Meet a Member: Jeremy Shen
JUST THE FACTS
- Name: Jeremy Shen
- Title: Chief Strategy Officer
- Years of Experience: 14 (11 in public accounting)
- College: Geneva College, Bachelors | Longwood University, MBA
- Firm Name: YHB | CPAs & Consultants
- Firm Locations: VA and MD
- Firm Size: $68M | #98 in IPA 500
- Email Address: [email protected]
- Community Involvement: Serve on various groups for the local chamber and Vestry (board) for my church
- LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremywshen/
GETTING TO KNOW YOU
You were recently promoted to Chief Strategy Officer (CSO). Tell us what that means for your role and how that changes from your previous role as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).
I would argue that all marketing leaders are strategy leaders. They just have a different title. First of all, I believe firms need to involve their marketing leaders before decisions are made about pretty much anything. Yes, anything. That’s a hill I will continue to die on.
The CSO role isn’t new to the business world, or even our industry, but it is still less common in accounting firms. The simplest way I’ve come to think about it is that the CSO serves at the will of the CEO. The role becomes whatever the organization needs it to be, particularly right now when our profession is changing so quickly.
I still oversee our marketing and business development functions, and I’m heavily involved in our strategy, corporate development and annual operating plan. Those are areas I own. But when you’re thinking about where the organization needs to be three, five or 10 years from now, you naturally end up in conversations about operations, technology, finance, people and a lot of other things that don’t fit neatly into one department. A big part of my role is connecting those things.
I actually think my marketing background prepared me really well for that. Good marketers are constantly investing in a future that doesn’t exist yet. You’re studying where the market is going, trying to understand what clients will need next, influencing people you don’t directly manage and connecting a lot of different parts of the firm. So, for me, becoming CSO feels less like leaving marketing and more like applying the same way of thinking to a much bigger canvas.
This month’s issue is all about budgeting and strategy. What tips do you have about strategic planning?
Start earlier than you think. Stop building overly granular long-range plans. Let the strategy drive the budget (NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND). And build plans that can pivot.
A year or two ago, we built an amazing three- and five-year long-range plan. We worked really hard on it and included a lot of forecasting and research. Directionally, it is still great. A lot of the fundamentals haven’t changed. But accountants really love to argue over details and small data points that ultimately move the macro picture very little…
I get it. Firms have filing deadlines. Heaven forbid that we need to change something in October or March. But I think firms will learn very quickly that if they can’t adapt and move faster, the market will eventually make some of those decisions for them. Staying independent, staying competitive, attracting talent – all of it requires us to get much more comfortable with fast change.
So yes, strategic plans are important. But winning is more important than finishing a losing plan just because that’s the plan everyone agreed to six months ago.
What I’ve encouraged our group to do is find our anchors and hold on to them. For us, those are our strategic pillars and commitments. Be rock solid on those, but stay loose on exactly how you get there.
That has changed how we budget and execute. We intentionally leave room in the budget for flexibility, and we use quarterly OKRs (objectives and key results) to identify what we actually need to nail that quarter. Sometimes an initiative rolls into another quarter because it needs more time. That’s fine. Sometimes we pivot because something that seemed incredibly important three months ago just isn’t anymore. That’s also fine.
The goal isn’t to prove that you can predict the next five years. You can’t. The goal is to know where you’re trying to go, recognize when the environment changes and be able to move when it does.
What is the structure of your marketing department?
I love my team. This is my safe space again.
We’re essentially split into two groups: marketing operations and business development. On the MarOps side, the team owns all things digital, our marketing tech stack and our one-to-many campaigns/tactics, along with all the fun nuances that come with making those things actually work.
On the BD side, the team works more closely with our niche groups on go-to-market strategy, sales processes, pipeline development, lead vetting and helping our professionals turn relationships into opportunities.
We’ve found that letting people go deep and specialize has made us much more effective. I’m a big believer in giving people ownership of something rather than having everyone own a little bit of everything.
That said, we’re also not a 50-person marketing department where someone gets to do exactly one thing all day. We cross over constantly. People jump in and help each other, and there’s a lot that happens because, obviously, marketing and business development don’t operate independently in the real world.
What have you learned the hard way?
Everything? Listen, I’m not necessarily someone people should be taking advice from. I’ve made plenty of major mistakes and probably thousands of minor ones. The important thing is to try to make each one only once.
I do think my own mistakes have made me a better leader, or at least I hope they have. I’ve learned that humility and empathy don’t have to come at the expense of high expectations. You can expect a lot from people while also understanding that they’re going to get things wrong sometimes. I certainly have.
One thing I’ve gotten much better at as my career has progressed is not pretending I’m the expert on everything. Earlier in your career, I think there’s this pressure to walk into every problem with the answer. Now I’m much more comfortable saying, “I have no idea, but I know someone who probably does.”
There are really smart people in this profession and in my network who have already solved a lot of the problems I’m staring at. Call them. Ask the dumb question. Steal the good idea. Give them credit. There’s no prize for reinventing the wheel just so you can say you invented it.
I think leadership gets a lot easier when you stop feeling like you have to be the smartest person in every room. I’ve never experienced being that anyway.
What is a “must know” for new accounting marketers?
Get involved and stay involved with the Association for Accounting Marketing (soon to be AAG!). Seriously. There is no way I wouldn’t have been fired by now if it weren’t for the connections I’ve made and what I’ve learned through this association. I’d say 80% of the value I bring to my firm comes from my network and the access to people AAM has given me.
