If you don’t have a precise definition of alignment, you can’t grow your role as a leader or your firm. And if you can’t define it, you can’t leverage it. And without leverage, your reach as a leader stays frustratingly small — no matter how hard you work.
What Alignment Is Not
Let’s start with what alignment is not, because the confusion here is where most leaders go wrong.
Alignment is not agreement.
This is the most important thing to understand. When leaders conflate alignment with agreement, they either demand false consensus — everyone nodding along in the meeting only to quietly resist afterward — or they tolerate real misalignment because the team seems to get along fine on the surface. Neither serves a growing firm.
Agreement means everyone gets their first choice. While alignment means something deeper and more durable: it means all parties can fully support the direction being taken, even when the practical outworking includes things they wouldn’t have chosen themselves. You can be aligned with someone you disagree with. In fact, that’s often where the most meaningful leadership happens.
So What Is Alignment?
Alignment is a foundational orientation between two parties — in this case, a leader and their team — built on three things: clear shared agreements, mutual trust, and a matching of how you lead with how your team wants to receive that leadership.
Think of it as being on the same page. Not the same sentence, not the same word — the same page. The team knows what they’ve committed to. The leader knows what they’ve committed to. And when things get unclear or hard — and they will — both parties know where to return. That shared page is the anchor.
These shared agreements can get foggy over time. They can be forgotten, misunderstood, or misapplied in the daily grind of running a firm. That’s normal. What matters is that they exist, and that both parties know how to find their way back to them. Alignment isn’t a one-time event. It’s an ongoing orientation that requires tending.
The “how” of alignment matters more than any specific outcome. Two team members can disagree on the best approach to a client project and still be deeply aligned. What keeps them aligned isn’t agreement on tactics — it’s trust. Trust is the ingredient that allows alignment to survive disagreement, absorb friction, and keep moving forward.
This is also why alignment is fundamentally a leadership move. It doesn’t emerge on its own. It doesn’t happen because your team is talented or because everyone gets along. A leader has to build it, tend it, and — when necessary — make hard decisions about it. That last part is what separates leaders who grow firms from those who merely manage them.
Why Alignment Gives You Leverage
Here’s where alignment becomes more than just a healthy team dynamic — it becomes a strategic resource for leadership.
Leverage, in this context, doesn’t mean using people. It means the methodology leaders use to expand their reach into the places they are meant to have influence. A growing firm requires a leader who can extend their influence beyond what they can personally touch, manage, or execute. That extension — that reach — is only possible when the team is aligned.
Think of it this way: if your team isn’t aligned with you, every initiative you launch requires more energy, more supervision, more convincing. You spend your leadership capital explaining initiatives, fighting the team’s own perspectives, and trying to ‘convince.’ Instead of building toward the future, you are just getting more exhausted. You can’t scale what you can’t trust. And you can’t trust what isn’t aligned.
But when alignment is present? Your influence multiplies. Your team carries the mission into corners of the firm you can’t personally occupy. They make decisions you would have made. They represent the culture you’ve built. That’s leverage. And leverage is what turns a solo practitioner into a firm leader, and a firm leader into someone who can actually grow the firm larger beyond themselves.
The chain looks like this:
Trust is the root. Alignment is the trunk. Leverage is the branch. Reach is the fruit.
Break any link in that chain and growth stalls. A misaligned team doesn’t just create HR headaches — it caps what you as a leader can accomplish. Full stop.
Assessing Team Alignment
Because alignment isn’t intuitive, it requires assessment. You can’t manage what you don’t measure, and you can’t measure what you haven’t defined. That’s why we assess team alignment across four specific parameters, scoring each team member on a scale of 1 to 7 — where 1 means “not aligned at all” and 7 means “completely aligned.” The scoring is subjective and reflects the team member’s current state, not their potential or their tenure.
Here are the parameters we use to score our team’s alignment:
1. Core Values Alignment This is a culture parameter. It measures the degree to which a team member innately embodies and consistently displays the firm’s published core values. This isn’t about reciting the values from memory — it’s about living them without being reminded. A team member who scores low here displays a lack of care for the mission, skips cultural meetings or retreats, and generally treats the firm’s values as someone else’s concern. It’s very difficult to make someone care about the mission of an organization. Great team members come with that desire already built in.
2. Mind/Emotions Alignment This is a distractibility and awareness parameter. It measures whether a team member consistently manages their personal life in a way that enhances rather than disrupts their work. The opposite of this alignment looks like a team member who “disappears” — taking surprise trips, going dark without warning, or consistently letting personal chaos bleed into their professional reliability. Leaders have limited ability to influence team members in their personal lives, which is exactly why this parameter matters so much at the hiring stage.
3. Work Efficiency Alignment This is a work production parameter. It measures the amount of work a team member consistently outputs each week relative to the salary being paid for that output. The opposite here is the team member you have to micromanage — the one who always needs reminding to do their actual job. When a leader is constantly chasing output, they are spending leverage they don’t have on problems alignment should have prevented.
