Bringing Community and Fun to Accounting

With Yuri Kapilovich
Randy continues his focus on community in accounting with Yuri Kapilovich on Episode 203 of The Unique CPA. Also known as #TheFunCPA, Yuri shares his mission to redefine accounting, making it more dynamic and engaging through his social media content, networking events, and YouTube series. Discussing his journey of building a full-service accounting firm with a focus on work-life balance, Yuri explains how he maintains a limited work schedule while providing high-value services to his clients. Yuri’s continuing efforts to create unique and enjoyable networking events are just one of the many ways that he contributes to the accounting community.
Today our guest is Yuri Kapilovich. Yuri—and I got it right. I was concerned I wouldn’t say the name right—but Yuri Kapilovich. Yuri, AKA #TheFunCPA is on a mission to showcase the exciting side of accounting, proving—and I love this—proving that this profession is anything but boring. Through his LinkedIn content, networking events, podcast, and YouTube series, Yuri is inspiring accountants to break from the old school stereotypes and embrace a more dynamic and engaging future. This is pretty cool. And when he is not shaking things up in the industry, he’s running a full-service accounting firm. Yuri, welcome to The Unique CPA.
Thank you. Thank you for having me. That was a really good introduction and to be honest, I learned a little bit about myself on that one, so thanks.
Well, that’s nice! You and I talked about this before you and I, but I’ve been actually the last few episodes asking ChatGPT to help me write intros and it does an amazing job. Yeah. I mean, that is you, in my mind, that is you. I assume you felt that encapsulates what you do.
Yeah, yeah. In my mind, that was me. So I feel like it was, and it was like a nice twist to it, like, you know, really well-worded version. So, yeah, I’m into it.
I was actually, I was talking with Logan Graf about this yesterday because he was on the show and he said the same thing. He said, yeah, ChatGPT, the one thing it does great is writing intros. Yeah. And I completely agree. So now I just gave up my, uh, secret that I don’t write the intros myself other than I get it all. But, but yeah, I did edit it quite a bit actually. So I’m gonna take credit for this.
You should.
My friend Chat helped, but that’s it. Alright, let’s get into this. You and I, we’ve been in contact for a couple years now. We’ve actually had a couple of false starts on recording this episode, so I’m glad we were able to get it in today. We met in person, what was it for the first time last May? Is that the Accounting Today Firm Growth Forum?
Yep. That was awesome.
And you got up and sang didn’t you? Or rapped?
I did. I did. That’s right. You were, I saw you, I saw you over there in the crowd jamming out to my song.
Yeah. Well that’s part of the whole Fun CPA, just getting out there and having a good time, which is awesome. And I’ll give you credit for that because I’ve done, I think karaoke twice and there was a karaoke party, which was a lot of fun.
Yeah. What song?
I’m trying to remember because the last time I did it was with Scott Scarano and I think it was a Red Hot Chili Peppers song. We were in Austin, Texas. And I’m a little concerned he has a video of it, but the video’s never surfaced, so that’s a good thing. So let’s get into this whole, “#TheFunCPA”—I love that moniker. Thank you. That name you. And so, where did this come from? How did this come about? Where the reputation, obviously you are fun and that is part of it, but you know. Where did it come from and why do you think it’s needed in the profession?
Yeah. You know, it’s funny—everything that I do across, like literally everything is unplanned, is random and has no goals to it, right? It’s kind of like just, adjust as you go. And #TheFunCPA is no different. I started posting in September of 2021 on LinkedIn and when I was posting, I was posting, you know, well at first it was my bus thoughts. So I was on a bus literally driving to the city for an hour, and in the morning I was just keeping myself entertained and I was just posting the things that I did not like about the profession, trying to give people—staff—some hope and trying to give them some guidance for, you know, one of the things I used to post about is, you know, how to, for example, how to look good to managers, how to do that informal feedback request, how to do all those things I struggled with my career. So that was bus thoughts.
