Build The Firm People Stay To Lead.
State society conferences, firm retreats and all-staff meetings, manager and partner development, and busy season kickoffs.
Accounting firms promote the way every technical business does. The best technician gets the team, the best manager gets the book. Give those people the leadership skills nobody taught them and everything downstream gets easier, because credentialed staff who feel developed and noticed are the ones who stay. Chris Sund has spent two decades leading professionals whose skills made them portable, and building places they chose not to leave.
Your people can work anywhere. They stay where somebody is investing in them.
My KC Live, KCTV5 Kansas City →Let your partners watch him first.
Accountants are professionally skeptical, which is the job. Send a clip to the committee or the partner group and let people judge for themselves rather than reading a bio. Chris has been on morning television in six markets and in Forbes, Inc., and the Midlands Business Journal, all collected in the media hub.
Five things a firm uses next week.
No tax updates, no audit standards, no practice management software. Your technical program covers all of that far better than any outside speaker could. This is the people layer underneath it.
On what the accounting session is about
- Technical experts becoming leaders. Seniors, managers, and partners were promoted for being excellent at the work. Leading people is a separate skill, it is teachable, and it can be taught without jargon.
- What actually keeps credentialed staff. Rarely money alone. Whether the work gets noticed, whether somebody is investing in them getting better, and whether the person above them is worth working for.
- Leading through a demanding season. Every firm has a stretch where hours climb and patience thins. How leaders behave during it sets what people believe about the firm for the rest of the year.
- The path question. Emerging leaders decide early whether there is a future here. Partner track, ownership transition, and succession all start with whether anybody is genuinely developing them.
- One move, not a program. Every session closes on a single specific action, sized for people going back into a billable week.
Eight ways firms and societies book him.
Societies usually pair a general session with a breakout. Firms usually pair an all-staff session with one for managers and partners.
State Society Conference
General session at a state CPA society annual meeting, management conference, or leadership summit.Firm All-Staff Meeting
The whole firm together at a year kickoff or annual meeting. Technical staff, admin, and leadership in one room.Partner & Leadership Retreat
Partner groups and firm leadership on standards, succession, and growing without losing the culture.Manager & Senior Development
The people running engagements and teams. Promoted for technical excellence, rarely trained to lead.Busy Season Kickoff
Before the season starts, when the tone leadership sets is the tone the whole stretch will have.Emerging Leaders & Young CPAs
Early-career staff and young professional groups, for the people deciding whether the path here is real. Emerging leaders.Take Back Your Time With AI
A live working session. Staff bring the reports, summaries, and admin eating billable hours. Full details.Conference Breakouts
Repeatable concurrent sessions alongside a general session at a society conference.Built for firms that sell expertise.
The framework holds across all of them. What changes is who is in the room and what they are billing on Monday.
State CPA Societies
Annual meetings, management and practice conferences, and chapter events. See state association speaking.Public Accounting Firms
Local, regional, and national firms running all-staff meetings, retreats, and leadership development.Tax & Audit Practices
Practice groups and service lines with their own leadership meetings and season kickoffs.Advisory & Consulting
Advisory practices inside accounting firms, where growth depends on people wanting to stay and build.Corporate Finance Teams
Controllers, finance departments, and internal audit groups inside companies. See business speaking.Banking & Financial Services
The lenders and institutions attending the same events. See banking speaking.Young CPA Groups
Young professional sections, leadership academies, and emerging leader programs.Women in Accounting
Women in accounting councils and firm resource groups. See women's conference speaking.Firm HR & Talent
The teams carrying recruiting and retention across a firm. See HR conference speaking.Four movements. Ten principles.
Every session runs the same architecture as the book, which is what lets an all-staff meeting and a partner retreat land as one message rather than two.
The Foundation
Ownership and time. What is inside your control when the deadlines, the client, and the season are not.The Breakthrough
The comfort ceiling and the inner voice. The section a thirty-year partner goes quiet for.The Standard
Truth over praise, and the hidden gear. What a team does when somebody finally raises the real issue.The Purpose
Finishing, and leaving people better. The close, and what the work is for when it is going well.A copy for every desk in the firm.
A meeting gives a firm an hour. A copy gives everyone the same ten principles and the same language, which is how a message survives past the week the slides come down.
You Are Capable of More: A No-Excuses Guide to Becoming Your Best Self. An Amazon bestseller from Game Changer Publishing, with a foreword by Ben Newman.
Ten chapters across four movements, written plainly and short enough that somebody billing full weeks will actually finish it. The free companion toolkit includes a discussion guide sized for a lunch and learn, a self-assessment, and a thirty day challenge. Nothing is gated behind an email address.
The feedback speaks for itself.
Chris consistently brings knowledge, insight, and practical advice. He led two impactful sessions and left everyone with tools they could use immediately.
Chris is a thoughtful, intentional leader who understands the influence he carries. His message challenged me to think differently about how I lead, serve, and influence others.
Chris was an outstanding speaker and a highlight of our event. He took the time to deeply understand our organization and thoughtfully personalized every moment.
His engaging style draws the audience into the conversation, creating a relaxed atmosphere that encourages learning and reflection. You leave not only inspired but equipped.
Chris would be an incredible addition to any live audience. Each time he finds a unique way to connect on both a personal and professional level, keeping everyone engaged and attentive.
Chris consistently brings knowledge, insight, and practical advice. He led two impactful sessions and left everyone with tools they could use immediately.
Chris is a thoughtful, intentional leader who understands the influence he carries. His message challenged me to think differently about how I lead, serve, and influence others.
Chris was an outstanding speaker and a highlight of our event. He took the time to deeply understand our organization and thoughtfully personalized every moment.
His engaging style draws the audience into the conversation, creating a relaxed atmosphere that encourages learning and reflection. You leave not only inspired but equipped.
Chris would be an incredible addition to any live audience. Each time he finds a unique way to connect on both a personal and professional level, keeping everyone engaged and attentive.
Events already on your calendar.
He led experts who could leave.
Chris Sund is the bestselling author of You Are Capable of More, a keynote speaker, and an executive leader.
As President and COO of Uniti Med and GQR Healthcare and COO of Nebula, he helped grow Uniti Med 10x in revenue in two years and earn the number three ranking on the Inc. Regionals list among the fastest growing companies in the Midwest, while the organization earned Fortune Best Workplaces recognition and Great Place to Work certification three years running.
He is a father of three, based in Nebraska, a Maxwell Leadership Certified speaker, trainer, and coach, Vice President of the NATHO Board of Directors, and the founder of Amplify Speakers. He is not a CPA and will say so from the front. What he knows is how a firm keeps credentialed professionals whose skills make them portable, and how to develop the ones promoted for being excellent at the technical work.
Details your committee will ask for.
Managing partners and society staff ask these.
Does this qualify for CPE?
He is not a CPA. Why does that work?
How much does a speaker for a CPA firm cost?
Our staff are skeptical of soft-skills sessions. Will this land?
What about our managers and seniors specifically?
Can this help with retention?
Should we do it before busy season or after?
Do you address partner track and succession?
Can we get books for the whole firm?
How do we start?
Other ways organizations book him.
Same framework, built for the specific room you are filling.