Today’s guest is Mark Gallegos. Mark is a partner at Porte Brown, which is a firm here in the Chicago suburbs, actually a firm that I’ve known for a long time. And we’re going to be talking about some really interesting things. Related to HR-1 in general, but leadership, and right now there’s a lot happening with tax and regulatory environment and really instead of just reacting to change, which I see too often, Mark really thinks deeply about how firms can turn uncertainty into opportunity, and I love that. We’re going to talk about leadership in times of change, how to move from compliance to advisory, which we talk about a lot, that’s pretty exciting, I think this is a great opportunity to do that. And how to guide clients without politicizing conversations, and we see that a lot, especially when it comes to tax. It gets very politicized at times, so we’ll talk about how we can avoid that. And how AI, another hot topic, and evolving legislations are reshaping the role of the modern tax partner. Mark, welcome to The Unique CPA.

Thanks for having me, Randy. I appreciate it.

Yeah. It feels like you and I have done this before because you’ve interviewed me a couple times, three times I think at this point in different settings. So I’m glad that I get to pay back and be on this end of things with you today. This should be fun.

Absolutely.

Let’s talk about that because what are you doing, because you’re hosting a show for Becker, correct?

Yeah. A podcast called Tax News Now. It’s once a month, we have someone from the accounting industry on typically in the tax world, but doing something in tax and whether we’re kind of glorifying, hey, what do they do, what do they bring to the industry? Gives a little bit of the backstory and then maybe something technical, something leadership, something management style, and really trying to figure out how do we take this profession we’re in and continue to evolve it and bring leadership into it, and to bring change to what seems to be something that’s been stuck in the past. And how do we keep bringing it forward?

And in addition to that, you’re very active in this profession. So why don’t you go into some of those other things and if you miss one, I’ll remind you what else you’re doing. So tell me some of the things you’re doing in this profession.

So, besides what I do at the firm here at Porte Brown, I specialize in mergers and acquisitions, credits and incentives, and international tax, and then anything just complex in the tax world seems to be just a fun area, a need, kind of a geeky thing for me. But beyond within the firm and leadership in the firm, I volunteer with the AICPA, so I’m on the tax practice management committee, I’m on different strike forces that deal with tax policy and legislation or other specialty areas. I speak for them quite a bit on various things. I’m on the board of the Illinois CPA Society, I do a lot of speaking and volunteering with them. Obviously, I have the podcast with Becker, Tax News Now. I do teaching for Becker CPE as well, I teach for Stratford. I teach for a number of other organizations out there, Prime Global Association, other associations in the accounting profession. I do volunteer leadership and teaching. And no matter what, I also do a lot of writing. People always say, well, why do you speak so much? It’s like, well, first, it’s all the writing. I love writing. It’s a passion of mine. And from there I kind of become a little bit of an expert in certain areas and then people want to hear me talk about it, I guess. So it’s fun.

You forgot a couple. You are on the Bridging the Gap Advisory Council.

That’s correct, yes.

For the second straight year. And so the Bridging the Gap Advisory Council, which you and I are going to have a meeting on Monday, where we will start to go through all the speaker submissions we have for BTG 2026, Charlotte, North Carolina, the end of July. Going to be exciting. We had a lot of submissions, so we’ve got a lot of work. I feel bad for the Advisory Council because there’s a lot of sessions to go through. But our friend Chad Davis put an app together for us that’s going to actually make it really easy for us to search and look through everything, so I’ll show you all that Monday. The other thing I was thinking is you were part of the BTG Roadshow too, and so you hosted, or moderated, I think, these two panels and you were on a third?

Yes, that’s correct.

A busy guy.

And that was a fun afternoon. I mean, we literally, I felt like we had a packed room at the Illinois CPA Society, and the energy and some of the feedback I got from it was just so positive. And I love that, because it’s like the BTG conference is phenomenal, but to have stuff that’s not, you know, in the off season, we’ll call it, building up towards it and having conversations around what we’re trying to do is fantastic.

Yeah, it was pretty exciting. We did three so far. We’re going on a tangent, but this is what we do on the show: We had three so far, and now we have two in the works for after tax season. I actually was just on a call right before this with the Arizona Society of CPAs—not official yet, but it looks like we’re going to be doing one there. And then Bob Doyle with the Michigan, I think it’s called the Michigan Institute of CPAs. I think they do that society, and Bob and I, we’re going to try to find a date maybe in May to do one in Michigan as well. So don’t hold me to this if you’re listening to this show, but look for an announcement soon. We may be coming to a state CPA organization near you. 

