Rise and Stride

Combining her business skills and interest with a passion for helping people succeed, Jessica McClain, CFO of the Girl Scouts Nation’s Capital,  operates in what she calls “the intersection of accounting and social impact.” Listen as she provides her insights into leadership, career development, promoting the accounting profession … and her favorite Girl Scout cookie.

What happens when you combine knowledge, passion—and a mindset that magic can be found everywhere? For Danetha Doe, founder of financial education company Money and Mimosas, it’s meant building a successful career as an entrepreneur and speaker while helping small businesses in more than 20 countries raise more than $160 million in capital.  

Money makes the world go ’round, the saying goes. And for the younger generation that’s just learning about income, debt, credit scores, insurance and the like, it could make for a dizzying experience. Enter Tim Ranzetta, co-founder of Next Gen Personal Finance, a nonprofit that believes all high school students deserve a high quality, engaging and relevant personal finance education prior to graduation. Hear how his organization is doing that and is on a mission that by 2030, all U.S. high schoolers will take at least a one semester-long personal finance course before graduation. 

The future. Uncertainty. Change. The words cause many people to shiver, yet what would happen if we shift our mindset a bit, look deeper into opportunities and see these words as a gateway to growth? Best-selling author, entrepreneur and consultant Pascal Finette explains how. More resources:Be Radical https://rdcl.isDisrupt Disruption https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BT6SPPR2?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_G08RET326YSNDPE06T0K

Networking, investing and advocating for each other are just some of the avenues Julie Castro Abrams, managing partner at How Women Invest and CEO of How Women Lead, believes can help transform the way the world sees women leaders. 

Whether you're a seasoned CPA or a budding accountant aiming to make a mark in the profession, we go beyond the numbers with Katie Thomas, CPA and owner of Leaders Online, in this podcast with advice and tips to unlock and grow success through leadership and branding.

We all know the importance and value of skills and knowledge when it comes to success, but even more important is mindset. In this episode, leadership trainer and coach George Griffin explains how the ability to believe in yourself, embrace challenges as opportunities and persist in the face of setbacks are keys to developing peak performance. And he should know. After failing out of college and being told he wasn’t college material, Griffin returned to school and earned multiple degrees, has managed more than $1 billion of real estate assets, is a best-selling author and is working with organizations to raise the bar on their leadership and organization culture. 

The challenge with looking for fraudsters, says CPA, author, professor and filmmaker Kelly Richmond Pope, is that anyone can be one. You can even see what type of fraudster you’d be by taking Pope’s online quiz.In this episode, Pope explains the key role CPAs play in detecting fraud, how the profession can better explain its “why” to attract the next generation and the responsibility leaders have of pouring into others.Additional resources:·      Fool Me Once: Scams, Stories, and Secrets from the Trillion-Dollar Fraud Industry: A look at the perpetrators, victims and whistleblowers behind financial crimes.·      All the Queen’s Horses: The story of Rita Crundwell, the perpetrator of the largest case of municipal fraud in American history.·      TEDTalk: How Whistle-blowers Shape Industry: Lessons from some of the most high-profile whistle-blowers of the past, explaining how they've shared information that has shaped society—and why they need our trust and protection.·      CalCPA Forensic Services Section 

On the surface, there doesn’t seem to be much of a connection between improvisation and the business world. Yet aspects of improv like collaboration, being unscripted and learning to be tolerant, even comfortable, around ambiguity can easily be laid upon our daily lives. Colleen Murray Peyton,  founder of Overjoy Creative and improv performer, dives deeper into her work facilitating workshops for corporations on leadership development, corporate culture and communication—and explains how laughter and lightness can help make the hard things manageable.

Okorie Ramsey, VP of Sarbanes/Oxley for Kaiser, discusses leadership, diversity, innovation, and recruitment in accounting. Mentions importance of mentorship, technology, ESG, and DE&I in the profession. Highlights fostering DE&I in leadership roles and the significance of support and representation in the profession.