Rebekah Brown | The Rising Tide Lifts All Boats: Why the MACPA & BLI Want to Train Every CPA to be Anticipatory & Future-Proof

Rebekah Brown is the Director of Development for the Maryland Association of CPAs and the Business Learning Institute. Rebekah frequently presents to groups both locally and nationally on the future of the accounting profession and, as a certified Insight to Action facilitator, she has guided firms, nonprofits, and accounting professionals in the United States and Canada in their strategic planning process.
 
On top of all the work that Rebekah does, she’s just downright passionate about the profession, taking a “rising tide raises all ships” philosophy to everything she does to train and educate her fellow and future accountants.
 
Rebekah focuses on what she calls the three P’s:
 
People – “I develop people! I am passionate ... about helping people find their strengths and find their place in the accounting profession. So, on an individual basis, with each of our members, I want to help develop them and develop their careers.”
Pipeline – MACPA is over  100 years old, and in that time they’ve learned that we have to be constantly thinking about and developing future CPAs. So a lot of Rebekah’s work involves talking to college students, high school students, and even elementary school students about the accounting profession. “So, I’m always thinking about who is our next generation CPA, who's our next generation member, and preparing them for the profession.”
Profession – The MACPA isn’t solely focused preparing accounting and finance professionals in Maryland. “We really believe that the rising tide raises all boats. So, we want the profession to grow to be successful, to be anticipatory, to be future-ready. And so, as we do that all over the world, we believe we are benefiting Maryland, and we believe that Maryland CPAs are even better positioned to be future-ready because of that.”
 
Speaking of the future of the profession, there was an article in Accounting Today titled “Melancon: It’s time to reimagine accounting” covering a presentation that Barry Melancon, the President and CEO of the AICPA, made this year at the AICPA ENGAGE Conference.
 
My favorite quote from this article is when Barry says, "We've changed significantly just in the past year, and we're never going to see the pace of change that's slower than what we're seeing now. And, you know, we won't be obsolete, particularly, if we embrace these changes."
 
Just let that sink in. How does that affect you and your business, and how does that affect you as an accounting financial professional as we move forward?
 
I highly recommend reading the article and listening to Barry's podcast interview with Bill Sheridan on Future-Proof, a podcast for accounting and financial pros.
 
After doing so myself, I have decided to invest my CPE time and dollars into learning more about blockchain and artificial intelligence. I've been somewhat reluctant to do this, but I want to have this better understanding of this technology.
 
Resources:
Learn more: MACPA.org | BLIonline.org
Connect with Rebekah: Twitter | LinkedIn
Listen to Peter on Episode 19 of Future-Proof & subscribe on Apple Podcasts
 
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Change Your Mindset is produced by Podcast Masters

Rebekah Brown is the Director of Development for the Maryland Association of CPAs and the Business Learning Institute. Rebekah frequently presents to groups both locally and nationally on the future of the accounting profession and, as a certified Insight to Action facilitator, she has guided firms, nonprofits, and accounting professionals in the United States and Canada in their strategic planning process.

 

On top of all the work that Rebekah does, she’s just downright passionate about the profession, taking a “rising tide raises all ships” philosophy to everything she does to train and educate her fellow and future accountants.

 

Rebekah focuses on what she calls the three P’s:

 

People – “I develop people! I am passionate ... about helping people find their strengths and find their place in the accounting profession. So, on an individual basis, with each of our members, I want to help develop them and develop their careers.” Pipeline – MACPA is over  100 years old, and in that time they’ve learned that we have to be constantly thinking about and developing future CPAs. So a lot of Rebekah’s work involves talking to college students, high school students, and even elementary school students about the accounting profession. “So, I’m always thinking about who is our next generation CPA, who's our next generation member, and preparing them for the profession.” Profession – The MACPA isn’t solely focused preparing accounting and finance professionals in Maryland. “We really believe that the rising tide raises all boats. So, we want the profession to grow to be successful, to be anticipatory, to be future-ready. And so, as we do that all over the world, we believe we are benefiting Maryland, and we believe that Maryland CPAs are even better positioned to be future-ready because of that.”

 

Speaking of the future of the profession, there was an article in Accounting Today titled “Melancon: It’s time to reimagine accounting” covering a presentation that Barry Melancon, the President and CEO of the AICPA, made this year at the AICPA ENGAGE Conference.

 

My favorite quote from this article is when Barry says, "We've changed significantly just in the past year, and we're never going to see the pace of change that's slower than what we're seeing now. And, you know, we won't be obsolete, particularly, if we embrace these changes."

 

Just let that sink in. How does that affect you and your business, and how does that affect you as an accounting financial professional as we move forward?

 

I highly recommend reading the article and listening to Barry's podcast interview with Bill Sheridan on Future-Proof, a podcast for accounting and financial pros.

 

After doing so myself, I have decided to invest my CPE time and dollars into learning more about blockchain and artificial intelligence. I've been somewhat reluctant to do this, but I want to have this better understanding of this technology.

 

Resources:

Learn more: MACPA.org | BLIonline.org Connect with Rebekah: Twitter | LinkedIn Listen to Peter on Episode 19 of Future-Proof & subscribe on Apple Podcasts

 

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Change Your Mindset is produced by Podcast Masters