Alright, wth that being said, before we jump into the rest of this, you just listed about 400 things that you do in this profession. Are you sure you have time to actually work at Porte Brown as well?

I do, I do, yes. I think one of the things is I’m very organized in what I do, and managing my calendar, but just managing the different projects and stuff. But also at Porte Brown, one of the things that we’ve always kind of made us a little bit different than other organizations is the ability to delegate. And not just say we’re going to delegate, but actually delegate work down to staff. Because we have all these young people that come out of college that want to work for us and at all different levels, and they don’t want to sit around doing the monotony, the boring stuff, they want to be involved in meetings, they want to be involved in the transactional stuff. And the best way to do it is to just bring them in and delegate stuff to them and let them run with it. And I think it frees me up to do this stuff, but at the same time, it gives them the ability to learn, grow, and have the passion for what we’re doing.

No, I think that’s a great example. That’s something that more firms should, like, reach out to you, because you have tons of time, reach out to you and say, hey, how are you doing this? Because that is very important, especially with the changing landscape that we have in the profession right now, and the people coming in are going to need those type of skills a lot quicker than they’ve needed them in the past. So just throwing it at them, and I’m sure helping them and giving them support, but letting them do it themselves. I think that’s a great way. And I think too often we’ve looked at, you know, this learning curve being a lot longer than it really needs to be. And I like the fact that we’re shortening that learning curve these days, at least you guys are, so that’s cool. 

Alright, so let’s jump into what we teased in the intro. You know, HR-1 is, we are in tax season right now, and so when we get new tax bills out there, obviously there’s lots of things going on there, there’s change happening. And so just give us like the overview of the impact you feel HR-1’s having on tax preparers now this tax season.

Yeah, I mean, since July 4th when it passed, and I was heavily involved in watching it unfold up until that point, but it has truly had a lot of impact. I know some people, they were waiting and waiting and then it’s now I’m getting lots of phone calls that’s like, hey, I should have paid attention more before, but I’ve got to get up to speed on a lot of this new stuff, and I’m happy to talk to anybody. But with that being said, I do believe that a lot of it was a continuation of what we had under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and an extension of it, you know, when it came to tax rates and QBI and C Corp provisions and stuff like that. But what I found is that there’s a lot of great things in it, and anytime we have a tax policy change, I view it as opportunities: opportunity for planning and how do we get in front of our clients and really bring it to them. 

So a lot of that has been, one of the questions I get quite a bit when I’m interviewed is, is this good or bad for people in general? And if you kind of look at it taking a step back, most people are going to pay less tax. I mean, we have seven tax brackets, we have a progressive system. You fill up the first, the 10% bucket, and then it spills over into the 12 and so on. Well, the gaps between, especially the 10 and 12 have widened even further, the gaps between the ones up to 37% are still wide, and so with that being said, just based on tax bracket management, people are going to pay less tax. And then you have the four new campaign deductions that ended up in the bill. We have the no tax on tips, which is really a misnomer because it’s not no tax, it’s a deduction. But no tax on tips, the overtime deduction, the car loan interest, personal interest deduction, and then the enhanced senior deduction. Those four things I’m already seeing make a huge impact on people’s taxes already in planning. So that’s a good thing.

Yeah. I have a question on that real quick. The first two you mentioned, the tips and the overtime, how’s the reporting on that? Are you getting the information from, like, payroll companies you need, or how are you managing that? I mean, you’re probably not preparing the tax, but what are you seeing when that information comes in?

So to take a step back, it came out, it’s all this is great, right? Because we know that there is a box for tips already on the W-2. And you know, people that reported their tips, there’s nothing for overtime. It’s built into your box 1, W-2, right? So then the IRS in the fall said, hey, we are not updating our 2025 W-2 reporting for any of this because it came out so late in the year, we’re going to do it in ’26. And they’ve been giving out guidance along the way, which is great. So I was a little concerned about what we were going to receive, but what I have found for the most part is, at least with the overtime pay, is, hey, you got your W-2, and then either the employer or the payroll provider has provided some additional guidance or additional, hey, Randy, you said you worked 15,000 hours of overtime, here’s the amount that qualifies for this overtime deduction. Or they’ll say, hey, here’s your double time, or here’s your half time, or whatever the premium amount is. And the IRS did come out with some guidance that said, hey, and they gave like seven or eight examples in there and said, hey, depending on what you have, here’s what you can do to kind of calculate the premium amount. 

