AI Has Become the Gatekeeper Between Your Referrals and Your Next Client

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Welcome back to the latest episode of the Growth Minded Accountant Podcast.

Today's topic is AI has become the gatekeeper between your referrals and your next client. And you're going to say, "Wait a second, that's interesting, and that sounds like disruption to me." And today, we're going to go through how that is happening, how it has already happened, and more importantly, how you can adapt to this new reality and help your firm get recommended more, make that gatekeeper super happy to say, "Yes. Yes, choose them." So, as usual, I'm joined by my chief visibility officer, Rebekah Barton. If you could say hello.

Hello, everybody. This is going to be a really good one.

Yeah. So, we're going to talk about a way that AI has already disrupted our space. Okay? This is not a someday discussion. This is not when AI starts preparing tax returns, not when agents replace admin work, but this is right now. We've already seen this. We're seeing this in our large client base.

We're seeing it daily, right?  more importantly, we're seeing how to use it to make our firms become more successful. So AI is changing what happens between a client referring your firm and the prospect deciding whether or not to call you and  you know that is the idea that I want to leave with you today. The referral still begins with a person you know human to human but AI now has become the gatekeeper and we're going to show you how that happens give you real life examples and more importantly how you can make that gatekeeper again refer you. So for decades, tax and accounting firms built their practices on referrals, right? We were in a word of mouth  industry.

A client told a friend, "Hey, you should call my CPA or an attorney recommends your firm.  perhaps a financial advisor made an introduction." And in the old days, that referral often led directly to a phone call, right? You know, referral, pick up the phone, calling, thank you very much. That was it, right? There wasn't that much friction. there was not that many other stories about your firm or other sources of knowledge that could disrupt that. So today  it usually doesn't happen that way. So the person hears your name, but before they contact you, they actually search, you know, they look at your website, maybe they read your reviews, but more importantly, increasingly, they're just going straight to Chat GBT.

Cut out the middleman, Google. Let's go straight to Chat GBT or Gemini Answers or Perplexity, right? So that does this firm really understand my situation. You also got to realize that these tools understand the user. So they know they're a realer, they know they own a restaurant. They know they live in San Francisco, right? They're a high netw worth person, right? Do they specialize in my industry? Those are the things it's going to be looking for. Are they the best fit? Who else should I consider? And that is the disruption. So AI now is standing between the referral and that phone call. And if AI cannot find enough evidence to validate your firm, that prospect may never contact you. And worse yet is you don't even know that, right? So the referral did not disappear. The referral funnel changed. And what's even scarier, that referral that started towards you probably ended up recommending another firm. So that is what we want to stop from happening. So, Rebecca, when you hear what I just kind of threw out there, does it match what you  think, you know, your own personal experiences, how people are making decisions today?

Absolutely it does. Yeah. So, even when someone we trust recommends a business in this day and age, almost everyone still validates it online.  I have a good example of this. My best friend, who I trust more than anyone in the world, we've been best friends over 20 years.  she recommended a new nail brand to me. We wear like these press on nails, both of us. And two weeks ago, she was like, "Hey, I found this new nail brand. They've stayed on really well. You should try them." I totally trust her opinion of this brand. But the first thing I did, I do I'm going to tell her to watch this that she got a mention, but the very first thing I did was go to Chad GPT and look up that nail brand and see what it had to say about it.  even though I trusted it, you know, entirely. And people do it with everything. restaurants, contractors, doctors, attorneys, accountants.  so really from the very smallest things like a set of press on nails to the very biggest things like someone who's going to be handling your financial decisions so you can afford press on nails, you know.  the the AI systems are providing information, recommendations, and people want confirmation that what they've been told is actually accurate and that it is the right choice for them. And people trust AI. I think that's another thing we have to mention here. People trust their AI assistance. They trust ChatGpt. They trust Gemini.

