for me - it’s repeating the things I’ve already said.

Imagine the ways you could use an avatar of YOUR expertise.

It isn’t as good as the real deal, but it’s better than… Google? Than expecting clients to wade through every thing you’ve ever said online to find an answer.

Instant answers for clients. Paywalled access to a version of your expertise for non-clients. An assistant for you to draft email responses, give your team access to your expertise…

Feel scary? Remember: It’s parroting the things you’ve already said online.

That’s cool Jason, but I don’t record a podcast every day. I have a job.

So the big question is: How documented is your expertise?

We dispense expertise all day long via email, phone calls & meetings. But most of us aren’t capturing it. What needs to change?

Step 1: Use a meeting recorder. Listen to this to get over all the blockers that are keeping you from doing so.

Step 2: Consider who would benefit from having access to all this expertise while you sleep. Clients, staff, your marketing agency, your social media manager.

Step 3: Test. See what sticks & what doesn’t, because the best version will be the one you find after multiple iterations.

I used Delphi to build mine. It offers functionality like paid memberships, explicit journeys (like a conversational form), alerts if someone wades into a specific topic (this person wants a cost seg), plugging affiliate products, white labeling, embedding, SMS support, social media messaging & a bunch more.

I did a deep dive on how it works in today’s pod Video | Audio

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📅 This Week

🔮 Q&A

Why is it so hard for me to implement best practices I know I should do in my accounting firm, like raising prices and dropping bad clients?
It usually comes down to belief - being fully convinced it's the right thing to do. Talking to others who have successfully made a change builds that strong belief. Seeing their experiences helps me get over the discomfort. The more convicted I am, the easier it is to take action, even if it's uncomfortable. The solution is to seek out the conversations that will lead to that conviction.

How do I go about being visible and trying to develop a side hustle while in my current full-time role?
Consider having the messaging come through your brand rather than your identity until you’re out on my own. Also consider transparency with your employer. A good one will make this easier.

What was my experience adding upsells like reporting apps into my accounting firm?
Rolling out fancy reporting apps and asking clients to pay more… did not work well. I found more success simplifying reporting to focus on a few key KPIs that provide value to clients. Short-term cash reporting ended up being a profitable service, but may not have attracted the ideal client long-term.

Marketing my accounting firm still feels really hard, any advice?
Explore different types of marketing activities to find what you enjoy, as discipline becomes easier when you love the work. If you love chatting, consider an interview pod. Writing, write X words every day. Video, get on camera every day. You don't need to be everywhere, build your business through the channels you enjoy.

Each Friday on the pod we run through small firm questions. Tune in tomorrow (Audio | Video) as we cover how to delegate client comms, glasses reflections on video, nice things to do for you team during busy season and whether you can run a viable firm on highly seasonal work.

😍 From The Community

My private peer networking community Realize for firm leaders, now capped at 500 members.

▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▯▯▯▯ 397/500 members