As the posting evolved, eventually one day I just started writing “#TheFunCPA,” like while I was riding my bike or while I was doing this. It was just something random, “#TheFunCPA,” “#TheFunCPA.” And then the “aha” moment to it was probably, it was September, 2022, and I decided to reach out to these people that do these high-end, like rich people toys, a conference or event. And basically it was a two-day event in an airport where they had private jets, private helicopters, a bunch of different stuff like private flying lessons, it was obviously around aviation a lot, but I just reached out to the organizer. I said, “Hey, would you guys have like a CPA there? Is that weird?” And they were like, “Never had that before, but we’re gonna give you a discount on the booth price. 500 bucks.” I was mind blown. Like, okay, 500 bucks, I don’t care, I wasn’t really making that much money at the time, but I was like, I’ll spend it because it’s cool and different.
And I had a sign made, like it went all in on #TheFunCPA thing and I made a sign. And the “aha” moment was when people walk by, look at the sign and go, “Is that… The Func PA? What? What does that say?” Because it literally does not translate. Like nobody can even process #TheFunCPA exists. So that’s when I knew, I was like, this is—if you question that, I’m onto something. So events and all this other stuff, YouTube and all this other stuff that kind of just generates out of that. But it was by no means planned. And to this day, I don’t know what I’m doing with it other than consistently trying to show that you can have fun.
Well, I can vouch for that and I have no problem with this not having a game plan going into anything, because with the podcast, I don’t normally. But we do send a pre-interview sheet out and your response to what you want to talk about was, “No specific topic, open to a freeform chat.” So I guess that kind of ties in with what you were just saying there.
I’m consistent on all fronts. Randy. I have nothing, you know, I like to just chat. Right? Have a good time. And I feel like a lot of times, like if you have a specific thing you want to talk about, then you may end up missing out on just something that would have come up that provides value. I’m just all about honestly bringing value to the profession in whatever way possible.
And I agree completely with that. I had, and I don’t know when it was, but it was one of my first, you know, 10, 15 episodes I recorded of The Unique CPA, I went in with this whole preconceived idea of this is what we’re going to talk about, and then we totally went a different direction. It was one of the most impactful conversations that I think we had early on in the podcast, but that made me realize I shouldn’t go in with what I think this discussion is going to be because I’m not the important person on this podcast. It’s the guest. And they’re going to have something to talk about that they’re passionate about, that they love. And so, yeah, you and I completely are on board with that same concept.
Yeah. And you were on my show also, and I think we had honestly—no offense to anybody else that was on my show—but I will tell you it was the best recording, the best podcast, from a topic of conversation and the fact that I feel like you and I are very similar, just maybe like a generation apart, you know?
What, I’m older? What are you saying?
No, no, no. You know, you got more hair than me, so it’s fine. But yeah, I think from that regard, it’s definitely interesting and unique because there’s not a lot of fun CPAs out there.
Yep. Yep. I like that. I like, you know, I have a friend, Kristen Keats, who wants to bring the joy to account, and I mean, you have people with these type of things. I love seeing that. And let’s get into that, you know, even though we don’t have a game plan. We did talk about, in the intro that you want to break free from the old school stereotypes and embrace a more dynamic and engaging future. So that is kind of things I talk about too is this, we do have this misconception of what this profession is like. Now, there is reality issues we need to change too, but also, the perception is wrong. What do you think are the biggest misconceptions that people have about accountants and, you know, how do you think we can change that narrative?
I think the biggest misconception about accountants is that we’re boring. Everybody is boring. The other misconception is that, oh, we sit in the room in the house or in the office, never leave and work crazy hours—part true, but it doesn’t have to be that way. And the other thing is, is just that, you know, in tax season, we don’t exist. And I think those three things are very important to me to change the perception on. Because it’s possible.
Oh, it’s definitely possible.
Now when you’re in the—it seems impossible when you’re in these big firms where all they do is push hours, mandate these stupid billable hours that don’t make any sense, we can certainly get into that, but that’s a whole different line. But you know, you’re in there and you’re feeling like it’s hopeless. And I think the other issue is because people are feeling that way, students and folks that want to be accountants are discouraged from that. All you have to do nowadays is hop on this website called Reddit, or Fishbowl, and click, you know, Subreddit Accounting, and you’re bound to never come into this profession. And that is the unfortunate part that I just hope and try to flip the script on. The truth is when people are in it, yes, the hours are terrible in big firms. The culture is toxic in 95% of the firms have been at, it’s the truth. But when you go out on your own—and certainly there are also other firms out there that are great—that are a good place to be and you could have a good time and actually show your personality in accounting.