So between that, I find it, so far it’s been better than I was actually expecting. I’m sure there’s people listening to this right now that are like, yeah, Mark, you know what I’m getting from my clients is none of that. And I would just tell people, if you have people with tips or overtime, they still have to report it, right? And ask them, hey, where does your pay stub show? Or can you get something from your employer or the payroll provider? Someone has to give you something, and a lot of times it’s there. It’s just a matter of asking for it.

Do you think that’s changing then next year? Are we going to have a better reporting system?

Next year, we will have a more robust way of getting it on the actual W-2s or 1099s. But again, anytime you change something, it takes a little bit of time to work through the system of how it’s proper.

Well let’s talk about that then too, because anytime there is tax reform or tax changes, you know, there is a lot of, I don’t know if it’s kneejerk reaction, but the first thing is, oh, there’s so much we’re going to have to learn so much. There’s so much going on. And people get bogged down in the compliance end of things, which is important. But one way you like looking at this reform is this is now advisory opportunities. How do you make that mindset shift, or what’s the way to get everybody to start looking that way instead of, I have to learn new tax things?

Well, yeah, I mean it used to be, oh, new tax form, Schedule 1-A for example, oh, I have to learn a new form. And oh, there’s new deductions and oh, so many rules, and nothing’s clear, so I’m going to put my head in the sand, ignore it, and let the software handle it, right? But then you don’t know what’s going on. You don’t know what the output looks like, if it’s correct, and then clients start to question. Randy calls me and is like, hey, I thought I was getting this senior deduction. Well, you have to be over 65, Randy, in order to get it. And then all these things, these conversations go on and then I start to feel overwhelmed. So I’m not planning, I’m reactive to everything then.

So what my view is, hey, you should read on this stuff along the way. I get it right now is probably for the average tax preparer, not the time to be reading. But you know, I would say at a minimum after tax season, start to read on this stuff, because there’s going to be a whole lot more guidance coming out. Trump accounts, for example, the 530A accounts. Hey, they’re available for 2025. You can’t set up an account yet or fund it yet until July 4th of this year. But start getting familiar with those provisions. Because when you understand what’s going on, whether it’s the new stuff or even the old stuff, now as you’re meeting with these clients, you can say, hey, Randy, ‘cause every client, what do they want to do? Pay less tax. So, hey, here’s some options, Randy, you can do to pay less tax. Well, you could find ways to give more to charity, and by the way, the charitable deduction, if you itemize, is going to kind of get limited a little bit, potentially starting in 2026 with this half percent haircut from the rules. So that’s a bad thing, but what could we do to plan strategies, whether it’s donor-advised funds or bunching strategies, or figuring out ways that we can help our clients. How do we accelerate depreciation? How do we take R&D tax credits, cost segregation studies? Depending on the facts and circumstances of that individual or business, what are we doing to help them? And the more you understand it, the more that advisory comes in. You’re not going to have every answer for them, but when you can give them options based on what they’re telling you, you’re listening for their pain points, you’re absorbing it, and you’re saying, hey, here’s how we could help you, and if I can’t help you, I can bring in someone else that can help along the way. And that’s the important piece.

That’s a good point, because how many people do you have at Porte Brown?

Let’s say 160.

160 people. So you can be thinking this way, but how do you as a leader in the organization get everybody, the 160 people within the firm on board that this is advisory season now, this is an opportunity for this, but let’s be prepared? I assume that there’s a lot of training, or how do you go through this to make sure that this is a firm-wide initiative, not just a Mark initiative?

Well, training is, I always kind of joke that we’re kind of like the trauma hospital where we’re always teaching. We’re a teaching hospital in the sense of a firm. Like we have a lot of internal training that goes on. Randy, you’ve been part of it. We have, every month we have what we call a staff meeting where we pull everyone together, talk about, hey, what’s going on in the firm? Where are the wins? Any big announcements. But then we always have an educational section where we’re talking about what do we need to know and why? And we don’t want to get everybody, because there’s people that work in audit, people that work in CAS that don’t need to know all these tax rules, but I want them to have an idea. So then when they’re talking to clients this isn’t foreign to them. 

