Adam focuses on providing students working towards professional finance qualifications with a proven accountability system to get them through exams. We chatted about challenges that finance students may not realise they’ll face, both in their studies and their professional careers. As always, I’m exploring the skills we need to develop to ensure we’re well prepared for our future careers, as Adam and I also discussed. The burning question: Will accountants be obsolete in the future?!

Find out more about Adam and his work:

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-yannakakakis/

Set up a meeting with him: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-yannakakakis/

Adam’s book recommendation: “The Let Them Theory” - Mel Robbins

https://www.melrobbins.com/book/the-let-them-theory/

In this conversation, I spoke to KC about the opportunities he’s created through the process of marketing his skills and business.

This is a fascinating conversation with someone who uses their skills, invests in and builds on them, and uses them creatively to further their business opportunities.

I chatted to KC a while back about the books he wrote (Links below), and he’s since built on this.

This is another great conversation to broaden your thinking around the choices and opportunities you can explore in your professional career. In this case, we’re talking about something a lot of accountants don’t have on their radar - sales and marketing!

KC’s website: https://www.kcrottok.com/

He’s written two books; Masters of Money; and CEO X Factor (https://www.kcrottok.com/books/)

You can check out the previous chat KC and I had in 2022 here:

https://youtu.be/LPhS1NCOL3k?si=asQ-4xwMDIa2NGTj

Update: Wiehann has recently completed his PhD, titled - "The Development of a Cryptocurrency Assertion-Based Framework for Financial Auditors." - We'll need to get him back for another chat to discuss his research with us.

In this episode, I spoke to Wiehann Olivier about cryptocurrency accounting and auditing as a career.

Wiehann is a partner and the digital asset lead for Mazaars South Africa and our discussion centred more around the concept of career opportunities that may not exist or be on your radar while you’re studying and in your earlier professional career. This is a great conversation to broaden your thinking around the choices and opportunities you can explore in your professional career.

In this episode, I explore the origins of growth and fixed mindset research — revisiting three of the earliest studies that shaped the theory. We often use “mindset” as a simple label, but what did the original research actually reveal about how people respond to failure?

Rather than treating mindset as a static label, I focus on its original intent: exploring how individuals interpret and respond to failure, and what that tells us about learning behaviour in accounting education.

References:

Dweck, C. S., & Leggett, E. L. (1988). A Social-Cognitive Approach to Motivation and Personality. Psychological Review.

Diener, C. I., & Dweck, C. S. (1978). An Analysis of Learned Helplessness: Continuous Changes in Performance, Strategy, and Achievement Cognitions Following Failure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 451–462.

Dweck, C. S., & Reppucci, N. D. (1973). Learned helplessness and reinforcement responsibility in children. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 25(1), 109–116. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0034248

I spoke to Tatum about her journey through her postgraduate qualification. We discuss failure, motivation, accountability, and study advice for those who feel like it’s not working out according to plan. Tatum shares her journey with other students to encourage them that while your path might not look the way you expected, it doesn’t mean that you won’t be successful. So if you’re having a bit of a tough journey, you’re going to enjoy this chat.

In this conversation, I spoke to Professor Elmar Venter about accounting education. From what it is that accounting researchers actually research, to discussions on how students should think about their learning. Elmar is incredibly passionate about the value that accountants can add to society, so you’re going to enjoy this chat

In this conversation, I spoke to Elton Pullen about research, studying and self-reflection, and the place that our faith has in our careers. Elton is a senior lecturer in Managerial Accounting. It’s always great to chat to people who have a passion for developing future accountants and Elton is definitely one of those people, so Iet’s get into this chat

Bruce is currently the Director of Accounting Education at IFAC, and he's been great in sharing his insights with future accounting professionals.

In this conversation, I spoke to Bruce Vivian about sustainability and how it will impact accounting students in the future. Our discussion also focusses on underlying skills and the need for intellectual curiosity - the trait that will protect us against obsolescence! Bruce is always great to chat to, and our previous conversations about the learning paths of professional accounting students have been so valuable.

Hannah and I discussed the non-academic challenges that ACCA trainees and students often face. Hannah also focuses on neurodiversity, and we discussed this among a wide range of other topics.

Accountancy Hub provides advice, community, and resources to prospective, studying, and post-qualified ACCA, CIMA, AAT, CIPFA, and ICAEW accountants, working with both individual students and firms.

You can find more info about how Accountancy Hub can help you here: https://accountancyhub.co.uk/

Find Hannah's professional profile here