4. Future Commitment Alignment This is a commitment-to-leadership parameter. It measures a team member’s innate belief in the future value of the firm, their belief in their leader’s future stated direction, and expressed through their consistent dedication to their work and the company’s direction. The clearest sign of misalignment here is what leaders often call a “flight risk” — someone you fear is quietly getting ready to leave. A flight risk isn’t just a retention problem. They’re an alignment problem, and they actively drain the leverage a leader needs to move forward.
What to Do with Your Assessment
Once you’ve scored your team across these four parameters, patterns will emerge. Some team members will score consistently high — these are your aligned core, the people through whom your leverage flows most freely. Others will show gaps in one or two areas, which opens a coaching conversation. Still others may score consistently low across multiple parameters, and that requires a harder conversation — one that only a leader who understands alignment as a leadership move will be willing to have.
The goal is not to build a perfect team. The goal is to build an aligned one. And alignment, once built, becomes the foundation for everything else a growing firm needs: leverage, reach, and ultimately, growth.
In Part 2, we’ll take this same framework and apply it to your clients — because alignment doesn’t stop at the edge of your org chart. It extends all the way into your client relationships, and what you find there may surprise you just as much.
Jason Blumer, CPA is the founder and CEO of Thriveal, a coaching, training, and educational company serving entrepreneurial CPA firm owners. He also serves as CEO of Blumer & Associates CPAs. Through Thriveal’s coaching, consulting, and live events, Jason has guided hundreds of firms through strategic transformation.
What’s next for you? Join one of our programs and share your inspiration with other like-minded firm entrepreneurs.
]]>Kenji Kuramoto is the Founder and former CEO of Acuity, a pioneering outsourced accounting and fractional CFO firm that built and maintained financial functions for thousands of innovative entrepreneurs. Under his leadership, Acuity became one of Accounting Today’s Top Firms for Technology and a Top Firm to Work For, before merging into Sorren in 2025.
In this episode, Kenji joins Jason M. Blumer, CPA, to unpack what really happens when you step away from something that’s still working. He shares the full story behind Acuity’s 20-year journey, the decision to run a proactive merger process, and why he ultimately chose not to continue into the next chapter with Sorren—despite being Acuity’s founder and leading the proactive merger process.
The conversation explores the emotional reality of leadership transitions: identity loss, grief, relief, clarity, and the discipline required to not hold on too long. Kenji reflects on the surprisingly anticlimactic nature of closing day, the importance of timing your exit well, and how staying deeply connected to the profession helped him navigate life after stepping away.
Today, Kenji is an investor, founder, and advisor focused on reimagining the future of the accounting profession. He is the founder of 404 Invests, an early-stage investment firm backing Accounting Technology, SaaS, FinTech, and Crypto companies. Earlier in his career, Kenji served as CFO of an Inc. 5000 tech company and began in the assurance practice at Arthur Andersen.
If you’re a firm owner considering succession, a merger, retirement, or your own next chapter as a leader, this episode offers rare honesty and perspective you won’t often hear.
Mentioned in the Show
Thrivecast Crew
- Audio Engineering by: Vlad Ungureanu
- Produced by: Jason Blumer
About our host: Jason Blumer
Jason founded Thriveal in 2010 as a way to help entrepreneurial CPA firm owners connect, learn, and grow. He serves as the Visionary and CEO of Thriveal, and his partner Julie Shipp serves as the Integrator and COO of the organization. Since 2010, Thriveal has helped many small firms grow by providing a community, coaching services, webinars, firm consulting, monthly growth groups, and live events. Deeper Weekend is the annual live event by Thriveal, now in its 10th year.
Jason is also the CEO of Blumer & Associates, CPAs. The firm was one of the first to move from a traditional office to a virtual environment in 2012, where they serve as an advisory firm for the design, marketing, and creative agency services niches. He and his partner focus on business consulting and coaching with the owners and partners of firms and agencies, while their team meets the technical and financial compliance needs of the customer.
Jason is the host of two…
In this episode of Thrivecast, host Jason M. Blumer, CPA sits down with Salim Omar, CPA—nationally recognized CPA firm consultant, author, and industry thought leader—to explore how CPA firms are evolving in response to changing demographics, advancing technology, and shifting expectations among firm owners. With more than 30 years of experience in the accounting profession, Salim has worked closely with firm leaders at every stage of growth, helping them rethink their firms, strengthen communication, and plan intentionally for what comes next.
Salim shares his journey from building and running a successful CPA firm to focusing on consulting, including his transition to virtual operations and the strategic advantages that come with it. Together, Jason and Salim discuss the real-world benefits and challenges of running a virtual firm, managing global teams, and maintaining strong team dynamics in distributed environments. A central theme throughout the conversation is the importance of understanding your audience—clients, team members, and potential successors—and how that clarity drives smarter decisions and sustainable growth.
