Humanise The Numbers - for ambitious accountants in practice

Paul Shrimpling

Welcome to the 'Humanise The Numbers' podcast series. Here you'll find a whole series of interviews with the leaders of accounting firms who are building (or have already built) a firm of the future now! You'll hear key insights, key skills and key habits that underpin the success of these firms. Insights, skills and habits that can underpin your firm's future success too. It seems that when an accountancy firm connects their team and their clients to the numbers that really matter to them they transform the results for everyone. This is accelerated when the humanity of the way they work shines through too. That's why we're talking about ambitious accountants humanising the numbers.Here's what a director of a multi-partner multi-national firm said recently ."What I like about your podcasts is that they are real. They are not scripted and I appreciate the fact that your interviewees admit they don’t have all the answers but are willing to let you put that fact out on a podcast. It is what is going on at the front lines of great small accounting practices. I have now listened to about half of them, I intend listening to them all as each one just has a nugget that I am writing down to see if I can use in our practice at some stage."
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Episodes

Mark Walker, CEO of VFD Pro
May 3 2024
Mark Walker, CEO of VFD Pro
The key question – how do you and your firm make a difference? – makes a difference in the conversations you have with your current team members when it comes to connecting them up with the real meaning behind what you're doing. Making a difference and communicating that will also help you connect with potential future employees so that they're more likely to join your firm rather than another, ultimately making a difference to the business owner clients that you currently work with, as well as to future prospective clients. If these future prospective clients are able to see that you can really make a difference to them and their business, they’re more likely, obviously, to want to work with you and your firm. In this podcast with Mark Walker of VFD Pro, Mark unpacks his experience as a senior financial professional, including his time as a board-level finance officer at Carnival Cruises and his work with The Co-Op, as well as with a number of SMEs.  He has built a product, a tool, that's shown him, his client accountancy firms and their clients how they can make a difference by better connecting. Yes, there is a conversation around the future of their business, and yes, around the finances, but also around the whole business, so that there's a stronger relationship. That's why I think this podcast discussion is so important. I hope you'll take time out to go to humanisethenumbers.online or to your favourite podcast platform to find this podcast with Mark Walker. I’m sure you’ll find it really valuable. Please scroll down this episode page for the contact information for Mark and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in this podcast.
Steve Pipe, speaker and author - Advisors to the Profession series
Apr 4 2024
Steve Pipe, speaker and author - Advisors to the Profession series
As we approached our 100th edition of the Humanise The Numbers podcast, we found choosing someone to invite as the guest a bit challenging. But then we thought, what if we could make a global impact by having the right standard of guest, one that could inspire you, your firm, your team, your clients, maybe, to transform the numbers that really matter in your firm and across your clients’ businesses? And that's why we brought in Mr. Steve Pipe, with whom I had the great privilege of working during the first five years of my career supporting ambitious accountants. Steve speaks in a deep and meaningful way about core purpose and values, about engaging your team, about making a difference on a level that is inspiring, but also challenging, and in a way that’s quite practical. I hope you'll take time out to hear the message that Steve shares and that you’ll take some action off the back of it – this will benefit your team and the commercial results of your firm and it could have a profound and positive impact on your clients as well. And that work could then go on to have a global impact. So please go to www.humanisethenumbers.online to find the podcast with Mr. Steve Pipe, Chartered Accountant, or go to your favourite podcast platform. I hope you find this conversation as stimulating and valuable as my team and I have.Scroll down this episode page for the contact information for Steve and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in this podcast.
Subarna Banerjee, Managing Partner at UHY Hacker Young LLP and Chairman of UHY International, Leadership Development series
Mar 28 2024
Subarna Banerjee, Managing Partner at UHY Hacker Young LLP and Chairman of UHY International, Leadership Development series
It's easy for us to assume you want a more successful firm. You also probably want a more enjoyable place to work. I guess the big question is, which comes first – a more enjoyable firm or a more successful, more profitable firm? On this Humanise The Numbers podcast with the Managing Partner of UHY Hacker Young in London and Nottingham, Subarna Banerjee, you'll hear Subarna dive deep into his team-first approach – an approach that's led to the commercial results that they've enjoyed in recent times. You’ll also hear about his deep commitment to a core purpose and a set of values that aren't just corporate wall art, aren't just corporate BS, but real, alive and making a difference for his team and, at the same time, informing their decisions around their customers. If you're seeking out ways and means of building a more successful firm, consider checking out what Subarna has to say about a team-first approach, as opposed to one that is commercial-first, and see how, if you do that in an authentic way, you can build a more successful firm. Please go to www.humanisethenumbers.online or go to your favourite podcast platform and seek out the Humanise the Numbers podcast with Subarna Banerjee. I look forward to seeing you there. Scroll down this episode page for the contact information for Subarna and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in this podcast.
