June 4, 2025 • 45 mins
Download the 2025 Marketing Budget Benchmark Study Executive Summary: https://accountingmarketing.org/category/surveys-studies-research-and-more/
In this special in-person episode of Spiraling Up, the team attended the 2025 AAM Summit in Phoenix, Arizona. During the event, marketing leaders, practitioners, and industry experts joined the show to share their ‘pivotal stories’ from the event—key learnings, takeaways, and overall impressions. Many common themes bubbled up, like how to build marketing budgets, fostering trust among teams, SEO strategies, and of course, artificial intelligence (AI). Recorded live on the showroom floor, this episode offers a window into one of the accounting industry’s key events.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Joe Pope (00:06):
And
Austin McNair (00:06):
in
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (00:08):
today's
Austin McNair (00:09):
episode
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (00:10):
of Spiraling Up,
Austin McNair (00:11):
Hey, we are
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (00:13):
in person together, guys.
What's going on?
Joe Pope (00:16):
You met me inside on that intro by the way.
You, you, you by the
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (00:18):
way Hundred percent
Austin McNair (00:19):
Joe told me to give the best, the best, deepest
in.
yeah.
we had to
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (00:25):
we're
Austin McNair (00:26):
person Guys, what's going on?
It's great
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (00:27):
See you.
Austin McNair (00:28):
guys.
Joe Pope (00:28):
I'm.
amazed that we were able to pullthis off.
Honestly.
Shout out to producer John,
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (00:33):
John
Joe Pope (00:34):
Uh, but yeah, no, we've got our backdrop set up.
We uh, uh we're here at the MainSummit in Phoenix, Arizona.
It's awesome to be here.
It's awesome to see you.
Yep Coming from a different kindto join us.
Austin McNair (00:45):
Yep.
Yep.
So, main summit, for those thatdon't know, it's the Association
for County Marketing Every yearthey do a summit somewhere
within the United States.
Uh, it brings together all theworld's leading, uh accounting
marketers, accounting businessdevelopment, sales leaders.
They all gather here at thisconference Um and Hinge has had
(01:06):
a longstanding partnership withthe Association for Accounting
Marketing um, for over a decadenow, as everybody knows Hinge,
we do research, um, quite a bit.
it's, it's it's it's, withinour, It's within DNA and years
ago we set up a researchpartnership with the
association.
to understand, Um, how are thesedifferent companies budgeting
(01:26):
for marketing Um, and in our,you know, own special way, we
always apply that high growthmethodology to the study.
So not only are we seeing whatother people are doing in their
marketing budgets we're alsoseeing what the fastest growing
companies are doing with theirmarketing budgets And so this
year we've been great.
Um, we had one of our teammembers will casserly give a
keynote speech um here on on theresults Um and it super well
(01:50):
received So Deep.
Great marketing partnershipwith, with aim and yeah, I mean
I mean all that is great, butlike we said, even better, be
we're together in person.
Mayor Blanc, how are you?
This is your first summit.
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (02:03):
It is as well as mine.
Austin McNair (02:04):
But I'm interested, what have you, uh
how have you enjoyed theconference so far?
Has there, you know, what hasbeen a highlight for you so far
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (02:11):
Sure, yeah.
I mean, the energy here, I just,the comradery uh you can tell
that everyone here that theycome every year that this is a a
time for a genuine connection Umand, uh, I mean, for me too, I,
we were talking earlier aboutsome of the other partnerships
that Hinge is involved with anduh some of those organizations
(02:32):
and conferences that I I go tooutside of uh the ames Summit
but um The speakers this year Ihave been so impressed Um and
I'm I'm really excited aboutsome of the the takeaways from
from some of those sessions andbeing able to take that back to
the team at Hinge
Austin McNair (02:49):
We'll come back to that Yeah because that that
will be kind of what thisepisode is about
Joe Pope (02:53):
For shadow
Austin McNair (02:53):
we're gonna be bringing in a hashtag for shadow
people and attendees um, who arehere at the conference with us
These are marketing leaders umCMOs and we're gonna be asking
em what is their biblical storyfrom the conference So stick
around and watch that with usJoe, I'm curious, so you've been
to this conference a few times.
How have you seen the conferencechange over the years?
What, what's standing out to youthis year?
Joe Pope (03:15):
Yeah.
Aim has gone through a arevolution in a sense on how
they structure this conferenceto best fit the needs of those
that attended.
I mean, they have a significantcommitment to accomplishing the
goal of listening to people'sfeedback.
I mean, after, this is my forthing show here.
you I've listened to BuildMentioned earlier he he's gotten
(03:38):
Talk Few, few of these.
Another one of our partners.
Liz Har was able to speak lastyear on the fiscal expert
revolution available on onAmazon and anywhere else I,
think I Amazon, right?
yeah.
Uh, but yeah, no, I mean, AIMhas really also put effort into
how they treat their partners aswell.
So we're sitting in the mainhall directly across from where
everybody's actually attendingmost of these sessions.
(04:00):
So many great conversations.
Uh Uh, so many great moments foryou.
Yeah man, Because how manypeople have walked up to you and
made the connection knowing howlong you've been spending time
going through Um through thesewebinars, aim, these Different
partnerships, initiatives, andnow, hey, look man, you're here
in person.
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (04:18):
Low key and aim Celebrity Like celebrity
status
Austin McNair (04:22):
Stop Guys Stop Say more Say more say more No Um
guys this is probably one of mynumber one takeaways so just You
know we're all marketing peoplehere talking to to marketing
folks on the call Um, thinkabout this from the perspective
of us as a market marketingagency marketing our own
business right We've made thislongstanding convention into
(04:43):
this relationship with anassociation Um, we have done
this research report which we wedo for them for them right and
And in return we receive somevisibility with the association
So that means we You knowwebinars um Webinar, You know,
uh access to the memberdirectory a whole bunch of
little benefits Right right Thethe summit is the big one right
(05:04):
Yeah.
But I've never been to thesummit but I've been a part of a
lot of the webinars I've been alot of part of the you know
digital marketing I'm the onethat is bothering people every
two years to fill out the budgetsurvey which is pretty much the
hardest survey ever to fill outif we're being honest Um so
shout out to anyone who took thesurvey We really deeply
appreciate you Um
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (05:24):
but yeah, so people have seen my name and
Austin McNair (05:26):
and.
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (05:26):
Being here in person.
Austin McNair (05:28):
It's just, it's been so great to meet all these
people.
I I recognize all their names, Isee their LinkedIn pictures, but
now, you know, seeing the, theactual people in person, I've
had a lot of people come up tome they recognize me for similar
reasons and it's just like anice payoff So if you are a
marketing person who isinvesting in partnerships with
associations, organizations,make sure you added that layer
(05:51):
of some sort of face-to-facetime because it really for me
has been like a huge payoff Toyou know all the digital
marketing stuff that we've donebut like being able to be here
go to the hotel bar and strikeup like conversations that
aren't just about business, notjust about marketing.
I mean, it's been, it's beenreally wonderful So it's been
great and it's been great forour team.
(06:11):
I mean, Mary Branch I don'tthink I've seen in person like
two years.
Joe Pope (06:15):
years.
I'd be longer than that.
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (06:18):
I don't think so.
Austin McNair (06:19):
years.
Joe Pope (06:20):
What was, I mean, when the last time Austin, how
Mary-Blanche Kraem (06:22):
specifically remember a happy hour
Austin McNair (06:24):
Yes I do too
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (06:25):
In Reston Yes Oh yeah.
That was the last time cause thelast time you were in the States
you saw Joe Joe
Joe Pope (06:31):
was
Austin McNair (06:31):
That was before I moved So that was three years
ago.
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (06:35):
No you came back for a wedding You came
back for wedding
Austin McNair (06:38):
Did we see each other
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (06:40):
Are you sure Are you sure were
Austin McNair (06:41):
there I know what you're talking about Yeah Yes
Okay You did say yes Okay.
Two years Two years.
So two years.
let the
Joe Pope (06:46):
memorable.
Austin McNair (06:47):
no it was, it's just
Joe Pope (06:49):
Up,
Austin McNair (06:49):
mixing up times I'm losing track Um, it Um
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (06:53):
two years is still a long time Yeah
Joe Pope (06:54):
up times.
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (06:58):
uh,
Austin McNair (06:58):
yeah.
There's no, getting around thattravel kind of is tough right?
Yeah.
You had some You you had, had ahard time Joe
Joe Pope (07:04):
I think I I've learned less what?
It's to be in your upperthirties and thinking that it's
a good idea to, uh, uh, fly thesame day across the country and
then try to be on the be on thefloor.
For Full day for 10 hours.
Yeah And it's survive.
I My body's pretty much given upon me at definitely
Austin McNair (07:21):
I texted my wife you know, it's one of those
things you hear about jet lagright You know when I'm in my
twenties or you know I'm like JIshow up a new place I'm excited
I'm energized man Theadrenaline's going like it's all
good What is jet lag It doesn'tmatter It I'm at 35 years old
now I can firmly say
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (07:40):
Holy smokes I've never I had I think
going to bed last night I never,been as tired
Austin McNair (07:46):
I
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (07:46):
as I had
Austin McNair (07:47):
mb How have you have been you know, we were
talking earlier about the.
kind of we're gonna talk topeople about their.
Takeaways, like their pivotalstories from the conference What
has been like one of the bigpivotal stories for you, coming
outta the conference sessionsand all that
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (08:02):
Yeah so when we were talking earlier I
was telling you you know I'vereally been trying to make sure
I attended as many sessions as Icould, more on them The client
uh experience and more theoperational, um data driven
sessions Um, and there was thisone session that was very
focused towards clientexperience and uh, and focused
(08:24):
on that data.
Mm-hmm.
And um, you know we at h talk alot about leading indicators
versus lagging indicators And uhthe way she kind of chose to
frame it, um, in, in her sessionwas, uh.
Looking at KPIs, key performanceindicators, and also being very
intentional about pairing eachof your KPIs with a kbi which
(08:47):
stands for Key BehavioralIndicators And I just thought it
was just such an interesting.
Just an interesting way to takekind of that uh something that
we talk about at Hinge veryoften the leading versus the
lagging indicators and kind ofreframe it in a way that you
can, you can really look at whatthose company KPIs are and
(09:07):
really say, okay, well whatbehaviors are we doing to drive
ultimately what the goals ofeach of those those KPIs are And
I just I just, love the way thatshe framed that up and the way.
Um, that she kind of just didthat section in general You
know, she was also veryintentional about um getting
time with people at your tableto kind of understand what some
of their pain points are andsome of what their common KPIs
(09:30):
are and being able to reallytick and tie those KPIs to the
KPIs So anyways, I I'm going onand on, but I just, I'm really
excited to, to bring that backand how we can infuse that into,
to some of the things that we'redoing at Hinge.
Austin McNair (09:42):
I love that.
So for me it was the kind ofpayoff of being in person.
Um, kind of fulfilling that umyou know those Those marketing
partnerships and digitalmarketing campaigns For you, it
was the KBI presentation,everything you just laid out.
Joe, how about you?
What, what's one kind of pivotalstory takeaway that you have in
the conference so far
Joe Pope (10:03):
I, I think seeing the results of our research.
in action.
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (10:08):
Uh, and that's not just the
Joe Pope (10:10):
budget benchmarking study which we you know, talked
about, and.
The The cornerstone.
if you will, of our partnershipwith aim.
But I mean, you talk aboutpartnerships, you talk about
live We talk about creatingcontent and we're doing
obviously right now.
Yeah And seeing all of thesepieces come together as part of
our cohesive strategy becausethe type of investment it takes
(10:30):
to even just that list out YeahAnd what we're doing right now
and plan it through and talk itand so forth.
And then also see the all theother ways that when.
You know not not recordingcontent, but actually meeting
people and making connections,letting off be the celebrity
that he's I all of thesedifferent pieces.
It's checking the boxes of allof the highest growth tech, uh,
(10:50):
tactics that mm-hmm Professionalservices organizations used to
be successful and then you know,I mean, what's validator what
some of these speakers aretalking about, the importance of
metrics and.
insights, then gatheringdatabase decision making, like,
I mean, that's, that's.
