Case Study | From 800 Clients To $1M: How One CPA Escaped Burnout And Doubled Revenue With Tatiana Podel

Are you drowning in high-volume, low-fee compliance work, wondering how you’ll ever find the time to grow—let alone enjoy your family life?

In this episode, we sit down with Tatiana Podel, a CPA who was once exactly where you are: managing 800 compliance clients, exhausted, and terrified that raising her prices would cost her the firm. But Tatiana didn’t just survive; she transformed. Listen in as Tatiana shares her journey from ‘tax factory’ burnout to running a $1M advisory firm. We break down the exact steps she took to set boundaries, stop the constant client interruptions, and shift her firm to a high-value model—all while prioritizing school trips and family time over late-night client calls.

If you are a bookkeeper, accountant, or fractional CFO who feels stuck in the cycle of undercharging and over-delivering, this episode is your wake-up call. Learn why the barrier to your success isn’t technical knowledge—it’s the ability to communicate your value. It’s time to rewrite your story. Let’s dive in.

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How One CPA Escaped Burnout And Doubled Revenue With Tatiana Podel

Welcome to the show. In this episode, we have a very special guest. Our special guest is the CPA and Founder of Podel CPA, which is a boutique firm specializing in high-end tax compliance, strategic tax planning, and business advisory services. She has a passion for helping business owners achieve financial clarity and sustainable growth and blends deep technical expertise with a modern relationship-driven approach. Our special guest is also a client here of the show. She went through our eight weeks sales mastery course.

Before we welcome our special guest to the show, if you help your clients manage their finances, books, taxes, etc., but when it comes to your own cash flow or your pricing or profit, do you feel stuck or even ashamed? You don’t have to face this by yourself. Most firm owners have never learned how to sell, position their value or have confident money conversations. It holds them back. Here at the Abundant Accountant, I show you how to feel empowered, how to have confidence, and not have those awkward sales calls.

You’ll learn how to convert premium clients, raise your prices without losing clients and finally take home the pay you deserve. If you’re ready to stop avoiding the financial side of your firm, head on over to TheAbundantCall.com and book a free strategy session with me and my team. Now, let’s welcome Tatiana to the show.

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Welcome to the show, Tatiana.

Thanks for having me.

I am super excited to have you here because this is very special. Tatiana is the client of the Abundant Accountant and has been a part of our family for a couple years. I’m very excited for you to come here on the show and share your incredible transformation since we worked together back in May of 2024, where things were maybe a little different than they were now. You were exhausted and undercharging.

You were struggling with boundaries and overwhelmed, and also the fear of losing clients if you raise prices. You probably thought I was a little cuckoo back then, but now I’d love it if you share where you’re from in the country and what your firm specializes in and who you work with the most as far as clientele  and then we’ll dive in.

Establishing The Firm’s Niche And Client Base

We are in Orlando, Florida. We’re close to Disney. We mostly work with small business owners and high-net-worth individuals. We try to provide them with that boutique white-glove year-round service, where they feel like they have an advisor in their corner and not just somebody preparing their tax return.

Do you have a special niche or anyone you specifically work with? What services do you provide mostly that you’re trying to grow and scale to now?

I mostly work with women business owners. I find that I connect with them very easily. They trust me. They feel comfortable asking questions. We’re all trying to grow these amazing businesses while raising kids and being in the PTL and doing all this fun stuff. I connect a lot with them. We understand each other. We understand flexibility. You can call it a niche that has worked out for me because it’s very organic. We mostly work on year-round tax, advisory and planning. A little bit of coaching in regards to when we do sit down and have our conversations every quarter or when something comes up. It’s not just about tax. I’m a business owner, too. I’m helping them with their mindset, which I’ve learned a lot about in your program and going through the motions of being a business owner and having them feel like they have somebody in their corner that they can talk to.

I primarily work with women business owners because we connect naturally. Together, we’re building thriving businesses while raising families and showing up for the moments that matter.

Let’s rewind back in time. Let’s just say March or April of 2024. What was going on in your firm, Tatiana, and maybe in your life that made you realize something had to change? What was going on with your sales, conversations, client conversations, pricing and anything related to the conversion and making money department of your firm where you’re like, “Something’s got to change?”

