Speakers of Interest: Summit 2024
The 2024 AAM Summit was host to a long lineup of fantastic speakers with topics ranging from business transformation, growth and collaboration to having courageous conversations. Here are Summit’s keynote speakers worth following for news and insights.
Carla McCall, incoming Chair of the AICPA and Managing Partner of AAFCPAs
Carla kicked off Summit with her keynote called “What Everyone Ought to Know about the Macro Trends Affecting the Accounting Industry.” In her session, she talked about transformation and growth through uncertainty, including the current unpredictable world landscape. She covered business transformation accelerators like restructuring and upskilling in marketing and business development and ways marketing can help drive firm growth. You can find Carla on LinkedIn here.
Natalie Johnson, Co-Founder and Chief Visionary, ViDL Work
Natalie’s session, “Courageous Conversations: The Inner Work,” touched on the biggest barriers to courage in conversations, the communication traps in those types of communications and framing your mindset. Natalie gave a mental framework to think about how your approach conversations that used a line; it illustrated mindsets above the line and below the line. If your mindset is below the line, it encourages you to attend to your thinking before doing anything else. You can find Natalie on LinkedIn, and her company, Vidl Work, online here. Also check out Jenna’s Hot Topic article in this issue, which includes an in-depth summary of Natalie’s session.
About Rachael McGrew
Rachael McGrew is the Marketing Director for Landmark CPAs, one of Arkansas’ largest accounting firms. In her role, she wears many hats, including overseeing the firm’s marketing and business development strategy, managing internal and external communications, maintaining the firm’s social media and web presence, planning and executing firm events and community outreach programs, assisting with M&A, coordinating recruiting campaigns, and serving on industry association committees.
Within AAM, Rachael serves on the Board of Directors, leads an AAM Circle focused on HubSpot and is a member of the AAM Minute Committee. She is a graduate of the Leadership Fort Smith program and a 40 Under 40 honoree by both the Arkansas Business Journal and the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal. She is also a member of the Associated Builders and Contractors of Arkansas’ Western Council. Rachael holds a Bachelors of Business Administration in Marketing with a minor in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of Central Arkansas and a Technical Certificate in Graphic Design from the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith. She is married to an outgoing sales guy she’s known since junior high, and they have a witty teenager they follow around to volleyball practice and tournaments.
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Beyond the Database: Building a CRM That Fuels Business Development
Nikki Burgeson | UHY-US
In this episode, Chris Camara speaks with Nikki Burgeson about the critical role of CRM systems in business development, particularly within professional services.