March 11, 2025 • 30 mins
Logan Graf returns to The Unique CPA to continue the show’s focus on community in the accounting profession on Episode 202. The owner of Graf Tax and founder of Counter, Logan talks to Randy about the community he’s built with Counter, which was inspired by his YouTube channel and the transparency he had around sharing his financials there. This had prompted a lot of questions for many people around the profession, especially those with an entrepreneurial bent, and Logan’s response was to create a welcoming, supportive group for new and aspiring firm owners. Logan shares some of his insights on overcoming barriers in the profession, the need for accounting professionals to have confidence in themselves when approaching client interactions, and the impact innovative practices can have on the entire profession.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hello and welcome to The UniqueCPA with your host, Randy Crabtree.
Today we continue our series ofepisodes on the power of community in the accounting profession.
We'll explore how strong connectionslead to healthier, more fulfilled
professionals, and together create asupportive network that enriches everyone.
The Unique CPA is broughtto you by Tri-Merit, the specialty tax professionals.
(00:24):
Today our guest is Logan Graf.
Logan is owner of Graf Tax,ironically named Graf Tax.
He is also founder and owner of a newcommunity for the accounting profession
called Counter, which we're gonnaspend a lot of time talking about.
He's, uh, very passionate aboutthe accounting profession.
He and I at least I enjoy talking to him.
(00:44):
Hopefully, hopefully it's reciprocal.
We, we run into each other, uh, uh, alot of different places, and we'll get into, I think, a fun conversation today.
Logan, welcome to The Unique CPA,or welcome back to The Unique CPA.
This is a repeat visit
for you.
It's good to be back.
Thank you so much, Randy.
It's always fun to run into youin conferences and hang out.
(01:05):
Remember our last time in Vegas.
Was that, the
last one was Vegas, I guess.
Oh yeah, that's right.
We went to dinner.
That was a good time.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, and then before thatwe were at text Twitter.
Was that the, or was theresomething in between Chicago?
Yeah.
Was it Chicago?
Yeah, I think so.
So we saw each other a bunch last year.
That's
right.
And I did actually, funny, I waswatching, you know, 'cause one thing I didn't mention is you've got, uh,
(01:27):
heck of a large, uh, YouTube channel,a nicely attended YouTube channel.
It's a little baby channel.
Yeah.
It's growing it, it's doing well.
I think you're what?
I'm like close to 10,000 subscribers now.
I'm hoping to hit 10 K by the end ofthe year and it's looking like it's gonna happen, which is really cool.
'cause a year ago I probablyonly had about 3000 or so, maybe a little over 3000.
(01:48):
So it's crazy how much it's grown.
Well, let's go on a tangentright away so that the point of the YouTube channel is what?
Yeah, first
I created a YouTube channel.
I was gonna talk about taxes, and I waslike, this is gonna be a tax channel and I'm gonna kind of talk about
what I talk about on Twitter X andjust here's how my firm, here's some, here are my thoughts on the industry.
(02:11):
Kind of shake things up a little bit,throw some grenades here and there with how the industry thinks of itself.
So, and then I like posted a video whereI went over my financials for the year.
My 2021 is my first full year asa CPA firm owner, and I posted
in 2022 and I got more views inan hour than all the other views.
(02:35):
In the past for all my other videos,so I was like, I don't think people wanna watch me talk about taxes.
I think people wanna watch me talkabout my firm and how I run it.
Yep.
And so that's kind of been the theme nowis I, I talk about, you know, what's going
on with my firm and how I run it in my,you know, thoughts around running firms.
And that's evolved into,now I have a community.
(02:57):
Called Counter, where basicallyit's almost another extension of my YouTube channel.
Mm-hmm.
You know, I'd get a bunch of peoplereaching out to me like, Hey, Logan, like I'm very inspired.
I'm not trying to just saythis, but people are like, I'm inspired by your numbers.
You know your transparency.
I'd love to run a firm like yours one day.
(03:17):
Can we talk and meet and discussit and can you help me out?
And I would just get alot of those messages and.
I'm running a firm and I'm prettybusy running a firm, and if it
was just one person here andthere, I'd love to talk to them.
But it was like very consistent and I waslike, man, I can't just say yes to like random people and, and no to other people.
(03:39):
So I was like, you know, I'm sorry I can'ttalk with you right now, but just hold on.
I think I may be able tohelp you in the future.
And so that's kind of like the ideaof the community was born for Counter.
People that want to start their own firmare looking for help, and so instead of me trying to help one person at a time,
(04:00):
I think I can try to help a bunch ofpeople at a time, and it's been great.
It's a community geared for new andaspiring accounting firm owners.
You don't have to be solely taxed.
You don't have to be only bookkeeping.
You can be a mix of things.
We got a whole diverse membership.
Nice.
I wanna dig into counter, uh,more because it's pretty cool the.
(04:22):
Idea of community and bringing peopletogether and helping is, is important.
And that's a passion of mine,obviously a passion of yours.
And let's kind of delve into howyou know you, the YouTube channel and people connected and all that.
But let's start with youstarting your firm back in 2020.
I'm guessing there was a lotof questions you had going in.
There was like.
You wanted to find resource.
(04:43):
I'm putting words in your mind,but in your mouth, resources and that, and I'm guessing that.
Let's talk about that journeybefore you, uh, even started, then YouTubers started the counter.
How were you educatingyourself to be a firm owner?
Let's rewind it back to 2020.
I was on Twitter pretty heavilynow known as X. Sorry, I just can't get rid of the Twitter.
(05:07):
I have the same.
Yep.
It's just easier to say for some reason,even though it's more, it's you're right.
So I was on Twitter and I wouldjust, you know, basically hang out
virtually with a bunch of otheraccountants and firm owners and just.
Absorb kind of what they're discussingand I would listen to a bunch of
podcasts about running firms and,and just try to figure it out.
(05:33):
I would interview different accountingfirm owners, so I owe a lot to back
in 2020, maybe even 2019, where I'dinterview people I found on Twitter.
Wow.
Like, Hey, how?
How are you doing this?
Like what have you learnedrunning your own firm?
Like if they're listening, thankyou so much to those people.
Because I interviewed like fivedifferent people because I was like, I have no idea what I'm doing.
(05:56):
I need some help.
Really?
That's pretty cool.
Yeah, it was super cool.
Like really appreciated of peoplegiving me their time so long ago.
And 2020, Jason Staats.
We can't get away from him, but,oh, we don't talk about him.
Alright.
You can talk about him.
Sorry.
I'm sure he is mentioned every podcast,but he reached out to me and he is like, I "CAS fished" him, we're calling it
(06:22):
"CAS fished", like instead of catfishedhim, he, he thought I was all in the C and he was running CAS like a CAS firm.
Right.
He's like, what's up?
Let's hang out and talk about CAS stuff.