Yep. Let’s highlight, I actually want to go back to that event you did with the planes and all that, but let me do that in a minute. Let’s highlight one of the things you just said, the hours and these billable hours that are, you know, because with you, when you and I talked last time, I think, and you know, correct me if I’m wrong: The hours you put in are significantly lower than most people think when you’re coming into accounting. Why don’t you tell us about how you look at that from an hours standpoint?
Yeah. Interestingly enough, again, not planned, not intentional, but honestly speaking, it’s all the time that I have, right? So I worked backwards as I was building my firm. First thing I did was I, I got into contracting and I just started contracting 20 hours a week so I could keep the lights on. It was giving me $4-$6,000 a month—in tax season, almost $10[,000]—that’s an insane amount of money for 20 hours a week or you know, sometimes a little more. But it was great, you know, and the other 20 hours when I was not, you know, doing the contracting, I was just building the firm in my own way: I was saying no to clients, no, no, to potential clients that didn’t fit my ideal client profile, which is value first. So the end goal for me was important from the start and the end goal was, I don’t wanna work. I don’t want to ever work more than 50 hours a week ever again in my life. Not interested. How do I get there? How do I get to working less than 40 hours a week during tax season? By taking on high value clients, high paying clients, people that respect your time and yourself and your expertise and working backwards from there.
So right now though, you know, my son, so I have two kids. My son goes to school, you know, around 8 o’clock and my daughter goes to school around 9 o’clock. And then I prioritize going to the gym. So after I drop off my daughter 9, 9:30, I get into the gym, I finish up around 10:30 and that’s when I start my day. So now we’ve got 10:30 and my son’s bus comes back around 3:15, 3:30. That’s my day. So unless I give up something, either, I may, you know, obviously there’s days I don’t go to the gym, those days I have a little bit more time. But typically, I work between three and a half to five hours a day, sometimes six. And so to get there and to get the client’s work done. I mean, at this point we’re on February 19. I don’t take on any more clients right now. That’s it. You know, that’s where I’m at. I don’t make millions of dollars, but that’s okay. I make a decent living, make good money, I posted my financials back a couple months ago. And you know, I think it definitely shook up the profession a little bit in that regard. But to show off that I have the free time, right? I have the ability to be flexible and I have the ability to go do whatever, pick up my son, go with him to wherever, you know, extracurriculars and such. So that’s what’s important to me. I’m not saying that’s for everyone, but that’s what I’m here to show.
Yep. And show that it could be done. And you’re not, you’re doing significant work on your backyard right now, so I know the money’s coming in.
Yeah.
Well it’s going out as well.
Yeah. It’s coming in and going right out. Yeah. Hey, tax season and, and all my clients are just shoveling this money right into. Literally into the ground, but that’s a different story.
So now let’s go back to that event that you did the $500. And again, not planned. You just did it. Did that really jumpstart? Did you get clients out of that? Or did it just help mindset for you of how you wanted to do this? What was the outcome of that event for you?
The outcome, I’m trying to remember. I didn’t get any clients. I got like two or three potential, like referrals that I still speak to every once in a while. One of them was a big client, it probably would have been $60,000 in fees. I’m not so sure I would have taken them on even if they said yes. But they were very close to wanting to work with me. But I was fairly hesitant because sometimes saying no is better overall—you don’t wanna put all your eggs into a 60,000 client, right. And it might be too complicated and it might be worse than better. But at the time, this was like about a year into my firm. Let me tell you man, that $60,000 at the time sounded great. But I think in retrospect, it’s a good thing he didn’t end up choosing, he ended up going with a bigger firm. But that was one of the people that was very wealthy. And so it was cool to go to that event.