Darren Glanville of Fathom
Jan 12 2024
Darren Glanville of Fathom
It’s stating the blatantly obvious that, when you and your team build the knowledge, the skills and the habits that result in a deeper, more trusting, more valuable relationship with your clients, you'll end up with a more successful firm. That success comes because deeper relationships with clients mean that they’ll stay with you longer, they’ll be more loyal, they’ll buy more services from you, they’ll be more willing to pay higher fees, and yes, they’ll recommend you to their friends in business as well. On this Humanise The Numbers podcast with Darren Glanville, the country manager for Fathom, you'll hear Darren unpack and share his insights on how, when you and your team drop into learning mode, you will end up building stronger, deeper, more trusting, more valuable relationships with your clients. Learning mode's about being curious, and what I loved about the conversation with Darren was this blend of questions, conversations and curiosity about the past, present and future, and how this leads to stronger, better, deeper, more trusting conversations and better, deeper relationships with clients. By checking out this podcast with Darren, you'll tap into his experience of working with accountants over many years. But you'll also be signposted to the knowledge, the skills and the habits needed to enhance the quality of the relationships you and your team have with your clients. So why not go to www.humanisethnumbers.online or to your favourite podcast platform for this Humanise The Numbers podcast with Darren Glanville.Scroll down the podcast episode page for the contact information for Darren and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in this podcast.
Daniel Hood, editor-in-chief of Accounting Today
Dec 8 2023
Daniel Hood, editor-in-chief of Accounting Today
If you are brilliant or remarkable or just getting better at leading and managing your team, personalising and humanising how you work with them, and you’re brilliant or remarkable or getting better at working with your clients, then you’re going to have a more successful firm. It's stating the blatantly obvious. Also, if you are leading and managing change in your firm – because change is inevitable, the speed of change is increasing and a key skill is adapting and adopting the changes that are hitting the profession – then improve your leading and managing change skills and you will build a stronger, better, more resilient and highly thriving accountancy firm. I've just described three key themes that show up in a podcast discussion with Daniel Hood, who is the editor-in-chief of Accounting Today from the USA. This podcast gives us a USA perspective, an overview, on the accounting profession abroad. What Dan does brilliantly is unpack how important personalising things are for your team and your clients, how leading and managing change is a key skill in which to invest time, effort and energy and, generally, how humanising things pays off big for accounting firms. There’s lots to take from Dan's insights. I hope you enjoy this discussion as much as I did with Dan, so please go to www.humanisethenumbers.online or go to your favourite podcast platform and seek out the Humanise The Numbers podcast. Once on this episode page, please scroll down for the contact information for Daniel and the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in this podcast.
Katie Hawking of Dext
Oct 6 2023
Katie Hawking of Dext
I found it profoundly, remarkably, valuable to enter into a podcast discussion with someone who has a really broad perspective across the profession – someone who spent 15 years in practice, someone who has worked at technology companies such as Xero and Dext and who works now with literally hundreds of leaders and managers of accounting firms, someone who can signpost what the best firms are doing compared with the other firms in the industry when it comes to brilliantly connecting with their team to get the best from them, brilliantly connecting with their clients so that they can make a big difference, feel pride in their work and generate great profits for the firm. But also doing something special around – and Katie uses a phrase on this podcast discussion about ‘choosing your ending’, which I thought was brilliant – connecting with vision and goals. What are the goals and vision of your people, of each individual within your firm? She talks about personalisation as well, connecting with the ending in mind, the vision of your clients, having a conversation with them about the future of their business and, actually, about the future of the firm as a whole. I'm sure you'll find this podcast both entertaining and valuable, listening in to what Katie's got to say about the accountancy profession and how it can have a positive and meaningful impact on you and your firm. So please go to www.humanisethenumbers online or to your favourite podcast platform and look out for Katie Hawking. Scroll down when on this episode page for the contact information for Katie and for the additional, downloadable resources mentioned in this podcast.