And so all that constant communication in person, on Teams calls, also just communication, and then, you know, really the focus, compliance is what we all do in some capacity, but it’s really the advisory approach that is where we show the real value. And I think the more we continue to harp on that, not just during the busy season, throughout the year, is very important. It shifts the mindset of everyone, all the way to brand new staff who understands this: tax planning, providing solutions. And then at the top of it, it’s not only that this is advisory season, it’s that we always call it opportunity season, because this is the time where you’re actually talking to everybody, you’re meeting with them, you’re interacting in some form or fashion. Don’t just be like, hey, here’s your tax return, I’ll see you next year. That is not the approach you should take.

Yeah, for sure. And you just, I think, segued into something else we could jump into, because you’ve mentioned advisory, you mentioned you’re meeting with clients, you mentioned earlier this tax bill and tax often has political aspects associated with it. We said in the beginning that, you know, how do you advise, how do you talk about this without politicizing any part of the tax bill?

Yeah, I mean, this is one thing I feel strongly about, and that is always maintaining neutrality. Clients are polarized, advisors cannot be. And I know that you may have strong personal beliefs, and this is just my opinion: You know, hey, on one side I’m a strong Republican or I’m a strong Democrat, or I don’t care, and that’s all fine. And I’m glad that we have the ability to have these beliefs. But you know, when we’re dealing with people, the minute we drift into whether legislation is good or bad and we dilute our authority, our role as an economic translator or an advisor gets diminished. And again, people, they don’t want to know what our political beliefs are, they want to know how is any of this going to help me? And again, I could say, you know, someone can call me up and be like, can you believe this? This is terrible for this and this, and I’m going to blame the president, a past president or whoever. And my view is I’m not really there to comment on what the president, the administration, or anyone’s done, because again, I didn’t make those decisions. But I can just interpret it and say, hey, how do I help you go through this jungle of complexity so you can win in the deal. That is always my goal. Even when I’m talking, I always want to keep it right in the middle. It’s just not important. People, they can make their own beliefs. I can tell you when I speak and people come up to me, people will ask me, I can’t tell if you’re a Republican or a Democrat. I just smile because in my head it’s like, I did my job then.

Yep, nice. And I want to dig into something deeper that you just said, that you didn’t make the decisions. There is a story where you did impact this tax bill. And I want to stop the middle of the conversation here and just tell us the story, because it’s a really interesting story.

Yeah, so I got brought in to kind of have an advisory role from an independent side on the evolution of the tax bill as provisions come out, because at the end of the day, as things get introduced through on Capitol Hill, there’s always insight coming from various groups, you know, like, how does this impact the average American taxpayer? And to have a front row seat, to see that unfold and really brief into it, it feels like you’re contributing to something. Now you know that it’s going really probably nowhere, I mean, at least that’s in my mind. I mean, people have their own agendas and, you know, elected officials are going to do what they’re going to do. But to have people reaching out and saying, hey, here’s what we’re thinking, how does this impact small business? How does this impact large business? How does this impact Randy Crabtree? Is he sitting there wondering what his tax bill’s going to look like? And you’re just providing a very middle of the road answer that has, you know, is not political on either side. I love the idea of giving back, and that’s just another way that to me just brings value to it.

Yeah. So at least you got to share your two cents when they ask questions and be part of at least the discussion prior to the tax bill, to see what they wanted to hear your thoughts, which I think is really cool.

Yeah. And I always tell people, and especially people in our community where they have a strong opinion on one side or the other, hey, I’ll listen to anybody, whether it’s a strong opinion or they’re ranting, it’s all good. But with that being said, I always say if you’ve got that strong of an opinion and you really think you can change something, you should run for office then. And that’s why, because then you do get a say.