But to go back to the premise and the point of going to that event was not to get clients, honestly. It literally was, “Whoa. That’s a cool event. It’s gonna be fun. I love airplanes.” I’m very big into aviation and that kind of stuff, and I’ve taken a few flight lessons myself in general. And so I was like, you know what? I just want to go to this thing. I feel like it’s cool to just go. And so I just signed up and I paid this 500 bucks, and then I was like, alright, cool. And then my wife was like, “You need stuff for your booth and stuff.” And I was like, right, right. I should probably think about that. This is how I operate, you know, I have these grand ideas, and then I’m like, right, I gotta execute them now. So then, yeah, we got a table, some stools, and places for people to sit around. I bought a bunch of champagne and rosé and stuff like that, was pouring it out for people, so people were coming by for that. I had chips, like snacks and stuff like that. And then I just walked around and just met people, and yeah, I mean, like I said, I didn’t get any clients out of it, but I just got to have a good time and do something that most CPAs would never imagine doing.
It was the fun factor.
It was the fun factor for me, which pretty much dictates most of what I do, like, is it fun for me? Am I gonna enjoy it? Right. Then I’m gonna do it.
Yep. Well, let’s go back then again to the firm now, ’cause we got your hours, 10:30 to 3:15. Unless you’re not working out, then maybe there’s some more time. Is that consistent all year long? Is tax season any different?
Consistent all year long. I gotta adjust, I really think that probably next week I gotta start going a little earlier to the gym and figure that out. But my wife works full-time, so I gotta, you know, a lot of times I gotta get the kids ready and do all that stuff before 9:00, so my time is very limited and I don’t feel like waking up at 5:30 to go work out, to come back in time to do all the kid stuff. So I gotta figure it out. But for now, yeah. That’s the schedule still.
Okay. And then the other thing you said earlier was talking about value and value first, and that was the most important thing when you’re looking at, or one of the important things when you’re bringing on new clients. So define what you mean by that. How does value play into you working with clients?
So, I mean, I think the way that it ends up shaking out, I have a very high minimum fee. It’s $2,000 for any tax return. That’s even if it’s just a very simple W-2. Typically speaking, I have found that drives the people who are looking for just somebody to prepare the return out. Obviously that’s gonna drive them away immediately. Nobody is gonna be paying a $2,000 for a W-2 only tax return. Like this is reality. So then who are you bringing on? You’re bringing on probably business owners, which is who I seek to work with and people who maybe saw my content and maybe think they just wanna be associated with someone who is more high-end, is more handholding in some senses, and derives value from that. So that’s the high level. By doing that, I’m able to be more selective. I’m able to pick specifically, like, say business owners is who most often comes my way with that. And then meeting with them quarterly, discussing their financials, and having that ability to actually be somebody that they could just reach out to, versus many other CPAs who are just unreachable, who are so busy, swamped with thousands of clients and don’t have any time to actually service them. That’s the differentiator. That’s the value that I bring, but to get there, the fees have to be high enough for people to see the value.
Yep. That’s an important thing too, because what you just mentioned, you’re meeting with them quarterly, you’re looking at things, you’re not surprised by anything, you know what’s happening. And so when tax season does come around, you’re prepared already. Because you already know the answers. You don’t have to file a tax return and be surprised. I assume that’s one way that you’re able to spread out the seasonality of this business and reduce the hours during tax season.
In some senses, yes. I mean, the quarterly clients, the only thing we do is we just meet quarterly. And a lot of the times the filing and tax work still happens in tax season. The only difference is because the fees are higher, I don’t have as many clients. So that’s really how I am able to control it. So right now I’m hovering around a hundred clients or so, 120. Subtotal returns is probably about 150, give or take, around 150. Some clients have businesses, whatever. And then on average, my fee is, like I said, around $2,000, give or take. So that’s how I’m able to get up to the 200, mid $200,000 range on my own and still work these hours and still get everything done.
Okay. And I assume nothing you do is gonna be based on hourly billing based on that conversation earlier?
Yeah, no, everything is flat fee, value based. So my tax-only, if somebody doesn’t wanna do the quarterly, starts at $2,000 for any tax return. The quarterly billing clients start at $6,000, so $1,500 a quarter, and then my monthly clients start at $1,000 a month. And so, yeah. And that incorporates, you know, basically, like I said, and my whole goal is, I don’t want to send you any other invoice. That’s what I tell my clients all the time, like, you know, potential clients, right? When we sign, when we start working together, if it’s $1,500 a quarter, you’re not getting anything else from me, right? Invoice wise, unless it’s something way out of scope, like due diligence or something like that. Whatever it is, we talk about it ahead of time, but that’s the whole goal. The whole point is no surprises, high value, when they pay that $1,500 a quarter, we schedule the meeting and now they’re getting that feeling that they got something for their money, and it forces the conversation. That’s it.