Right now Right Right.
think I think I think I think, Ithink my takeaway is kind of
this compilation of all thesethings coming together, seeing
(11:13):
it inact participating.
Yeah Uh, and then know, the bestpart is gonna be C list and
exhaust that come out this.
We've Yeah got so many greatconversations.
Maybe you got a website leadwithin five minutes of what the,
Austin McNair (11:26):
Yeah And
Joe Pope (11:26):
got.
it's just so wild to see allthese things come It just, uh,
justifies.
Putting the time and focus intoa partnership.
Yeah And an event strategy.
Austin McNair (11:39):
Yeah no absolutely I love it So I think
ours were very similar Joe Andum, now I'm really excited We're
gonna turn to the rest
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (11:46):
of the episode where we're gonna be
talking to some of the attendeeshere
Austin McNair (11:49):
Um
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (11:50):
Some of who are gonna sit down with the
three of us others we're kind ofone-on-one interviews
Austin McNair (11:54):
Um
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (11:54):
but we're gonna mix that all together
because we know that you wannahear from some of the leaders in
the accounting marketing space
Austin McNair (12:00):
and
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (12:00):
what they're taking away from this
really important event one of akind event So
Austin McNair (12:05):
let's
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (12:05):
turn now and talk to some of these
wonderful people who are havebrilliant things to say and
let's hear what is their pivotalstory from the conference
Austin McNair (12:15):
All right.
So who am I here with?
Julia Thompson (12:16):
I'm Julia Thompson from Sorin.
Austin McNair (12:19):
All right, Julia.
So what is your pivotal storyfrom the conference so far?
Julia Thompson (12:24):
I just came from an amazing session about
conflict resolution with Ace,and it was so incredible, but I
think the biggest takeaway wasthat everyone wants a good
solution and it should bemutually beneficial.
It should be easy to kind ofagree that you want to find a
good solution.
You might disagree on how to getthere.
You might have differentperspectives even.
(12:46):
Different facts, differentinformation, but remembering
you're on the same team and thatyou want to be successful and
you want to grow and you want topush things forward is just so
crucial.
Just grounds you and helps kindof take a little bit of the
emotion and the heightenedcraziness out of it if you just
remember you're on the sameteam.
Austin McNair (13:03):
Wow, brilliant.
Thank you so much Julia.
Have a great rest of theconference.
Thank you.
Joe Pope (13:10):
Hey everyone.
Joe Pope here with the SpiralingUp Podcast, and we are at the
AIMS Summit this year.
This is the 2025 edition, and Iam joined by Becca Johns, a
friend of the pod.
Yeah.
Becca, how's your summit going?
Becca Johns (13:23):
It's awesome.
Um, I really enjoy seeingeverybody every year.
Um, this year is a littledifferent for me.
I'm out on my own now and it's alittle lonely sometimes, so I
feel like my cup is just sofull.
Spending time networking witheverybody and seeing what
everyone's been up to, it's beenreally awesome
Joe Pope (13:37):
making friends out here with the rest of us in the
hallway.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Playing hooky kind of fun.
Okay, so here's the question.
We're just asking, what is thepivotal story of AIM Summit this
year?
Becca Johns (13:50):
I think it's the togetherness.
Um, you know, it's nice to talkwith people on the phone, on
teams, but seeing them in personI think is really what the, what
the value is for me.
Um, you know, of course you, thesessions are awesome.
We have some great speakers andpresenters, but to me it's the
time to connect one-on-one withpeople, um, is really like why I
keep coming every year.
Joe Pope (14:10):
And this is such an, a good group right there.
There's, I don't think there'sanother professional services
association that puts together aconference like aim.
This is a much must attend forall of us and that's why we're
here.
And, uh, you know, Becca, thankyou so much for doing this.
Yeah,
Becca Johns (14:23):
thanks.
Nice talking with you.
Joe Pope (14:24):
Yep.
Sarah GHJ (14:27):
All right.
So who am I here with now?
Hi, my name is Sarah Avila.
I work at GHJ.
We're an accounting and advisoryfirm.
Sarah, what is your pivotalstory from the conference so
far?
I realize the importance oftaking a step back and realizing
the why of what your companydoes, what, why they do what
(14:47):
they do, and using that toreally focus on.
Quality over quantity.
When focusing your marketingefforts, have you done anything
already, like maybe this year orlike fairly recently in like
kind of your marketing team toreally drive home that message
of like quality over quantity?
Have you guys produced anythingor have you kind of steered, how
(15:09):
have you steered towards thatdirection a little bit?
Well, as this was brand new.
You know, thought bubble or, uh,light bulb from this conference,
I'm gonna be taking it back andreally looking at what we can do
to make some changes.
But it is a concept that hadbeen floating around, especially
when looking at our socialmedia.
(15:29):
Um, you know.
You kind of get dinged a littlebit by if you post too much.
Yeah.
So, you know, really refocusingthat.
And then also looking at whatwe're creating content-wise and
making sure it's hitting theright audiences with the right
message.
So I think all of that is gonnabe huge, and especially as we're
looking at redoing some items onour website and, um, really
(15:50):
hitting the correct target, uh,with activities and other things
I.
I'm gonna keep that mantra in myhead.
I love that.
Thank you so much for talkingwith me, Sarah.
Enjoy the rest of theconference.
Thank you.
It was great meeting you.
Great meeting you too.
All right.
Melissa Taylor (16:05):
Alright, so who am I here with?
Hey, Melissa Taylor with Meltonand Melton down in Houston.
Alright, so what is your mainpivotal story from the
conference this year?
Uh, trust is your North Starwith everything that we're doing
in, in marketing, businessdevelopment, communications,
anything under that role.
If we don't have trust withinthe firm, then there's nothing
that we do that matters.
(16:25):
We can have all the knowledgewith the tech stack, we can have
all the skill sets in the world,but if we don't have our
partner's trust.
There's no reason for us to haveany of that skills.
So what's one thing you learnedabout building that trust?
I know there's been a lot oflike great presentations that
have touched on that topic.
Have you taken away anything alittle practical and building
trust across your, your company?
(16:46):
Oh, man.
Consistency.
Integrity is just key.
Do what you say, say what youdo.
Um, and then the, the old phrasematters.
People don't care how much youknow until they know how much
you care.
So.
Uh, just think, um, you know,your core values, just letting
those shine through is, isreally what's just gonna, uh,
it's gonna let yourself shinewho you are and then just,
(17:08):
we'll, we'll perpetuate thattrust even further.
Excellent.
Well, thank you for talking withus.
Enjoy the rest of theconference.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Gabe (17:16):
All right, so who am I here with?
Uh, my name is Gabe Tevrizian.
I'm director of Growth with CBMin the Washington DC area.
Great to talk to you, Gabe.
We're definitely neighbors here,uh, in the DC area.
So Gabe, what has been thepivotal story for you being here
at the AIM Conference this year?
You know, from the, uh, the getgo.
Um, I think the level ofauthenticity, I've been noticing
(17:38):
that a lot.
Um, you know, whether in thesessions, um, the brand story
and the brand, um, workshopshave been really meaningful and,
and, and is really helping firmsunderstand the value of
authenticity.
So that's kind of one of the keytakeaways.
What is one way that in your dayto day kind of.
Life as a, as a marketingleader, how do you try to
(18:01):
demonstrate authenticity?
Gosh, you know, there's a longlist of things that I can think
of, you know, but clearly theway we articulate our value
propositions and the way weconnect with the market, um, and
then really, uh, followingthrough with the content that we
produce really is like.
It's a game changer when youthink about engaging the right
audience at the right time.
It was such just in that sessiona minute ago, so it's fresh in
(18:23):
my mind.
I love that.
I love it Gabe.
So thanks for talking with us.
Enjoy the rest of theconference.
Thanks so much.
Appreciate it.
Alright.
Mary-Blanche (18:31):
welcome up to the Spiraling Up Podcast.
Thank you so much for taking acouple minutes to be with us
today.
Tell us what is your name andwho are you with?
Rhonda Clark (18:37):
I'm Rhonda Clark and I am the Executive Director
for the Association for CountyMarketing.
Joe Pope (18:43):
In
Austin McNair (18:43):
other words, you're the one to thank for
putting on this wonderful event.
Uh, Rhonda, how's it all goingfor you?
Rhonda Clark (18:50):
the conference has been amazing.
I would say not.
I'm not, I can't take all thecredit.
I can't take all the credit.
You have a great team.
We do.
We have an amazing conferenceteam that works so hard, and
they do from the time this oneends.
They immediately start workingon the next one.
And we also have, I have tothank Samantha Bowerman, our
(19:10):
meeting manager, who isfantastic.
You know, she's been with us somany years and, and she's just
such a great asset to have onour team.
I,
Austin McNair (19:19):
I, that Samantha, it's amazing, it's so detail
oriented.
She gets everything that wayahead of time.
She makes it easy for partners,she makes it easy for speakers.
I, she's doing great, but.
Run it.
This event has changed so muchover the years.
I wanted, and I wanna know, kindof like this year, what has been
kind of the main takeaway?
What's been the pivotal storyfor you?
(19:40):
Whatcha walking away with thisyear?
Rhonda Clark (19:42):
Oh gosh, Austin, So much.
I mean, again, like we reallywork hard every year.
You know, we take the feedbackthat we receive, you know, each
year at the end of theconference, and we really take
that into consideration on howwe can improve for the next
year.
And, you know, so I mean it's,and it's just so many different
(20:02):
things.
Uh, I think, you know, one ofthe main things that we focus
on.
Is, you know, the content, whichis incredibly important.
You know, that's what drivespeople well, I'd say the content
and the networking is whatdrives people to the conference
for sure.
Uh, but we do, we really wannaunderstand what our members
wanna learn about, so, and, andwho they wanna learn from.
(20:22):
And we try to find the bestpeople.
To talk on those, thoseparticular subjects.
So I feel like every year wecontinue to elevate the content
for the conference.
And then also just, again, ourmembers love to come together
and be with one another.
They love to share and learn,and they just love to connect.
So we do, we try to find lots ofdifferent networking
(20:43):
opportunities for them to cometogether.
Even just like as you see acrossthe way, we've got our bookmark
table where they're creatingbookmarks and they can come
together and sit.
And talk while they're, youknow, coloring these bookmarks.
So just all kinds of differentopportunities for them to come
together and help grow theirnetworks.
Joe Pope (21:00):
Yeah.
Right next to the socks.
Rhonda Clark (21:03):
Yes.
Joe Pope (21:03):
Yes.
Some wonderful conversations,folks just, uh, coming by.
Socks, donate.
It's awesome.
These, this.
You did say something, this keepmy mind back, which was praying
already starting for next year.
Rhonda Clark (21:22):
Yes.
Joe Pope (21:23):
Any chance has a sneak peek?
Might
Rhonda Clark (21:26):
be, yes.
I'm happy to share.
It's gonna be in, uh, PalmSprings.
Joe Pope (21:32):
Oh, okay.
Awesome.
So we'll be more than that.
We'll be in the sun again.
Austin McNair (21:34):
Yes.
Rhonda Clark (21:35):
Back in the desert.
Austin McNair (21:37):
I think I was spreading this information.
I think I may have told somebodyat Palm Beach.
So I'll have to go and find thatperson.
Can we edit that?
I can't edit that conversation.
I wasn't on camera.
Yeah, no.
Uh, okay.
So Palm Springs, that's great.
Rhonda Clark (21:50):
Yes, Palm Springs.
Well,
Austin McNair (21:51):
Rona, one thing that um, we've already told
people on the podcast, but I'llreinforce it again, is that this
partnership that we do with themarketing and budget benchmark
study, it's an excellentresource.
If anyone's listening, you inthe account industry have
website and buy that report.
It is the best data in the.
Create one of a kind survey thatcaptures what the fastest
(22:12):
growing account doing.
We're gonna pushing it hard.
It's a wonderful project and theresearch that you guys provide
to your members.