Whatever their platform of choice is, it knows them very well most of the time. And they trust that it will tell them if that accountant or that CPA or that tax professional really is the right person for them. So the referral still matters, but it's not the only voice that's influencing the decision anymore when people go to actually pick up the phone or schedule an appointment. Yeah. Yeah, I mean another way to look at this instead of visiting five websites that you found in the blue links and try to compare everything themselves, they can ask one question and get a summarized answer. So the referral still matters, but is no longer the only voice influencing the decision.

And I think that's what's really important to understand. And I'm going to break it down even further. I think there's and I'm going to call it the three generations of the referral pipeline. And the first generation, which we're all used to and how most firms grew, is pure word of mouth. So call it referral 1.0 if you want. So you were your reputation was built offline, right? Clients referred friends, attorneys, and financial advisors sent you business. People knew you in the community, right? If someone trusted the person making the introduction, that was usually enough, you know? And then we moved into what I'm going to call referral 2.0. And that's really the Google era. the blue link error, right?

So, people still received a referral, but before calling you, they may have looked you up. They may have gone to Google and and said, "Hey, you know, let's look this person up." So, your website actually mattered. Was it professional? Was it speaking to me?

Right?  you know, was it dated by any means? Was your Google profile mattered, right? Did you have a lot of five star reviews?  that really matters. What other people say about you. Local search mattered. So that's when it got into what I'll call search engine optimization. The old days of what really mattered was SEO, right? So how do I make it so my brand is indexed higher than my competitors, right? So then if someone found an outdated website, weak reviews or very little information about your firm, you could lose a referral you already had earned.

but you know, that probably didn't happen that often.  but that was the last major shift until entering what I'm going to call referral 3.0. 0. So let's call this the AI recommen recommendation era. And this is different because AI does not give people a list of websites anymore, right? So it's not a bunch of blue links. It attempts to interpret the information for them. So 10 years ago, you know, someone searched, hey, best CPA for dentists near me, Google return links. The prospect clicked through these websites. They read the reviews and maybe made the comparison themselves based on what information they found. So today that person may ask an AI platform the same exact question but that is the experience is completely different right so the AI may summarize which firms appear to specialize in dentists you know what do they write about what's on their blog what's on their social are they making videos on YouTube for example how are they reviewed you know do people love them and then are they talking about dental firms right you know which one seems the most relevant and that means AI is no longer just helping people discover firms firms. It is helping them decide between firms.

That is the gatekeeper. They're actually that final block. They're opening the door and closing the door for you. So, Rebecca, I think this is, you know, I guess maybe let's look at it. So, what do you how would you explain the yesterday versus today? I kind of gave that example, but you know, let's just nail this a little bit more.

Yeah, you did. But I think yesterday in the old days,  people searched for information, right? And today they're asking AI to interpret that same information. The older process was, you know, get a referral, you Google the firm, you're given a list of 10 results.

They're sort of personalized, but mostly by location or by who has the best keywords or by who is winning the homecoming queen contest that year because everything was all about popularity, right? And authority.  and usually the authority that you had based on how long you'd owned your URL, things like that. And so then they would read the reviews if there were any and they would make a decision usually based on the first 10 to 15 results that they saw. Today people are typing information into their AI systems. But the AI systems are relying on more than just that query. Whereas Google would rely on a single query and a bunch of keywords or key phrases. What we see today is much more fluid.  the AI system knows who they are. It knows what they do.

They may not be searching specifically for an accountant who does dentists, right? Or who specializes in dentists, but maybe the AI system knows that they are a dentist. So, it's going to automatically connect them to people who specialize in that particular niche.

That is where things are wildly different than Google. AI knows its user in a way that Google simply never did. Old Google, not current Gemini, but the way that old SEO Google that we think of 10 or 15 years ago.  I grew up with that form of SEO. It's what it's what raised me in this industry and it has changed a lot.  so it's really important for people to understand that AI is not just looking at the keywords on your website. It's not just looking at how many reviews you have. It's aggregating things across the web to really get an idea of who you are as a brand. So your website matters, your reviews still matter, Google still matters, but these AI engines have been added on top of all of it as an added layer that's extremely important to impress when it really comes down to it.

