Episode 185 | Case Study | From 800 Clients To $1M: How One CPA Escaped Burnout And Doubled Revenue With Tatiana Podel

The Abundant Accountant: Leads, Sales & Business Growth for Accounting, Tax and Bookkeeping Professionals - Michelle Weinstein - The Pitch Queen, Sales Strategist

Tatiana Podel, a CPA from Orlando, transformed her firm from 800 compliance clients to $1M revenue by embracing sales mastery, raising prices, and setting boundaries. She shifted from burnout to confidence, doubling inco

Key takeaways

• Raised fees without losing clients

Transcript preview

Welcome to the abundant accountant podcast, the show for accounting, tax, and bookkeeping firm owners. Are you ready to build a firm that gives you the freedom, confidence, and consistent revenue without burnout or undercharging? If you've ever felt stuck, discounting your fees, chasing clients, or giving away too much advice for for free, you're in the right place. Here we talk about sales mastery, charging premium prices, creating boundaries that stick, and learning how to convert high-value clients with confidence and ease. Each episode, you will hear real success stories, sales strategies, and guest experts who will help you work less, earn more, and finally create the firm and life you deserve. Welcome to the Abundant Accountant Podcast. Today we have a very special guest. Our special guest is the CPA and founder of PODL CPA, which is a boutique firm specializing in high-end tax compliance, strategic tax planning, and business advisory services. She has a passion for helping business owners achieve financial clarity and sustainable growth and blends deep technical expertise with a modern relationship-driven approach. And our special guest is all-spherers. a client here of the abundant accountant and she went through our eight week sales mastery course. But before we welcome our special guests to the show, if you help your clients manage their finances, books, taxes, etc, but when it comes to your own cash flow or your pricing, profit, you feel stuck or even ashamed, you don't have to face this by yourself. Most firm owners have never learned how to sell, position their value, or have confident money conversations, and it holds them back. Here at the Abundant Accountant, I show you how to feel empowered, how to have confidence and not have those awkward sales calls. You'll learn how to convert premium clients, raise your prices without losing clients, and finally take home the pay you actually deserve. If you're ready to stop avoiding the financial side of your firm, head on over to the Abundant Call.com and book a free strategy session today with me and my team. And now let's welcome Tatiana to the show. Welcome to the show, Tatiana. Thanks for having me. Yes, I am super excited to have you here because today's a very special day. Tatiana is the client of the abundant accountant, has been a part of our family for a couple years, and I'm very excited for you to come here on the show, share your incredible transformation since we worked together back in May of 2024, where things were maybe a little different than they were now. And you were you are undercharging you are struggling with boundaries overwhelm and also the fear of losing clients if you raise prices and you probably thought I was a little ku ku back then but now I'd love it if you share just where you're from in the country and what is your firm specialized in and who do you work with the most as far as clientele and then we'll dive in. Sure so I we are in Orlando Florida close to Disney and we mostly work with the most as far as clientele and we mostly work with small business owners and high net worth individuals. You know we really try to provide them with that boutique white glove year-round service where they feel like they have an advisor in their corner and not just somebody preparing their tax return. Yep. And do you have a special niche or anyone you specifically work with and you know what services do you provide mostly you know that you're trying to really grow and scale to now I guess I should say? Yeah, so I mostly work with women business owners. You know, I find that I connect with them very easily. They trust me if you're comfortable asking questions. We're all trying to grow these amazing businesses while raising kids and being in the PTO and doing all this fun stuff. So we, I connect a lot with them. We understand each other. We understand flexibility. So that's been, I guess, you can call them. a little bit of it inish that has really worked out for me because it's very organic. And we mostly work on like I said year-round tax advisory planning. A little bit of coaching in regards to when we do sit down and have our conversations every quarter or when something comes up it's not just about tax right I'm a business owner too. So I'm helping them with their mindset which I've learned a lot about in your program. and just going through the motions of being a business owner and having them feel like they have somebody in their corner that they can talk to. Love it. Okay, so now let's rewind back in time. This is, let's just say March or April of 2024. What was going on in your firm, Tatiana and maybe in your life that made you realize something had to change? What was going on with your sales, client conversations, pricing, and anything related to the conversion and making money department of your firm, where you're like, something's got to change. Yeah, so I come actually from like a big four background where all we did was push out returns, most of the time, you know, it was part of the regular federal tax group, so we were just doing an insane volume of tax returns every year. When I left, I went to work on a small practice that kind of did the same thing, it was very high volume. compliance work. And although we gave our clients really good advice, we, the approach that the firm took was, let's not open a can of worms, if they ask, we'll answer, but we don't want to, you know, lead, have conversations lead to more questions and more complexities, like let's keep it simple. So it was really, how many returns can we do as simply and as fast as possible. really being that true advisor to our clients. And the owner of that firm was getting ready to retire. I was getting ready to take over and I really wanted to start off on the right foot. So that's when I reached out to you and the Abb and an accountant because I wanted to have a process in place where I could vet clients before bringing them into the firm. I had a confidence to say no to them. I had a confidence and the skills to, I guess. my value to them and say no if they're not willing to accept it so that's how we got here I love that and I know you had like over 800 compliance clients at the time right yes and you're probably gonna kill me for saying this as my coach but we are kind of still there but with a lot of growth I have hired two more people within the firm which is fine yeah you know you're trying to manage those people but you didn't have help. And you didn't have help. Right. Exactly. And I feel like I've been able to step into that advisory role for the clients that do want that service. So we are still providing great compliance service, you know, with my team for the clients that that's all they want and don't see the value in the year-round advisory. But I've been able to focus on that higher level service. Love it. And still feel like we're delivering value for our climate. and doing better than a lot of other providers out there. Yeah and I think there's like two options right. Tatiana if you're in the boat just like she is where you had 800 clients you can either sell off the 1040 or you can just hire people to do that work so you can go focus on the advisory work but still keep whatever the profit is from those clients. And that's I think ultimately what the decision you made instead of just getting rid of all the 1040 compliance work you're okay I'm going to keep it and then the people that do see the value and the higher value advisory and tax planning and other things that you're focused on you still have all the revenue under the umbrella and I'd love it if you can share just to give the listeners some context Tatiana in your firm where was revenue at then versus where it's at now so as this conversation goes we can put some things into perspective yeah so when I took over the firm you were at about about five hundred and sixty thousand of revenue. Yep. And we are about to hit a million this year so one year later essentially. Awesome. Yeah. And we'll get to the in-between part shortly. So back then before you reached out for help you know you mentioned feeling devalued you're always interrupted all the time by your clients. So back then before you reached out for help you know you mentioned feeling devalued you're always interrupted all the time by your clients. You were afraid that if you raised your prices. these 800 people would leave you. Can you describe what you felt like in that day to day and the emotional toll it was taking on you and your family? Yeah, it just, it felt like I could never do enough for them and they didn't, like I had these, you know, 300 other clients calling my phone and if I didn't pick up, they'd called three more times and then called the office and then