I was like, yeah, I'm kind of just more oflike an accounting firm, but I'll fake it.
And so, but so I don't know.
Got to know Jason overtweeting essentially.
(06:42):
And we would do a littlevirtual meetings here and there.
And he was just thinking aboutlaunching his community, called Realize.
Mm-hmm.
And he was like, man, I'm runninga firm and I need help as well.
I think I'm gonna launch communityand leverage everybody else and
do things together versus everyonedoing things on their own.
(07:03):
And so realize was launched, youknow, later that fall, 2020, and I
was a founding member and I got inreally early and I'm still in it.
And it's like he kind of showed theblueprint of what the accounting
community is that I wouldn't havecounter without there being a realize.
And so.
To think like what Jason has done iscause for many other people as well.
(07:26):
There's other communitiesthat are probably from.
Jason's realizing.
Yep.
It's an an amazing rippleeffect that he's created.
Oh yeah, it is.
And, but you're taking that andyou're paying it forward now too, and you're helping others.
So let's get into, uh,counter a little bit.
So, I mean, I think we already kindof mentioned the ideas of why it came about because of, you know, people
(07:47):
reaching out to you and looking forknowledge and you sharing, you being
open and being transparent with theknowledge you're sharing, which was.
Pretty cool.
In fact, I think I knew you before I knewabout that revenue, you know, sharing or your financial sharing on YouTube.
Mm-hmm.
And someone mentioned to me, Hey,have you ever seen his videos on this?
I'm like, no.
And then I immediately went andwatched it, and I think it was, I think it was the 2022 version maybe.
(08:11):
Mm-hmm.
That I saw first.
And that was pretty cool to sharebecause people have no idea.
I mean, they start a firm, theydon't know what, what I expect.
Yeah.
What's my revenue, what'smy client base look like?
And so then out of that.
Knowledge, sharing your passionfor the profession, your passion
for helping and sharing theknowledge and creating community.
Mm-hmm.
That's where Counter came out of.
(08:31):
And so kind of give us the, I guess,the charter of Counter or what the, you know, the, uh, the vision, the mission.
It's
all about the name for me becauseI'm absolutely obsessed with the
name counter because it's got adouble meaning where counters.
We count things, so we'recounters, and then we're counter to traditional ways of running firms.
(08:58):
And so my whole goal for Counter is tohelp accountants and accounting firm
owners think outside the box in a waywhen it comes to running the firm.
So.
Trying to like cut the cycle of,you know, the past 40 years of how accounting firms have been ran.
(09:19):
It's not a bad thing.
No.
I get critiqued a lot about like, Logan,your, your way is not the best way.
And I'm definitely not saying that.
It's more of like, whyaren't things different?
Why have we been doing thisthe same way for so many years?
Why is public accounting in this.
(09:40):
Really bad spot when it comes to peoplewanting to join the profession and
why are we not getting really paidthat much compared to 30 years ago?
Mm-hmm.
So it's all about kind of questioningthings and I'm hoping that counter helps other firm owners see something different.
And to help each other, encourage eachother to, to break the mold because
(10:04):
it's really easy to fall in thefootsteps of previous s firm owners.
Like it's easy because they saw whatwas hard to do when running their firms,
and so they stuck to the tradition,the same path everybody else took.
And so in my own firm, I'm tryingto break that myself and not have a busy season, which is.
(10:26):
Absolutely ludicrous.
People will go crazy when you startsaying like, oh, you, you want
to work 40 hours a week, or youwant to work during the summer?
Why we do all of our returns betweenJanuary or April so we can have a life outside of busy season.
And so it's really, I'm just tryingto like, is there a better way?
Can things be better?
(10:47):
And so I'm trying it out myselfand I'm hoping to encourage other people and just share my experience.
And if people see that and we're like.
I want that, then great.
If they don't want that.
Cool.
But we need somethingdifferent in this industry.
Nope, I agree with you completely.
You and I are on the same page with that.
It's, you said 40 years, I say 80 yearsthat we've been doing the same thing.
(11:10):
You see, that's 'causeyou're much younger than me.
So you so back you, I mean, back whenyou were my age, you're like, man, this has been going on for 40 years.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Um, but that's what is, andthere's a couple reason for this.
I'm gonna go on my rant now for asecond, but there's a few reasons it is.
It's our mindset somewhat.
We're a consistency based profession.
(11:31):
We, we have to, consistency is partof what we have to look at when we're looking at certain things, but
it's also, Hey, it's been done thisway forever and we're doing well.
You know, I mean, a startup firm's gonnabe making decent money, but if you're a partner in a, even a mid-size firm,
I mean, you're making five, $700,000 ayear, why am I gonna change anything?
Mm-hmm.
Well, you're gonna changething because there's this.
(11:53):
Much better way to do it.
There's more efficiencies thatyou can build in technology.
You can build in the automation, youcan delegate, automate, eliminate,
collaborate, and, and that I, Ilove to see what you're doing there.
So, not to take your time, let's goback to what you're talking about.
So from Counter then, you know, we,we got the reasons and all that.
(12:13):
What are the types of activitieshappening with Encounter where
people are going to be able to,you know, gain and share knowledge?
So we have at least twoevents every month guaranteed.
So one is where we.
Have a kind of a veteran.
If you say, you know, someonethat's been running their firm for a good chunk and have,
(12:34):
Randy, we gotta have you on, right?
Yes.
Put you on the schedule.
If anybody didn't know you couldn'tsee us, I was pointing at myself.
Sorry.
Put pressure on Logan there.
Sorry.
Go ahead.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
We, and so we'll get people likeRandy who been there and done that
and have learned, made mistakesand learned from their mistakes.
(12:57):
And basically it's about anhouconversation typepe discussion with me on, you know, here's what was
pivotal in running my firm and here'ssomething that I did that completely changed the way I run my firm.
Or here's something that I wishI didn't do because it impacted the trajectory of my firm.
(13:20):
So basically it's imparting, wecall it the one thing series.
So like, although we talk about manythings, it's like, here's one thing that you should hear from me that.
Completely changed the way Irun my firm for the better.
Mm-hmm.
So I'm hoping that members will hearthese things and be like, okay, this is, I'm gonna take of this so I know what.
(13:42):
Expect and how to react to certain thingsbased on other people's experiences.
In the next session we do is call itoutside experts, where we bring in people that aren't in the accounting
industry or we try not to have themin the accounting industry, but
people are experts in kind of theirown field and that are able to teach.
(14:05):
Accountants, firm owners, better wayson running their firm, essentially.
So trying to get people outsideof our own bubble to teach us how to run a business better.
That's not like an accounting firm.
So Nice.
Really trying to get outside thoughtsbecause we can, we're, we just see all our own accounting buddies talk about
(14:26):
accounting all the time and you know,it's kind of just, we're hearing the same stuff, so trying to get some outside.
