Meet David Lewis

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to David Lewis. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

David, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.

Well I wish I could say I fully overcame it. In reality I have to treat it like an old friend that is always with me. I try to practice gratitude every day which allows me to recognize how far I have come in my professional journey and how much I have learned. The good thing about a little bit of imposter syndrome is that it does remind you how much more there is to learn. Every peak scaled shows just how much more of a mountain there is to climb. It keeps me humble and in a headspace of continuous learning and improvement.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I have an unconventional journey when it ultimately came to owning and operating a CPA firm. I didn’t go the Big 4 route like many accountants early in their career. I actually started as an Internal Auditor, focusing on risk management, internal controls, and fraud prevention. This gave me a unique opportunity to see how all sorts of businesses actually operated on the inside while bringing an accounting and tax perspective to the table. Eventually I served as a managing partner for an accounting firm focused on the legal cannabis industry. That was a lot of fun but eventually my goals began to differ from the other partners. There is such a shortage of good CPA’s helping small business owners and I would always hear complaints such as, “I can never get ahold of my accountant”, “they aren’t proactive enough, etc. My approach in running this firm has really been focused on the client experience first; being an actual advisor to their client in their journey, and having a lot of fun with them as we see their business grow.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I would say one thing that certainly differentiated me from a lot of my peers was my ability to teach and communicate effectively. A lot of times people think accountants are just people in the back room crunching numbers. The new reality of the profession is we are front and center communicating with the C-Suite all the time. So I would highly recommend that new professionals entering the space, or anyone on their entrepreneurial journey, develop those soft skills and ability to communicate with people. With the advent of AI and other tools, the technical work is changing rapidly, but soft skills never go out of style.

The other two traits I would say were most impactful was perseverance and critical thinking. You have to be able to weather the tough times. As any business owner can attest those happen often. And critical thinking will allow you to objectively weigh options in your life and come to at least an educated guess of a conclusion on what next steps happen to be.

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

We are always looking for great professionals to collaborate with where it would provide incredible value to our clients. Professionals such as wealth advisers, attorneys, bookkeepers, insurance agents, all play a role in how we help our clients achieve lifetime financial success. When we quarterback those relationships the value it brings to our clients is greater than the sum of the parts.

Contact Info:

Suggest a Story: BoldJourney is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems,
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
Leadership Development
Where does your self-discipline come from?

One of the most essential skills for unlocking our potential is self-discipline. We asked some

Productivity
Working hard in 2024: Keeping Work Ethic Alive

While the media might often make it seem like hard work is dead and that

Resilience
The Power of Persistence: Overcoming Haters and Doubters

Having hates is an inevitable part of any bold journey – everyone who has made