Okay. And then I wanna move on, but I’m intrigued right now, so I can’t help myself. I gotta ask more questions. With your client base of that 150 returns or whatever, is there a concentration in a certain industry or a certain way we can define your client base?
Yeah, the only, I don’t have a niche right now. But I would say if there was like a, my only criteria is $5 million and below in gross revenue.
Okay, that’s a niche to me.
So, yeah, to me it’s also a niche. It’s not the niche of a stereotypical niche like real estate or blah, blah, blah. But the reason why it’s $5 million or below is complexity. Anytime anybody that’s making less than $5 million gross is typically speaking in one or two states. They’re typically not complicated, maybe service-based businesses or whatever it is. Minimal amount of, obviously no accrual issues. Mostly cash-based, you know, taxpayers because they’re under the $5 million and that’s really the goal I found in my career, at the moment they go over $5 million, You really can’t make $10 million in one geographical region most of the time. You gotta, you know, and then you get to talk about 15, 20 states. Not interested. Because you know, the complexity around that is just not for me.
Oh yeah. As we grew, when we first started, I was doing our tax return, and once I started realizing we have a lot of states we need to file in, it made no sense for me anymore, and it’s not something I was doing anyways. So yes, it, that’s been, I don’t know. We’re going on 10 years now since I did any of that work, but honestly, we probably file in 30-plus states, I’m guessing maybe more? I’m assuming so. It’s a mess.
Yeah, that’s a lot of work. I don’t want to do it, and again, I know how to do it in theory, but I don’t want to. Because that’s just too much work.
It’s not fun.
Exactly. It’s not fun.
Alright, well let’s pivot because I could talk about your firm and how you do it all day long because it just intrigues me. But I also want to talk about the community aspect of the profession because that’s a big thing for you. You know, simple things like going to conferences, but in addition, you’ve got your LinkedIn content, you’ve done networking events. Let’s get into the things that you’ve done and then, you know, I guess, yeah, let’s talk about that: Explain the things you do around networking or community building.
Yeah. So once again, guess what? Zero intention and zero plans. One, it started two years ago now, 2023 tax season. I’m sitting there right around this time, and I was procrastinating doing my work and I’m sitting there and I’m going, you know what? I’m like, it’ll be really cool to do a networking event. Like my own in a fun way that isn’t your stereotypical one where you just want to leave as soon as you get there. Because I’ve been to networking events and all I wanted to do was go home. The moment I got there, I was like, “I don’t want to be here.” So I’m like, how do we make it fun? How do we make it different and unique?
And then I started reaching out. I belonged to a boat club, so I reached out to the boat club owner, right next to that boat club there’s a little bar that’s on the sand and has fire pits. And again, right by the marina. Right next to that, there’s a barbecue truck. So I just called up those three people. I said, you know, the marina owner? I was like, “Hey, can you put two boats on the water for me? I want to have the attendees go out in groups of six or seven.” It’s like an icebreaker, just a little tour, it was like probably a 10-15 minute little boat ride. Then they come back. Now they get to have a little bit of a forced conversation. That’s different. Then I have a DJ that does like my house parties and stuff like that. So I had him come out. We were trying to be on a budget here and that was a ton of fun. So we had nice music going and then we had the bar, which had an open bar, that was a lot of fun on the sand with the fire pits going. I mean, it was great. And then the unlimited barbecue was cool. So all that, putting that together, I was like, this is gonna be fun. And I rolled that out and we had about 50 people that ended up showing up. But I learned a lot about, you know, events. And one of the things that this little unplanned and random idea that came about cost me $4,000 out of pocket just for that event. And the next three events were less. I’m getting better, and not coming out of pocket as much, but you know, it’s not. Everybody’s like, why are you doing them? And as usual, my answer is I have no idea. I just do it because I believe and I want people to have a good time at networking events.
Yep. And who’s coming to the events? Is it accountants or is it clients or is it a combination?