I come from like a big firm background where all we did was push out returns most of the time. I was part of the regular federal tax group. We were just doing an insane volume of tax returns every year When I left, I went to work on a small practice that kind of did the same thing. It was very high-volume compliance work. Although we gave our clients good advice, the approach that the firm talked about was, “Let’s not open a can of worms. If they ask, we’ll answer but we don’t want to have conversations that lead to more questions and more complex complexities. Let’s keep it simple.”

Recognizing The Need For A New Process

It was how many returns can we do as simply and as fast as possible, versus being that true advisor to our clients. The owner of that was getting ready to retire and I was getting ready to take over. I wanted to start off on the right foot. That’s when I reached out to you because I wanted to have a process in place where I could vet clients before bringing them into the firm. I had the confidence to say no to them.  I had the confidence and the skills to explain my value to that and say no if they’re not willing to accept it. That’s how we got here.

I love that. I know you had like over 800 compliance clients at the time.

You’re probably going to kill me for saying this as my coach. We are still there but with a lot of growth. I have hired two more people within the firm.

Which is fine because we’re trying to manage all those people but you didn’t have the help.

I feel like I’ve been able to step into that advisory role for the clients that do want that service. We are still providing great compliance service with my team and for the clients if that’s all they want and don’t see the value in the year-round advisory. I’ve been able to focus on that higher-level service and still feel like we’re delivering value for our clients and doing better than a lot of other providers out there.

There’s like two options, Tatiana, if you’re in the boat just like she is, where you had 800 clients. You can either sell off the 1040 or you can just hire people to do that work so you can focus on the advisory work but still keep whatever the profit is from those clients. That’s ultimately what the decision you made, instead of just getting rid of all the 1040 compliance work. You’re saying, “I’m going to keep it.”

The people that do see the value in the higher-value advisory, tax planning, and other things that you’re focused on. You still have all the revenue under the umbrella. I’d love it if you can share, just to give the readers some context, Tatiana. In your firm, where was revenue at then versus where it’s at now? As this conversation goes, we can put some things into perspective.

When I took over the firm, we were at about $500 and $60,000 of revenue. We are about to hit a million in 2026, so one year later, essentially.

We’ll get to the in-between part shortly. Back then, before you reached out for help. You mentioned feeling devalued. You’re always interrupted all the time by your clients. You were afraid that if you raised your prices, these 800 people would leave you. Can you describe what you felt like in that day-to-day and the emotional toll it was taking on you and your family?

It felt like I could never do enough for them. I had these 300 clients calling my phone, and if I didn’t pick up, they’d call three more times. Call the office and then text. I’m not paying my bills and paying my team under your $300 contract. You’re not my only client. What I found and learned is, the more you charge and value yourself, the more the client respects you and the advice they are giving them. When you don’t charge them, they don’t take action. You can say things until you’re blue in the face, but if they’re not paying for it, it goes in and out the other. They don’t take action and don’t take your advice seriously.

Was that one of the hardest shifts for you to learn when we work together? When did that light bulb click for you when you realized that?

When the higher-paying clients started being my easier clients to work with. I started paying attention to where my headaches come from, like which clients cause me anxiety when I see an email or phone call coming through. It was all the lower-fee clients.

I love that. It’s the hardest thing for so many firm owners to wrap your head around. I’m sure if I told you that in March or April. you would have been like, “Yeah right.” Now, being on the other side and creating this foundation and having almost a double growth. It’s amazing. When you decided to enroll in our eight weeks sales mastery course, what were some of those things that you considered before you decided to enroll?

I know you have worked with other coaches in the past. I’m curious if you could share what made you make the decision to work with the Abundant Accountant and do our eight weeks sales mastery course. We continued to work together a little bit longer after that, too, in our ongoing program but I’d love it if you could share that for sure.

