“If you’re feeling like a deer in headlights over using a newsletter, make your first one the postcard size, and just write a brief message to your clients… because I know that people are freaked out about sending their own newsletters, and then they go and outsource it to someone else, and I’m like, as we were talking before, personality, authenticity, share, share it. It doesn’t actually have to get money through the door that moment. What it’s doing is branding and awareness.”
— Heather Smith

In the third of three instalments, I’m sharing the wrap-up insights from TOACon 2025. This podcast explores the evolution of business advisory services and the powerful tech shaping the accounting profession.

• Dale Pearson (Intuit QuickBooks): First I spoke with Dale Pearson (Intuit QuickBooks) about how Intuit’s new AI agents are designed to remove friction in compliance (think BAS gaps and data chasing) so firms can free up capacity for advisory work. Dale digs into why relationships and trust still are better than pure technology, and how integrating QuickBooks + Mailchimp turns a traditional GL into a business growth platform for SMEs and their advisors.
• Mark Jenkins (The Gap):  Next, Mark Jekinns (The Gap) challenges firms who use efficiency gains just to “buy more fees” instead of deepening services. Citing recent research on small business, he highlights the huge gap between transactional and strategic relationships, and shares a practical, incremental approach to building advisory capability (the “1% better every day” mindset).
• Lynda Steffens (The Small Business Project): Finally, Linda Steffens (The Small Business Project) unpacks what implementing advisory really looks like inside a firm: strategy first, structured training, and ongoing support. She argues that advisory is less about personality and more about process and structure, and that firms need far more help with the “how” of advisory, not just the “what” and “why”.

• Emphasis on strategic relationships and practical AI applications.
• Advisory isn’t just about knowledge—it’s about how and why you deliver it.
• Encouragement for accountants and bookkeepers to carve out time for growth and purposeful client impact.
• Reflections on the Boracay experience and the importance of personal development, community, and consistency.

The one thing I’ve learned about working with accountants for 13 years is you can talk to them about technology. You can talk to them about innovation. What they really want is they want to develop a personal relationship with someone. They’ve got to trust that person, and then they’re more likely to be able to listen to their experiences and try to relate it to their own practice.

— Dale Pearson, Intuit APAC Enterprise Sales & Partnership Leader

Let’s just remind ourselves of the power of compounding interest. What is it? Einstein’s theory of compounding, the world’s greatest discovery: if you’re better by 1% every day, and a year later, you’ll be 37.8 times better than you are today. So just keep doing what you’re doing, keep getting 1% better every day. Put half an hour into your own personal development in whatever space that is, you’ll be amazed at the results.

— Mark Jenkins, Director and CEO, The Gap HQ from New Zealand