Initially and to this day, like, I mean, I’m hoping that as this builds up and grows and people start realizing that I’m actually doing networking events here, and like the fun and, you know, and the brand grows, I’ll get more accountants. The initial goal was more accountants. The initial goal was let’s just get people who are tired, who are just fun, who identify as fun, accountants, you know, fun CPAs, but are just sitting there and hating their lives and get them out together, you know, like-minded individuals to really stick together and make good relationships. But then I realized real estate professionals were coming out to this, attorneys were coming out to this. I had doctors coming out, physical therapists, teachers. So really, you know, it was kind of like running the gamut of random people. But again, it was just people, just whoever was feeling it, I guess, ended up coming out cause I needed more attendees.
The funniest thing—I think we talked about this before. In my mind, I was like, this is amazing, I put together this really cool event. Like I’m gonna roll it out on Eventbrite and I’m gonna get so many signups, I’m gonna have to end it early. Like I, you know, I’m gonna have to cut it off. And my cutoff was 75 people because I was like, you know, anything more than that and really as you near a hundred, it becomes too overwhelming, less real, authentic connections. I ended up barely getting 50 and I was pulling teeth on every single one of them to come. And I was like, okay, well that didn’t work. And the next three events were the same. But the problem I think now in retrospect is I roll out the invites too late, like if there’s a month left to the event, man, it’s hard. Like it’s hard to get people. That’s why it’ll be like, I’ll roll it out and then I’ll have to go get everybody to come.
Yeah. Well, here’s the deal with events. People don’t sign up till the last minute. That’s just the way it is. So yeah, as you know, we run a conference, Bridging the Gap.
I’ll be there.
Well, and I’m looking forward to that. The first two years it was, oh, everybody waited till the last second to sign up, and so then you’re freaking out the whole time. We’re really fortunate this year, we’re five months away right now, and a month ago—so six months before the conference—we already had a third of the registrations we had all of last year, which, last year at that same time we had about 1%. I think we’re at 70 people registered right now and the same time last year we were probably less than five people registered, so, it’s a timing thing too. Once you go around, once people see it, once you get that reputation going, yeah, then they start to get more excited. And honestly, everybody I talk to now is like, oh yeah, no, I wanna get to your event. I wanna be there. So once that happens, you’ll see it.
Yeah. And that’s okay. But the other thing is then, after my second event, I got a sponsor. So the first event. I had a sponsor, but they backed out last minute, so that’s why I ate $4,500 or whatever it was that hurt. So I’m trying to not remember that anymore. But then after that, I got another sponsor. But my thing with sponsors is when I have a sponsor, I’m so focused on bringing value to them and making sure that the right people are there that they want. Now I’m like, “Okay, well I don’t know who’s coming to this. I want accountants.” Like, you know, Tax Dome was one of my sponsors. Which was amazing. And they really didn’t expect much, but I was still, even though they didn’t expect much, I’m still like, I wanna bring more people to them, to make it worthwhile for them to come out. And so I’m very focused on that. And so when I don’t see people signing up, you know, it was tough.
Well, that’s your value mindset. You know, you want to provide value to them.
And it carries through everything. So if there was anything that’s consistent and is planned, it’s value. But value is in the eye of the beholder, and I think that’s the challenge, right?
Yep. Well, you’re building the community, that’s for sure. I wonder, I have this impression that, not that there’s any plans because I know we don’t plan ahead of time, but maybe #TheFunCPA will actually become a community of accountants down the road. You know, like I said, I just talked to Logan Graf yesterday and he’s got his Counter community. You’ve got Jason Staats with Realize, you’ve got Ryan Lazanis with [Future Firm], Kellie Parks with Calmwaters. I can keep going, lots of communities out there, but that’s because they’re needed and because they bring so much value to the people that become members of it. So I wouldn’t be surprised if, whether it’s in your mind or not that that may be something. I got a feeling it is in your mind. So that might be coming out.
Well, so, Yuri, I really appreciate this conversation. Just seeing how you are breaking the mold and changing and bringing the reputation up of the profession, showing you don’t have to work 80 hours a week, and showing that you can bill more than your mind thinks you can bill, because we have that mindset that we’re only worth so much. And then creating a community, it’s all great stuff. So just before we wrap up, anything you wanted to add on our discussion?