For me, the biggest thing was that I knew that I lacked confidence. When I spoke to your team and she spoke. There was just so much confidence in how you were delivering your sales pitch and your information that I was like, “I want to do that.” That was the first thing. As far as the program goes, the fact that we had homework, to me, that’s a game changer because it forces you to take action. Versus a lot of coaching programs. It’s just drawing the call and you can just listen in or watch the video but there’s nobody forcing you to take action. You kick my butt a little bit. You force me to get uncomfortable and try things and speak. That., to me, is what makes a difference in your program.

Thanks for sharing that. There’s many options out there, but it’s important to know what was unique and different for you than others. As far as the toll was taking on you with the anxiety and not seeing the family as much. What would you say was the thing that was the tipping point for you to enroll and work with me? Can you talk about that a little bit on that decision making process? You made a big decision from an investment standpoint, a time investment to do the homework, watch the videos, and show up to the weekly call. What was the hardest part for you emotionally and practically? How did you go through that?

It was a big investment and I was scared to do it and not see results like everything else. I needed the confidence to set the boundaries with clients and say, “It is not my working hours and I’m not on call. You have not paid for this.” To me, I needed that confidence. I needed someone to push me and teach me how to communicate that. A lot of it is how are you communicating and how are you relating the message to the clients. You guys helped me put us in a process for that in place.

A lot of the analytical left-brain firm owners, the introverts, are probably wondering, and I get asked this all the time. “Michelle, how soon can you implement what you’re learning and apply in your real client conversations?” Can you share about that for you and how you were able to make these changes in your firm? I think you had a pretty big significant win in just a few weeks in the course. Walk us through your experience being in the eight weeks sales mastery course.

Boosting Confidence And Closing High-Value Clients

From day one, you are already starting to put your “sales script” together. You’re already learning how you deal with objections and how you communicate things. You’re putting all these examples together ahead of time so that you are not having to think on the spot when you are on that proposal call. I had the opportunity to bid with a pretty large client that was a referral to me. That was a perfect candidate for tax planning. I had never truly sold a tax plan before. You guys encouraged me to double the fees that I was thinking and gave me a good encouragement of like, “You can do this.” It was a huge confidence booster.

Your confidence went through the roof for sure.

When clients are pissing me off, it’s almost a little too much. Even my husband’s like, “Calm down. They’re still paying you to do a service,” because I’m like, “If they don’t do this then they can just go away.”

One of the first things when you spoke to us, you wanted confidence like this and that’s exactly what you have. How would you describe your confidence now compared to back in April or May of ’24?

What I didn’t expect that grew my confidence a lot is a mindset of, if this client doesn’t like how we’re doing things, it’s okay. I can replace them with a client that does like and is willing to do things the way we want to do that. That shifting mindset gave me a lot of confidence because it’s that scarcity mindset. You’re scared that you’re going to leave if you set the boundary or if you say no or if you say, “I’m not available.” It’s saying, “I’m a human being also. It’s okay if I say no and if they don’t like it, there’s another client waiting to come in and take their place.” That was huge for me.

I love that so much. It’s one of the biggest shifts that we see many firm owners. You probably noticed it with other people that were in the class at the same time that you are. That confident shift has almost helped you double your revenue. Other than selling a $40,000 tax plan in a few weeks you were in our course. How did you increase your fees across the board on other services where you were terrified that your clients would leave you? Did you realize that anyone even left that you cared about?

Especially with me buying the firm and the prior owner, who had some of those people for twenty-plus years leaving. I was like, “Who’s going to give me a chance? Who’s going to stay?” I would say probably 95% of people did stay. We did increase minimum fees. With new clients coming in, I continue to increase minimum fees. Now, our minimum to even become a client for a regular is simple 1040 is $650, and for businesses, $2,500. Before, we were doing returns for $300, and escort returns for $1,200.

You doubled the profit of the board. On the business, you a little bit more than doubled on those.

We haven’t gone back and updated every single client. It’s been a work in progress, but with new clients, I’ve been very strict with the boundaries. You taught me my policies. We don’t take clients that are not our ideal clients, where we feel like it’s not a good fit or international work, for example. I despise international works. You’ve given me the confidence to say no to the work that’s not the right work. Skeet that spot open for the right client when they do come along.