Thoughts in there and experiences andto hopefully upskill these firm owners.
And then we have a book club going on.
We have mastermind groups that juststarted, so groups of five or six members
(14:46):
that meet up once a month to shareexperiences that they're going through.
And we'll have those probably.
At least twice a year,like a different cohort.
I'm trying to collect asmuch feedback as possible.
You know, we've only been running forabout three months, and so I'm really trying to hear from the community on
how they're feeling and, and what theywanna see with the community and people that I bring in and, and what we do.
(15:12):
So it's gonna evolvecompletely as we go, probably.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
The audience, the memberswill evolve as well.
They'll probably evolve into nolonger being new firm owners and being more experienced firm owners.
And so maybe we, we kind of shift gears.
For more of a more experienced firmmembership or, you know, continue to have the new firm owner appeal as well.
(15:34):
So we'll see.
I'm, I'm just super excited.
We had 200 members, not trying tobrag, but we had 200 members sign up in the first week, which was.
Bonkers.
Let's
talk about that a second.
'cause there's some other things,but I was with you, I thinks, right?
The moment it went live and, and youwere just looking at your phone, I got, there's 60 members already and there's,
(15:57):
and, and then like every time I saw youat this conference, how many members?
And it was a hundred.
How many members?
A hundred.
I don't remember the numbersnow, but it was just crazy.
And that's for a couple reasons.
One is that need for community, thatneed for support, that need to help each other, but it's also what you've
done personally and being vulnerableand being out there and sharing, and people gravitate towards that.
So I give you a lot of credit for taking,uh, what you build and sharing it forward.
(16:22):
Because people like you, I don't knowif you know this, but people like you, it's nice to hear and that's, it's,
yeah, if, if you're a nice person,it comes through and people realize it and they wanna be part of it.
So I'm really excited.
So, so where are youat now membership wise?
We're
at about.
So we have some free members that are,that we're in at the very beginning,
like beta testers, but we're closeto like probably about two 80.
(16:47):
Yep.
But it's about 260 paid members.
And so we're, we're at likea steady increase trajectory.
We, you know, some members.
Turn out, they're just like,Hey, I'm not using it as much as I thought I would, but Right.
There's a steady inflow of of members,which is really cool to see and
hoping that the value continues toincrease for people that join and.
(17:09):
I've heard some great thingsfrom members on how impactful the community has been so far.
So it's really, you have toparticipate to get stuff out of it.
Yes.
You can't kinda, you cannot postand you cannot look at other people's posts and check it out.
Otherwise it's, you know,it's kind of pointless to Yep.
To be there.
So is there, are you looking to capthat at a certain number or what's the plans for the future of memberships?
(17:34):
No cap right now.
I don't really see that unlessit just gets outta hand.
Yep.
I think people naturally leave just, theyleave the phase of, of new firm ownership, or maybe they just don't see the value
anymore or they're, you know, they'rejust super busy or they're trying to cut expenses, so I don't think it'll blow up.
(17:55):
Too much in my opinion.
I'm kind of brainstorming,launching a student section.
Nice.
Of counter.
Yep.
So, and this, it would probably be free.
I like that.
A free or maybe like aone time fee for life.
Yep.
Very small fee wherelike accounting students.
Can discuss different things likeaccounting courses, internships,
(18:19):
test taking like CPA, EA exam taking,like career advice, all of that.
And it would just beprivate for the students.
And just as a way to like kindof give back, because I have a
lot of students that out to me onLinkedIn and it's hard for me to.
Talk with them as well, right?
Because, and there's not really aspace for them either except on Reddit,
(18:40):
which is super toxic, and I would nevertell people to get advice from Reddit.
So maybe it's like a more.
Positive experience for students, uh,like a community for accounting students?
I don't know.
Just
you're brain started thinking about
it.
Yep.
Yeah, it'd be really cool.
I'm not like trying to make abunch of money off students.
(19:01):
I think it would be, I. Again, freeor something of very low cost for
them to join, and then maybe they cansomehow interact with the paid members.
Yep.
Um, in a way.
Yeah, that'd be pretty cool.
'cause that's, you know, anybody, any ofus that can do anything to try to help the pipeline and showing a positive impact
in the profession, showing that thingscan be different, showing that we are.
(19:23):
Not, you know, just, you know, we havea perception issue, I think in the profession is, well, it's reality,
but perception too is that we're justsitting and typing in numbers all day.
And that's what we do.
In reality, we have a major impact onthe clients that we're working with.
Not just reporting what they're doing,but we're impacting what their future is.
And so I think if we can likehighlight things like that, an impact's important people, especially
(19:47):
the next generation coming in, theywanna know they're having an impact.
So I love that idea.
Hmm.
Would you, um, think theyhave that student run?
I mean, 'cause you're gonna,you, you personally will be running outta time I would think.
Yeah.
I would probably try to getsomeone to kind of lead it.
And moderate it or, and monitor it.
And really it just depends on howmuch stuff we want to do for 'em.
(20:11):
Like do we do any eventsfor them or, yeah.
You know, if there's noevents or anything like that.
Right.
It's mostly like, just make surenobody's like being super toxic
or, you know, trying to messthings up in there, but Okay.
Yeah.
Who knows?
No, but brainstorming,coming up with ideas,
thinking forward.
I
love that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Student led would be great.
Yep.
There
some students in there
(20:31):
or have, you know, whatever.
I'm not gonna you think about it,but let me go back to now to where I was thinking, 'cause you said
something about you've seen theimpact already of what's going on.
Encounter.
Do you have, you know, any specificstories of, yeah, hey, somebody reached out to me and said that this had such
an impact on me and I've changed mydirection, or I'm doing this different, you know, if not, that's fine.
(20:53):
Yeah, I'll, do you mind ifI find the post real quick?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So The Post says, since joining thiscommunity, I've learned something new every day, and I have each of
you that contribute to this communityto thank for that you've challenged me to become better each day.
And I truly believe that the knowledgeI've gained in the short time here has
been on par with that first year learningcurve when I was a new accountant.
(21:16):
Even if I may never use the softwarediscussed or encounter the type of work
some of you do my love language andlearning is fed in your post every day.
Most of all, I'm amazedby the words given.
When someone is on a rant or someoneis in their success, I can assure
you that is not the county communityI've experienced in real life.
So each one of you that gives advice andencouragement to others in this form is a breath of fresh air and it goes on.
(21:41):
But yeah, like some stuff likethat is like, and that is, that is just so cool to see and hear from.
Yep.
And I, I would've never thought itcould be something so impactful.
That's definitely my hope.
But to have it so soon in the, in the lifeof the community, it just means a lot.
(22:02):
That's, yeah.
That people are feeling that
you do these things.
You hope people are getting apositive, you know, confirmations and, and education out of it.