Um, and you know, again, Rhonda,you're crushing it.
Oh, thank you, Austin.
And
Rhonda Clark (22:25):
again, we are so grateful and enjoy our
partnership with Hinge.
Thank you all for, again,partnering this year, uh, on
the, on the survey with us.
Um, we couldn't, obviously wecouldn't do it without you.
Austin McNair (22:36):
Yeah.
And this has.
Go enjoy the rest of theconference and, uh, we'll talk
again soon.
My
Rhonda Clark (22:45):
pleasure.
Thank you all so much.
Thank you.
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (22:49):
Alright, well welcome to the Spiraling Up
podcast.
Thanks for taking a few minutesto be with us today.
Tell us what's your name and whoare you with?
Brenda Sleeper (22:55):
Uh, my name is Brenda Sleeper and I am a
director, relationship directorwith the BDO Alliance.
We have 258 CPA firms that arepart of our program, and we have
186, uh, business resourcenetwork firms as well.
And, um, the alliance programhas been in effect for 30 over
(23:15):
30 years.
Fantastic.
Well, today we're asking peoplewhat is your pivotal story for
this weekend, the summit.
Now that could be a key session,uh, maybe an overarching theme,
uh, but what has been yourpivotal story this week?
Well, I think that, um, the 35thanniversary of aim, the fact
that AIM started and startedhere in Arizona.
(23:37):
Oh, wow.
And so last night there was aspecial, um.
Cocktail reception, um, here,and it was for the Hall of
Famers.
So, you know, there's a lot ofhistory, nostalgia, the stuff
that they brought and had out onthe tables of things that were
like, you know, like cassettediscs, you know, like, I mean,
(23:58):
it was really funny.
It's really funny now that welook back at it, but that, you
know, we were state of the artback then.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
So it was fun and it was reallygreat to see everybody so.
Austin (24:07):
So you've seen the full evolution of, of AIM Um, well,
my, one of my questions my iswhat does it take to be to
become an AIM Hall of Famer?
Can Tell us little bit aboutthat program.
Brenda Sleeper (24:17):
Be old.
No, um, you know, AIM was mypassion.
I started out as a marketingdirector at a firm in
Massachusetts and not reallyunderstanding that my journey
through the accounting industrywould be this long.
That was 1999 and a year intoit, somebody introduced me to
(24:38):
aim.
And when you're a marketingdirector in a CPA firm.
You need support, you needservices, you need mentors,
mentors, you, you know what Imean?
So for me, AIM was just sopivotal, pivotal in my career.
And even though I wasn't with afirm for, I've been working like
(24:58):
you, I was a vendor and now I'min this role.
Um, I still, my passion and myheart was still with AIM and
helping them grow.
So, yeah, it's been, it's been agreat journey.
Joe Pope (25:10):
since.
Austin (25:11):
Well, thank you so much for sitting down with us.
Thanks for all that you do foraim.
I mean, I know none of thiscomes together without, you
know, the the, participation oflots of people coming together
and participation, so it's beengreat meeting you.
Thanks for sitting down andtalking with us.
Brenda Sleeper (25:23):
Thank you.
It's the best thing that's everhappened, I really think, to the
industry.
So thanks.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Austin McNair (25:30):
All right.
So who are we here with andwhat's the name of your company
Brunella Reid (25:33):
I work for Moore Olson.
Austin McNair (25:35):
and your name?
Brunella Reid (25:36):
My name is Ella Reed Brunel and I am a partner
and CMO at that firm.
Austin McNair (25:41):
Awesome.
Well, uh, Brunel and I just,Brunel is the President-elect of
aim, so congratulations.
We're excited to see thedirection that you take aim.
It's already.
The positive directions arealready, it's already going and
I know you're gonna continue it.
Um, so, but we've been connectedin the past and we met here in
person for the first time, justestablished that we have a
(26:01):
connection.
The Brazilian connection, I'mliving there right now.
You grew up in Brazil?
Yeah.
Brunella Reid (26:05):
that's right.
That's right.
I, I mean, I was born there.
I lived there until I was 16 Icame here as an exchange
student.
Um, and I didn't know I wasgonna end up staying.
I ended up going to college andeverything and then got my first
job and then I blinked my eye.
Here I am.
lived here way longer than Ilived in Brazil, but you know,
I.
I go there whenever I can and Imiss it a lot.
(26:25):
Um, but yeah, that's where I'mfrom.
A lot of people are like, Ididn't know you're from there.
Like, I know.
I didn't know either.
I mean, that's one of the bestthings about like coming in
person and actually meetingpeople.
You find out these cool thingsabout them.
It was just awesome.
I know whenever we wore themeetup, um, for the first timers
and you said that, I was like,no way.
We gotta talk.
I know.
Yeah.
Austin McNair (26:42):
we did and, and it, and it was great.
Brune, we are, uh, just askingeverybody what is the pivotal
story for you from theconference?
What has been like a, a sessionthat stood out to you or kind of
a primary takeaway?
What, what would be.
Brunella Reid (26:53):
I think the main thing for me is that how we are
really the drivers of growth forour firms, and we cannot forget
that.
I think that is what I'm walkingaway with.
You know, like for my role, I amthe CMO, but I am looking at the
firm overall.
What is our strategy?
How are we growing?
How can I bring these ideas intoplay at the firm that I'm at?
(27:17):
I loved Alex's.
Presentation on just strategy.
And I think with that's the rolewe really need to be playing.
We need to be stepping back andlooking at our firms and seeing
what are the gaps?
What are we not doing right?
Because the majority of departsof the firms that we're at,
they're really busy.
I mean, they're, they're tryingtheir best to, you know, run the
(27:38):
farm and run it efficiently anddo all of that.
The, the role that we need tostep into is.
Helping with strategy anddriving that growth.
So looking at that, looking atwhat roles you can play and
explaining why that matters andhow it fits into your firm in
(27:59):
particular, that's when you haveto navigate it a little bit.
So not everything that you hearmay work for your firm.
How you digest that down to yourmarket, to your firm, and how
you can make an impact forgrowth for, for your particular
firm.
I, I love that.
Bru.
Austin McNair (28:14):
Brune, Thank you so much for sitting down with us
and sharing your ful story.
It was great to make theconnection in person and good
luck in, uh, the upcoming yearbeing president elect.
Brunella Reid (28:22):
Thank you.
Thank you.
Appreciate your support.
Yeah, absolutely.
All right, thanks.
Thank you.
Take care.
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (28:27):
All right.
Well, welcome to the SpiralingUp Podcast.
Tell us what's your name and whoare you with?
Caren Rodriguez (28:32):
My name is Karen Rodriguez and I'm with
D-M-J-P-S CPAs and Advisorsspace in Greensboro, North
Carolina.
Austin McNair (28:38):
Karen.
We've been asking everybody thatwe've talked to today, like what
is your pivotal story or likemain takeaway from the
conference this year.
Caren Rodriguez (28:46):
I really like the keep start, stop philosophy.
And I think when you're on daythree of a conference, there's a
lot to absorb.
So if I think about it throughthat lens, um, it's very
reaffirm, reaffirming.
There are some things that wecan keep doing.
There are some, some things thatwe just need to stop doing.
For example, we love data, welove numbers, but we need to
(29:09):
stop with the vanity metric.
we need to look at numbers andthe meaning and behaviors behind
those numbers.
So when I get back and we lookat our reporting and what that
means to our initiatives movingforward, I wanna make sure that
we're not just doing it througha lens of vanity, but what makes
real impact and our marketinginitiatives and our strategic
(29:30):
growth.
Joe Pope (29:31):
Is there a number.
that really stands out to you,like a metric, for example, that
kind of falls into that mindsetthat you're.
You're thinking, I'm pullingthat piece Summit and I'm gonna
bring that forward, uh, uh, formy firm.
Caren Rodriguez (29:41):
You know, I mean, I guess in the most
traditional sense, if you justlook at your website'cause we're
on the eve of potentially makingsome changes there.
Okay.
You know, it's the old schoolway of, we got, you know, 14
million visitors this year.
But we really need to know aboutthe behaviors of those visitors
and what their journey isthrough our website and our
thought leadership.
Awesome.
(30:01):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Austin McNair (30:02):
Well, Karen, thanks so much for sitting down
with us.
Have a great rest of theconference and uh, yeah, it's
been great learning about yourpivotal story.
Caren Rodriguez (30:08):
great.
Thank you guys day.
Joe Pope (30:12):
Alright, guys.
Welcome back.
I am joined directly next to meby my conference.
Bessie Paul, why don't youintroduce yourself, buddy.
Paul Boechler (30:18):
Hey, I'm Paul Beckler.
I'm the BD and marketing managerat Virtus Group in Saskatoon,
Saskatchewan, Canada.
Austin McNair (30:25):
We already gave a, a shout out to Saskatoon
Joe Pope (30:27):
out.
Austin McNair (30:27):
Joe.
Joe said that your, your sessionstood out to him.
Um, so That's that's
Joe Pope (30:32):
Yeah, Paul, the, uh, the thing really was when you
brought up those metrics,showing your efforts and this
how you're taking on contentmarketing, how you play it
across your SEO efforts, andalso the thing that really I
think resonates, and we'rehearing it across a lot of
sessions, is developing thetrust with your partners to put
their efforts towards thesetypes of things as well, right?
That you're getting buy-in fromthese folks to contribute.
Paul Boechler (30:53):
Rome wasn't built in a day, but uh, brick by brick
we're slowly laying thefoundation.
So, no, it's been good.
It's been good.
Austin McNair (30:59):
Right on.
Yeah.
Question.
we're asking people in the hotseat
Joe Pope (31:03):
of
Austin McNair (31:03):
you currently occupy, what is your
Joe Pope (31:06):
pivotal story, your key
Austin McNair (31:07):
today from?
Joe Pope (31:09):
Summit 2025?
Paul Boechler (31:10):
Okay, so for the last probably three years,
everybody's been talking aboutAI this and AI that.
Um, the session that I sat inyesterday was so pivotal, uh,
for my, my.
Kind of like my understanding ofkind of where things are going
from an SEO perspective andoptimizing for generative search
is by far gonna be the mostimportant, uh, avenue for us in
(31:34):
terms of our SEO efforts and,and content generation Thinking
about it in a different waythan, you know, traditional SEO
would be.
Austin McNair (31:41):
I'm a bit of an SEO wonk myself.
I was in the same session.
I'm curious, like, you know, wasthere like technical details
that he called out that you werelike, dude, yeah, we, we haven't
done that yet, or we need toaccelerate on this project?
Paul Boechler (31:53):
I think it was a simple thing, like it was, it
was just one little detail thathe added that I was like, that
we're gonna do that.
And I think it's taking thequestions that people are asking
and using those as your headingsand the, the driving force
behind your content, that's sucha little tweak that I think is
gonna have a big impact on thecontent that we create going
forward.
Austin McNair (32:12):
Yeah.
I love that.
Yeah, I, I took a lot of similarthings away.
Um, it's just, it's changing soquickly.
I, I like how he was honestabout the things that we know
and the things that we dunnoyet.
Joe Pope (32:23):
Mm-hmm.
Austin McNair (32:24):
Um, so it's great.
I mean, it's a topic we continueto come back to.
Joe Pope (32:27):
Yep.
Austin McNair (32:27):
Anything else you took away?
Paul Boechler (32:30):
I mean, there's been a lot of good sessions,
right?
Uh, even just taking a littlebit of time to reflect on kind
of what are the, what are thethings that we can do at our
firm to get 10% better and movein, you know, a more quantified.
Direction where we can provideactual quantifiable data to our,
our partner group going thisworks or this does not work and
(32:51):
we need to fix this.
Um, so all the sessions havebeen valuable.
Um, I, I personally like the,those digital marketing sessions
where I can kind of get thecreative juices flowing, that
tends to be the most fruitfulfor me.
Austin McNair (33:03):
I love that.
Absolutely.
Well, Paul, I'm
Joe Pope (33:05):
glad uh,
Austin McNair (33:06):
I'm glad Joe become conference besties.
and
Joe Pope (33:08):
and, uh, thanks for sitting
Austin McNair (33:09):
thanks down.