The discussion also dives deep into the complexities of mergers and acquisitions within the accounting profession. Salim explains why many deals struggle after closing, often due to communication breakdowns, cultural misalignment, and unclear expectations. He highlights the critical role sellers play after an acquisition and why their leadership and engagement are essential to successful transitions and long-term firm health. ‘
Drawing from his book, The CPA Firm Exit Playbook, Salim offers practical guidance for firm owners navigating what he calls the “exit evolution path.” Rather than viewing an exit as a single transaction, Jason and Salim explore how firm owners can intentionally design their next chapter—whether that means selling, merging, scaling back, or continuing to contribute in a new capacity. The conversation also touches on leadership beyond traditional retirement and how CPA firm owners can align their professional futures with personal fulfillment.
The episode concludes with a forward-looking discussion on the growing impact of AI on the accounting profession. Salim shares why AI is both a powerful opportunity and a necessary adaptation for firm leaders, and how embracing technology thoughtfully can elevate advisory services, improve efficiency, and shape the future of CPA firms.
Mentioned in the Show
Thrivecast Crew
- Audio Engineering by: Vlad Ungureanu
- Produced by: Jason Blumer
About our host: Jason Blumer
Jason founded Thriveal in 2010 as a way to help entrepreneurial CPA firm owners connect, learn, and grow. He serves as the Visionary and CEO of Thriveal, and his partner Julie Shipp serves as the Integrator and COO of the organization. Since 2010, Thriveal has helped many small firms grow by providing a community, coaching services, webinars, firm consulting, monthly growth groups, and live events. Deeper Weekend is the annual live event by Thriveal, now in its 10th year.
Jason is also the CEO of Blumer & Associates, CPAs. The firm was one of the first to move from a traditional office to a virtual environment in 2012, where they serve as an advisory firm for the design, marketing, and creative agency services niches. He and his partner focus on business consulting and coaching with the owners and partners of firms and agencies, while their team meets the technical and financial compliance needs of the customer.
Jason is the host of two…
Or worse, things move for a few months, then quietly drift back to how they’ve always been. The firm owner blames execution. Or staff buy-in. Or market timing. But here’s what I’ve learned after working with firms for 15 years: the ceiling isn’t in the firm. It’s in the owner.
What Is a Growth Ceiling?
Here is how we define a growth ceiling in our book, Scale with Purpose: The Service Entrepreneur’s Guide to Intentional Growth:
“A growth ceiling occurs when the organization has usually maximized its potential within its current operational structure, its current team structure, its market focuses, or the leadership skills needed to break the ceiling.”
It’s a point in time when there is a significant slowdown in the growth of a business or it has become non-responsive to normal cyclical growth tactics. Growth ceilings in service firms are often based on human limitations, among other things. They can surprise you without warning. Your team may feel the ceiling too, but they can’t articulate why. And only you, as the leader, can break it.
The real question isn’t whether you’ll hit a growth ceiling. It’s whether you’ll recognize it before it stalls everything you’ve built.
The Strategy That Won’t Land
Here’s what this looks like in practice:
A firm owner comes to us wanting to scale advisory services. They’ve got the plan—build out the advisory team, restructure pricing, shift the positioning. We dig in to help. Within a few conversations, the real picture emerges. The owner is still the primary relationship on their top 20 clients. They are still reviewing most of the work. Still the one who has to approve any decision over $500, etc. And now they want to layer a scaling strategy on top of that structure. It won’t work. Not because the strategy is wrong, but because they haven’t grown into the leader that strategy requires.
The Seven Principles of Firm Growth Ceilings
Over years of working with firms facing these invisible walls, I’ve identified seven principles that determine whether a firm breaks through or stays stuck.
Principle #1: Your Firm Must Become Its Own Entity
You have to let the company eventually become its own entity. Don’t confuse the company’s purpose with your personal purpose, or your family’s purpose.
The practice question: How are you in the way of your own firm’s desire to grow to its fullest potential?
Most firm owners can’t answer this honestly. They’ve built the firm around themselves—their relationships, their decision-making, their vision—and then wonder why it can’t grow beyond them. The firm can become an extension of the founder’s ego rather than an entity with its own identity, its own purpose, its own capacity to thrive.
Principle #2: Your Team Structure Must Evolve
Initial team structures work at initial phases of growth, but eventually new team structures must be created to support different size firms.
The practice question: Where have you been tolerant in allowing your team to operate in an archaic model of a firm?
You cannot scale a larger firm with a flat team structure. The team that got you to $1M won’t get you to $3M. The structure that worked at $3M will break at $5M. I’ve seen firm owners try to maintain a flat structure—everyone reporting to the owner, everyone operating as peers—well past the point where it actually functions.