Yeah, this gate cap gatekeeper layer is something else. And I think, you know, many firms are still asking what I think is the wrong question. They're still asking, you know, how do I improve our SEO? Okay.  and I we're not discounting SEO is still important. It still brings a lot of traffic and it actually feeds a lot of a narrative of how these gatekeepers analyze you. It's still very important. A lot of elements in SEO really matter, but prospects have already moved beyond search. Google in May made the big change. It's moved on beyond search and blue links. And they are asking AI to help them make a decision.  and I'll give a perfect example. I'm looking for a 409A.

I want to manage our cap table. I want to clean up everything. So the old days I, you know, you could go to Google and I knew what card I was, right? So today I I went to Chat GPT. I typed in, hey, this is what I'm looking for. Chat GPT already knows the size of my firm.

We have less than 40 shareholders. It knows our growth rates. It knows our vertical. It knows what we're trying to do. It knows our revenue, everything. It's like, no, I, you know, I'm not going to take you to Carter. I actually recommend Pulley for you. Totally different brand. It nailed why it was important, how it was different. Carter was more this direction. Pulley is more made for our size company. That is the modern-day decision tree, right? So, I went in, I was going one direction and guess what? AI, the gatekeeper, recommended another one. And that's really important for you. So, you want to make sure that AI can clearly understand what your firm is known for and that is what the gatekeeper is looking for. So,  you know, it's not looking for the polished nicest logo per se. It's looking for evidence and this is really important and this is why when we talk about geo which is basically the SEO for these chat GPT tools. It wants to see what you do, who you specialize in. Is there any proof to what you say?

You can't fake it till you make it with AI. AI is going to go look at all those reviews. It's going to look at Reddit.

It's going to look at the artist articles that you published. You know, if you're in the real estate  vertical, for example, you know, are they writing articles about cost segregation? Have they explained anything about 1031 exchanges? And that's I'm saying if you're saying, "Hey, we specialize in real estate investors." So, where is the proof? It's in, you know, have they talked about passive activity rules for short-term rentals? You know, do its reviews actually mention real estate professionals are experienced, right?

So, does the firm consistently answer these questions  real estate investors actually ask? And that is the difference between making a claim and demonstrating expertise. So, I'll give a real quick example. I just want to dial this in.

Imagine two firms. Firm A has one service page saying that it works with real estate investors. Okay? I work that I have a specialty. Firm B though has a service page, but it also has articles. It has FAQs. It's sending newsletters about real estate issues. It has videos. It has reals. Its reviews talk about real estate investors. And it has social posts that consistently demonstrate real estate tax knowledge, you know. So, which firm do you think is easier for a prospect to trust? Obviously,  B, right? Which firm is easier for AI to understand? And you know, the answer is 100% firm B. Not necessarily because it's a better tax and accounting firm, but it is because it has created more visible evidence of its expertise. That is the lesson. That is the takeaway. So AI is not changing what expertise means.