I know you love your Louis Vuitton bags. Unfortunately, they also have a red rope outside of their store and not everyone is allowed in that store. Not everyone would shop in that store. You created your own Louis Vuitton firm for yourself and your clients.

That’s right.

What does it mean to you now to be charging what you’re worth from an emotional standpoint and a professional standpoint?

I feel like I’m serving my clients so much better because I don’t feel resentful towards them when they do ask something of me. I know that we’re going to say there’s no tax emergency. Sometimes there are time-sensitive things that do come off, and I’m more than happy to get on the phone with them. I have one client that’s on a monthly recurring retainer with me. She’s a surgeon.

She can only do calls at 8:00 at night, and do I love getting on a call at 8:00 at night? No, but it’s scheduled ahead of time. She respects my boundaries. She values my opinion. I’m happy to, once a quarter, set that evening aside for her.  It changed how I show up for the client, and I serve them too. That’s been a big shift.

Anything on the emotional side, emotionally?

I’m a lot less stressed about having to get things done. If it’s before a tax deadline and it’s the weekend and I’m with my kids and something comes in from a client. I’ve been a lot less stressed and being able to say, “They didn’t get this to me on time. It’s not my problem. I’m at Disney with my kids. I’m going to enjoy my time. This can wait until Monday.” If they have to rush to review and get signatures, then that’s on them. Emotionally, it’s taken a big load off between me and the kids. This past tax deadline, I didn’t work at all the weekend before that happened.

In 2027, you’re going to be like, “Michelle, I’m on vacation. I’m in Italy for two weeks during tax season.”

I am going to Brazil in the middle for projection, so let’s see how that goes.

I love that and I love your goals. I love your dreams. You’ve continued to invest in yourself personally and do those things that you wanted to do for yourself. That’s the most important thing. How are those goals coming along, by the way?

I feel like I’m reaching all my goals. What I’ve been focusing on recently and that’s where you and I ran into each other again. It’s leveling up for my clients and focusing on more education and advanced strategies. I’m not necessarily trying to grow the practice but my goal is to continue to shift my clients into more of that year-round relationship.

My focus isn’t on growing the practice—it’s on elevating my clients through education, advanced strategies, and year-round partnerships.

That’s what it’s about. You can go on a trip during projections. You can go on a trip during tax season. You can just be there at a higher level for your clients because now you’ve hit all your goals. You should be so proud of yourself. I would love to know what you are most proud of when you look back on this journey since we first met to now and where you’re at. What would you say you’re most proud of that you would love to even share with other firm owners that might not even think this is possible? Maybe this is just so far stretched, especially those that also came from a corporate Big Four background just like you did.

Achieving True Work-Life Balance As A Business Owner

What I’m most proud of for sure is the fact that I feel like I built a very successful business. It’s very successful for me. It’s allowed us to live the lifestyle that we want while also being able to be a mom. We had a 4th Grade Saint Augustine field trip at the end of February, which is super busy. I was a chaperon and I spent the whole day as a school chaperone. I don’t miss any school parties.

Being able to have what I think is a truly successful financial business but while still being a very present mom. To me, what’s been the coolest thing is that every single person on my team is also a mom or grandmother first. We are all participating in all the school parties, all the field trips, and all the PTO’s while still serving our clients at a high level and reaching our goals. That, to me, is the true definition of success.

I couldn’t agree more. I am so proud. I’m sure you experienced that in the big four. It was always work and then your life just followed behind whatever was left.

I had HR called on me once because I couldn’t join a 6:30 call because I was on a flex schedule. I said, “That’s not a flex schedule issue. At 6:30, the daycare closes. I cannot join the call and my kid will wait for me in the car.”

Now, it’s kids first, family first, Disneyland first, or school trips first. Clients are also as important, but they’re now following. You’ve created a round your lifestyle. What all business owners want if they own an accounting tax or bookkeeping firm, or another type of business, we do it because we want total time freedom and total money freedom. There is no ceiling to your salary anymore. There is no one telling you how to operate your schedule or what hours you need to work. You get to choose. Do you call your doctor at 8:00 PM once a quarter? That’s a choice.