At some point, you need management layers. You need clear reporting structures. You need people who can lead other people, not just do good work themselves. Every phase of growth requires a different organizational model. Most firm owners wait too long to make the change because they’re afraid of creating hierarchy, afraid of losing the “family feel,” afraid of becoming too corporate.
But tolerance isn’t kindness. It’s avoidance. And it’s keeping your firm smaller than it needs to be.
Principle #3: Teams Must Move in the Same Direction
Teams must move in the same direction, operating on the same basis of your vision and core values. If they don’t, chaos results.
The practice question: How have you lived in fear of your team, failing to call them to serve a purpose higher than their own professional whims?
This one lands hard. Most firm owners know they need alignment, but they’re afraid to actually demand it. They tolerate team members who don’t share the vision because they’re afraid of losing people. They avoid hard conversations. They accept mediocre commitment because at least bodies are in seats.
The result? A team pulling in seven different directions. When you don’t define where you’re going and insist that people either move with you or move on, you create an organization where everyone is doing what feels right to them. Not what’s right for the firm. Not what’s right for the clients. What feels right to them.
That’s not a team. That’s a collection of individuals who happen to share office space.
Principle #4: Owners Must Mature
Owners must mature as they learn new ways to build and lead a company that is growing larger.
The practice question: How have you remained static in your leadership, choosing moments of comfort over the long-term institution of a legacy?
Leadership growth isn’t optional. The decisions you made to build a $500K firm will sabotage a $2M firm. The leadership style that worked with 3 people will destroy culture with 12. The way you showed up as a founder doesn’t work when you need to be a CEO.
But most firm owners resist this evolution. They want to lead the same way they always have. They want to be everyone’s friend. They want to avoid conflict, avoid hard decisions, avoid the weight of real authority. So they stay static. They choose the comfort of familiar patterns over the discomfort of growth. And their firm plateaus right alongside their leadership.
Principle #5: Balance Revenue with Capacity
The pace of revenue growth must be balanced with the pace of your maturing systems and teams. If not, revenue will outpace your company.
The practice question: How have you grabbed for cash in ways that overlook the reality of yours and your team’s limited capacity?
Some firm owners take on work they can’t deliver well because they can’t say no to revenue. They overcommit. Then they wonder why quality is slipping and team morale is tanking.
Revenue growth feels like winning. Until you realize you’ve taken on more work than you can handle with the people and systems you have. Now you’re paying the price—burned out team members, disappointed clients, slipping standards. Growth has to be paced with capacity. You can’t just grab every dollar that walks through the door. Sometimes the right decision is to slow down, build capacity, then accelerate again.
Principle #6: Breaking Ceilings Requires Risk
To surmount or move past a growth ceiling, often a risk must be taken to break it.
The practice question: Where are you failing to analyze, accept, and push through risks that could be the key to unlock healthier future growth for your firm?
Every growth ceiling I’ve seen broken required the firm owner to take a risk they weren’t comfortable taking. Hiring before they could “afford” it. Firing a large client. Restructuring the team. Removing the wrong team member. Moving to value pricing. Investing in a new service line before it was proven.
The risk is always there. The question is whether you’ll take it. Most firm owners won’t. They wait for certainty. They wait for proof. They wait until the risk feels safe. But by then, the opportunity has passed. The ceiling has hardened by that time.
Principle #7: Be Strategic About Investment
Be careful leveraging investment, debt, or personal cash to push through a growth ceiling. The risks are much higher when facing a growth ceiling.
The practice question: Where have you been foolish in your decisions to try to spend your way out of a growth ceiling?
You can’t buy your way through a leadership problem. I’ve watched firm owners invest in new systems, new hires, new marketing—all while avoiding the fundamental internal work that would actually break the ceiling. The money just accelerates the dysfunction.
When you’re at a growth ceiling, adding resources without addressing the underlying constraint just creates more chaos. You’ve got more people bumping into the same bottleneck. More technology surfacing the same broken process. Investment can be powerful. But only after you’ve done the hard work of identifying what’s actually limiting your growth. Usually, that’s not a resource problem. It’s a leadership problem.
Where Coaching and Consulting Actually Fit
This is why Thriveal offers both coaching and consulting—because firm owners face two fundamentally different types of growth challenges.
Consulting solves firm problems. When your firm needs a growth strategy, a restructure, a transition plan, or a way to navigate complexity you haven’t faced before—that’s consulting work. We bring expertise, frameworks, and strategic direction to help your firm build differently.
Coaching solves leader problems. When you need to think differently, lead differently, or become the version of yourself your firm actually needs—that’s coaching work. It’s the space where you gain clarity, build confidence, and develop the capacity to lead what you’re trying to build.
Look at the seven principles above. Most of them require leadership growth, not just strategy. You can have the perfect growth plan, but if you haven’t evolved as a leader, you won’t execute it.