Joe Pope (33:09):
us.
Yeah, absolutely.
Anytime guys.
Hey,
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (33:12):
Alright, well welcome up to the Spiraling
Up Podcast.
Tell us what is your name andwho are you with?
Joe Kovacs (33:17):
Sure.
My name is Joe Kovac.
I am founder and managingdirector of Covax
Communications, relatively newmarketing consultancy, serving
the accounting industry.
I recently left my in-houserole.
I'd been working in-house formore than 15 years, so this is a
big change for me.
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (33:32):
Fantastic.
Well listen, thanks for takingthe time.
Uh, take a couple minutes withus.
Uh, today we are asking folks,you know, what has been your
pivotal story from theconference this week?
That could be a key session,maybe an overarching theme.
Um, but what is the pivotalstory this week for you?
Joe Kovacs (33:49):
Yeah, so I'll break that into two parts.
Uh, first we'll start with thesessions.
I was in a great sessionyesterday, I think it was
yesterday, that looked at notonly the value of KPIs and key
performance indicator, but alsovrs, Mm-hmm.
Which which are keepingbehavior.
indicators.
what behaviors.
lead to those KPIs.
(34:09):
and I'm sure the concepts beenaround for while?
but I'd never seen it brokendown like that.
So I thought that was reallycool.
the Part of my answer is justgoing be the networking,
because, I've been coming to thesummit for 15 years now.
so I.
usually tend to have a plancoming here, but then I run into
someone or sitting at a table todo something and then someone
(34:30):
drops by.
And organic aspect of it isvery, a very positive thing.
You know, the interruptions aregreat.
They're part of the experience.
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (34:37):
Well, I love that you brought up the
session with the the KPIs andKBIs.
Uh, I was also in that sessionand I went on and on about it
earlier.
I just loved the way, that shetook kind of a common like
leading and lagging computersand I kind of reframed that for
the group.
And then I also loved the waythat that we really had a.
chance to interact with otherpeople at our table and kind of
(34:59):
understand what are some oftheir KPIs and,
riverside_guest_cam _ mb au (35:02):
you know, how, how they see tying
Those KPIs to some of thosethings going forward.
Joe Kovacs (35:07):
Yeah, no, you put that really Well.
I do like the idea of the leadlead on the LA indicators.
I mean, because what you do now,the ultimate goal the ultimate
outcome, it might not happen.
right away.
That's to happen, right?
That's why you you have what youdo today and what you hope for
in the future.
If you're doing the right thing,now you know your chance.
of achieving what you wannaachieve.
That big goal that never getsdone at one time.
(35:29):
You're more than to go.
to get there.
Right.
Austin (35:31):
Joe, thanks so much for sitting down and, uh, telling us
about your pivotal story.
Good luck with, uh, the newventure.
Joe Pope (35:36):
Thanks so much.
Thanks for having.
Appreciate you, Joe.
Austin McNair (35:39):
All right, so who are we here with?
What firm do you work
Apoorv Dwivedi (35:42):
for?
Uh, my name ti I'm with FixerMarketing
Austin McNair (35:45):
And I gotta give you a quick shout out.
I mentioned earlier we did themarketing budget, benchmark
study.
Apor was critical in helping usto, uh, make the study even
better this year.
So thank you for your,
Apoorv Dwivedi (35:56):
Oh, you're welcome.
You're welcome.
Yeah.
I
Austin McNair (35:58):
wanted to ask, so what is the pivotal story for
you from the conference?
What is something you, you tookaway this year?
Apoorv Dwivedi (36:03):
So from the 2025 AIM Summit, I'd say probably
the, the key, uh, takeaway forme, the key theme that I've been
hearing over and over is theintegration of different aspects
around growth, right?
So everything from marketing toBD to, you know, even the, uh,
the keynote speaker day onekicked it off Keith Razzi,
(36:25):
right.
You know, and, and he, he sharedsome really good insights
around, um.
Uh, growth strategies that evensmaller firms can use, right?
So it's not just like, here's akind of single approach or, you
know, kind of getting into liketactical marketing stuff about,
um, one specific thing.
You have to do this one thing orthat one thing, but it's kinda
(36:47):
like that overarching theme.
And I think people are startingto look.
A lot more strategically atgrowth for their accounting
practices, for their advisorypractices, and they're looking,
okay, how do we integrate allthese different components,
right?
Customer experience, marketing,right.
Bd, all this type of stuff.
Right.
So just to kind of put all thattogether.
Mm-hmm.
(37:08):
This, yeah.
Yeah.
I think this is my fifth one ina row, right?
So in Curious.
Come out, you see this, you guyslike, right?
(37:29):
Yeah.
So, um, uh, I mean, five yearsago, it wasn't even that long
when you really think about it,right?
But what happened in that timeperiod, right?
So we're coming at COVID, right?
Um, there's been a lot ofchanges in, uh, the market with
governments and policies.
There's, um, you're seeing a lotof.
Uh, outside pressure from likeprivate equity firms and folks
(37:52):
like that as well.
That's all kind of being, uh, ontop of the state of the industry
with.
Um, staffing shortages with alot of people, uh, looking at
potentially exiting thebusiness.
So there's just like a wholebunch of catalysts of change and
stuff coming together, right.
It's, it, it, like in the lastfour or five years, it's, it's
(38:13):
been, it's been time brewin forlike 10, 12 years or so.
Yeah, more, but likeparticularly in the last few
years, it's coming together moreand more and it used to be more
of kind of like an outsidething.
Now it's like, it's, it's adiscussion we're having all the
time, right.
In a lot of the differentsessions.
So you really kind of see the,you know, um, the marketers are
(38:34):
more kind of in tune withhelping firms to adapt and stay
ahead of everything that's goingon externally.
Yeah.
That, yeah.
Yes.
Awesome.
There's a lot of, we're tryingto coach the marketers.
(38:56):
Yeah.
And now naturally How Yeah.
Yeah.
For sure.
Well, thanks for sitting downwith us.
It's, uh, great to hear.
Enjoy the rest of theconference.
Always.
My pleasure.
Um, just to shout out to thefolks at Hinge and the.
Um, for those of you that areout there, uh, there is really
no other place in the industrywhere you can get that
(39:18):
information, so, um, we, wereally love the work that you
guys do.
Appreciate it.
Yeah, that means a lot.
Okay, thanks.
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (39:26):
All right, producer John, uh, tell us what
is your name and who are youwith?
John Tyreman (39:31):
I am producer John.
Awesome.
John Tieman.
And, um, I am with Red CedarMarketing, which is the, uh,
marketing company that I, I runand, uh, yeah.
And I'm happy to be here withyou guys and producing the, uh,
the Spiraling Up podcast.
It's a lot of fun.
Austin McNair (39:47):
John is also a former hinge, so all of us, Joe,
mayor Blanche, myself, we'vebeen at Hinge a while.
We all worked together, John,back in the day, back in the
office in Reston.
Um, this is such a throwbackman, dude.
I mean, we've been working onthe podcast now for over a year,
but here we are, like in personagain.
It's been great catching up withyou.
(40:08):
How have you, uh, been enjoyingthe conference?
Uh, AIM Summit and, um, I gottasay, I, I love everything about
it because the, I, like yousaid, I worked at HI was my
first job outta college.
The very first day I walked intoh um, I sat down and Lee
Frederick and said, alrightJohn, here's your first
(40:29):
assignment.
And it was the aim, budget,benchmark study, full circle.
Yeah.
So I've.
Um, and that's been just a kind,like core part of my career.
And so finally I was in aposition to where I could become
(40:50):
an A member and attend aconference.
And it's just been great.
It's been a fantastic event.
Anybody who is involved inaccounting, marketing should
definitely consider a Yeah,agree.
So, John, listen, one thingwe're asking people this week is
what has been their pivotalstory for the week, for the
(41:11):
summit?
And for some people that hasbeen a key session or maybe a
key insight.
Uh, for some people it's more ofan overarching thing.
But, but tell us what, what Ithink honestly, how
approachable, how friendlypeople I, uh, I don't.
(41:33):
There's always somebody who's,Hey, can I join you for lunch if
I sit down?
You're very welcome.
People are so willing to strikea conversation here, and it's
honestly, it's different thanother conferences that I've been
to where people can be a littlebit more standoffish.
Um.
I also like the, the amount ofpeople that are here.
(41:54):
It's not big, not small.
You see new faces, but also thesame faces again and again.
A great recipe for friendships.
So, John, you are clearly herehelping, representing yourself.
I know you've been helping usout, John Renee, obviously, but
(42:15):
in terms of what you've beenable to see on, on your side of
being able to have some greatconversations, what, anything
real key takeaways there?
Well, you know, we talked aboutthis a little bit, but uh, I'm.
And I didn't realize how big ofa hit that was.
I was, I just thought, you know,hey, I could get a little bit of
brand visibility for one of mypodcasts breaking, but I.
(42:50):
I was gonna say, I, I, I thoughtwhen we asked what's your
pivotal story, you were gonnajump straight into the hat
because Yeah.
I was with you earlier whensomeone came by and said, dude,
that's a great hat.
And you know, we're here inArizona and you've got like the
breaking bad vibes with the hatand the branding.
I mean, dude, this couldn't haveworked out better for you.
I, I, people come up to me andthey said, you stand out.
(43:11):
They're different.
That's awesome.
Well, John, uh, you've made ithappen for us here at the AIM
event.
You've helped us record this.
Um, we really appreciate all thework you've put into helping
make spiraling up successful,and it's been great spending
time with you.
(43:31):
Thank you.
Thank you.
You're listening to this rightnow.
Like the YouTube channel.
Subscribe on Apple, Spotify,YouTube, wherever you get your
podcast.
Spiraling Up podcasts coming atyou episodes every other week.
Awesome show.
Atta boy.
Thanks John.
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (43:52):
All right.
So guys, um, smart people hereYeah, good stuff
Joe Pope (43:57):
Un
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (43:58):
Un unbelievably smart people here.
Um, I'm hearing a lot of themesabout building trust across the
organization, right?
That was the.
Joe Pope (44:07):
Yeah.
Austin McNair (44:07):
Tru
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (44:08):
Trust over and over and over.
Uh I'm hearing a lot about youknow kind of technology and like
taking strides forward this yearand not kind of sit you know,
not just sitting in your CRMsystem that's got all these big
problems but actually takingaction Um, but yeah, I don't
know I think that the trust onewas like the one that kept
coming back up
Joe Pope (44:24):
over
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (44:25):
and over again Um especially for the
accounting industry Um that youknow these they're working with
all the distributed partners andexperts across the organization
How do they get more involvementright And how do they get more
buy-in from those experts Umthat really stood out to me in
some of these conversations Umbut yeah, really brilliant
people.
Great event.
Um you guys had a good time.
(44:46):
Yeah,
Joe Pope (44:46):
I
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (44:47):
mean, good time
Joe Pope (44:48):
met her
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (44:48):
conference bestie.
I did you guys yeah Yeah We havea conference I do have a
conference vest Yeah Side of thecountry too.
Yeah 100 Yeah And I think thatthat's just a really good um it
just shows like what the thekind of people that are here and
the kind of connections that youcan make A lot of the things
that you were just saying Butyeah
Austin McNair (45:04):
yeah
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (45:06):
Well we hope you
Austin McNair (45:07):
a lot from this
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (45:07):
episode
Austin McNair (45:08):
Um if you
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (45:09):
um if you haven't heard about
Austin McNair (45:11):
Aim
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (45:11):
before you can go and visit their website
at uh
Austin McNair (45:15):
I
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (45:15):
I think it's accounting marketing.org Uh
we'll get you the we'll put thelink on the screen Reach around
Austin McNair (45:20):
the put the link on the
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (45:21):
Good job Um but yeah.
Uh great episode great event Itwas so great to see you guys in
person You know we've already,we've already hit the hotel bar
a couple times We still have gotone more night together so
Austin McNair (45:33):
uh
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (45:33):
making making the most out of our time
together as a team making cool
Joe Pope (45:37):
memories.