It is changing how expertise gets discovered and validated. And I want to make sure I talk to the generalists about this. So  you know it is a challenge for the firms that sound exactly like every other firm. They have cookie cutter websites. They copied someone else's website. They say the same exact thing. And there's tens of thousands of these sites out there. And what's happening is they're slowly but steadily following down in the exposure to the market. And more importantly, when you're being analyzed by that referral, you know, an AI all of a sudden starts recommending other firms when you own that referral. That's the problem. So what is the language they're currently using? You know, we provide tax preparation, bookkeeping, payroll, accounting, and advisory services to individuals and businesses. And that may be 100% accurate who you work with, but it gives both people and AI very little reason to choose your firm over another one, right? You have no story. You have no positioning. You're not connecting with a person. More importantly, you're not giving the talking points to the AI engines, right? So, you don't have to stop being a general practice, but you do need to be known for something. So maybe it's physicians, maybe it's a certain quality  you know white glove service, concier service, a certain type of advisory, right? Maybe it's real estate investors like the example, you know, maybe you work with construction companies. Maybe you work with dual income or boomers, people nearing retirement, you know, that are preparing for retirement. Maybe it's navigating how social security and Medicare  work together. So some sort of planning there. You still serve many types of clients, but the clearer your expertise is, the easier it becomes for AI to match your firm with a specific question or that referral, right? Should I work with Lee Reams and Associates? And they know, hey, Lee owns or you know, Lee Reams and Associates  works with dental firms. I am a dental firm. Yeah, that connection that makes sense. That referral is connected. The gatekeeper says, "Yeah, and more importantly, these are the reasons why." If you went to that firm A and there was no context, no reviews, no to story.

Guess what happens? You know that I don't know if that's a perfect match, but I found Rebecca, you know, S and you Jose down the street, right? And that is who I'd recommend. Here, check this out. and then all of a sudden your referral got hijacked and now that that prospect who you thought was calling you disappears and you know you you didn't even know you missed it. Right? So that's the practical part of today's episode. That was kind of what the biggest takeaway. So Rebecca, if a CPA or an EA firm owner understands that AI is now part of the referral process, it's that gatekeeper. It's saying, "Yeah, it's validating or saying no, go this direction." What are some things that firms can do next to help them be that firm that's always recommended? So, we like lists. We like takeaways.

Today's podcast we're doing. So, yes, we have a list. I have a helpful list for you that hopefully will will kind of stick in your mind.  we were saying earlier we wish that this list kind of had a nice like word that it made, but it doesn't. But the words are answer, specialize, publish, distribute, and test, which spells nothing. but you can try to remember that anyway.  so I'll just give a little bit of detail about all of these. I know we're we're a little short on time today, but I'll just go over them quickly. So, the first thing you want to do is answer the questions that clients are already asking. Every client meeting, every email you receive, every phone call you get during the day contains potential content. Stop looking at these questions as just something you have to answer and start looking at them as content you can put online to start feeding the engines.

If you're already answering these questions, there's absolutely no reason you shouldn't be answering them in YouTube videos, in reals on Instagram, in blog posts, in  FAQs on your website. All of those things are very important and they can all play a role in establishing your expertise and what it is that you're good at and in teaching these AI systems who your firm really is. So, that is so easy. It's such lowhanging fruit. All you have to do is turn the questions you're already answering into questions that you're answering online.  I say that I probably need this on like a t-shirt or a sweatshirt now, but the internet doesn't know what you don't tell it. So, it is possible that you are the greatest  dental CPA in the entire world, but if you're not actually publishing content about things that matter to dentists, nobody is actually going to know that and you're going to just fall to the bottom of the barrel.

So, Rebecca, before you get into that, think of it as your salesforce. This is your business development team that works 24/7. So, if you're training them, you're dialing them in to your story and how to present your firm differently than others, you are going to have an in entirely different flow of inbound, you know, more referrals, more importantly, inbound leads. So, go ahead, go to specialize.

I know. Absolutely. No, that's that's a really good point. We already kind of went into specialize. You need to clearly communicate the industries, the client types, the planning areas where your firm has expertise and experience. This can also be a location. We didn't mention that earlier, but we have some firms that their town is their niche. The towns are too small, maybe one or two thousand people for them to have a clear niche specialty because there's only like one doctor. So, that would not really, you know, be a viable way for them to to run a firm. But the local expertise and the fact that they are in those small communities, that is their niche. So that's another option if you're saying you know wow I live somewhere that you know there's not a lot of population and I can't really specialize because we don't have enough of any particular industry. So we're also not saying you have to turn away other business. You don't need to pigeon hole yourself but you just need to make it easier for both prospects and AI to understand your strengths. Everyone has a strength and every firm has a strength. So don't be afraid to put it out there. Third, publish. Consistency matters more than volume. Though you should not take 6 months off, right? We don't want to see you publish something and then half a year later you come back with another video or another blog post.