Alright, well let’s segue out of that. That was my segue from, you know, politicizing this to your impact on at least they wanted to hear what you say. Now we’re going to kind of completely, I don’t think a 180, because this is going to tie in, but we talked about advisory. I’m going to want to talk about pricing a little bit too, because when we get to advisory, there are some issues there. But the other thing that’s going to impact pricing is when we talk about AI and technology in our profession. And so AI, technology in general, I think we too often are afraid of it just because of the time involved in it. But what this is going to do for us to allow us to be the advisor that really we probably all strive to be, is going to be huge in my mind. It’s going to take a lot of the compliance away from us. Not away, but it’s, we don’t have to do as much, or at least the data entry or whatever. But let’s talk about like leadership and AI in general. I mean, you know, first, what do you see as AI’s impact going forward in the profession? And then how, as a leader, are you managing that within the organization?

Yeah no, I think, first of all, AI is only going to help us. And I find when I talk to people, I find there’s two camps: There’s the camp that’s like, we’re all in, we can’t wait to see what changes, but they’re really just kind of sitting back watching. And then there’s the other camp that’s kind of like, I don’t want it because I’m afraid I’m going to lose my job, or I’m going to lose this industry. And at the end of the day, AI is going to compress compliance work, and that’s going to happen, and it’s already happening, I promise you, if you’re not involved in it, it’s happening. But what it really does is widen that gap between the mechanical preparation of tax returns that we’ve always seen, the compliance aspect, and instead shifting towards more strategic thinking, strategic judgment. You know, AI can be used great to summarize tax code, to be able to look at complex tax legislation and get some patterns and really help you understand it quicker. And even with tax research, I think it’s phenomenal to be able to do it. But it can’t, at the moment, still can’t weigh risk tolerance. It cannot understand the client nuances, the facts and circumstances of the client. That’s our job. It cannot apply judgment in other situations. 

And so AI isn’t dangerous. The danger is, in my opinion, tax professionals or professionals in general who stop developing critical thinking skills. And in my opinion, the value of the future tax partner isn’t remembering all the rules and isn’t pounding your chest because you can get a Form 1065 done in X amount of time, it’s how well can you think outside the box and understand your clients and bring value to it. The compliance aspect of it, which has always been just kind of like a mechanical process, why can’t we bring that to the AI? Which is where, you know, and I know Allan Koltin and other people have said, hey, by 2030 or sometime in the 30s, we’re not going to be preparing tax returns anymore. I’m already seeing that in some aspects already, and I do believe that’s coming fast. And I’m excited about it because I’ll be honest, and we talked about this earlier, the more you delegate down, it frees you up for things. And I say to the staff, instead of having them prepare tax returns, what if they can get the return already prepared, now they’re reviewing it, now they’re providing, hey, I’m doing Randy’s return. It doesn’t look like Randy’s taking advantage of a number of things. They’re strategically thinking outside the box on how they can help Randy versus going, I’m just ticking numbers to make sure it balances. So different. And that’s the opportunity with AI that I think is missed in some of the discussions.

Yeah, we get very proud of our technical skills and, you know, I know the tax code and all this, and as you just said, that’s not going to be as important anymore, but the opportunities are going to be there, and the ability to advise and the ability to reduce taxes and the ability to spend time and your communication skills are going to be needed more. But going back to what I started this with, I am very concerned because as a profession, I think we’ve always kind of been this way: We give away our services too much. I think there’s many firms, many people that are better at this now, but I get concerned that people are going to say, oh wow, AI just saved me so much time, I can’t charge for that now. And so what they’re going to do is just replace it with more work rather than replace it with more, you know, opportunities to be out and advising. How do we balance this, you know, hey, this mindset that we have that, well, yeah, I mean, I’m doing a tax return in 10% of the time it used to take, so I’m charging, you know, maybe I’ll charge 20% of what I used to, but no, you have to charge at least what you were, if not more. When you look at pricing, when you look at that mindset, when you look at, you know, hours versus value or time or whatever, what’s the best way we need to, in your opinion going forward, start pricing our services?

First of all, you hit on a very important piece, and that is people give away their work for free.

Oh yes!

I mean, they may charge for the tax return. I see people charging tax return fees that I’m like, you’re worth a whole lot more. Just talking to someone for two seconds, I’m like, you need to be charging more. But then they’re meeting with these clients, they’re providing strategies, they’re providing advice, and in their mind, maybe they don’t think they’re doing all this advisory because they’re just so bogged down in the mechanical compliance aspect, they just do it for free. And then they’re afraid, because I’ve had these conversations, hey, if AI starts doing the work, well, my client’s going to come back to me and say, hey, you charged me a thousand dollars for my tax return and now your computer’s doing it, so I should only pay $200 for it. And I would say, slow your roll there, because at the end of the day, if, number one, you should be actually charging more now. 