Yeah. I think when you just said about our minds blocking us, about our minds telling us that we’re not worth—I think the issue with our profession is that especially when somebody’s starting a firm or wants to go out on their own, they have this vision of how everybody else is doing it, and they have this vision that it’s a race to the bottom. Like this is my biggest frustration with the profession at the moment, aside from the not fun and all that, the race to the bottom is killer. And it makes you as a practitioner want to follow suit to get more clients to whatever it is. Somebody out there I can guarantee you is doing the same thing that I’m doing, is providing the same value, but they’re charging $200, $300 a tax return because they want to get more clients in the door, or you know, “It’s just an hour, it’s just half an hour.” It’s just this, you know, the race to the bottom has to stop. And I think we need to value ourselves more as a profession.
Yep. Great advice. To tie into that, valuing ourselves more—I know you’ve done a good job of that from a standpoint of the hours you work and what’s most important to you. And work is important, but you’ve got a lot of time to do a lot of other things. So what are those outside of work, passionate things you love doing?
Yeah. I mean, I love boating. I love spending time with my family and being able to, in the summertime, go into the pool. You know, my son comes home, hop in there and just have the free time. I’m very passionate about my free time. I think that, to me, is more important than anything else. I think a lot of people are focused on this retirement concept, and I’ll enjoy my money at retirement, but I’m like, I’m want to enjoy it now, because you never know. And so that’s super important to me too.
That’s funny the way you said that because that’s a mindset that I had always had. I said, “Hey, I’m going to enjoy it now, especially when I’m younger too.” And at 62 I still feel young and I get out and my wife and I did a four and a half mile hike with about a thousand-foot elevation change yesterday, which was a nice exercise.
Awesome.
I’m getting out. But yeah, I always had that mindset of, you know, why wait till you’re retired to enjoy things? Let’s do it now. And if I work an extra year because I spent more money now or less time now, whatever, or two years or three years. But yeah, I think that’s a perfect mindset and a perfect way to end this episode. So before we do that though, one last question: People want to find out more about #TheFunCPA or the things you’re doing, where’s the best place for them to look?
LinkedIn. LinkedIn is where I live. Just Yuri Kapilovich over there on LinkedIn. Give me a follow and feel free to shoot me a DM or just watch, engage with the content, or just keep posting fun stuff. Yep. That’s what I try to do.
And congratulations, you said your name correctly, so that’s nice.
Yeah. Thank you. I had a lot of experience with that, approximately thirty-six years.
Alright, well, Yuri, this has been a lot of fun. Thanks again for being on The Unique CPA.
Alright. Thank you for having me, Randy.
Important Links
About the Guest
Yuri Kapilovich, aka #TheFunCPA, makes his life mission to showcase the fun side of accounting and to flip the script on what the stereotypical accountant could be. With posting on linkedin, running his own networking events, hosting a podcast and youtube series Yuri aims to drive the profession to abandon that old school ways. In addition to all that Yuri runs a full service accounting firm, K&A LLC.
Meet the Host
Randy Crabtree, co-founder and partner of Tri-Merit Specialty Tax Professionals, is a widely followed author, lecturer and podcast host for the accounting profession.
Since 2019, he has hosted the “The Unique CPA,” podcast, which ranks among the world’s 5% most popular programs (Source: Listen Score). You can find articles from Randy in Accounting Today’s Voices column, the AICPA Tax Adviser (Tax-saving opportunities for the housing and construction industries) and he is a regular presenter at conferences and virtual training events hosted by CPAmerica, Prime Global, Leading Edge Alliance (LEA), Allinial Global and several state CPA societies. Crabtree also provides continuing professional education to top 100 CPA firms across the country.
Schaumburg, Illinois-based Tri-Merit is a niche professional services firm that specializes in helping CPAs and their clients benefit from R&D tax credits, cost segregation, the energy efficient commercial buildings deduction (179D), the energy efficient home credit (45L) and the employee retention credit (ERC).
Prior to joining Tri-Merit, Crabtree was managing partner of a CPA firm in the greater Chicago area. He has more than 30 years of public accounting and tax consulting experience in a wide variety of industries, and has worked closely with top executives to help them optimize their tax planning strategies.