Carrie Steffen

Carrie is a founding shareholder and President of The Whetstone Group, Inc. Since 2000 Whetstone has provided strategic growth advisory services and professional development to hundreds of CPA firms and thousands of practitioners throughout North America. She has more than 25 years of CPA firm marketing, business development and leadership experience. She has be named to ACCOUNTING TODAY'S 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE list as a person to watch. Carrie helps clients develop: * Sustainable growth cultures * Marketing strategy * Functional and effective niche teams * Meaningful sales management * Next generation leaders * Business development skills that encourage everyone in the firm to contribute to growth Carrie is a skilled trainer and provides group sales training as well as one-on-one coaching that enables attendees to understand the sales cycle and develop the personal skills necessary to close sales. Firm leaders, new partners and early career practitioners all benefit from her knowledge and dynamic approach. Before co-founding Whetstone, Carrie was National Marketing Director at RSM McGladrey, Inc. SPEAKING/WRITING: Carrie has presented and done training for the AICPA, the Association for Accounting Marketing's (AAM) Annual Summit, numerous state CPA societies as well as many international accounting firm associations and networks such as Allinial Global, AGN International, CPAmerica, BKR International, Moore Stephens, The CPA Leadership Institute and others. She has been published in The Journal of Accounting Marketing, The Journal of Accountancy, The CPA Practice Management Forum, and CPA Trendlines. She's a frequent podcast guest for the AICPA small firm podcast, AccountingToday podcast, and CCH. Carrie is co-author of the book "Bridging the Gap: Strengthening the Connection between Current and Emerging Leaders in the CPA Profession." LEADERSHIP: Carrie is a past-President of the CPA Consultants' Alliance (CPACA), a working group of thought leaders united in their efforts to further leadership within the CPA profession. Carrie also previously served as Treasurer of the National Association for Accounting Marketing (AAM) and as a member of AAM's Board of Directors and currently serves on AAM's Strategic Technology Advisory Committee. She is also a member of the CPA Consultants' Trust.