I’ll give you an example. If my car breaks down, I could not fix the car. I can’t even barely put air in the tires. Taxes is one thing, tax law is one thing, but not cars. So I take it into the dealership. Now that dealership could have a human being back there fixing it, a robot fixing it, AI fixing it. Do you think they charge less because all of that is happening? No. If I go to the doctor and you have some sort of procedure done, and they’re using robotics and computers and AI, they’re not charging you less, so why should we? And again, this is the problem in our industry, is we don’t always recognize our value. And this is something that I feel strongly about. And we see this with BTG and other things, and that is, somehow we’ve gotten into a profession where everybody likes to work really hard. “I worked hard to get my accounting degree. I worked hard to get my CPA license. My badge of honor is I can put the most hours in in my firm and look at me, and then I’m exhausted, I’m burned out.” And at the end of the day though, we kind of value ourselves as like, well, we’re just workaholics. And then when a client calls us, it’s like, well, I can’t charge Randy for that, he’s a nice guy, I like him. Well, here’s the thing, you have to be able to bill for your services because we have to live a normal life. I’m not saying gouge people for something, but the true work we’re doing, we’ve got to value it. And I think there are a number of people that if you’re listening to this and you’re charging a small amount for your services, you need to really reevaluate that. You may think that people are going to leave you because you raise your fees, and I promise you that is not going to be the case.

Do you know how many companies, firms, people I’ve talked to about that exact thing and asked them how many people left? Pretty much it’s zero. I mean, they would up their fees by whatever, 25, 40%, people don’t leave. They value you way more than you value yourself, and that’s the problem. That’s where we need to get better because that perceived value in your mind is often, and I’m not saying everybody listening, but this happens too often, that perceived value in your mind is way less than that perceived value that they’re receiving or that what they sense that value as they’re receiving. So we need to get closer to that. 

Alright, great. On that, I love your answer there. There are going to be plenty of people out there that are going to be reducing fees. In fact, I got a mailer in the paper the other day that’s like “All tax returns, $250.” I’m like, what? How, no, they can’t do that. I know why they did this one. I don’t know if I agree or not, but they have wealth management and they’re just trying to get that money in for the wealth management end of things. But still, taxes aren’t a loss leader in my mind.

I always think if your fee, if you’re running your own practice or however you’re doing it and it’s below and you feel like you’re better than H&R Block or one of the local national prep firms, you should understand what they’re charging for a basic return, and if you’re below that, you really need to reevaluate that immediately at a minimum.

Yes, at a minimum. I agree with that. I’m not going to name names now because we’re looking for sponsors, so I don’t want to upset anybody. Look at me, I’m selling out now – I am not. I can’t be bought, just so everybody knows. Alright, so let’s, before we close up, one thing. Let’s get back full circle to this tax bill, because there are opportunities, like you said, a lot of things just a continuation of before, even reducing taxes overall. But if we had to name one or two things that people are missing from the advisory standpoint or from the tax saving standpoint, what do you think’s happening out there?

Yeah. I think with the tax bill, anytime there’s changes in tax law, whether it’s a big one like we’ve just seen with HR-1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, or just a minor change, those are the opportunities to reach out to your clients and let them know, here’s what’s changed, how can we help you? And not only that, you don’t want to just tell them exactly what’s happened, but understand, hey, if I’m working with a specific person and they’re an S corp, and now the legislation says, hey, I don’t have to capitalize my 174 costs anymore because of this, let’s meet, let’s talk about how we can change that, what this means to you, and how we can actually continue to plan what that will mean to you going forward. These are the things. 

