Most tax and accounting firms are not broken.
They are incomplete.

In this episode of The Growth-Minded Accountant, Lee Reams and Rebekah Barton introduce a simple but powerful framework that explains why so many firms feel harder to run than they should.

Every firm has three layers.

The Work Layer handles compliance and deliverables.

The Team Layer organizes people, tasks, and workflow.

The third layer, the Client Experience Layer, is where most firms struggle, not because they are doing something wrong, but because no one ever taught them to build it.

This is the layer where onboarding happens, communication lives, proposals are signed, payments flow, and clients understand what comes next. It is also the layer clients actually experience.

When this layer is missing, firms become reactive. Bottlenecks feel normal. Advisory gets pushed off. Stress becomes part of the job.

When it is in place, everything changes.

As the accounting profession moves into the AI and advisory age, the firms that invest in the Client Experience Layer are not just reducing friction. They are the firms positioned to lead, with clearer narratives, stronger trust, and more scalable client relationships.

This episode is a foundational conversation for firm owners who want a modern, predictable, and lower-stress practice heading into 2026 and beyond.

🎙️ The Growth-Minded Accountant
Hosted by Lee Reams II and Rebekah Barton

As we close out the year, this episode of The Growth Minded Accountant is a little different.

No guest.
No hype.
Just an honest look at what’s coming next for tax and accounting firms.

In this year-end solo episode, Lee Reams II shares his 2026 predictions—not based on headlines or fear-driven narratives, but on patterns he’s seen repeat over the last decade.

The short version:

By 2026, AI will be the standard.
What will separate winning firms from everyone else won’t be technology—it will be relationships.

In this episode, Lee covers:

• Why not using AI will be a problem—but using AI won’t be impressive
• What happens when knowledge and answers become cheap
• Why trust, context, and communication become the real differentiators
• How advisory is moving downmarket, not just upmarket
• Where platform pressure and automation show up first
• Why adoption will be slower than the headlines suggest—and why that’s an opportunity

Lee also reflects on a Forbes article he wrote in 2016 about artificial intelligence and cloud accounting—and why many of those predictions played out almost exactly as expected.

🧠 Read the Forbes article referenced in this episode:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesfinancecouncil/2016/10/11/will-artificial-intelligence-and-cloud-accounting-replace-the-accountants-of-tomorrow/

This episode isn’t about replacing accountants.
It’s about building firms that use automation to free up time—and reinvest it into better relationships.

If you’re thinking about how to position your firm heading into 2026, this conversation is for you.

Happy New Year—and welcome to what’s next.

AI-powered search is fundamentally changing how people discover tax and accounting professionals — and the 2026 tax law reset is about to separate firms that are prepared from those that aren’t.

In this episode of The Growth Minded Accountant, Lee Reams and Rebekah Barton unpack two major forces converging at the same time:

• Why AI search tools are reducing visibility for generic tax and accounting websites
• How discovery now works when search engines synthesize answers instead of ranking pages
• What the 2026 tax reset means for client expectations, planning demand, and advisory opportunities
• Why narrative, authority, and clarity matter more than templates and keywords
• How firms can transition from compliance-heavy work to higher-value advisory without increasing headcount

This conversation isn’t about chasing trends or fear-based marketing. It’s about understanding how visibility, trust, and firm growth now work — and how growth-minded tax and accounting professionals can position themselves to win heading into 2026.

If you’re a CPA, EA, or tax professional thinking about the future of your firm, this episode will challenge how you think about discovery, positioning, and advisory growth.