But when you get something like that andsomebody actually tells you what you think you're doing to help is really helping.
That motivates you to keep going?
Mm-hmm.
I, I know personally for sure, and Iassume the same thing with you on that.
(22:27):
Yeah.
It's like when I hear people talkabout Bridging the Gap conference, they just love that conference.
Yeah.
They have nothing but good things tosay about you and the conference, Randy?
Yeah.
See, you just made my day nowsee, that's, I appreciate that.
I think I told this story on theshow once before, but I'm gonna say
it again and Justin can cut it outif I've said it before, I guess.
(22:49):
But to go to that fact, Imean, that's what you wanna do.
You want to help the profession.
You want somebody to not gothrough the mistakes you did.
You want somebody toenjoy what they're doing.
I was at a conference lastJuly and in this conference there I was sat in a session.
And this speaker at the sessionwho I knew, he is a good guy and I, I like him a lot.
(23:13):
He's a great guy.
He challenged everybody.
We were at these round tables.
He said, okay, now I want you allat your round tables to sit and talk
amongst each other for yourself, reflecton this question and then discuss it.
And the question was, I. Assume rightnow you're at your retirement party.
This is your mindset, you're at yourretirement party and what would have
to happen at that party for you tofeel you had a successful career?
(23:34):
And so everybody's, you know, doingthis and you know, I think it's our turn to start talking amongst ourselves.
And obviously I volunteered first 'causeI talk, um, and, and I said honestly.
If one person at my retirement partycame up to me and said, Randy, you made this profession fun for me.
I said, I would like cry fortwo days, probably straight.
(23:57):
And the most amazing thing, and I'll neverforget this, and this meant so much to me, I'll probably start crying right now.
I, this person across the tablefrom me looks up and says, Randy.
You've done that for me, and I'mlike, oh, that's unbelievable.
But my whole point was what youjust said, what you just read.
Getting confirmation, somebody tellingyou that what you're doing is making a difference for them means the world.
(24:22):
Mm-hmm.
I'm so happy that you gotthat a letter from somebody.
Yeah, absolutely.
I hope it happens more and more.
One person at a time.
Exactly.
You hope.
And even if you don't getconfirmation, you know it's happening.
'cause someone's already told you.
Alright, let's do this.
Let's talk about one more thingbefore we wrap up on counter.
The one thing I wanna know is I. In thisKorean encounter, I mean, what are the,
(24:45):
some of the key things that you see thatyou need to address in the profession?
What are the common themes that arecoming out from people asking about,
you know, how do I price, or how do Iget down to 40 hours during tax season?
How do I, you know, should I extend?
I mean, what are some of themajor issues that you are having to address through counter?
Yeah, I think it's all about confidenceand how they interact with clients.
(25:10):
So, and this is a theme I seeoutside of Counter as well and experience in running my firm.
It's not letting your fear of letting downsomeone impact your value essentially.
So we are very quick to let upand give concessions to clients.
(25:33):
Give things away for free when theyprobably would've no problem with a little bit of pushback from us on something.
Or they would've no problem for payingsomething that they caused a problem or something new happened, or they probably
wouldn't have a problem with extendingtheir return or getting something late.
And so it's really about likethat confidence and, and how they
(25:56):
interact with clients is, is abig, so far from what I've seen in.
I've seen a lot of people encouragethose posters like, Hey, you
know, you're not the jerk if yousay this to the client, right?
Or if you charge them this.
And so I think we need that positivereinforcement on helping us break
(26:17):
through that wall because it is reallyhard to stand out for ourselves.
It's one of our character defectsas accountants in my opinion.
We just wanna help and problem solvefor people and, but that creates a lot of problems for ourselves.
You hit the nail on the head.
I agree completely with that.
We are people pleasers, we haveanswers, they have problems.
(26:37):
We know how to solve 'em.
And so we just end up givingit away or we end up working so
many hours 'cause there's so manyproblems that have to be solved.
We help everybody elsebut not always ourselves.
Mm-hmm.
And so given that confidence to sayit's okay to, you know, say no in this situation or not, you know.
I can't help this clientand these are the clients.
(26:58):
I can have more impact if I am, youknow, solely concentrated on this.
I think that's a big, I love thatis something that's being addressed
in because I think that's one ofthe major things that we deal with.
Yeah.
Stuff like that is how wechange the industry and when we get our confidence back.
Yep.
And realize our value.
And a lot of what I said was actuallysaid by a member during a book club session that we had recently.
(27:21):
So she was like, we're problem solvers.
We wanna solve problems no matter what.
And so I was like, yeah, man.
You're totally right.
Yep.
Like
spot on.
That's something that I think Imight see in all my webinars these days that we're dealing with that.
So.
Alright, but Logan, thiswas awesome conversation.
I am so excited to see wherethings are going with Counter.
(27:41):
I still haven't received my freemembership, so we'll work on that
since I was there.
The moment you went live wasthis No, I'm kidding you.
Um, but I'm really excited to see whatyou're doing and really for the last.
Two, three years thatI've been following you.
Just to see the progression ofyou personally and, and what you've done has been amazing.
So, so thank you for what you're doingin the profession and thank you for doing everything you can to help others.
(28:07):
Yeah, thank you Randy.
Really appreciate you letting me talkabout me and counter and everything else.
And you've been in myvideos before, so I have.
Yes.
Promoting the profession.
So I owe to you as well for my success.
Well, I,
uh, I I was two minutes in there.
You've done everything.
But before we wrap up, finally, and Ithink we did this last time, I don't remember what your answers were,
(28:32):
but you know, I'm the big proponentthat we are not our job titles.
We are our passions outside of work.
And so when you're not working on and.
Graf tax or counter, or helping theprofession, what do you love doing when it's not the business related?
I love being outside with my girls.
They recently found a love for beingoutside and being in creeks, so I'm completely shocked by that because
(29:00):
not too long ago, they did not want toget any dirt on them at all, or mud.
Oh, really?
So now they're trompingthrough creeks with me.
Nice.
And that has been so fun to help.
Like help their love of nature growand, and just having fun outside.
So I love being outside.
I love mountain biking and ride my bikearound and just getting outta the office.
(29:21):
Nice.
And then finally, if people wanna findout more about you and counter and or
counter what's, well you're everywhere,but what's best places for them to look?
Yeah, if you wanna findme, I'm on LinkedIn.
Just search Logan Graf.
GRAF, and I'm on X at Logan Graf Tax.
I'm also on YouTube and it's, Ithink it's at Logan Graf Tax maybe, or, or we'll put the links in
(29:48):
the notes, so, all right.
Yeah.
And counters counter community.co.
Awesome.
Well, Logan, thanks forbeing a repeat guest.
I had a lot of fun today and you know,we'll do this again in about 15 years and see where everything's at, so
that'd be awesome.
Thank you.
Thank you for joining ustoday on The Unique CPA.