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (45:37):
Making new memories, meeting your friends
Um so thank you guys on behalfof Joe Mary Blanc myself and
producer John who's here with usJohn good job man This has been
great Um thank you guys forwatching Spiraling Up We'll see
you on the next episode
And
Austin McNair (00:06):
in
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (00:08):
today's
Austin McNair (00:09):
episode
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (00:10):
of Spiraling Up,
Austin McNair (00:11):
Hey, we are
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (00:13):
in person together, guys.
What's going on?
Joe Pope (00:16):
You met me inside on that intro by the way.
You, you, you by the
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (00:18):
way Hundred percent
Austin McNair (00:19):
Joe told me to give the best, the best, deepest
in.
yeah.
we had to
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (00:25):
we're
Austin McNair (00:26):
person Guys, what's going on?
It's great
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (00:27):
See you.
Austin McNair (00:28):
guys.
Joe Pope (00:28):
I'm.
amazed that we were able to pullthis off.
Honestly.
Shout out to producer John,
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (00:33):
John
Joe Pope (00:34):
Uh, but yeah, no, we've got our backdrop set up.
We uh, uh we're here at the MainSummit in Phoenix, Arizona.
It's awesome to be here.
It's awesome to see you.
Yep Coming from a different kindto join us.
Austin McNair (00:45):
Yep.
Yep.
So, main summit, for those thatdon't know, it's the Association
for County Marketing Every yearthey do a summit somewhere
within the United States.
Uh, it brings together all theworld's leading, uh accounting
marketers, accounting businessdevelopment, sales leaders.
They all gather here at thisconference Um and Hinge has had
(01:06):
a longstanding partnership withthe Association for Accounting
Marketing um, for over a decadenow, as everybody knows Hinge,
we do research, um, quite a bit.
it's, it's it's it's, withinour, It's within DNA and years
ago we set up a researchpartnership with the
association.
to understand, Um, how are thesedifferent companies budgeting
(01:26):
for marketing Um, and in our,you know, own special way, we
always apply that high growthmethodology to the study.
So not only are we seeing whatother people are doing in their
marketing budgets we're alsoseeing what the fastest growing
companies are doing with theirmarketing budgets And so this
year we've been great.
Um, we had one of our teammembers will casserly give a
keynote speech um here on on theresults Um and it super well
(01:50):
received So Deep.
Great marketing partnershipwith, with aim and yeah, I mean
I mean all that is great, butlike we said, even better, be
we're together in person.
Mayor Blanc, how are you?
This is your first summit.
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (02:03):
It is as well as mine.
Austin McNair (02:04):
But I'm interested, what have you, uh
how have you enjoyed theconference so far?
Has there, you know, what hasbeen a highlight for you so far
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (02:11):
Sure, yeah.
I mean, the energy here, I just,the comradery uh you can tell
that everyone here that theycome every year that this is a a
time for a genuine connection Umand, uh, I mean, for me too, I,
we were talking earlier aboutsome of the other partnerships
that Hinge is involved with anduh some of those organizations
(02:32):
and conferences that I I go tooutside of uh the ames Summit
but um The speakers this year Ihave been so impressed Um and
I'm I'm really excited aboutsome of the the takeaways from
from some of those sessions andbeing able to take that back to
the team at Hinge
Austin McNair (02:49):
We'll come back to that Yeah because that that
will be kind of what thisepisode is about
Joe Pope (02:53):
For shadow
Austin McNair (02:53):
we're gonna be bringing in a hashtag for shadow
people and attendees um, who arehere at the conference with us
These are marketing leaders umCMOs and we're gonna be asking
em what is their biblical storyfrom the conference So stick
around and watch that with usJoe, I'm curious, so you've been
to this conference a few times.
How have you seen the conferencechange over the years?
What, what's standing out to youthis year?
Joe Pope (03:15):
Yeah.
Aim has gone through a arevolution in a sense on how
they structure this conferenceto best fit the needs of those
that attended.
I mean, they have a significantcommitment to accomplishing the
goal of listening to people'sfeedback.
I mean, after, this is my forthing show here.
you I've listened to BuildMentioned earlier he he's gotten
(03:38):
Talk Few, few of these.
Another one of our partners.
Liz Har was able to speak lastyear on the fiscal expert
revolution available on onAmazon and anywhere else I,
think I Amazon, right?
yeah.
Uh, but yeah, no, I mean, AIMhas really also put effort into
how they treat their partners aswell.
So we're sitting in the mainhall directly across from where
everybody's actually attendingmost of these sessions.
(04:00):
So many great conversations.
Uh Uh, so many great moments foryou.
Yeah man, Because how manypeople have walked up to you and
made the connection knowing howlong you've been spending time
going through Um through thesewebinars, aim, these Different
partnerships, initiatives, andnow, hey, look man, you're here
in person.
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (04:18):
Low key and aim Celebrity Like celebrity
status
Austin McNair (04:22):
Stop Guys Stop Say more Say more say more No Um
guys this is probably one of mynumber one takeaways so just You
know we're all marketing peoplehere talking to to marketing
folks on the call Um, thinkabout this from the perspective
of us as a market marketingagency marketing our own
business right We've made thislongstanding convention into
(04:43):
this relationship with anassociation Um, we have done
this research report which we wedo for them for them right and
And in return we receive somevisibility with the association
So that means we You knowwebinars um Webinar, You know,
uh access to the memberdirectory a whole bunch of
little benefits Right right Thethe summit is the big one right
(05:04):
Yeah.
But I've never been to thesummit but I've been a part of a
lot of the webinars I've been alot of part of the you know
digital marketing I'm the onethat is bothering people every
two years to fill out the budgetsurvey which is pretty much the
hardest survey ever to fill outif we're being honest Um so
shout out to anyone who took thesurvey We really deeply
appreciate you Um
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (05:24):
but yeah, so people have seen my name and
Austin McNair (05:26):
and.
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (05:26):
Being here in person.
Austin McNair (05:28):
It's just, it's been so great to meet all these
people.
I I recognize all their names, Isee their LinkedIn pictures, but
now, you know, seeing the, theactual people in person, I've
had a lot of people come up tome they recognize me for similar
reasons and it's just like anice payoff So if you are a
marketing person who isinvesting in partnerships with
associations, organizations,make sure you added that layer
(05:51):
of some sort of face-to-facetime because it really for me
has been like a huge payoff Toyou know all the digital
marketing stuff that we've donebut like being able to be here
go to the hotel bar and strikeup like conversations that
aren't just about business, notjust about marketing.
I mean, it's been, it's beenreally wonderful So it's been
great and it's been great forour team.
(06:11):
I mean, Mary Branch I don'tthink I've seen in person like
two years.
Joe Pope (06:15):
years.
I'd be longer than that.
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (06:18):
I don't think so.
Austin McNair (06:19):
years.
Joe Pope (06:20):
What was, I mean, when the last time Austin, how
Mary-Blanche Kraem (06:22):
specifically remember a happy hour
Austin McNair (06:24):
Yes I do too
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (06:25):
In Reston Yes Oh yeah.
That was the last time cause thelast time you were in the States
you saw Joe Joe
Joe Pope (06:31):
was
Austin McNair (06:31):
That was before I moved So that was three years
ago.
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (06:35):
No you came back for a wedding You came
back for wedding
Austin McNair (06:38):
Did we see each other
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (06:40):
Are you sure Are you sure were
Austin McNair (06:41):
there I know what you're talking about Yeah Yes
Okay You did say yes Okay.
Two years Two years.
So two years.
let the
Joe Pope (06:46):
memorable.
Austin McNair (06:47):
no it was, it's just
Joe Pope (06:49):
Up,
Austin McNair (06:49):
mixing up times I'm losing track Um, it Um
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (06:53):
two years is still a long time Yeah
Joe Pope (06:54):
up times.
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (06:58):
uh,
Austin McNair (06:58):
yeah.
There's no, getting around thattravel kind of is tough right?
Yeah.
You had some You you had, had ahard time Joe
Joe Pope (07:04):
I think I I've learned less what?
It's to be in your upperthirties and thinking that it's
a good idea to, uh, uh, fly thesame day across the country and
then try to be on the be on thefloor.
For Full day for 10 hours.
Yeah And it's survive.
I My body's pretty much given upon me at definitely
Austin McNair (07:21):
I texted my wife you know, it's one of those
things you hear about jet lagright You know when I'm in my
twenties or you know I'm like JIshow up a new place I'm excited
I'm energized man Theadrenaline's going like it's all
good What is jet lag It doesn'tmatter It I'm at 35 years old
now I can firmly say
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (07:40):
Holy smokes I've never I had I think
going to bed last night I never,been as tired
Austin McNair (07:46):
I
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (07:46):
as I had
Austin McNair (07:47):
mb How have you have been you know, we were
talking earlier about the.
kind of we're gonna talk topeople about their.
Takeaways, like their pivotalstories from the conference What
has been like one of the bigpivotal stories for you, coming
outta the conference sessionsand all that
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (08:02):
Yeah so when we were talking earlier I
was telling you you know I'vereally been trying to make sure
I attended as many sessions as Icould, more on them The client
uh experience and more theoperational, um data driven
sessions Um, and there was thisone session that was very
focused towards clientexperience and uh, and focused
(08:24):
on that data.
Mm-hmm.
And um, you know we at h talk alot about leading indicators
versus lagging indicators And uhthe way she kind of chose to
frame it, um, in, in her sessionwas, uh.
Looking at KPIs, key performanceindicators, and also being very
intentional about pairing eachof your KPIs with a kbi which
(08:47):
stands for Key BehavioralIndicators And I just thought it
was just such an interesting.
Just an interesting way to takekind of that uh something that
we talk about at Hinge veryoften the leading versus the
lagging indicators and kind ofreframe it in a way that you
can, you can really look at whatthose company KPIs are and
(09:07):
really say, okay, well whatbehaviors are we doing to drive
ultimately what the goals ofeach of those those KPIs are And
I just I just, love the way thatshe framed that up and the way.
Um, that she kind of just didthat section in general You
know, she was also veryintentional about um getting
time with people at your tableto kind of understand what some
of their pain points are andsome of what their common KPIs
(09:30):
are and being able to reallytick and tie those KPIs to the
KPIs So anyways, I I'm going onand on, but I just, I'm really
excited to, to bring that backand how we can infuse that into,
to some of the things that we'redoing at Hinge.
Austin McNair (09:42):
I love that.
So for me it was the kind ofpayoff of being in person.
Um, kind of fulfilling that umyou know those Those marketing
partnerships and digitalmarketing campaigns For you, it
was the KBI presentation,everything you just laid out.
Joe, how about you?
What, what's one kind of pivotalstory takeaway that you have in
the conference so far
Joe Pope (10:03):
I, I think seeing the results of our research.
in action.
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (10:08):
Uh, and that's not just the
Joe Pope (10:10):
budget benchmarking study which we you know, talked
about, and.
The The cornerstone.
if you will, of our partnershipwith aim.
But I mean, you talk aboutpartnerships, you talk about
live We talk about creatingcontent and we're doing
obviously right now.
Yeah And seeing all of thesepieces come together as part of
our cohesive strategy becausethe type of investment it takes
(10:30):
to even just that list out YeahAnd what we're doing right now
and plan it through and talk itand so forth.
And then also see the all theother ways that when.
You know not not recordingcontent, but actually meeting
people and making connections,letting off be the celebrity
that he's I all of thesedifferent pieces.
It's checking the boxes of allof the highest growth tech, uh,
(10:50):
tactics that mm-hmm Professionalservices organizations used to
be successful and then you know,I mean, what's validator what
some of these speakers aretalking about, the importance of
metrics and.
insights, then gatheringdatabase decision making, like,
I mean, that's, that's.
Right now Right Right.
think I think I think I think, Ithink my takeaway is kind of
this compilation of all thesethings coming together, seeing
(11:13):
it inact participating.
Yeah Uh, and then know, the bestpart is gonna be C list and
exhaust that come out this.