I would do it all day long because those are the kinds of clients I would want. You want to identify all those elements. If you could look back in 2024, what would you have done differently? There’s a lot of firm owners who might be afraid to raise prices or might worry clients are going to leave them or might worry that they don’t know where that next client’s going to come from.

They come from that scarcity mindset, as you said earlier. They take on anybody and everybody, and they’re working. Not even, as you said, 300 return like the Firm you purchase but 200 and monthly bookkeeping at $50 a month, $100 a month. All this craziness. What would you do differently now looking back? Other than working with us.

You hit the nail on the head. It would have been that there is a minimum to work with us and evaluate what we’re bringing to the table from the get-go. There’s always room to learn and this is why I said this is where my next step and focus in the practices is. How else can I continue to provide value to my clients? What else can I learn? There’s always going to be things that we can learn.

If I look at what the value I’m bringing to my clients, the experience, the knowledge and the type of service that we’re bringing to them, versus what 90% of the other firms do for them or prepare or whatever you want to call them. We are a very high-end firm. Give ourselves that value of that’s the service for providing and we’re proud of it. Also, that’s not a $300 return. We cannot provide that service for $300. I wish I would have done that from the get-go.

For sure. Now, let’s talk about investing in your education because I love how you focused on the sales element and fixing all of that first. Now, you’re saying, “I want to provide even more value so I’m going to go deliver more value by investing more on my knowledge.” Many people think we need the CPA, the EA, the master’s in taxes.

It’s like, “I need to go become this thing and that thing.” If you can’t sell, what does any of that mean? What would you share now that you’ve got this enrollment skill underneath your belt? You have a sales process built out in your firm to others that think, “I need to get more technical knowledge before I can do anything else.” That’s not the thing that makes the money go around.

You need to learn how to sell first.

No, you know that, but pretend you’re the firm owner that was in the job. You were incorporated and now you started your firm. We automatically think we need more letters than things after our name. What would you say now and share that to yourself years ago?

We need to know how to communicate what we already know and what we’re bringing to the table. You can always go out and learn how to help your clients. It’s communicating to them. That’s what’s going to get you the client. Communicating to them like, “This is how I can help you. This is what I can bring to the table. This is how I can solve your problems.”

That’s more important than the technical. Technically, you can go find help. You know other CPAs or other EAs. You have all the resources. You can go find a help to deliver what you’re telling them, but how do you communicate the value you’re going to bring to them. That’s so much more important in getting a client.

I love that. Thank you for seconding that motion. I’m pretty clear on what freedom looks like to you now. What are you most excited about moving forward now for yourself, Tatiana? I’m just so proud of everything you’ve done, by the way. Your story is so inspiring. I loved watching your journey and watching every step in this new version of yourself and this massive confidence where even your husband’s telling you to calm down a little bit. That’s just amazing because that’s the exact thing that you wanted. You’ve given a lot of hope to other phone owners reading. I want to know what are you most excited about moving forward?

Transitioning To A High-End Advisory Model

I am most excited about cutting down on the number of the returns we are preparing. Even though it’s working and it is profitable, I know one of my team members that does a lot of this prep work on the compliance-only clients. She’s getting ready to retire soon. I’ve been working on building my team up into being this advisory provider also. They are excited and enjoying that. The goal is, how we can cut down the number of clients and keep the revenue the same. Transition more clients into the year-round advisory. That’s what the going-forward goal is.

You have all the tools to do that and I have no doubt in my mind that you will make that happen. I’m always your help and support in that area.

Thanks. One step at a time. One client at a time. It’s getting there.

You said earlier that you lived in scarcity and in that area but now you live in complete abundance. What does abundance mean to you now?

Abundance to me is knowing that there’s plenty of work out there and there are plenty of clients. Not every lead that calls me is the right client for me. Nor am I the right provider for them. The right clients are out there. It’s just a matter of finding them and connecting with them and just knowing they’re there.

You don’t have anything to worry about. You can probably double your fees again in 2026, Tatiana. From $1,200 for a 1040s and I bet not that many people will go. Try it and let me know how it works out.

We’ll talk in a year and I’ll let you know.

