Sam Dean interviews Richard McArtney from Bentleys Newcastle about his reflections on the last 20 years and future predictions for the Australian Accounting Industry.

Sam and Richard discuss his career journey from Industrial Chemistry to Retail Business to Accounting Partner, and how his prior business experience helped his work as an accountant.

In Episode 33, Sam explores the concept of Brave Leadership. She covers what brave leadership is, how to get started and why it's such a crucial part of being an In Demand Accountant.

Sam explains why you are a leader even if you don’t have a leadership role at work, plus the 5 attributes of brave leadership. These 5 attributes of a brave leader are: being accountable, having difficult conversations, never compromising values, putting resources where your mouth is and giving your job away.

Sam reflects on 20 years of disruption in the accounting industry, since the introduction of the GST 2 decades ago, plus what's important for accountants and advisors in the future of the industry.

Sam explores what has and hasn’t changed for the accounting industry since 2000, and why accountants haven’t had to shift from the common deadline-driven, reactive behaviours—yet! She explains what the industry can learn from the disruption of the last 20 years about our clients’ needs, and why we must educate them both around financial literacy and basic business habits.

Sam covers another element of the In Demand Accountant: emotional intelligence and empathy. Vital soft skills for accountants in navigating conversations and relationships with clients and their teams.

Sam and Annette have been working together for the past four years and Annette really demonstrates the In Demand Accountant attributes, particularly around the empathy and emotional intelligence piece.

Annette also brings a vast range of business experience to the job, and not only does she generously work with her clients, she gives back to the industry as well.

Sam covers another characteristic of the In Demand Accountant: being ambitious. This is so important, especially at this time when many of us are feeling fatigue and the fallout from the last three months implementing the government stimulus package and responding to COVID-19.

In this episode, we’re talking about efficiency loops and the habits you can set up around efficiency in what you do every day. These include the conversations that you have, how you set up your day, the decisions that you make throughout the day, the rest that’s required for efficiency, and also knowing your ‘efficiency magic’.

Sam has a brilliant conversation with Amanda Kenafake, from Power Tynan, an In Demand Accounting firm in Toowoomba, Queensland.

Sam explores part 1 of being the In Demand Accountant, which is all about mastering our craft. This involves getting clear on what you do and why you're doing it, which you may not have done recently and is a powerful activity.