(30:09):
A. You can find the show notesfor today's episode and learn more about Tri-Merit at TheUniqueCPA.com.
Remember to subscribe andleave a five star rating on your favorite podcasting app.
And join us next time for more expertiseand insights on The Unique CPA.
Hey,
(30:31):
professional productions.net.
Hello and welcome to The UniqueCPA with your host, Randy Crabtree.
Today we continue our series ofepisodes on the power of community in the accounting profession.
We'll explore how strong connectionslead to healthier, more fulfilled
professionals, and together create asupportive network that enriches everyone.
The Unique CPA is broughtto you by Tri-Merit, the specialty tax professionals.
(00:24):
Today our guest is Logan Graf.
Logan is owner of Graf Tax,ironically named Graf Tax.
He is also founder and owner of a newcommunity for the accounting profession
called Counter, which we're gonnaspend a lot of time talking about.
He's, uh, very passionate aboutthe accounting profession.
He and I at least I enjoy talking to him.
(00:44):
Hopefully, hopefully it's reciprocal.
We, we run into each other, uh, uh, alot of different places, and we'll get into, I think, a fun conversation today.
Logan, welcome to The Unique CPA,or welcome back to The Unique CPA.
This is a repeat visit
for you.
It's good to be back.
Thank you so much, Randy.
It's always fun to run into youin conferences and hang out.
(01:05):
Remember our last time in Vegas.
Was that, the
last one was Vegas, I guess.
Oh yeah, that's right.
We went to dinner.
That was a good time.
Mm-hmm.
Uh, and then before thatwe were at text Twitter.
Was that the, or was theresomething in between Chicago?
Yeah.
Was it Chicago?
Yeah, I think so.
So we saw each other a bunch last year.
That's
right.
And I did actually, funny, I waswatching, you know, 'cause one thing I didn't mention is you've got, uh,
(01:27):
heck of a large, uh, YouTube channel,a nicely attended YouTube channel.
It's a little baby channel.
Yeah.
It's growing it, it's doing well.
I think you're what?
I'm like close to 10,000 subscribers now.
I'm hoping to hit 10 K by the end ofthe year and it's looking like it's gonna happen, which is really cool.
'cause a year ago I probablyonly had about 3000 or so, maybe a little over 3000.
(01:48):
So it's crazy how much it's grown.
Well, let's go on a tangentright away so that the point of the YouTube channel is what?
Yeah, first
I created a YouTube channel.
I was gonna talk about taxes, and I waslike, this is gonna be a tax channel and I'm gonna kind of talk about
what I talk about on Twitter X andjust here's how my firm, here's some, here are my thoughts on the industry.
(02:11):
Kind of shake things up a little bit,throw some grenades here and there with how the industry thinks of itself.
So, and then I like posted a video whereI went over my financials for the year.
My 2021 is my first full year asa CPA firm owner, and I posted
in 2022 and I got more views inan hour than all the other views.
(02:35):
In the past for all my other videos,so I was like, I don't think people wanna watch me talk about taxes.
I think people wanna watch me talkabout my firm and how I run it.
Yep.
And so that's kind of been the theme nowis I, I talk about, you know, what's going
on with my firm and how I run it in my,you know, thoughts around running firms.
And that's evolved into,now I have a community.
(02:57):
Called Counter, where basicallyit's almost another extension of my YouTube channel.
Mm-hmm.
You know, I'd get a bunch of peoplereaching out to me like, Hey, Logan, like I'm very inspired.
I'm not trying to just saythis, but people are like, I'm inspired by your numbers.
You know your transparency.
I'd love to run a firm like yours one day.
(03:17):
Can we talk and meet and discussit and can you help me out?
And I would just get alot of those messages and.
I'm running a firm and I'm prettybusy running a firm, and if it
was just one person here andthere, I'd love to talk to them.
But it was like very consistent and I waslike, man, I can't just say yes to like random people and, and no to other people.
(03:39):
So I was like, you know, I'm sorry I can'ttalk with you right now, but just hold on.
I think I may be able tohelp you in the future.
And so that's kind of like the ideaof the community was born for Counter.
People that want to start their own firmare looking for help, and so instead of me trying to help one person at a time,
(04:00):
I think I can try to help a bunch ofpeople at a time, and it's been great.
It's a community geared for new andaspiring accounting firm owners.
You don't have to be solely taxed.
You don't have to be only bookkeeping.
You can be a mix of things.
We got a whole diverse membership.
Nice.
I wanna dig into counter, uh,more because it's pretty cool the.
(04:22):
Idea of community and bringing peopletogether and helping is, is important.
And that's a passion of mine,obviously a passion of yours.
And let's kind of delve into howyou know you, the YouTube channel and people connected and all that.
But let's start with youstarting your firm back in 2020.
I'm guessing there was a lotof questions you had going in.
There was like.
You wanted to find resource.
(04:43):
I'm putting words in your mind,but in your mouth, resources and that, and I'm guessing that.
Let's talk about that journeybefore you, uh, even started, then YouTubers started the counter.
How were you educatingyourself to be a firm owner?
Let's rewind it back to 2020.
I was on Twitter pretty heavilynow known as X. Sorry, I just can't get rid of the Twitter.
(05:07):
I have the same.
Yep.
It's just easier to say for some reason,even though it's more, it's you're right.
So I was on Twitter and I wouldjust, you know, basically hang out
virtually with a bunch of otheraccountants and firm owners and just.
Absorb kind of what they're discussingand I would listen to a bunch of
podcasts about running firms and,and just try to figure it out.
(05:33):
I would interview different accountingfirm owners, so I owe a lot to back
in 2020, maybe even 2019, where I'dinterview people I found on Twitter.
Wow.
Like, Hey, how?
How are you doing this?
Like what have you learnedrunning your own firm?
Like if they're listening, thankyou so much to those people.
Because I interviewed like fivedifferent people because I was like, I have no idea what I'm doing.
(05:56):
I need some help.
Really?
That's pretty cool.
Yeah, it was super cool.
Like really appreciated of peoplegiving me their time so long ago.
And 2020, Jason Staats.
We can't get away from him, but,oh, we don't talk about him.
Alright.
You can talk about him.
Sorry.
I'm sure he is mentioned every podcast,but he reached out to me and he is like, I "CAS fished" him, we're calling it
(06:22):
"CAS fished", like instead of catfishedhim, he, he thought I was all in the C and he was running CAS like a CAS firm.
Right.
He's like, what's up?
Let's hang out and talk about CAS stuff.
I was like, yeah, I'm kind of just more oflike an accounting firm, but I'll fake it.
And so, but so I don't know.
Got to know Jason overtweeting essentially.
(06:42):
And we would do a littlevirtual meetings here and there.
And he was just thinking aboutlaunching his community, called Realize.
Mm-hmm.