That’s why the most transformational growth happens when leaders engage both. The consulting gives you the strategic roadmap. The coaching gives you the internal capacity to actually lead it.
The Question That Tells You Everything
If you’re trying to figure out what you actually need right now, ask yourself this:
Is my firm’s growth limited by what I don’t know how to build, or by who I haven’t yet become?
If the answer is “what I don’t know how to build”—you probably need strategic consulting. If the answer is “who I haven’t yet become”—you probably need leadership coaching. And if you’re honest with yourself, the answer is probably both.
The firms that transform aren’t the ones with the best strategies. They’re the ones led by people who are willing to grow at the same pace they’re asking their firms to grow. That’s the work. Not just breaking the ceiling in your firm, but breaking through the ceiling in yourself.
What’s next for you? Join one of our programs and share your inspiration with other like-minded firm entrepreneurs.
]]>This Thrivecast episode, the final one of 2025, features a solo conversation led by Jason, who reflects on seasons of change and intentional leadership as he looks ahead to 2026. Drawing on nearly 25 years of firm ownership and 15 years of leading Thriveal, Jason explores how change—whether chosen or forced—can become a catalyst for growth when approached strategically. He shares personal insights on how markets evolve, teams shift, and leaders must continually reassess where they are most needed and what they are truly committed to building.
Jason outlines a significant pivot within his accounting firm, which is broadening its long-standing niche focus to serve entrepreneurs more generally after recognizing major shifts and challenges within its previous target market. Rather than waiting for disruption to dictate the next move, he explains why proactively adapting alongside the market is essential. That same philosophy is being applied to Thriveal, which is entering a new season after 15 years of operating as a broad, open community for firm owners around the world.
Looking ahead, Jason explains how Thriveal is choosing depth over scale by narrowing its focus and restructuring into two core programs designed specifically for growing and scaling firms. The Venture program serves firm owners with five or more team members, while the Ascent program supports firms generating one million dollars or more in revenue. By limiting enrollment and moving away from multiple community membership levels, Thriveal is creating a more intimate, high-commitment environment where firm owners receive consistent accountability, coaching, and peer connection throughout the year. The episode also details several intentional changes that support this deeper focus, including sunsetting the Deeper Weekend conference, reshaping master classes, expanding self-paced courses, and developing future workshops connected to the newly released book Scale with Purpose. Throughout the episode, Jason encourages listeners to view change as a core leadership responsibility—one that requires courage, clarity, and a willingness to let go of what is familiar in order to build something more meaningful. The conversation closes with an invitation to firm owners who feel ready for this next season to explore whether Thriveal’s Venture or Ascent programs are the right fit for their growth in 2026.
Mentioned in the Show
Thrivecast Crew
- Audio Engineering by: Vlad Ungureanu
- Produced by: Jason Blumer
About our host: Jason Blumer
Jason founded Thriveal in 2010 as a way to help entrepreneurial CPA firm owners connect, learn, and grow. He serves as the Visionary and CEO of Thriveal, and his partner Julie Shipp serves as the Integrator and COO of the organization. Since 2010, Thriveal has helped many small firms grow by providing a community, coaching services, webinars, firm consulting, monthly growth groups, and live events. Deeper Weekend is the annual live event by Thriveal, now in its 10th year.
Jason is also the CEO of Blumer & Associates, CPAs. The firm was one of the first to move from a traditional office to a virtual environment in 2012, where they serve as an advisory firm for the design, marketing, and creative agency services niches. He and his partner focus on business consulting and coaching with the owners and partners of firms and agencies, while their team meets the technical and financial compliance needs of the customer.
Jason is the host of two…
At the heart of my role is one simple goal: helping members find clarity, direction, and the right support—without needing to have everything figured out first.
What My Role Means for You
As General Manager, I help members navigate Thriveal’s programs, people, and resources. That means listening first, asking thoughtful questions, and helping connect you to what will actually help—not what sounds good on paper.
You don’t need to know where to go. That’s part of what I’m here for.
You Don’t Need the Perfect Question
Thriveal offers a lot of value, and with that can come uncertainty about where to start. Many members arrive knowing they need support but aren’t sure which path fits best.
My role is designed to remove that friction—so you can move forward with confidence instead of guesswork. One of the most common concerns I hear is, “I’m not even sure what I should be asking.” That’s okay.
Thriveal is designed to support members at different stages of growth, and clarity often comes after the conversation begins. Through that process, members are typically guided toward one of three paths:
- Venture Program – Built for firm owners with a team of 5 or more, focused on leadership, growth, and navigating increased complexity.
- Ascent Program – Designed for firms generating $1M+ in annual revenue, centered on strategic growth, scalability, and long-term vision.
- One-on-One Coaching – Personalized support for members who need deeper, focused problem-solving around their specific challenges.
