The Entrepreneur’s Edge in the AI & Social Media Era | RightNOW 2025 Keynote PART 1

Why Daily Video and Local Ads Matter for Small Accounting Firms

In a candid conversation about brand building, artificial intelligence, and workplace culture, a seasoned marketer pushed a simple but urgent thesis: accounting firms that fail to embrace short-form content and modern automation risk being outflanked by competitors who do. The practical prescription was direct — pick up your phone, make two videos a day offering real client advice, post them organically, and amplify locally with a small ad spend. The result is predictable: reach more prospective clients and job seekers without major marketing budgets.

Small-budget tactics that move the needle for CPA practices

The speaker illustrated how hyper-local promotion — even $50 in paid reach inside a five-mile radius — can turn organic video into immediate client leads. He stressed that content should feel like in-person consulting: short, specific, and helpful. Examples included sharing tax-season mistakes, overlooked deductions, or a quick advisory thought you would normally say during a client meeting. These micro-lessons build trust and surface the full scope of a firm's services to an audience that otherwise doesn’t know every offering.

How to be authentic on camera and attract talent

Authenticity is a skill rather than an innate trait, the conversation noted. Nervousness, perfectionism, or fear of judgment often robs professionals of credibility on camera. The remedy is straightforward: treat the camera as you would a client in your office. Show human moments. Speak plainly. Share day-to-day problems you solve. That approach not only wins clients but also attracts prospective employees who evaluate culture through company content.

AI, Automation, and the New Division of Labor

The discussion framed AI as the most significant technology shift since the internet. For tax, bookkeeping, and advisory work, AI will increasingly perform routine calculations and research faster and more accurately than humans. The speaker argued that firms should invest an hour a day learning AI tools now, because mastery will enable practitioners to offload repetitive tasks and focus on high-value advisory and relationship work.

Practical AI steps for accountants and fractional CFOs

• Spend time training prompts and learning the best apps for automation.
• Use AI to identify 10–15 hours of weekly savings across repetitive tasks.
• Leverage AI for research, first-draft reports, and recurring deliverables, then add human strategy and trust.

Trust Over Task: A Shift in Revenue Models

As automation reduces the value of manual task execution, the conversation emphasized a shift from task-based billing to trust-based advisory. Being the person clients want to work with — visible, relatable, and trusted — becomes the defensible asset. That visibility is earned by consistent content that demonstrates judgment and experience rather than simply listing services on a website.

Culture and retention in a changing labor market

Beyond marketing and AI, culture remains a persistent differentiator. Frequent one-on-ones, real empathy for employees’ changing needs, and a mentality that leadership exists to serve staff were offered as core practices to retain skilled teams. The message was clear: invest in people through communication and flexibility to reduce turnover and preserve institutional knowledge.

Ultimately, the conversation fused tactical marketing, a realistic view of automation, and people-first leadership into a single roadmap for modern accounting and advisory practices: post helpful short-form content consistently, learn and apply AI to reduce specialized drudgery, and double down on trust and culture to convert visibility into long-term client relationships and employee retention.