If your referrals dried up overnight, what would you do over the next 90 days to pick up new clients? That was one of a stack of audience questions from the GrowCon panel that never got answered. So James and Heidi got back on camera and answered every one.

Episode 98 features Heidi Ryder, owner of Keepful, the marketing and client system built for bookkeepers and accountants. A former math teacher, Heidi spent seven years at Bookkeepers.com helping hundreds of bookkeepers build their businesses, runs her own bookkeeping practice for chiropractors, and acquired Keepful in 2025.

What you will take away:

1. Where to start marketing when you have more time than money, why in-person networking got Heidi her fastest early results, and why 10 ways to get clients beats one way to get 10 clients.

2. Why "I have a website and a funnel" is like a marketing agency saying "I have QuickBooks, so I don't need an accountant", and why visibility comes before everything else.

3. What to do when a proposal goes quiet after a great sales call: anchoring your price, sending a video with the proposal, and how a diagnostic review moves you from selling a service to solving a problem.

James and Heidi also cover why local service ads are a hill James will die on, how to think about LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram differently, and why consistency beats a gym membership with no workouts.

Eliminate, automate, delegate.

Connect with Heidi:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heidiaryder

Keepful: https://keepful.com

Book a call with our team: https://accountingleadsnow.com

Grab my book, Booked Solid: https://a.co/d/02rch7Qz

Send us Fan Mail

Tired of referrals that only show up during tax season?

Most firm owners are one slow quarter away from panic. We fix that.
We help accounting and bookkeeping firm owners build predictable client acquisition systems using paid advertising, so qualified prospects are coming to you year-round, not just when it's convenient for them.

Book a free strategy call > accountingleadsnow.com We'll look at your firm specifically and map out exactly what it would take to build a pipeline that doesn't go quiet in July.

Grab my book, Booked Solid > Get your copy here The digital marketing playbook built specifically for accounting firms. No theory. Just what works.

Join our Skool community - 7 days free > Join here Get access to the exact systems we implement for our clients. Frameworks, templates, and a community of firm owners doing the work.

Lee Walker gave his firm two months' notice so his team and clients wouldn't be left hanging. Leadership's answer: "we're just going to let you go." Within weeks he had launched his own business, turned his Denver house into a 14-bed Airbnb, started learning Spanish and moved to Peru. His first paying client didn't come for nine months.

Episode 97 features Lee Walker, founder of Daily Driver Consulting, known as the CAS Doctor. He spent three years inside an accounting firm that grew from $1M to $10M in revenue, 10 to 50 employees and 300 to 900 clients without a single acquisition or merger, rebuilding its people, delivery and operations systems as a fractional CFO and people advisor. Today he guides firm owners from compliance to real advisory, has written three books including People + Process = Profit and Emergence, and works nomadically across South America.

What you will take away:

1. How Lee's Airbnb covered nine months of his life while the business got off the ground, and why he hired an outside pricing expert instead of relying only on AI pricing tools.

2. The lesson he would give himself on day one: follow-up is the most important thing you do, you need a system for it, and you need at least one key person in your corner.

3. Why being stubborn is both a blessing and a curse for firm owners, and how being one degree off course over a thousand miles is the difference between landing in Newfoundland and landing in Mexico.

Lee also explains why every firm owner needs both a mentor and a coach, how the two are different, and why the right deadline can get more done than months of good intentions.

Eliminate, automate, delegate.

Connect with Lee:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lee-walker-ms-shrm-cp-66a3b8b0

Daily Driver Consulting: https://dailydriverconsulting.biz

Emergence (Lee's book): https://dailydriverconsulting.biz/book

Book a call with our team: https://accountingleadsnow.com

Grab my book, Booked Solid: https://a.co/d/02rch7Qz

Send us Fan Mail

Tired of referrals that only show up during tax season?

Most firm owners are one slow quarter away from panic. We fix that.
We help accounting and bookkeeping firm owners build predictable client acquisition systems using paid advertising, so qualified prospects are coming to you year-round, not just when it's convenient for them.

Book a free strategy call > accountingleadsnow.com We'll look at your firm specifically and map out exactly what it would take to build a pipeline that doesn't go quiet in July.

Grab my book, Booked Solid > Get your copy here The digital marketing playbook built specifically for accounting firms. No theory. Just what works.

Join our Skool community - 7 days free > Join here Get access to the exact systems we implement for our clients. Frameworks, templates, and a community of firm owners doing the work.

Referrals are great, but if they're your only plan, your growth is in someone else's hands. This week it's just me, no guest, and an announcement I've been sitting on for months.

Episode 96 is a solo episode with host James Donovan, founder of Accounting Leads Now. Four weeks out from episode 100, James shares what's been happening inside the business and makes the first official announcement of a new event for accounting and bookkeeping firm owners.

What you will take away:

1. Inner Circle Live: Nashville, November 20 and 21, co-hosted with Heidi Ryder of keepful and Jaime Rodriguez of Bookkeepers.com. Just 25 firm owners in a room, rolling up their sleeves to build what they keep putting off, with the goal that the event pays for itself before they fly home. This year's seats are spoken for, and next year's dates will be announced live in Nashville.

2. Gusto's business firm consultants program: Gusto is putting its own money behind its gold and silver tier partners, including on marketing. Here's what it is and how to check whether your firm is eligible.

3. Where to find James this fall: Women Who Count in Hilton Head, Intuit Connect in Las Vegas and the Tax Rep Network Summit in Orlando, plus a recap of Gusto Next in San Francisco.

James also welcomes Matt and Emile to the client success team and celebrates Ana Toro's two years with Accounting Leads Now.

Eliminate, automate, delegate.

Book a call with our team: https://accountingleadsnow.com

Grab my book, Booked Solid: https://a.co/d/02rch7Qz

Send us Fan Mail

Tired of referrals that only show up during tax season?

Most firm owners are one slow quarter away from panic. We fix that.
We help accounting and bookkeeping firm owners build predictable client acquisition systems using paid advertising, so qualified prospects are coming to you year-round, not just when it's convenient for them.

Book a free strategy call > accountingleadsnow.com We'll look at your firm specifically and map out exactly what it would take to build a pipeline that doesn't go quiet in July.

Grab my book, Booked Solid > Get your copy here The digital marketing playbook built specifically for accounting firms. No theory. Just what works.

Join our Skool community - 7 days free > Join here Get access to the exact systems we implement for our clients. Frameworks, templates, and a community of firm owners doing the work.