And he was like, man, I'm runninga firm and I need help as well.
I think I'm gonna launch communityand leverage everybody else and
do things together versus everyonedoing things on their own.
(07:03):
And so realize was launched, youknow, later that fall, 2020, and I
was a founding member and I got inreally early and I'm still in it.
And it's like he kind of showed theblueprint of what the accounting
community is that I wouldn't havecounter without there being a realize.
And so.
To think like what Jason has done iscause for many other people as well.
(07:26):
There's other communitiesthat are probably from.
Jason's realizing.
Yep.
It's an an amazing rippleeffect that he's created.
Oh yeah, it is.
And, but you're taking that andyou're paying it forward now too, and you're helping others.
So let's get into, uh,counter a little bit.
So, I mean, I think we already kindof mentioned the ideas of why it came about because of, you know, people
(07:47):
reaching out to you and looking forknowledge and you sharing, you being
open and being transparent with theknowledge you're sharing, which was.
Pretty cool.
In fact, I think I knew you before I knewabout that revenue, you know, sharing or your financial sharing on YouTube.
Mm-hmm.
And someone mentioned to me, Hey,have you ever seen his videos on this?
I'm like, no.
And then I immediately went andwatched it, and I think it was, I think it was the 2022 version maybe.
(08:11):
Mm-hmm.
That I saw first.
And that was pretty cool to sharebecause people have no idea.
I mean, they start a firm, theydon't know what, what I expect.
Yeah.
What's my revenue, what'smy client base look like?
And so then out of that.
Knowledge, sharing your passionfor the profession, your passion
for helping and sharing theknowledge and creating community.
Mm-hmm.
That's where Counter came out of.
(08:31):
And so kind of give us the, I guess,the charter of Counter or what the, you know, the, uh, the vision, the mission.
It's
all about the name for me becauseI'm absolutely obsessed with the
name counter because it's got adouble meaning where counters.
We count things, so we'recounters, and then we're counter to traditional ways of running firms.
(08:58):
And so my whole goal for Counter is tohelp accountants and accounting firm
owners think outside the box in a waywhen it comes to running the firm.
So.
Trying to like cut the cycle of,you know, the past 40 years of how accounting firms have been ran.
(09:19):
It's not a bad thing.
No.
I get critiqued a lot about like, Logan,your, your way is not the best way.
And I'm definitely not saying that.
It's more of like, whyaren't things different?
Why have we been doing thisthe same way for so many years?
Why is public accounting in this.
(09:40):
Really bad spot when it comes to peoplewanting to join the profession and
why are we not getting really paidthat much compared to 30 years ago?
Mm-hmm.
So it's all about kind of questioningthings and I'm hoping that counter helps other firm owners see something different.
And to help each other, encourage eachother to, to break the mold because
(10:04):
it's really easy to fall in thefootsteps of previous s firm owners.
Like it's easy because they saw whatwas hard to do when running their firms,
and so they stuck to the tradition,the same path everybody else took.
And so in my own firm, I'm tryingto break that myself and not have a busy season, which is.
(10:26):
Absolutely ludicrous.
People will go crazy when you startsaying like, oh, you, you want
to work 40 hours a week, or youwant to work during the summer?
Why we do all of our returns betweenJanuary or April so we can have a life outside of busy season.
And so it's really, I'm just tryingto like, is there a better way?
Can things be better?
(10:47):
And so I'm trying it out myselfand I'm hoping to encourage other people and just share my experience.
And if people see that and we're like.
I want that, then great.
If they don't want that.
Cool.
But we need somethingdifferent in this industry.
Nope, I agree with you completely.
You and I are on the same page with that.
It's, you said 40 years, I say 80 yearsthat we've been doing the same thing.
(11:10):
You see, that's 'causeyou're much younger than me.
So you so back you, I mean, back whenyou were my age, you're like, man, this has been going on for 40 years.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Um, but that's what is, andthere's a couple reason for this.
I'm gonna go on my rant now for asecond, but there's a few reasons it is.
It's our mindset somewhat.
We're a consistency based profession.
(11:31):
We, we have to, consistency is partof what we have to look at when we're looking at certain things, but
it's also, Hey, it's been done thisway forever and we're doing well.
You know, I mean, a startup firm's gonnabe making decent money, but if you're a partner in a, even a mid-size firm,
I mean, you're making five, $700,000 ayear, why am I gonna change anything?
Mm-hmm.
Well, you're gonna changething because there's this.
(11:53):
Much better way to do it.
There's more efficiencies thatyou can build in technology.
You can build in the automation, youcan delegate, automate, eliminate,
collaborate, and, and that I, Ilove to see what you're doing there.
So, not to take your time, let's goback to what you're talking about.
So from Counter then, you know, we,we got the reasons and all that.
(12:13):
What are the types of activitieshappening with Encounter where
people are going to be able to,you know, gain and share knowledge?
So we have at least twoevents every month guaranteed.
So one is where we.
Have a kind of a veteran.
If you say, you know, someonethat's been running their firm for a good chunk and have,
(12:34):
Randy, we gotta have you on, right?
Yes.
Put you on the schedule.
If anybody didn't know you couldn'tsee us, I was pointing at myself.
Sorry.
Put pressure on Logan there.
Sorry.
Go ahead.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
We, and so we'll get people likeRandy who been there and done that
and have learned, made mistakesand learned from their mistakes.
(12:57):
And basically it's about anhouconversation typepe discussion with me on, you know, here's what was
pivotal in running my firm and here'ssomething that I did that completely changed the way I run my firm.
Or here's something that I wishI didn't do because it impacted the trajectory of my firm.
(13:20):
So basically it's imparting, wecall it the one thing series.
So like, although we talk about manythings, it's like, here's one thing that you should hear from me that.
Completely changed the way Irun my firm for the better.
Mm-hmm.
So I'm hoping that members will hearthese things and be like, okay, this is, I'm gonna take of this so I know what.
(13:42):
Expect and how to react to certain thingsbased on other people's experiences.
In the next session we do is call itoutside experts, where we bring in people that aren't in the accounting
industry or we try not to have themin the accounting industry, but
people are experts in kind of theirown field and that are able to teach.
(14:05):
Accountants, firm owners, better wayson running their firm, essentially.
So trying to get people outsideof our own bubble to teach us how to run a business better.
That's not like an accounting firm.
So Nice.
Really trying to get outside thoughtsbecause we can, we're, we just see all our own accounting buddies talk about
(14:26):
accounting all the time and you know,it's kind of just, we're hearing the same stuff, so trying to get some outside.
Thoughts in there and experiences andto hopefully upskill these firm owners.
And then we have a book club going on.
We have mastermind groups that juststarted, so groups of five or six members
(14:46):
that meet up once a month to shareexperiences that they're going through.
And we'll have those probably.
At least twice a year,like a different cohort.
