Brett Kelly - Building a Global Accounting Firm with Permanent Capital - Ep.228

Think Like an Owner

Ep.228: Alex (@aebridgeman) is joined by Brett Kelly (@BrettKPG).

My guest on this episode is Brett Kelly, founder and CEO of Kelly Partners, a publicly traded accounting, tax, and advisory firm with global ambitions and a roughly $350m market cap. Since 2006 they have done 80 acquisitions and developed a strong playbook for building best-in-class accounting firms with a focus on high-net-worth clients and growing companies. Brett is a really serious and motivated leader who’s pulled tons of great ideas from others and has a multi-decade vision for Kelly Partners. He’s also the author of 5 books, one of which he wrote before launching Kelly when he was 22 years old.

Brett and I talk about the origins of Kelly Partners, companies and leaders he draws inspiration from, elements of his consolidation playbook, the role of technology and software, and what the future holds for Kelly.

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Learn more about Alex and Think Like an Owner at https://tlaopodcast.com/

Links:

More on Brett Kelly

Brett Kelly's books

"Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill

"How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie

"The Art of Being Unreasonable" by Eli Broad

"Rich Dad Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki

"Death of a Salesman" by Arthur Miller

Founders Podcast

Topics:

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:04:30) - Founding Kelly Partners and Brett’s early career

(00:14:01) - What steps did you take to fast-track the company’s growth?

(00:26:24) - Why is the accounting field less competitive than it seems?

(00:30:49) - The power of consolidation in business

(00:40:07) - How are you running your firm differently than a typical accounting firm?

(00:44:24) - What does an average day look like for you as CEO?

(00:48:44) - What impact did IPO-ing have on the business?

(00:53:30) - Learnings from writing books

(01:00:11) - What skills are you working on to become a better CEO?

(01:05:42) - How do you view technology as part of your firm?

(01:10:32) - What are you excited about over the next 5 years?