Track #1 (Raleigh)

The Advisory Amplified tour kicked off in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Nancy McClelland (the Dancing Accountant and host of She Counts) brought her purple mic from the night-before pre-show all the way to the closing happy hour. Attendees, speakers and partners talk about what's really keeping firms from offering advisory: feeling like a fraud, clients who want advice but won't pay for it, teams stuck in reactive compliance, and how new accountants will build judgment once the junior work is automated.

Firm owners also share what's working for them. They price advisory into tiers clients can see, show ROI in money or in time, niche deeper, and use the day's best ideal-client advice: "hold out or hold your nose." You'll also meet a first-timer who left her first accounting conference with an action list, hear how the IKEA effect applies to change management, and learn why meeting firms nearby leads to better referrals.

Featuring Margie Remmers, Lynnette Oss Connell, Rich Francis, Becky Martinez, Audrey Blackburn, Sami Grady, Sabrina Parris, April Walker, Megan Lewczyk, Scott Scarano, Tony Proctor and more.

Chapters

00:00 Welcome to Raleigh
03:16 Pre-show with Margie Remmers: the experience gap
07:56 Morning roving interviews: what's holding advisory back
21:00 How do you get clients to pay for advisory?
25:12 Tiered pricing and niching
35:56 Scaling relationship-driven work
39:12 Becky's first accounting conference
46:40 The QR code earrings story
49:28 Happy hour takeaways
59:44 Accounting Cornerstone Foundation
61:08 Tony Proctor on why local events work
68:08 Wrap-up and next stop: Nashville