The other thing I’d say is to take the time to actually learn the profession. Learn the basic vocabulary, understand how the firm makes money and learn the nuances of busy seasons across different service lines and industries. And be patient with yourself. You don’t need to become a CPA, but understanding the business makes you a much better marketer and, eventually, a much better strategic advisor.
What are your special skills, or what is something people may not know about you?
I live in the woods, and if I worked fully remote, I’d probably go even farther into them. Listen, I generally like people, but when I don’t want to be around them, I really don’t want to be around people. I love riding ATVs with my kids, cutting down trees and randomly shooting off fireworks. On the flip side, I’ll absolutely crush some unique food you can only find in the city. We’re about an hour and a half outside of Washington, D.C., so we’ve tried to balance both worlds.
And in the spirit of “special skills,” a select group who attended Summit in Palm Springs (you know who you are) this past year learned that I can play almost any instrument you put in front of me. So, throw a bourbon my way next time, and we can do some impromptu karaoke.
What is the biggest benefit you receive from your AAM membership?
I probably already gave this one away. It’s the people, hands down. AAM gave me a network I’ve leaned on at every stage of my career, and many of those relationships have turned into genuine friendships. I can’t imagine doing this job without them.
Share one marketing tip.
Start with the big “M” in marketing: strategy. It’s really easy to get buried in tactics and the day-to-day. Those things matter, but they need context. Know what you’re trying to accomplish and why before deciding what you’re going to do.
That said, if you’re new or marketing is new to your firm, find some quick wins. When I joined YHB 11 years ago, I first figured out the budget, what we were actually spending and who controlled it. Then I quickly updated our proposal look and process. It was highly visible, immediately useful and helped build credibility for bigger changes later.
What do you feel is the biggest issue facing accounting marketers today?
Our industry is wild right now, between consolidation, AI and everything else changing around us. But marketing has always been on the front end of change. We’ve always had to prove our worth and adapt to how people buy. So yes, it’s crazy, but it’s really just a new flavor of crazy.
If I had to pick one challenge, it’s the AI slop people think passes as a presentation, ad, blog or marketing campaign. I use AI constantly, and it can help us do some amazing things faster. But without context, brand standards, best practices and repeatable processes, you’re just creating more stuff. And more stuff isn’t necessarily better marketing.
What would you be doing if you had not become a marketer?
I joke that my kids can do anything they want when they grow up, as long as they become CPAs. These people have job offers before they graduate and incredible opportunities!
But growing up, I always assumed I’d end up in some type of vocational ministry. I spent a lot of time volunteering with different ministries, and helping people has always been important to me. I’ve realized, though, that your calling and your vocation don’t necessarily have to be the same thing.
In a weird way, marketing has been a great fit. At its core, marketing is about understanding people, telling stories and helping connect people with something that can make a difference for them. My career gives me opportunities to do that at work while also giving me the freedom to pursue what I feel called to do outside of work.
And I think there’s something freeing about knowing that what I do at YHB isn’t my identity. I care deeply about my work and want to be great at it, but it doesn’t define me. That actually takes some of the pressure off and, I think, makes me better at my job.
Although there’s still an alternate universe where I’m trying to make it as a musician, single and living in my parents’ basement, so thank goodness for marketing.
What is the biggest project you are working on right now?
We’ve done a lot of big projects this past year, from events and a new website to new sales strategies and markets. It’s always new and somehow always the same.
But in my current role, the biggest project is helping guide the future of YHB. It’s a wild time in our profession, and I refuse to believe there’s one universally right answer, whether that’s staying independent, taking PE, merging or something else.
I always tell our shareholders we need to be committed to one thing: winning for our clients and our people, today and five years from now. What that requires can change pretty quickly. My job is to keep challenging our assumptions, asking uncomfortable questions and making sure we’re choosing our future rather than simply letting it happen to us.
If you had an unlimited budget, what is one thing you would implement immediately?
I’d invest heavily in two areas: white space technology and a true sales organization.
On the technology side, I’d want tools that can actually connect everything we know about our clients, identify needs and opportunities we aren’t seeing and put useful intelligence in front of the right person at the right time. We have so much data in accounting firms, but we still rely way too much on someone just knowing something about a client.
Then I’d build a robust sales team around that intelligence. Not to replace our professionals or their relationships, but to create a real engine for prospecting, qualifying, nurturing and moving opportunities forward.
If the budget is truly unlimited, I want technology to find the opportunities and talented people, making sure we actually do something with them.
What books have you read recently that you feel would be beneficial to other AAM members?
Don’t judge me, but I’m in a slump right now! I blame my 10-month-old.
What blogs/social feeds do you subscribe to that are helpful?
Honestly, my number one source is my peers. I follow almost every accounting firm I can find on social media and subscribe to a ridiculous number of their emails. As I said before, you guys are way smarter than I, so I’m constantly watching what others are doing and learning from it.
But I also intentionally consume a lot outside our profession. I listen to general business and economics podcasts like NPR’s Marketplace and follow content on technology, AI, marketing, leadership, finance and broader business trends. I’ll also read or listen to things that have absolutely nothing to do with work.
I think being a good marketer requires being curious about a lot of things. Some of the best ideas come from connecting something happening in another industry, in technology or just in the world to a problem sitting right in front of you. If all your inspiration comes from accounting marketing, eventually, we’re all just recycling the same ideas. Don’t do that!