I know there’s probably a firm owner reading who feels exactly how you used to feel overwhelmed, high anxiety, and overworked. It’s not the confidence that they want and they’re lacking and unsure probably, would anything else work for them or change in their firm. What would you say to that firm owner who does want to start converting, change premium fees, get paid up front and do all those things that you’ve implemented but is scared to invest in themselves or thinks that they just don’t have time or now is not a good time? What would be your advice to them?

It’s never a good time. You just have to commit to it because if you don’t change how you’re doing things, nothing is ever going to change. It’s having faith. It’s like going to therapy. I’ve always felt like going to therapy is like just being there on that first session, I already feel so much better because you took action. Taking the action and having somebody hold you accountable is going to cause change to happen.

I love that so much. I feel like you told me that this was like therapy before. I don’t know if you shared it in our testimonial in the summer of ‘24, but I’m like, “I think she told me this before.”

I wouldn’t be surprised if I had said that before.

It is like therapy. Taking that one step will just help you get there a lot quicker, wherever the goal is.

Not taking action is not going to cause change. That’s for sure.

Correct, 100%. Not taking action has you going backwards because then you’re not even staying where you’re at because others are going so far ahead of you.

You just keep second-guessing yourself.

Is there anything else that you would love to share for those reading that maybe I didn’t ask you but you feel compelled to share? That’s impacted your life, your relationships, or anything that might be significantly different now before we wrap up.

There’s also something to be said about being in the room with people that are also trying to improve, grow and reach these far-fetched goals. That’s super empowering. That’s the other thing that we didn’t touch on, that the program brought for me. It’s seeing other people that were ahead of me and had reached success. It’s like, “They did it. Why can’t I?”

You see them live every single week. It’s not like it’s a recorded call. You’re there having conversations in the chat box. It’s a live group weekly energized coaching call.

That’s a huge benefit and a huge part of that mindset shift. It’s being in that room.

Tatiana, I know I’ve taken up some of your time. You’ve been so gracious with it. I know you’re getting ready to go off to Brazil for a wedding. It’s been an honor to see the change, see the confidence, see your goals and all areas of life personally and professionally. I’m always here to support you. I want to say thank you and I’m super grateful for your time.

I’m grateful for you, too. After this conversation, I feel extra motivated again. It reminded me of everything I’m working towards.

Sometimes, they have to look back and see how far we’ve come to get to that next milestone. $2 million firm, here you come. Even with your teammate retiring. It’s completely doable. You’ve just had such an incredible journey. Thank you again so much for taking out the time.

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What an amazing episode with Tatiana. As I mentioned, it’s such an incredible journey. It’s amazing to see what happens when firm owners stop undercharging, set real boundaries, and stick to them, and finally take control of their sales process. If you’re a bookkeeping, accounting, fractional CFO or tax for owner, and you can relate to where she was, overwhelmed, overworked, high anxiety, high stress, and afraid that raising prices was going to make her clients leave, especially taking over firm that were significantly underpriced on their services.

This is your sign that it’s time to change that story. If you want to change your story and rewrite a new book, a free call with me and my team over at TheAbundantCall.com, and let’s talk about how you can confidently enroll higher-paying clients. You can eliminate unpaid work. You can build a farm that gives you both the freedom and the profitability that you deserve, so you can spend more time with your kids just like Tatiana.

You can go to Disney. You can go on your trips. If you need to take a client call at 8:00 PM, you can because you’re getting paid so well for it. You don’t have to do this alone like Tatiana said. Your future firm is waiting for you if you choose to take action. Taking action is that next step. Head on over to TheAbundantCall.com, and we look forward to speaking to you soon. I’ll see you in the next episode.

Important Links

• Tatiana Podel on LinkedIn
• Tatiana Podel on Facebook
• Podel CPA
• Book a Call to Grow Your Firm Revenue

About Tatiana Podel

Tatiana Podel is a Certified Public Accountant and the founder of Podel CPA, a boutique firm specializing in high-end tax compliance, strategic tax planning, and business advisory services. With a passion for helping business owners achieve financial clarity and sustainable growth, she blends deep technical expertise with a modern, relationship-driven approach.