Consistency within reason.  I often tell people if you can do two blog posts a week and do that consistently, that's great. Don't try to do one every day if you're going to burn out, right? Burnout is real. And also coming up with that much content when you're not used to it can be challenging. So stick to a couple of times a week if you need to. And remember, you can put the same content topic on every platform. Write a blog post about a question that someone asked you, then record a real about it. Then answer that same question slightly longer form on YouTube. Three pieces of content out of one single question is not bad. Then fourth, you want to distribute that content. If you're going to go to the effort of making it, don't just leave it trapped on your website in a blog that may or may not be seen.

Share it through email, through newsletters that are specialized to different industries or different locations or different service types. Post it to your social media, crossost every blog post you publish. That's a really easy way to distribute. The AI systems are going to pick up on that. Mention what you do on podcasts,  professional associations you're in, you know, reviews, directories. There's so many things that you can do to get content out there. And another thing I want people to remember is that you're not always writing for someone to find it. While that's nice, you are primarily writing for the algorithms to know who you are, what you do, and be able to easily recommend you. So, don't get discouraged if you're not getting hundreds of hits on every blog post.

That's not really the point. In the long run, those blog posts are going to do their job by training the AI systems on who you are. And then the fifth thing is to test it. So go to GPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI, whatever your platform of choice is or all of them if you want to be comprehensive and ask questions that a prospective client might ask. See where your firm appears. see where you know what gaps you might have, how it's describing you, the way the internet views you, and then use that information to kind of identify what you need to do to kind of fill in those gaps and to really be recommended for the things that you want to be recommended for or the services you want to be recommended for or within those industries.  so this is something that really every firm can use. It doesn't matter what your specialty is.

It doesn't matter how big or small you are. This framework will work for everyone.

Yes it does. The only thing I would add to that is tell a unique story. So, put your personality out there. If you like fly fishing, if you like running, if you like CrossFit, if you're into football, whatever, right? You want to tell that, infuse that into your story because that is going to start, you know, adding fuel, I guess, to the fire when you're being set up with that gatekeeper. they're going to be able to utilize those talking points and say, "Hey, by the way, you know, you're a gym rat. By the way, this guy does CrossFit and that would be a great fit for you." So, answer real questions, specialize around valuable problems that lots of people have or your at least your target audience has, right? Publish consistently like Rebecca said, make sure you distribute this expertise.

Testing what AI says is the best thing. We do this all the time. I actually audit us every 30 days now. I look at why is chat GPT not looking at us as you know whatever and where are the holes that we have and then we'll go in iterate create more content around that to make sure that we're shown in the best light possible and this works. We we tested ourselves. This does work. We're not just telling you to do this. This is a really great way to start getting recommended for the things you want to be recommended for. Like we have seen it working in our own content.  I think earlier Lee you were looking up something and our podcast was actually it popped up as an authority on that topic. So this is something we were recommended.

Yeah we we practice what we preach on this front though like it really does work and I also make every client I on board tell me personal information that we can infuse in their website. So we do that too.  we had someone today who had a really good one. She grew up in Bellarus and didn't move here until the 90s and her hobby growing up was water rafting in Russia through all the rivers.