We've Yeah got so many greatconversations.
Maybe you got a website leadwithin five minutes of what the,
Austin McNair (11:26):
Yeah And
Joe Pope (11:26):
got.
it's just so wild to see allthese things come It just, uh,
justifies.
Putting the time and focus intoa partnership.
Yeah And an event strategy.
Austin McNair (11:39):
Yeah no absolutely I love it So I think
ours were very similar Joe Andum, now I'm really excited We're
gonna turn to the rest
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (11:46):
of the episode where we're gonna be
talking to some of the attendeeshere
Austin McNair (11:49):
Um
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (11:50):
Some of who are gonna sit down with the
three of us others we're kind ofone-on-one interviews
Austin McNair (11:54):
Um
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (11:54):
but we're gonna mix that all together
because we know that you wannahear from some of the leaders in
the accounting marketing space
Austin McNair (12:00):
and
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (12:00):
what they're taking away from this
really important event one of akind event So
Austin McNair (12:05):
let's
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (12:05):
turn now and talk to some of these
wonderful people who are havebrilliant things to say and
let's hear what is their pivotalstory from the conference
Austin McNair (12:15):
All right.
So who am I here with?
Julia Thompson (12:16):
I'm Julia Thompson from Sorin.
Austin McNair (12:19):
All right, Julia.
So what is your pivotal storyfrom the conference so far?
Julia Thompson (12:24):
I just came from an amazing session about
conflict resolution with Ace,and it was so incredible, but I
think the biggest takeaway wasthat everyone wants a good
solution and it should bemutually beneficial.
It should be easy to kind ofagree that you want to find a
good solution.
You might disagree on how to getthere.
You might have differentperspectives even.
(12:46):
Different facts, differentinformation, but remembering
you're on the same team and thatyou want to be successful and
you want to grow and you want topush things forward is just so
crucial.
Just grounds you and helps kindof take a little bit of the
emotion and the heightenedcraziness out of it if you just
remember you're on the sameteam.
Austin McNair (13:03):
Wow, brilliant.
Thank you so much Julia.
Have a great rest of theconference.
Thank you.
Joe Pope (13:10):
Hey everyone.
Joe Pope here with the SpiralingUp Podcast, and we are at the
AIMS Summit this year.
This is the 2025 edition, and Iam joined by Becca Johns, a
friend of the pod.
Yeah.
Becca, how's your summit going?
Becca Johns (13:23):
It's awesome.
Um, I really enjoy seeingeverybody every year.
Um, this year is a littledifferent for me.
I'm out on my own now and it's alittle lonely sometimes, so I
feel like my cup is just sofull.
Spending time networking witheverybody and seeing what
everyone's been up to, it's beenreally awesome
Joe Pope (13:37):
making friends out here with the rest of us in the
hallway.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Playing hooky kind of fun.
Okay, so here's the question.
We're just asking, what is thepivotal story of AIM Summit this
year?
Becca Johns (13:50):
I think it's the togetherness.
Um, you know, it's nice to talkwith people on the phone, on
teams, but seeing them in personI think is really what the, what
the value is for me.
Um, you know, of course you, thesessions are awesome.
We have some great speakers andpresenters, but to me it's the
time to connect one-on-one withpeople, um, is really like why I
keep coming every year.
Joe Pope (14:10):
And this is such an, a good group right there.
There's, I don't think there'sanother professional services
association that puts together aconference like aim.
This is a much must attend forall of us and that's why we're
here.
And, uh, you know, Becca, thankyou so much for doing this.
Yeah,
Becca Johns (14:23):
thanks.
Nice talking with you.
Joe Pope (14:24):
Yep.
Sarah GHJ (14:27):
All right.
So who am I here with now?
Hi, my name is Sarah Avila.
I work at GHJ.
We're an accounting and advisoryfirm.
Sarah, what is your pivotalstory from the conference so
far?
I realize the importance oftaking a step back and realizing
the why of what your companydoes, what, why they do what
(14:47):
they do, and using that toreally focus on.
Quality over quantity.
When focusing your marketingefforts, have you done anything
already, like maybe this year orlike fairly recently in like
kind of your marketing team toreally drive home that message
of like quality over quantity?
Have you guys produced anythingor have you kind of steered, how
(15:09):
have you steered towards thatdirection a little bit?
Well, as this was brand new.
You know, thought bubble or, uh,light bulb from this conference,
I'm gonna be taking it back andreally looking at what we can do
to make some changes.
But it is a concept that hadbeen floating around, especially
when looking at our socialmedia.
(15:29):
Um, you know.
You kind of get dinged a littlebit by if you post too much.
Yeah.
So, you know, really refocusingthat.
And then also looking at whatwe're creating content-wise and
making sure it's hitting theright audiences with the right
message.
So I think all of that is gonnabe huge, and especially as we're
looking at redoing some items onour website and, um, really
(15:50):
hitting the correct target, uh,with activities and other things
I.
I'm gonna keep that mantra in myhead.
I love that.
Thank you so much for talkingwith me, Sarah.
Enjoy the rest of theconference.
Thank you.
It was great meeting you.
Great meeting you too.
All right.
Melissa Taylor (16:05):
Alright, so who am I here with?
Hey, Melissa Taylor with Meltonand Melton down in Houston.
Alright, so what is your mainpivotal story from the
conference this year?
Uh, trust is your North Starwith everything that we're doing
in, in marketing, businessdevelopment, communications,
anything under that role.
If we don't have trust withinthe firm, then there's nothing
that we do that matters.
(16:25):
We can have all the knowledgewith the tech stack, we can have
all the skill sets in the world,but if we don't have our
partner's trust.
There's no reason for us to haveany of that skills.
So what's one thing you learnedabout building that trust?
I know there's been a lot oflike great presentations that
have touched on that topic.
Have you taken away anything alittle practical and building
trust across your, your company?
(16:46):
Oh, man.
Consistency.
Integrity is just key.
Do what you say, say what youdo.
Um, and then the, the old phrasematters.
People don't care how much youknow until they know how much
you care.
So.
Uh, just think, um, you know,your core values, just letting
those shine through is, isreally what's just gonna, uh,
it's gonna let yourself shinewho you are and then just,
(17:08):
we'll, we'll perpetuate thattrust even further.
Excellent.
Well, thank you for talking withus.
Enjoy the rest of theconference.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Gabe (17:16):
All right, so who am I here with?
Uh, my name is Gabe Tevrizian.
I'm director of Growth with CBMin the Washington DC area.
Great to talk to you, Gabe.
We're definitely neighbors here,uh, in the DC area.
So Gabe, what has been thepivotal story for you being here
at the AIM Conference this year?
You know, from the, uh, the getgo.
Um, I think the level ofauthenticity, I've been noticing
(17:38):
that a lot.
Um, you know, whether in thesessions, um, the brand story
and the brand, um, workshopshave been really meaningful and,
and, and is really helping firmsunderstand the value of
authenticity.
So that's kind of one of the keytakeaways.
What is one way that in your dayto day kind of.
Life as a, as a marketingleader, how do you try to
(18:01):
demonstrate authenticity?
Gosh, you know, there's a longlist of things that I can think
of, you know, but clearly theway we articulate our value
propositions and the way weconnect with the market, um, and
then really, uh, followingthrough with the content that we
produce really is like.
It's a game changer when youthink about engaging the right
audience at the right time.
It was such just in that sessiona minute ago, so it's fresh in
(18:23):
my mind.
I love that.
I love it Gabe.
So thanks for talking with us.
Enjoy the rest of theconference.
Thanks so much.
Appreciate it.
Alright.
Mary-Blanche (18:31):
welcome up to the Spiraling Up Podcast.
Thank you so much for taking acouple minutes to be with us
today.
Tell us what is your name andwho are you with?
Rhonda Clark (18:37):
I'm Rhonda Clark and I am the Executive Director
for the Association for CountyMarketing.
Joe Pope (18:43):
In
Austin McNair (18:43):
other words, you're the one to thank for
putting on this wonderful event.
Uh, Rhonda, how's it all goingfor you?
Rhonda Clark (18:50):
the conference has been amazing.
I would say not.
I'm not, I can't take all thecredit.
I can't take all the credit.
You have a great team.
We do.
We have an amazing conferenceteam that works so hard, and
they do from the time this oneends.
They immediately start workingon the next one.
And we also have, I have tothank Samantha Bowerman, our
(19:10):
meeting manager, who isfantastic.
You know, she's been with us somany years and, and she's just
such a great asset to have onour team.
I,
Austin McNair (19:19):
I, that Samantha, it's amazing, it's so detail
oriented.
She gets everything that wayahead of time.
She makes it easy for partners,she makes it easy for speakers.
I, she's doing great, but.
Run it.
This event has changed so muchover the years.
I wanted, and I wanna know, kindof like this year, what has been
kind of the main takeaway?
What's been the pivotal storyfor you?
(19:40):
Whatcha walking away with thisyear?
Rhonda Clark (19:42):
Oh gosh, Austin, So much.
I mean, again, like we reallywork hard every year.
You know, we take the feedbackthat we receive, you know, each
year at the end of theconference, and we really take
that into consideration on howwe can improve for the next
year.
And, you know, so I mean it's,and it's just so many different
(20:02):
things.
Uh, I think, you know, one ofthe main things that we focus
on.
Is, you know, the content, whichis incredibly important.
You know, that's what drivespeople well, I'd say the content
and the networking is whatdrives people to the conference
for sure.
Uh, but we do, we really wannaunderstand what our members
wanna learn about, so, and, andwho they wanna learn from.
(20:22):
And we try to find the bestpeople.
To talk on those, thoseparticular subjects.
So I feel like every year wecontinue to elevate the content
for the conference.
And then also just, again, ourmembers love to come together
and be with one another.
They love to share and learn,and they just love to connect.
So we do, we try to find lots ofdifferent networking
(20:43):
opportunities for them to cometogether.
Even just like as you see acrossthe way, we've got our bookmark
table where they're creatingbookmarks and they can come
together and sit.
And talk while they're, youknow, coloring these bookmarks.
So just all kinds of differentopportunities for them to come
together and help grow theirnetworks.
Joe Pope (21:00):
Yeah.
Right next to the socks.
Rhonda Clark (21:03):
Yes.
Joe Pope (21:03):
Yes.
Some wonderful conversations,folks just, uh, coming by.
Socks, donate.
It's awesome.
These, this.
You did say something, this keepmy mind back, which was praying
already starting for next year.
Rhonda Clark (21:22):
Yes.
Joe Pope (21:23):
Any chance has a sneak peek?
Might
Rhonda Clark (21:26):
be, yes.
I'm happy to share.
It's gonna be in, uh, PalmSprings.
Joe Pope (21:32):
Oh, okay.
Awesome.
So we'll be more than that.
We'll be in the sun again.
Austin McNair (21:34):
Yes.
Rhonda Clark (21:35):
Back in the desert.
Austin McNair (21:37):
I think I was spreading this information.
I think I may have told somebodyat Palm Beach.
So I'll have to go and find thatperson.
Can we edit that?
I can't edit that conversation.
I wasn't on camera.
Yeah, no.
Uh, okay.
So Palm Springs, that's great.
Rhonda Clark (21:50):
Yes, Palm Springs.
Well,
Austin McNair (21:51):
Rona, one thing that um, we've already told
people on the podcast, but I'llreinforce it again, is that this
partnership that we do with themarketing and budget benchmark
study, it's an excellentresource.
If anyone's listening, you inthe account industry have
website and buy that report.
It is the best data in the.
Create one of a kind survey thatcaptures what the fastest
(22:12):
growing account doing.
We're gonna pushing it hard.
It's a wonderful project and theresearch that you guys provide
to your members.
Um, and you know, again, Rhonda,you're crushing it.
Oh, thank you, Austin.
And
Rhonda Clark (22:25):
again, we are so grateful and enjoy our
partnership with Hinge.
Thank you all for, again,partnering this year, uh, on
the, on the survey with us.
Um, we couldn't, obviously wecouldn't do it without you.
Austin McNair (22:36):
Yeah.