I'm trying to collect asmuch feedback as possible.
You know, we've only been running forabout three months, and so I'm really trying to hear from the community on
how they're feeling and, and what theywanna see with the community and people that I bring in and, and what we do.
(15:12):
So it's gonna evolvecompletely as we go, probably.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
The audience, the memberswill evolve as well.
They'll probably evolve into nolonger being new firm owners and being more experienced firm owners.
And so maybe we, we kind of shift gears.
For more of a more experienced firmmembership or, you know, continue to have the new firm owner appeal as well.
(15:34):
So we'll see.
I'm, I'm just super excited.
We had 200 members, not trying tobrag, but we had 200 members sign up in the first week, which was.
Bonkers.
Let's
talk about that a second.
'cause there's some other things,but I was with you, I thinks, right?
The moment it went live and, and youwere just looking at your phone, I got, there's 60 members already and there's,
(15:57):
and, and then like every time I saw youat this conference, how many members?
And it was a hundred.
How many members?
A hundred.
I don't remember the numbersnow, but it was just crazy.
And that's for a couple reasons.
One is that need for community, thatneed for support, that need to help each other, but it's also what you've
done personally and being vulnerableand being out there and sharing, and people gravitate towards that.
So I give you a lot of credit for taking,uh, what you build and sharing it forward.
(16:22):
Because people like you, I don't knowif you know this, but people like you, it's nice to hear and that's, it's,
yeah, if, if you're a nice person,it comes through and people realize it and they wanna be part of it.
So I'm really excited.
So, so where are youat now membership wise?
We're
at about.
So we have some free members that are,that we're in at the very beginning,
like beta testers, but we're closeto like probably about two 80.
(16:47):
Yep.
But it's about 260 paid members.
And so we're, we're at likea steady increase trajectory.
We, you know, some members.
Turn out, they're just like,Hey, I'm not using it as much as I thought I would, but Right.
There's a steady inflow of of members,which is really cool to see and
hoping that the value continues toincrease for people that join and.
(17:09):
I've heard some great thingsfrom members on how impactful the community has been so far.
So it's really, you have toparticipate to get stuff out of it.
Yes.
You can't kinda, you cannot postand you cannot look at other people's posts and check it out.
Otherwise it's, you know,it's kind of pointless to Yep.
To be there.
So is there, are you looking to capthat at a certain number or what's the plans for the future of memberships?
(17:34):
No cap right now.
I don't really see that unlessit just gets outta hand.
Yep.
I think people naturally leave just, theyleave the phase of, of new firm ownership, or maybe they just don't see the value
anymore or they're, you know, they'rejust super busy or they're trying to cut expenses, so I don't think it'll blow up.
(17:55):
Too much in my opinion.
I'm kind of brainstorming,launching a student section.
Nice.
Of counter.
Yep.
So, and this, it would probably be free.
I like that.
A free or maybe like aone time fee for life.
Yep.
Very small fee wherelike accounting students.
Can discuss different things likeaccounting courses, internships,
(18:19):
test taking like CPA, EA exam taking,like career advice, all of that.
And it would just beprivate for the students.
And just as a way to like kindof give back, because I have a
lot of students that out to me onLinkedIn and it's hard for me to.
Talk with them as well, right?
Because, and there's not really aspace for them either except on Reddit,
(18:40):
which is super toxic, and I would nevertell people to get advice from Reddit.
So maybe it's like a more.
Positive experience for students, uh,like a community for accounting students?
I don't know.
Just
you're brain started thinking about
it.
Yep.
Yeah, it'd be really cool.
I'm not like trying to make abunch of money off students.
(19:01):
I think it would be, I. Again, freeor something of very low cost for
them to join, and then maybe they cansomehow interact with the paid members.
Yep.
Um, in a way.
Yeah, that'd be pretty cool.
'cause that's, you know, anybody, any ofus that can do anything to try to help the pipeline and showing a positive impact
in the profession, showing that thingscan be different, showing that we are.
(19:23):
Not, you know, just, you know, we havea perception issue, I think in the profession is, well, it's reality,
but perception too is that we're justsitting and typing in numbers all day.
And that's what we do.
In reality, we have a major impact onthe clients that we're working with.
Not just reporting what they're doing,but we're impacting what their future is.
And so I think if we can likehighlight things like that, an impact's important people, especially
(19:47):
the next generation coming in, theywanna know they're having an impact.
So I love that idea.
Hmm.
Would you, um, think theyhave that student run?
I mean, 'cause you're gonna,you, you personally will be running outta time I would think.
Yeah.
I would probably try to getsomeone to kind of lead it.
And moderate it or, and monitor it.
And really it just depends on howmuch stuff we want to do for 'em.
(20:11):
Like do we do any eventsfor them or, yeah.
You know, if there's noevents or anything like that.
Right.
It's mostly like, just make surenobody's like being super toxic
or, you know, trying to messthings up in there, but Okay.
Yeah.
Who knows?
No, but brainstorming,coming up with ideas,
thinking forward.
I
love that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Student led would be great.
Yep.
There
some students in there
(20:31):
or have, you know, whatever.
I'm not gonna you think about it,but let me go back to now to where I was thinking, 'cause you said
something about you've seen theimpact already of what's going on.
Encounter.
Do you have, you know, any specificstories of, yeah, hey, somebody reached out to me and said that this had such
an impact on me and I've changed mydirection, or I'm doing this different, you know, if not, that's fine.
(20:53):
Yeah, I'll, do you mind ifI find the post real quick?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So The Post says, since joining thiscommunity, I've learned something new every day, and I have each of
you that contribute to this communityto thank for that you've challenged me to become better each day.
And I truly believe that the knowledgeI've gained in the short time here has
been on par with that first year learningcurve when I was a new accountant.
(21:16):
Even if I may never use the softwarediscussed or encounter the type of work
some of you do my love language andlearning is fed in your post every day.
Most of all, I'm amazedby the words given.
When someone is on a rant or someoneis in their success, I can assure
you that is not the county communityI've experienced in real life.
So each one of you that gives advice andencouragement to others in this form is a breath of fresh air and it goes on.
(21:41):
But yeah, like some stuff likethat is like, and that is, that is just so cool to see and hear from.
Yep.
And I, I would've never thought itcould be something so impactful.
That's definitely my hope.
But to have it so soon in the, in the lifeof the community, it just means a lot.
(22:02):
That's, yeah.
That people are feeling that
you do these things.
You hope people are getting apositive, you know, confirmations and, and education out of it.
But when you get something like that andsomebody actually tells you what you think you're doing to help is really helping.
That motivates you to keep going?
Mm-hmm.
I, I know personally for sure, and Iassume the same thing with you on that.
(22:27):
Yeah.
It's like when I hear people talkabout Bridging the Gap conference, they just love that conference.
Yeah.