You don’t need to know which option fits best at the start. Together, we uncover what will serve you most right now.
Also, our Founder, Jason M Blumer, CPA wrote a book on scaling. Even if you didn’t join Thriveal to find direction to grow your firm, you can get the manual on growth on Amazon here.
Here Are 7 Things You Can Ask Me About
These are common areas members reach out about, but they’re just a starting point:
- Which Thriveal program is right for you
- Who you should talk to for your specific challenge
- Business growth and strategic planning
- Leadership, operations, or team-related issues
- Navigating change or transition
- Feeling stuck or unsure of next steps
- How to get the most value from Thriveal
If your question doesn’t fit neatly into a category, that’s completely fine.
What You Can Expect When You Reach Out
You can expect clarity, follow-through, and support. My commitment is to help you get where you need to go without feeling overwhelmed or passed around.
Thriveal works best when members feel guided—and that’s the experience I aim to provide.
Start With a Conversation
If you’re unsure where to begin, start with me. One conversation can bring clarity and momentum.You don’t need a plan—just a question.
Schedule a 30-minute call with me here:
https://calendly.com/lauren-blumercpas/30min
What’s next for you? Join one of our programs and share your inspiration with other like-minded firm entrepreneurs.
]]>Years ago, I said out loud on a podcast that I just wanted to mow grass for a living. The complexity had become overwhelming, the debt was mounting, and I couldn’t see a path forward that didn’t involve escaping to something simpler, more tangible, more controllable. That “mow grass” fantasy wasn’t really about lawn care. It was about craving results I could see and measure when everything in my business felt uncertain. It was about wanting control when growth brought nothing but chaos.
The Journey Through Seasons
What I’ve learned over 25 years is that the moments when you most want to escape are often signaling something deeper. They’re not telling you to quit—they’re telling you it’s possibly time to choose. Maybe choose something new.
My partner, Julie Shipp and I, find ourselves in a similar season with Thriveal right now—not one of crisis, but one of choosing. The past couple of years has been about envisioning our future through research, counsel from others, and deep soul searching. We’ve been asking ourselves the same questions all business owners must ask:
- What is required of us in our work?
- What do we want to commit to?
- What should we commit to?
Now, after 15 years of serving the accounting profession broadly, we’re choosing to go deeper with fewer rather than broader with more. We’re choosing to build something that will leave a legacy for future leaders in both our firm and our community. We’re choosing intimacy over scale, depth over breadth, commitment over convenience.
This isn’t about limitation—it’s about focus. It’s about acknowledging that we can’t serve everyone equally well, and that trying to do so serves no one fully.
Why We’re Changing
For 15 years, Thriveal has cast a wide net. We’ve offered community-level membership for anyone interested in growing their firm. We’ve hosted Deeper Weekend as a global, profession-wide conference. We’ve produced the Thrivecast podcast for anyone who chose to listen.
These were good things. They helped hundreds of firm owners imagine new possibilities.
But as we look at the next 15 years, we recognize something crucial: the firm owners who transform aren’t the ones who sample ideas occasionally. They’re the ones who commit to sustained accountability, who show up monthly, who do the hard work of implementation with others beside them. We want to pour our energy into those relationships. We want to walk alongside firm owners and their teams through the messy middle of transformation, not just inspire them from a stage once a year.
So we’re making changes that will allow us to build the kind of intimate, high-accountability community we believe creates lasting transformation.
What’s Changing in 2026
Here’s what the new landscape looks like:
| What’s Changing | Timeline | What’s Next |
| Community Level Membership, along with Mentor Hours, and Community Groups sunsets | Ends December 31, 2025 | As our Community level sunsets, members are invited to join Venture or Ascent programs starting January 1, 2026. Programs are monthly attendance accountability groups for firm owners and their teams. |
| The Thrivecast Podcast | Final episode Summer 2026 | After 15 years and hundreds of episodes, we’re sunsetting the show |
| Deeper Weekend Conference | Discontinued | Not returning (last conference held in 2025) |
| Venture Program | Becomes monthly starting January 2026 | Meeting 4th Wednesday each month at 4pm EST (first meeting: January 28, 2026) |
| Venture Summit | May 13-15, 2026 in Greenville, SC | Now open to all Thriveal program members (previously Venture-only); $950 member ticket |
| New Event: Live Scaling Workshop | Fall 2026 (dates TBD) | Led by Ian Vacin, Jason Blumer, and Julie Shipp – focused on our book Scale with Purpose |
| Ascent Program | Continues monthly | For firm owners with $1M+ in revenue; ongoing high-accountability group |
| Masterclasses | Continuing | Quarterly educational webinars with CPE, taught by Jason Blumer and with guest speakers |
| Thriveal Courses | Launching July 2026 | Virtual self-study courses available to public |
What Stays the Same
Our commitment to you hasn’t changed. We’re still here to help traditional accounting practices evolve into strategic advisory firms, ones that can scale. We’re still focused on helping you build scalable, profitable businesses that deliver exceptional value.