Yeah, that is a good story and that is something that will connect and differentiates you from, you know, what whatever you want to call the cookie cutter sites that are out there. Unfortunately, I guess that's the good news. Most of our vertical is a a a I guess a desert of cookie cutter websites saying the same exact thing. No real story. And they're not getting recommended. When that referral is coming in, often they're being hijacked right now.  and one thing that I don't think we've mentioned is the beauty of what we're talking about is you see the effects very quickly as Rebecca just said. So, traditional SEO could take 3 months, 6 months, 12 months. I mean, it takes a long, long time to build up that authority, that trust to be that popular one in the geo space. And that's what we're talking about now. You can make changes to your website, your brand, your messaging, the content you're correct that you're putting out there, and you can see results very, very quickly. you want to look for work for  a CPA from micro breweries in Indiana, you know, Rebecca's hometown area, you can create content around that and start getting recommended very quickly. Those matches will start happening.  and the beauty of utilizing content and sharing your expertise properly. So here I'll give you a couple examples of some queries. You know, who specialize in real estate tax planning in my city, right? So in Las Vegas. See who comes up. you know, do you think you should be beating them?

What are their talking points? Why are they being recommended? Do they actually publish what it's like to work with them? Maybe they publish their rates. Maybe they say, "Here is the user experience. This is what we do. This is how we offer advisory services." Those tidbits will be the differentiator between the firm A that's being recommended perhaps in your firm. Another example, who helps physicians with proactive tax planning? You know, are is your firm seating the internet that you guys do  advisory for physicians and giving actual examples. Are the reviews from physicians mentioning your firm? This is how the game works. Okay? You know, another example, which accounting firms work with construction companies? No, we can go on and on. So, but if your firm does not appear, this is not a panic situation, but this is time to pay attention because there is a way to gain I'm not going to call it game the system. there's a way to properly earn your recommendation, right?  and you want to make sure that that prospective client, you know, sees the best of you, if that makes sense. So, I'm going to go back, Rebecca, and I'm going to talk about actually I'm going to hand this off to you.  let's go back to the whole referral gatekeeper concept that I'm talking about. So, referral comes in. You know, firms are probably tracking what they receive. They know who called. They know who scheduled a meeting, but do you really know how many you're losing? So kind of explain a little bit about again kind of the game of how it worked and and where we're going.

Yeah, absolutely. So that's the scary part about AI, right? A little bit scary is that there is no way to track how many times you didn't get referred.  so that's why positioning is important because you you want to be recommended to the people who fit your mold or who fit your target audience, right? So, if someone receives your name, they look you up, they ask AI about your firm, and they don't find enough evidence, AI doesn't find enough evidence that you understand the situation that has been described to them by this user, they'll choose someone else.

Well, they're going to be recommended. The gatekeeper is going to choose someone else.

Exactly. The gatekeeper is going to choose someone else. That's it. It always makes me think of like the the troll at the Billy Goat Gruff Bridge in the old fairy tale. Like, you just can't get through no matter what you do. But that's the reality of the situation. Now, on the flip side, if you're well positioned, it's easier than ever to get recommended because AI doesn't care if you're Forbes. It doesn't care if you're nerd wallet. It doesn't care who you are. It cares that you are the one who's exhibiting expertise in whatever your chosen area is. So, that's where kind of the silver lining in all of this is, and I don't want people to get scared off because there is an absolutely massive opportunity here for small and medium-sized accounting and tax firms, but you've got to do the work. You've got to get your website up to snuff.

You've got to be publishing. You've got to be posting consistently. And you've got to have a web footprint that extends beyond your website.  otherwise, the systems aren't really going to care who you are. So there's in we call it invisible referral leakage really and I think it's happening a lot more than firms realize because there's no way to know how many times someone in your city searched for an accounting professional and you didn't make the cut.

Well, more importantly, yeah, you don't know how many people what how many people are referring you and they're not calling. Exactly. I think that is kind of the role of modern marketing. It's not only attracting attention like the old days with SEO and links. It's about reducing uncertainty and that's why you telling the story  starts doing that.