And this has.
Go enjoy the rest of theconference and, uh, we'll talk
again soon.
My
Rhonda Clark (22:45):
pleasure.
Thank you all so much.
Thank you.
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (22:49):
Alright, well welcome to the Spiraling Up
podcast.
Thanks for taking a few minutesto be with us today.
Tell us what's your name and whoare you with?
Brenda Sleeper (22:55):
Uh, my name is Brenda Sleeper and I am a
director, relationship directorwith the BDO Alliance.
We have 258 CPA firms that arepart of our program, and we have
186, uh, business resourcenetwork firms as well.
And, um, the alliance programhas been in effect for 30 over
(23:15):
30 years.
Fantastic.
Well, today we're asking peoplewhat is your pivotal story for
this weekend, the summit.
Now that could be a key session,uh, maybe an overarching theme,
uh, but what has been yourpivotal story this week?
Well, I think that, um, the 35thanniversary of aim, the fact
that AIM started and startedhere in Arizona.
(23:37):
Oh, wow.
And so last night there was aspecial, um.
Cocktail reception, um, here,and it was for the Hall of
Famers.
So, you know, there's a lot ofhistory, nostalgia, the stuff
that they brought and had out onthe tables of things that were
like, you know, like cassettediscs, you know, like, I mean,
(23:58):
it was really funny.
It's really funny now that welook back at it, but that, you
know, we were state of the artback then.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
So it was fun and it was reallygreat to see everybody so.
Austin (24:07):
So you've seen the full evolution of, of AIM Um, well,
my, one of my questions my iswhat does it take to be to
become an AIM Hall of Famer?
Can Tell us little bit aboutthat program.
Brenda Sleeper (24:17):
Be old.
No, um, you know, AIM was mypassion.
I started out as a marketingdirector at a firm in
Massachusetts and not reallyunderstanding that my journey
through the accounting industrywould be this long.
That was 1999 and a year intoit, somebody introduced me to
(24:38):
aim.
And when you're a marketingdirector in a CPA firm.
You need support, you needservices, you need mentors,
mentors, you, you know what Imean?
So for me, AIM was just sopivotal, pivotal in my career.
And even though I wasn't with afirm for, I've been working like
(24:58):
you, I was a vendor and now I'min this role.
Um, I still, my passion and myheart was still with AIM and
helping them grow.
So, yeah, it's been, it's been agreat journey.
Joe Pope (25:10):
since.
Austin (25:11):
Well, thank you so much for sitting down with us.
Thanks for all that you do foraim.
I mean, I know none of thiscomes together without, you
know, the the, participation oflots of people coming together
and participation, so it's beengreat meeting you.
Thanks for sitting down andtalking with us.
Brenda Sleeper (25:23):
Thank you.
It's the best thing that's everhappened, I really think, to the
industry.
So thanks.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Austin McNair (25:30):
All right.
So who are we here with andwhat's the name of your company
Brunella Reid (25:33):
I work for Moore Olson.
Austin McNair (25:35):
and your name?
Brunella Reid (25:36):
My name is Ella Reed Brunel and I am a partner
and CMO at that firm.
Austin McNair (25:41):
Awesome.
Well, uh, Brunel and I just,Brunel is the President-elect of
aim, so congratulations.
We're excited to see thedirection that you take aim.
It's already.
The positive directions arealready, it's already going and
I know you're gonna continue it.
Um, so, but we've been connectedin the past and we met here in
person for the first time, justestablished that we have a
(26:01):
connection.
The Brazilian connection, I'mliving there right now.
You grew up in Brazil?
Yeah.
Brunella Reid (26:05):
that's right.
That's right.
I, I mean, I was born there.
I lived there until I was 16 Icame here as an exchange
student.
Um, and I didn't know I wasgonna end up staying.
I ended up going to college andeverything and then got my first
job and then I blinked my eye.
Here I am.
lived here way longer than Ilived in Brazil, but you know,
I.
I go there whenever I can and Imiss it a lot.
(26:25):
Um, but yeah, that's where I'mfrom.
A lot of people are like, Ididn't know you're from there.
Like, I know.
I didn't know either.
I mean, that's one of the bestthings about like coming in
person and actually meetingpeople.
You find out these cool thingsabout them.
It was just awesome.
I know whenever we wore themeetup, um, for the first timers
and you said that, I was like,no way.
We gotta talk.
I know.
Yeah.
Austin McNair (26:42):
we did and, and it, and it was great.
Brune, we are, uh, just askingeverybody what is the pivotal
story for you from theconference?
What has been like a, a sessionthat stood out to you or kind of
a primary takeaway?
What, what would be.
Brunella Reid (26:53):
I think the main thing for me is that how we are
really the drivers of growth forour firms, and we cannot forget
that.
I think that is what I'm walkingaway with.
You know, like for my role, I amthe CMO, but I am looking at the
firm overall.
What is our strategy?
How are we growing?
How can I bring these ideas intoplay at the firm that I'm at?
(27:17):
I loved Alex's.
Presentation on just strategy.
And I think with that's the rolewe really need to be playing.
We need to be stepping back andlooking at our firms and seeing
what are the gaps?
What are we not doing right?
Because the majority of departsof the firms that we're at,
they're really busy.
I mean, they're, they're tryingtheir best to, you know, run the
(27:38):
farm and run it efficiently anddo all of that.
The, the role that we need tostep into is.
Helping with strategy anddriving that growth.
So looking at that, looking atwhat roles you can play and
explaining why that matters andhow it fits into your firm in
(27:59):
particular, that's when you haveto navigate it a little bit.
So not everything that you hearmay work for your firm.
How you digest that down to yourmarket, to your firm, and how
you can make an impact forgrowth for, for your particular
firm.
I, I love that.
Bru.
Austin McNair (28:14):
Brune, Thank you so much for sitting down with us
and sharing your ful story.
It was great to make theconnection in person and good
luck in, uh, the upcoming yearbeing president elect.
Brunella Reid (28:22):
Thank you.
Thank you.
Appreciate your support.
Yeah, absolutely.
All right, thanks.
Thank you.
Take care.
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (28:27):
All right.
Well, welcome to the SpiralingUp Podcast.
Tell us what's your name and whoare you with?
Caren Rodriguez (28:32):
My name is Karen Rodriguez and I'm with
D-M-J-P-S CPAs and Advisorsspace in Greensboro, North
Carolina.
Austin McNair (28:38):
Karen.
We've been asking everybody thatwe've talked to today, like what
is your pivotal story or likemain takeaway from the
conference this year.
Caren Rodriguez (28:46):
I really like the keep start, stop philosophy.
And I think when you're on daythree of a conference, there's a
lot to absorb.
So if I think about it throughthat lens, um, it's very
reaffirm, reaffirming.
There are some things that wecan keep doing.
There are some, some things thatwe just need to stop doing.
For example, we love data, welove numbers, but we need to
(29:09):
stop with the vanity metric.
we need to look at numbers andthe meaning and behaviors behind
those numbers.
So when I get back and we lookat our reporting and what that
means to our initiatives movingforward, I wanna make sure that
we're not just doing it througha lens of vanity, but what makes
real impact and our marketinginitiatives and our strategic
(29:30):
growth.
Joe Pope (29:31):
Is there a number.
that really stands out to you,like a metric, for example, that
kind of falls into that mindsetthat you're.
You're thinking, I'm pullingthat piece Summit and I'm gonna
bring that forward, uh, uh, formy firm.
Caren Rodriguez (29:41):
You know, I mean, I guess in the most
traditional sense, if you justlook at your website'cause we're
on the eve of potentially makingsome changes there.
Okay.
You know, it's the old schoolway of, we got, you know, 14
million visitors this year.
But we really need to know aboutthe behaviors of those visitors
and what their journey isthrough our website and our
thought leadership.
Awesome.
(30:01):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Austin McNair (30:02):
Well, Karen, thanks so much for sitting down
with us.
Have a great rest of theconference and uh, yeah, it's
been great learning about yourpivotal story.
Caren Rodriguez (30:08):
great.
Thank you guys day.
Joe Pope (30:12):
Alright, guys.
Welcome back.
I am joined directly next to meby my conference.
Bessie Paul, why don't youintroduce yourself, buddy.
Paul Boechler (30:18):
Hey, I'm Paul Beckler.
I'm the BD and marketing managerat Virtus Group in Saskatoon,
Saskatchewan, Canada.
Austin McNair (30:25):
We already gave a, a shout out to Saskatoon
Joe Pope (30:27):
out.
Austin McNair (30:27):
Joe.
Joe said that your, your sessionstood out to him.
Um, so That's that's
Joe Pope (30:32):
Yeah, Paul, the, uh, the thing really was when you
brought up those metrics,showing your efforts and this
how you're taking on contentmarketing, how you play it
across your SEO efforts, andalso the thing that really I
think resonates, and we'rehearing it across a lot of
sessions, is developing thetrust with your partners to put
their efforts towards thesetypes of things as well, right?
That you're getting buy-in fromthese folks to contribute.
Paul Boechler (30:53):
Rome wasn't built in a day, but uh, brick by brick
we're slowly laying thefoundation.
So, no, it's been good.
It's been good.
Austin McNair (30:59):
Right on.
Yeah.
Question.
we're asking people in the hotseat
Joe Pope (31:03):
of
Austin McNair (31:03):
you currently occupy, what is your
Joe Pope (31:06):
pivotal story, your key
Austin McNair (31:07):
today from?
Joe Pope (31:09):
Summit 2025?
Paul Boechler (31:10):
Okay, so for the last probably three years,
everybody's been talking aboutAI this and AI that.
Um, the session that I sat inyesterday was so pivotal, uh,
for my, my.
Kind of like my understanding ofkind of where things are going
from an SEO perspective andoptimizing for generative search
is by far gonna be the mostimportant, uh, avenue for us in
(31:34):
terms of our SEO efforts and,and content generation Thinking
about it in a different waythan, you know, traditional SEO
would be.
Austin McNair (31:41):
I'm a bit of an SEO wonk myself.
I was in the same session.
I'm curious, like, you know, wasthere like technical details
that he called out that you werelike, dude, yeah, we, we haven't
done that yet, or we need toaccelerate on this project?
Paul Boechler (31:53):
I think it was a simple thing, like it was, it
was just one little detail thathe added that I was like, that
we're gonna do that.
And I think it's taking thequestions that people are asking
and using those as your headingsand the, the driving force
behind your content, that's sucha little tweak that I think is
gonna have a big impact on thecontent that we create going
forward.
Austin McNair (32:12):
Yeah.
I love that.
Yeah, I, I took a lot of similarthings away.
Um, it's just, it's changing soquickly.
I, I like how he was honestabout the things that we know
and the things that we dunnoyet.
Joe Pope (32:23):
Mm-hmm.
Austin McNair (32:24):
Um, so it's great.
I mean, it's a topic we continueto come back to.
Joe Pope (32:27):
Yep.
Austin McNair (32:27):
Anything else you took away?
Paul Boechler (32:30):
I mean, there's been a lot of good sessions,
right?
Uh, even just taking a littlebit of time to reflect on kind
of what are the, what are thethings that we can do at our
firm to get 10% better and movein, you know, a more quantified.
Direction where we can provideactual quantifiable data to our,
our partner group going thisworks or this does not work and
(32:51):
we need to fix this.
Um, so all the sessions havebeen valuable.
Um, I, I personally like the,those digital marketing sessions
where I can kind of get thecreative juices flowing, that
tends to be the most fruitfulfor me.
Austin McNair (33:03):
I love that.
Absolutely.
Well, Paul, I'm
Joe Pope (33:05):
glad uh,
Austin McNair (33:06):
I'm glad Joe become conference besties.
and
Joe Pope (33:08):
and, uh, thanks for sitting
Austin McNair (33:09):
thanks down.
Joe Pope (33:09):
us.
Yeah, absolutely.
Anytime guys.
Hey,
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (33:12):
Alright, well welcome up to the Spiraling
Up Podcast.
Tell us what is your name andwho are you with?
Joe Kovacs (33:17):
Sure.