What’s changing is how we do that—our service in Thriveal will come with more focus, more accountability, and more sustained support for those ready to commit to the journey.
Leadership Changes
To support this new direction, we’re making two important team transitions:
- Lauren Day has been promoted to General Manager and will run the day-to-day operations of Thriveal
- Andreay Hyman will move exclusively to Blumer & Associates CPAs, continuing as the firm’s Operations Manager
For Current Community Members
If you’re currently in our Community level, Lauren Day will be reaching out personally to discuss how you can transition to either Venture or Ascent by January 1, 2026.
Current Venture members: Your program becomes monthly starting January 1, 2026, meeting on the 4th Wednesday of each month at 4pm EST. You already have your ticket to the 2026 Venture Summit.
Community members considering Venture: If you upgrade by January 2026, you can attend the 2026 Venture Summit for the member price of $950.
For more information, reach out to Lauren at [email protected].
A Note on Seasons
After 25 years of building a firm and 15 years of building a community, I can tell you with certainty: the work is worth it, and the struggles are temporary.
The moments when you feel like walking away from complexity are often the exact moments when you need to lean in and choose what matters most. Not everything. Not for everyone. But something specific, for someone specific, with your whole heart.
That’s what Julie and I are doing with Thriveal. We’re choosing depth. We’re choosing commitment. We’re choosing the firm owners who are ready to do the hard, consistent work of transformation alongside us and each other. We’re excited to grow deeper with you in this next season!
What’s next for you? Join one of our programs and share your inspiration with other like-minded firm entrepreneurs.
]]>In this episode of The Thrivecast, Jason Blumer interviews Heath Alloway, Growth Partner at Sorren, who brings extensive experience from BKD and the Upstream Academy. Heath introduces a transformative framework he calls the “four pillars of success”: culture, people, clients, and wise growth. This sequencing is deliberate—growth sits last because it exists to fuel the other three, challenging the profession’s tendency to pursue revenue targets disconnected from organizational health.
Heath draws a critical distinction between healthy and unhealthy growth. Firms growing too rapidly with misaligned clients experience culture rot, elevated turnover, and declining engagement, while strategic growth creates space to say yes to the right opportunities and invest meaningfully in team development. He addresses a counterintuitive reality: humans process thousands of thoughts daily, with 80% skewing negative and 95% being repetitive. Heath advocates for fundamental reorientation, asking: “When you think about the future, if it hasn’t happened yet, why would you choose to think about everything that could go wrong?” This shift from defensive positioning to intentional optimism becomes the foundation for sustainable transformation.
The conversation explores evolved approaches to business development in accounting. Heath challenges the conventional wisdom that business development belongs exclusively to partners, arguing that early exposure throughout team members’ careers transforms what could be a shocking transition into natural professional evolution. He provides tactical frameworks rarely executed: identify your top three prospective clients by name (most partner groups cannot), prioritize cross-selling within existing relationships where trust already exists, and proactively request introductions from clients who genuinely want to see you succeed. His role extends beyond traditional growth activities to include facilitating strategic planning retreats and leadership development for clients—services that internal surveys identified as highly requested offerings, revealing that clients are inviting deeper partnership if firms are willing to see beyond compliance work.
Heath acknowledges COVID’s paradoxical gift to the profession, noting it forced changes firms should have made voluntarily: fee increases reflecting actual value, termination of misaligned client relationships, and more intentional investment in team connection. His concern is that firms might abandon these strategic gains as they return to task-focused execution, forgetting the cultural intentionality that emerged during crisis. The episode concludes with Heath reframing business development anxiety through a powerful metaphor: if you were a doctor with the cure for a rare disease, wouldn’t you feel obligated to share it? Accountants possess gifts that can genuinely transform client businesses and communities, yet fear and introversion often prevent initiating the conversations where that value could be realized. His message to the profession is both challenge and invitation: “This profession will do more for you than you can ever do for it.” The path forward requires moving beyond reactionary growth toward intentional design—building firms where strategic choices about clients, team development, and cultural investment align with a clearly articulated vision of who we are becoming, demonstrating that sustainable growth emerges not from grinding harder but from thinking more clearly about what we’re building and why it matters.
Mentioned in the Show
Thrivecast Crew
- Audio Engineering by: Vlad Ungureanu
- Produced by: Jason Blumer
About our host: Jason Blumer
Jason founded Thriveal in 2010 as a way to help entrepreneurial CPA firm owners connect, learn, and grow. He serves as the Visionary and CEO of Thriveal, and his partner Julie Shipp serves as the Integrator and COO of the organization. Since 2010, Thriveal has helped many small firms grow by providing a community, coaching services, webinars, firm consulting, monthly growth groups, and live events. Deeper Weekend is the annual live event by Thriveal, now in its 10th year.