Remember, clients, you know, they pay to reduce uncertainty. The more we model, the more we meet with them, and this is why sometimes going out and actually physically meeting with someone helps. Or if you can’t, you’re not even in the same town, get on a call. And not just a phone call, but a Teams call where you see each other. Those are opportunities where you’re kind of having face to face. It builds the trust, it builds that, hey, I know I’m looking at everything, and I think that’s very important along the way. The tax bill, legislation is a trigger, and advisory is the response to that. And the firms or the practitioners that produce strategic interpretation, they’re going to go smoothly into seasonality, they’re going to deepen their relationships, and at the end of the day, they’re going to bring something that is the most important thing of what we’re doing: Clients that trust us and come every year and they bring all of it to the table. And you know, you want more clients from that? Those are the people that are going to refer you more and more business because they’re like, hey, Randy’s at a party and someone says, hey, who does your tax return? And he’s like, oh, I go to so and so and here’s why I love him, blah, blah, blah. Well, give me his name or her name. And I think that is so relevant.

And I see it all the time, and you think it’s logical, but unfortunately we all in this community, we get bogged down. We’re sitting there trying to figure out forms and e-filing and, oh, I have to send out this, and, oh, meantime I have to bill for my services, and I have to collect for my services. Oh, and by the way, should I be training my staff along the way? All these things are all real things we have to deal with. But if we do not look at it properly, we will miss the boat on everything. And what happens at the end of the day? Stress, burnout, the ability to not be able to think critically. That’s where your impact is, which impacts your bottom line.

Yep. I did a webinar on burnout yesterday and that was a lot of discussion we had, so actually filmed one. So looking forward to that coming out. Alright, well I think that was a great wrap up, but before we wrap-wrap up, I have a couple final questions. First one is, so when you’re not being this super tax guru who’s involved with everything that happens in the accounting tax profession, what do you do for fun? What are your outside of work passions?

I love music. I love going to concerts, I like listening to music, hanging out with people and just, you know, whether it’s a meal or going to a show, a play, maybe a sporting event. You know, in Chicago we have, well, we had a great football season this past year, which was fun. And I’m excited about what the future holds there. But I mean, it’s just always fun to be able to do things and, you know, it’s starting to slowly warm up here in Chicago. We’re not quite there, but we’re getting better, and I get excited about that kind of stuff. So like, you know, people are always like, oh, all you do is tax? And the answer is no. There’s so many other things I do. This is just a mechanism that gets me around people, and then I continue to do other things with people as well. And I think it’s all about community. It’s all about, hey, be yourself, have fun doing it and follow your passions. And when you’re doing that, man, nothing feels like a job ever.

Yeah, and what you just said, I actually just made some shirts recently. I have a motto that just came off of a podcast I was on once, it was actually The Unique CPA, I was interviewing somebody, and it is “Be nice and have fun.” And so I just had these shirts made. I’ll get you a shirt. Be nice and have fun. It does say Randy Crabtree under it. I was thinking of changing that to RandyCrabtree.com underneath. But be nice and have fun. That’s, I think, a good motto to live by. Alright, so I want to ask you if I can ask this question, but you just mentioned music and you’ve got a pretty cool story of something you did recently in the music industry. Is this something that we can discuss?

I can discuss the event. I won’t mention the name just from a legal standpoint. I don’t know if I should. But yes, I do have some relationships in the music industry, people that people probably hear about, maybe even listen to, and that have become close friends. And so I got invited to the Grammy Awards a month ago, and I’ve never been. I’ve watched them, and I love all the music that’s there and, you know, people are like, oh, it’s tax season, how could you go? It’s like, no, you just go, go and have fun. And I had a blast and it was an incredible experience. And I even got to go meet people and go to an after party and meet more people. And it’s just that idea of, you know, when you put yourself out there and you build relationships, you never know where you’re going to get invited. Maybe you just get invited to a lunch and maybe you get invited to a family gathering, but maybe you get invited to the Grammys as well. And I think that is, that’s why we do what we do, and I think there’s so much fun to be had in all this.

Yep. “Be nice and have fun,” and you’re a living example of that. So last thing then. If people want to hear more about what you’re doing, see what’s going on with you and your world, or Porte Brown, where would they look?

They can come by our website, PorteBrown.com. You can look on LinkedIn. I usually have everything rolling on there, what I’m involved in and doing. Or you can just reach out to me individually at MGallegos@PorteBrown.com. Happy to have a conversation. If you have a tax question, you can find me, reach me and I will respond to you.

Well, Mark, I appreciate you being on here. I appreciate you being on the BTG Advisory Council, and I look forward to every time we get together and have conversations. So thanks for being here.

Thanks for having me, Randy. Appreciate it.