My name is Joe Kovac.
I am founder and managingdirector of Covax
Communications, relatively newmarketing consultancy, serving
the accounting industry.
I recently left my in-houserole.
I'd been working in-house formore than 15 years, so this is a
big change for me.
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (33:32):
Fantastic.
Well listen, thanks for takingthe time.
Uh, take a couple minutes withus.
Uh, today we are asking folks,you know, what has been your
pivotal story from theconference this week?
That could be a key session,maybe an overarching theme.
Um, but what is the pivotalstory this week for you?
Joe Kovacs (33:49):
Yeah, so I'll break that into two parts.
Uh, first we'll start with thesessions.
I was in a great sessionyesterday, I think it was
yesterday, that looked at notonly the value of KPIs and key
performance indicator, but alsovrs, Mm-hmm.
Which which are keepingbehavior.
indicators.
what behaviors.
lead to those KPIs.
(34:09):
and I'm sure the concepts beenaround for while?
but I'd never seen it brokendown like that.
So I thought that was reallycool.
the Part of my answer is justgoing be the networking,
because, I've been coming to thesummit for 15 years now.
so I.
usually tend to have a plancoming here, but then I run into
someone or sitting at a table todo something and then someone
(34:30):
drops by.
And organic aspect of it isvery, a very positive thing.
You know, the interruptions aregreat.
They're part of the experience.
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (34:37):
Well, I love that you brought up the
session with the the KPIs andKBIs.
Uh, I was also in that sessionand I went on and on about it
earlier.
I just loved the way, that shetook kind of a common like
leading and lagging computersand I kind of reframed that for
the group.
And then I also loved the waythat that we really had a.
chance to interact with otherpeople at our table and kind of
(34:59):
understand what are some oftheir KPIs and,
riverside_guest_cam _ mb au (35:02):
you know, how, how they see tying
Those KPIs to some of thosethings going forward.
Joe Kovacs (35:07):
Yeah, no, you put that really Well.
I do like the idea of the leadlead on the LA indicators.
I mean, because what you do now,the ultimate goal the ultimate
outcome, it might not happen.
right away.
That's to happen, right?
That's why you you have what youdo today and what you hope for
in the future.
If you're doing the right thing,now you know your chance.
of achieving what you wannaachieve.
That big goal that never getsdone at one time.
(35:29):
You're more than to go.
to get there.
Right.
Austin (35:31):
Joe, thanks so much for sitting down and, uh, telling us
about your pivotal story.
Good luck with, uh, the newventure.
Joe Pope (35:36):
Thanks so much.
Thanks for having.
Appreciate you, Joe.
Austin McNair (35:39):
All right, so who are we here with?
What firm do you work
Apoorv Dwivedi (35:42):
for?
Uh, my name ti I'm with FixerMarketing
Austin McNair (35:45):
And I gotta give you a quick shout out.
I mentioned earlier we did themarketing budget, benchmark
study.
Apor was critical in helping usto, uh, make the study even
better this year.
So thank you for your,
Apoorv Dwivedi (35:56):
Oh, you're welcome.
You're welcome.
Yeah.
I
Austin McNair (35:58):
wanted to ask, so what is the pivotal story for
you from the conference?
What is something you, you tookaway this year?
Apoorv Dwivedi (36:03):
So from the 2025 AIM Summit, I'd say probably
the, the key, uh, takeaway forme, the key theme that I've been
hearing over and over is theintegration of different aspects
around growth, right?
So everything from marketing toBD to, you know, even the, uh,
the keynote speaker day onekicked it off Keith Razzi,
(36:25):
right.
You know, and, and he, he sharedsome really good insights
around, um.
Uh, growth strategies that evensmaller firms can use, right?
So it's not just like, here's akind of single approach or, you
know, kind of getting into liketactical marketing stuff about,
um, one specific thing.
You have to do this one thing orthat one thing, but it's kinda
(36:47):
like that overarching theme.
And I think people are startingto look.
A lot more strategically atgrowth for their accounting
practices, for their advisorypractices, and they're looking,
okay, how do we integrate allthese different components,
right?
Customer experience, marketing,right.
Bd, all this type of stuff.
Right.
So just to kind of put all thattogether.
Mm-hmm.
(37:08):
This, yeah.
Yeah.
I think this is my fifth one ina row, right?
So in Curious.
Come out, you see this, you guyslike, right?
(37:29):
Yeah.
So, um, uh, I mean, five yearsago, it wasn't even that long
when you really think about it,right?
But what happened in that timeperiod, right?
So we're coming at COVID, right?
Um, there's been a lot ofchanges in, uh, the market with
governments and policies.
There's, um, you're seeing a lotof.
Uh, outside pressure from likeprivate equity firms and folks
(37:52):
like that as well.
That's all kind of being, uh, ontop of the state of the industry
with.
Um, staffing shortages with alot of people, uh, looking at
potentially exiting thebusiness.
So there's just like a wholebunch of catalysts of change and
stuff coming together, right.
It's, it, it, like in the lastfour or five years, it's, it's
(38:13):
been, it's been time brewin forlike 10, 12 years or so.
Yeah, more, but likeparticularly in the last few
years, it's coming together moreand more and it used to be more
of kind of like an outsidething.
Now it's like, it's, it's adiscussion we're having all the
time, right.
In a lot of the differentsessions.
So you really kind of see the,you know, um, the marketers are
(38:34):
more kind of in tune withhelping firms to adapt and stay
ahead of everything that's goingon externally.
Yeah.
That, yeah.
Yes.
Awesome.
There's a lot of, we're tryingto coach the marketers.
(38:56):
Yeah.
And now naturally How Yeah.
Yeah.
For sure.
Well, thanks for sitting downwith us.
It's, uh, great to hear.
Enjoy the rest of theconference.
Always.
My pleasure.
Um, just to shout out to thefolks at Hinge and the.
Um, for those of you that areout there, uh, there is really
no other place in the industrywhere you can get that
(39:18):
information, so, um, we, wereally love the work that you
guys do.
Appreciate it.
Yeah, that means a lot.
Okay, thanks.
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (39:26):
All right, producer John, uh, tell us what
is your name and who are youwith?
John Tyreman (39:31):
I am producer John.
Awesome.
John Tieman.
And, um, I am with Red CedarMarketing, which is the, uh,
marketing company that I, I runand, uh, yeah.
And I'm happy to be here withyou guys and producing the, uh,
the Spiraling Up podcast.
It's a lot of fun.
Austin McNair (39:47):
John is also a former hinge, so all of us, Joe,
mayor Blanche, myself, we'vebeen at Hinge a while.
We all worked together, John,back in the day, back in the
office in Reston.
Um, this is such a throwbackman, dude.
I mean, we've been working onthe podcast now for over a year,
but here we are, like in personagain.
It's been great catching up withyou.
(40:08):
How have you, uh, been enjoyingthe conference?
Uh, AIM Summit and, um, I gottasay, I, I love everything about
it because the, I, like yousaid, I worked at HI was my
first job outta college.
The very first day I walked intoh um, I sat down and Lee
Frederick and said, alrightJohn, here's your first
(40:29):
assignment.
And it was the aim, budget,benchmark study, full circle.
Yeah.
So I've.
Um, and that's been just a kind,like core part of my career.
And so finally I was in aposition to where I could become
(40:50):
an A member and attend aconference.
And it's just been great.
It's been a fantastic event.
Anybody who is involved inaccounting, marketing should
definitely consider a Yeah,agree.
So, John, listen, one thingwe're asking people this week is
what has been their pivotalstory for the week, for the
(41:11):
summit?
And for some people that hasbeen a key session or maybe a
key insight.
Uh, for some people it's more ofan overarching thing.
But, but tell us what, what Ithink honestly, how
approachable, how friendlypeople I, uh, I don't.
(41:33):
There's always somebody who's,Hey, can I join you for lunch if
I sit down?
You're very welcome.
People are so willing to strikea conversation here, and it's
honestly, it's different thanother conferences that I've been
to where people can be a littlebit more standoffish.
Um.
I also like the, the amount ofpeople that are here.
(41:54):
It's not big, not small.
You see new faces, but also thesame faces again and again.
A great recipe for friendships.
So, John, you are clearly herehelping, representing yourself.
I know you've been helping usout, John Renee, obviously, but
(42:15):
in terms of what you've beenable to see on, on your side of
being able to have some greatconversations, what, anything
real key takeaways there?
Well, you know, we talked aboutthis a little bit, but uh, I'm.
And I didn't realize how big ofa hit that was.
I was, I just thought, you know,hey, I could get a little bit of
brand visibility for one of mypodcasts breaking, but I.
(42:50):
I was gonna say, I, I, I thoughtwhen we asked what's your
pivotal story, you were gonnajump straight into the hat
because Yeah.
I was with you earlier whensomeone came by and said, dude,
that's a great hat.
And you know, we're here inArizona and you've got like the
breaking bad vibes with the hatand the branding.
I mean, dude, this couldn't haveworked out better for you.
I, I, people come up to me andthey said, you stand out.
(43:11):
They're different.
That's awesome.
Well, John, uh, you've made ithappen for us here at the AIM
event.
You've helped us record this.
Um, we really appreciate all thework you've put into helping
make spiraling up successful,and it's been great spending
time with you.
(43:31):
Thank you.
Thank you.
You're listening to this rightnow.
Like the YouTube channel.
Subscribe on Apple, Spotify,YouTube, wherever you get your
podcast.
Spiraling Up podcasts coming atyou episodes every other week.
Awesome show.
Atta boy.
Thanks John.
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (43:52):
All right.
So guys, um, smart people hereYeah, good stuff
Joe Pope (43:57):
Un
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (43:58):
Un unbelievably smart people here.
Um, I'm hearing a lot of themesabout building trust across the
organization, right?
That was the.
Joe Pope (44:07):
Yeah.
Austin McNair (44:07):
Tru
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (44:08):
Trust over and over and over.
Uh I'm hearing a lot about youknow kind of technology and like
taking strides forward this yearand not kind of sit you know,
not just sitting in your CRMsystem that's got all these big
problems but actually takingaction Um, but yeah, I don't
know I think that the trust onewas like the one that kept
coming back up
Joe Pope (44:24):
over
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (44:25):
and over again Um especially for the
accounting industry Um that youknow these they're working with
all the distributed partners andexperts across the organization
How do they get more involvementright And how do they get more
buy-in from those experts Umthat really stood out to me in
some of these conversations Umbut yeah, really brilliant
people.
Great event.
Um you guys had a good time.
(44:46):
Yeah,
Joe Pope (44:46):
I
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (44:47):
mean, good time
Joe Pope (44:48):
met her
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (44:48):
conference bestie.
I did you guys yeah Yeah We havea conference I do have a
conference vest Yeah Side of thecountry too.
Yeah 100 Yeah And I think thatthat's just a really good um it
just shows like what the thekind of people that are here and
the kind of connections that youcan make A lot of the things
that you were just saying Butyeah
Austin McNair (45:04):
yeah
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (45:06):
Well we hope you
Austin McNair (45:07):
a lot from this
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (45:07):
episode
Austin McNair (45:08):
Um if you
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (45:09):
um if you haven't heard about
Austin McNair (45:11):
Aim
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (45:11):
before you can go and visit their website
at uh
Austin McNair (45:15):
I
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (45:15):
I think it's accounting marketing.org Uh
we'll get you the we'll put thelink on the screen Reach around
Austin McNair (45:20):
the put the link on the
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (45:21):
Good job Um but yeah.
Uh great episode great event Itwas so great to see you guys in
person You know we've already,we've already hit the hotel bar
a couple times We still have gotone more night together so
Austin McNair (45:33):
uh
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (45:33):
making making the most out of our time
together as a team making cool
Joe Pope (45:37):
memories.
Mary-Blanche Kraemer (45:37):
Making new memories, meeting your friends
Um so thank you guys on behalfof Joe Mary Blanc myself and
producer John who's here with usJohn good job man This has been
great Um thank you guys forwatching Spiraling Up We'll see
you on the next episode
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.