A strong digital presence should confirm the recommendation the prospect already received. It should make them think yes this firm understands what I need. You know cousin S was right on with this one or whoever your friend with the nails or whatever. They were they nailed this one.  but it should not make them wonder. It's it shouldn't make them have more doubt. I'm not sure this is the right fit. Or you don't want it to open up Pandora's box and show a bunch of other professionals that they didn't even know existed. So uncertainty almost always benefits the competitor that is easier to understand. So hopefully we've put this big idea out there. You know, AI is already disrupting your referral flows. There's no question. We see it daily. We see it in our own subscriber base. And we're able to put fuel on top of this. So it's not just changing how work gets done. It's changing how clients choose who gets the work in the first place. Okay? So no one is saying referrals are are dead. Okay?  no one is saying relationships are less important. Trust is not going away. But the way trust gets validated has changed. So the referral may still begin with a person, you know, cousin s but AI has become the gatekeeper between that referral and someone picking up the phone and actually calling you. So you still earn the handshake in the real world, but today you also have to earn the verification in the digital one. And that's the firms that understand  you know what has changed. They have an enormous opportunity. And if you're struggling right now, you start utilizing the five steps that we just did. You're going to become, you don't need to be an influencer. You know, it's not that hard anymore to become established online, right? You simply need to make the expertise easier to find, easier to understand, and more importantly to trust. That's where these social signals, what other people are saying about you, that's what AI is going out and saying, "Okay, this person says they're an expert in X. Let's verify trust but verify and that's what AI is doing and that's where it's looking for all these other signals. So you need to have that digital footprint.

So before we wrap up again I the takeaway I have is test for yourself. Go to chat GBT or Gemini whatever and ask the same question your ideal clients would ask. You may want to do it for each one because obviously chat GBT Gemini perplexity  Claude they may give different answers. You might have some gaps that claude has found that chat GPT didn't. Okay, so you might want to optimize for all of them. Okay, but see where your firm appears or doesn't appear. See whether AI understands what makes you different. What makes you unique? Why am I recommendable? Okay, and see which competitors, if you're not being recommended, are being recommended instead and what are they doing? How can we beat them? How can we outflank them?  because of this and what we've done, and I know some of this is a little bit complex, we created what I call a free digital blueprint assessment accounting works. And my team, it's not just a bot that does this, but my team will go in and analyze your digital footprint, your authority, your online reputation, your content footprint and visibility across today's landscape. And what we're going to do is we will come back to you with a full report. And basically, this is free again, no obligation. and we actually build out your story. We, you know, answer a few questions and it helps us kind of define you and kind of give you a picture of what your firm could look like in the modern age. We've been doing hundreds of these. We've already moved through lots and lots of people from oh my god, that aha moment to yeah, let's do this. So, if it's something you're interested in, please visit countyworkpro.com and we'll schedule your free digital blueprint. It takes, I don't know, 24, 48 hours to get your report back.  but the real thing is we're trying to get you past the gatekeeper. That's our whole goal, right? So, it's not enough anymore just to earn that referral. We want to be recommended when that referral reaches out to ChatGBD to say, "Hey, am I making a good decision?" So, we're taking the doubt out of the process.

But that wraps up today's Growth Minded Accountant Podcast. Next week, I'm actually going back. Oh, yeah. I'm going to talk more about AI, but I'm going to give really good insights of what really matters to tax and accounting firms. I'll talk a little bit of prompting. I'll talk about data mining. I will talk about predictive   advisory. I'll talk about stock advisory. So, there's a lot of different ways that you can go about it. And I'll it's kind of be kind of like a top level but really valuable information.  so, until next week, I hope you are enjoying your summer not boiling as it is right now here mid July.,  and we hope to see you again on the Growth Minded Accountant.

Please continue to share our podcasts.  our last  I think last week's is up to 3,000 4,000 views and for us that's about right. I mean we're not getting the biggest one I think we ever have is 25,000 listens. So  any one thing in the thousands that means we're reaching a lot of independent tax and accounting pros and we're making a difference. So we really appreciate the feedback. Thank you again.