They have nothing but good things tosay about you and the conference, Randy?
Yeah.
See, you just made my day nowsee, that's, I appreciate that.
I think I told this story on theshow once before, but I'm gonna say
it again and Justin can cut it outif I've said it before, I guess.
(22:49):
But to go to that fact, Imean, that's what you wanna do.
You want to help the profession.
You want somebody to not gothrough the mistakes you did.
You want somebody toenjoy what they're doing.
I was at a conference lastJuly and in this conference there I was sat in a session.
And this speaker at the sessionwho I knew, he is a good guy and I, I like him a lot.
(23:13):
He's a great guy.
He challenged everybody.
We were at these round tables.
He said, okay, now I want you allat your round tables to sit and talk
amongst each other for yourself, reflecton this question and then discuss it.
And the question was, I. Assume rightnow you're at your retirement party.
This is your mindset, you're at yourretirement party and what would have
to happen at that party for you tofeel you had a successful career?
(23:34):
And so everybody's, you know, doingthis and you know, I think it's our turn to start talking amongst ourselves.
And obviously I volunteered first 'causeI talk, um, and, and I said honestly.
If one person at my retirement partycame up to me and said, Randy, you made this profession fun for me.
I said, I would like cry fortwo days, probably straight.
(23:57):
And the most amazing thing, and I'll neverforget this, and this meant so much to me, I'll probably start crying right now.
I, this person across the tablefrom me looks up and says, Randy.
You've done that for me, and I'mlike, oh, that's unbelievable.
But my whole point was what youjust said, what you just read.
Getting confirmation, somebody tellingyou that what you're doing is making a difference for them means the world.
(24:22):
Mm-hmm.
I'm so happy that you gotthat a letter from somebody.
Yeah, absolutely.
I hope it happens more and more.
One person at a time.
Exactly.
You hope.
And even if you don't getconfirmation, you know it's happening.
'cause someone's already told you.
Alright, let's do this.
Let's talk about one more thingbefore we wrap up on counter.
The one thing I wanna know is I. In thisKorean encounter, I mean, what are the,
(24:45):
some of the key things that you see thatyou need to address in the profession?
What are the common themes that arecoming out from people asking about,
you know, how do I price, or how do Iget down to 40 hours during tax season?
How do I, you know, should I extend?
I mean, what are some of themajor issues that you are having to address through counter?
Yeah, I think it's all about confidenceand how they interact with clients.
(25:10):
So, and this is a theme I seeoutside of Counter as well and experience in running my firm.
It's not letting your fear of letting downsomeone impact your value essentially.
So we are very quick to let upand give concessions to clients.
(25:33):
Give things away for free when theyprobably would've no problem with a little bit of pushback from us on something.
Or they would've no problem for payingsomething that they caused a problem or something new happened, or they probably
wouldn't have a problem with extendingtheir return or getting something late.
And so it's really about likethat confidence and, and how they
(25:56):
interact with clients is, is abig, so far from what I've seen in.
I've seen a lot of people encouragethose posters like, Hey, you
know, you're not the jerk if yousay this to the client, right?
Or if you charge them this.
And so I think we need that positivereinforcement on helping us break
(26:17):
through that wall because it is reallyhard to stand out for ourselves.
It's one of our character defectsas accountants in my opinion.
We just wanna help and problem solvefor people and, but that creates a lot of problems for ourselves.
You hit the nail on the head.
I agree completely with that.
We are people pleasers, we haveanswers, they have problems.
(26:37):
We know how to solve 'em.
And so we just end up givingit away or we end up working so
many hours 'cause there's so manyproblems that have to be solved.
We help everybody elsebut not always ourselves.
Mm-hmm.
And so given that confidence to sayit's okay to, you know, say no in this situation or not, you know.
I can't help this clientand these are the clients.
(26:58):
I can have more impact if I am, youknow, solely concentrated on this.
I think that's a big, I love thatis something that's being addressed
in because I think that's one ofthe major things that we deal with.
Yeah.
Stuff like that is how wechange the industry and when we get our confidence back.
Yep.
And realize our value.
And a lot of what I said was actuallysaid by a member during a book club session that we had recently.
(27:21):
So she was like, we're problem solvers.
We wanna solve problems no matter what.
And so I was like, yeah, man.
You're totally right.
Yep.
Like
spot on.
That's something that I think Imight see in all my webinars these days that we're dealing with that.
So.
Alright, but Logan, thiswas awesome conversation.
I am so excited to see wherethings are going with Counter.
(27:41):
I still haven't received my freemembership, so we'll work on that
since I was there.
The moment you went live wasthis No, I'm kidding you.
Um, but I'm really excited to see whatyou're doing and really for the last.
Two, three years thatI've been following you.
Just to see the progression ofyou personally and, and what you've done has been amazing.
So, so thank you for what you're doingin the profession and thank you for doing everything you can to help others.
(28:07):
Yeah, thank you Randy.
Really appreciate you letting me talkabout me and counter and everything else.
And you've been in myvideos before, so I have.
Yes.
Promoting the profession.
So I owe to you as well for my success.
Well, I,
uh, I I was two minutes in there.
You've done everything.
But before we wrap up, finally, and Ithink we did this last time, I don't remember what your answers were,
(28:32):
but you know, I'm the big proponentthat we are not our job titles.
We are our passions outside of work.
And so when you're not working on and.
Graf tax or counter, or helping theprofession, what do you love doing when it's not the business related?
I love being outside with my girls.
They recently found a love for beingoutside and being in creeks, so I'm completely shocked by that because
(29:00):
not too long ago, they did not want toget any dirt on them at all, or mud.
Oh, really?
So now they're trompingthrough creeks with me.
Nice.
And that has been so fun to help.
Like help their love of nature growand, and just having fun outside.
So I love being outside.
I love mountain biking and ride my bikearound and just getting outta the office.
(29:21):
Nice.
And then finally, if people wanna findout more about you and counter and or
counter what's, well you're everywhere,but what's best places for them to look?
Yeah, if you wanna findme, I'm on LinkedIn.
Just search Logan Graf.
GRAF, and I'm on X at Logan Graf Tax.
I'm also on YouTube and it's, Ithink it's at Logan Graf Tax maybe, or, or we'll put the links in
(29:48):
the notes, so, all right.
Yeah.
And counters counter community.co.
Awesome.
Well, Logan, thanks forbeing a repeat guest.
I had a lot of fun today and you know,we'll do this again in about 15 years and see where everything's at, so
that'd be awesome.
Thank you.
Thank you for joining ustoday on The Unique CPA.
(30:09):
A. You can find the show notesfor today's episode and learn more about Tri-Merit at TheUniqueCPA.com.
Remember to subscribe andleave a five star rating on your favorite podcasting app.
And join us next time for more expertiseand insights on The Unique CPA.
Hey,
(30:31):
professional productions.net.
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