Jason is also the CEO of Blumer & Associates, CPAs. The firm was one of the first to move from a traditional office to a virtual environment in 2012, where they serve as an advisory firm for the design, marketing, and creative agency services niches. He and his partner focus on business consulting and coaching with the owners and partners of firms and agencies, while their team meets the technical and financial compliance needs of the customer.
Jason is the host of two…
On this episode of the Thrivecast, Jason Blumer sits down with Dr. Kristy Short to reveal a profound truth about professional services: firms unconsciously choose mediocrity through their communication patterns. We explore how the accounting profession’s default toward compliance-based content creates an invisible prison of sameness—a sea of templated messaging that transforms unique practices into indistinguishable commodities.
The strategic tension emerges clearly: in an era where AI can generate unlimited content, authentic voice becomes the ultimate differentiator. Yet most firm leaders struggle to identify, articulate, and consistently express their distinctive perspective. Dr. Short’s 25-year journey through the content landscape illuminates how this challenge transcends marketing tactics—it’s fundamentally about leadership courage and organizational self-awareness. The “million dollar look” framework she describes isn’t about aesthetic polish; it’s about the disciplined practice of authentic expression in a profession that rewards conformity.
This exploration challenges the inherited belief that technical competence alone drives firm success. Instead, we examine content as relational infrastructure—the systematic way firms build trust, demonstrate expertise, and invite deeper advisory relationships. The conversation reveals how moving from one-way compliance communications to engaging, client-centric storytelling requires leaders to confront their own creative limitations and embrace the vulnerable work of authentic brand development. This isn’t simply about marketing strategy; it’s about organizational transformation and the courage to stand apart in a crowded marketplace.
The deeper question emerges: Are you willing to risk distinctiveness in pursuit of meaningful client relationships, or will you remain safely hidden within the comfortable anonymity of professional sameness?
Mentioned in the Show
Thrivecast Crew
- Audio Engineering by: Vlad Ungureanu
- Produced by: Jason Blumer
About our host: Jason Blumer
Jason founded Thriveal in 2010 as a way to help entrepreneurial CPA firm owners connect, learn, and grow. He serves as the Visionary and CEO of Thriveal, and his partner Julie Shipp serves as the Integrator and COO of the organization. Since 2010, Thriveal has helped many small firms grow by providing a community, coaching services, webinars, firm consulting, monthly growth groups, and live events. Deeper Weekend is the annual live event by Thriveal, now in its 10th year.
Jason is also the CEO of Blumer & Associates, CPAs. The firm was one of the first to move from a traditional office to a virtual environment in 2012, where they serve as an advisory firm for the design, marketing, and creative agency services niches. He and his partner focus on business consulting and coaching with the owners and partners of firms and agencies, while their team meets the technical and financial compliance needs of the customer.
Jason is the host of two…
Why?
Here are a number of reasons. I hope if you are on the fence one resonates with you:
- I’m out of my normal element for a ‘weekend’ and have the time and space to explore new thoughts and ideas to bring back to my firm/practice. (In the beginning of my last partnership, my partners used to ask me what I learned and what I brought back for my practice and the firm. They recognized that I wasn’t just screwing around getting CPE but that I was learning/growing.)
- In the midwest, Fall is a season of harvest and planning for the next year. October is a good time to celebrate the end of a year and start to plan for the next using what we learned in the last year.
- I am surrounded by like minded professionals who have goals, dreams and objectives similar to mine. I learn so much by talking to other attendees, sharing experiences and listening to/telling stories.
- The learning is excellent. There are some years I look at the topic beforehand and say ‘meh’, but once I sit, listen, absorb, I find tons of value in the learning. I never walk away disappointed or without an actionable item(s).
- DW challenges you to take the next big step in your practice and sends you home with the energy to get things done.
- I’ve had bad years. When I feel like this business is weighing me down, too challenging or futile. Coming and talking with other like minded people reminds me that this business is so cool/fun/rewarding. Breaks me out of my funk and brings me back to where I need to be to move forward.
I hope I’ve given you some reasons to think about moving forward.
Now I’ll give you the one reason not to go:
You don’t want to or are not in a place to make meaningful changes to your practice that will bring you more time, energy, money and joy.
My success in 2025 stemmed from a big commitment/decision I made about my practice in a breakout session at DW#16. And the setup of the success of my practice in 2026? I can argue it came from the same commitment.
If you are on the fence and reading this, I hope this post gives you the nudge you need to make the best decision for YOU about DW#25. Learn more about Deeper Weekend here.
This blog was a post shared in our Thriveal community by one of our long-time members and Deeper Weekend attenders, Michael Wall, CPA. (This is not a paid advertisement!)
What’s next for you? Join our community and share your inspiration with other like-minded firm entrepreneurs.