The Future of Accounting, AI, and Ethical Business Leadership

What if the entire finance industry—the billable hours, the public accounting grind, the promises of wealth through illusion—is built on a foundation of exploitation and deception? In this raw, unflinching, and truth-telling episode of "It Begins Here," host Jillian Johnson does what she does best: sheds light where darkness has reigned for far too long.

Jillian reveals that she is letting her CPA license lapse—a credential she's held for over 20 years but never truly used. She shares her harrowing experience in public accounting, where she had the most billable hours in her firm, fought and clawed for every penny, and ended up crying at the busy season party from the sheer evil she witnessed. She explains why she built Simply J as a 40-hour work week firm with real benefits—and why that model is the future.

This episode is a call to accountability. Jillian calls out shady business deals, predatory debt and equity structures, vendors who promise but don't deliver, and clients who take and take without appreciation. She warns about the dangers of AI (data leaks, confidentiality risks) and declares that the days of marketing false promises are over. If you've ever felt exploited by the finance world or questioned the illusions of modern business, this episode will validate your frustration and ignite your courage. Your journey to truth in finance begins here.

 Where love creates movement, and movement creates change. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

People don't want to work. They don't want to do the work. They think AI is gonna do everything. Well, guess what? You gotta teach AI. You gotta do the work. Either way, you gotta do the work. And the good, excuse me, the freaking amazing practitioners like us do the freaking work. And it takes time and it takes energy. Most of our time is educating clients on what we do and why we do it because they don't understand. They were not taught. They don't have business acumen. They've never actually run a business. They're new. Because our strongest clients have run businesses and they see us and go, yes, please. And do we make mistakes? Yes, of course. And we own up to them. And we fix it. And we change to not do it again. Bomb Dia and welcome to It Begins Here. It Begins Here is a podcast about my journey and path to enlightenment, healing, awareness, realizations, and all the fun little stories in between. So I welcome you to It Begins Here, a podcast. This one's gonna um hurt definitely a lot to many. And um it's about time the truth comes out about the world of finance. Because quite frankly, it's an most of it's an illusion, an absolute illusion. And I'm gonna call it. This is why who, this is what I am, this is who I am, right? This is what I do, this is why I've had the journey of shedding light when there is darkness from literally my childhood trauma of not being loved and supported throughout most of my life, and that's the truth, which lingered into me overgiving and people pleasing for validation because I never had that confidence. Right? So I've always shed light, and that's why I became an auditor. It was like, oh yeah, you think you're so hot and cool? Let me take a look at what's beneath the surface, what's behind the scenes, right? Very um, it seems maniacal, but I do love to just keep digging to find people's truths, and that's why I scare a lot of people. Because I am walking truth. If you know me, you know this. I've always been this way. I've always questioned what everybody gets so excited about, and I never understood why. So many things. But right now we're gonna talk about the finance world. Um, it's been very challenging as Simply J and other good heart-centered focused firms. And there's not many of them because the others will cave. They'll cave and grovel and literally sell their soul to the devil. I've seen it, it's fascinating. I've seen a good practitioner, a good CPA go really bad. I've seen it with my own eyes. They know who they are. I've seen an organization claim that they're the perfect solution to people coming into a new space in a new industry, and just literally wreak havoc. Literally wreak havoc because we're seeing it. So the challenges that Simply Jay has gone through, and my god, it's been such a ride. Me and the team have been like, oh, oh, just dodging like shit, literally shit thrown every which way, and most of the time, not even at us. It's just literally watching what we have to witness and then deal with the repercussions of people knowing how to sell but not delivering. And I'm gonna start with us because we're front and center, right? And this is very uncomfortable for me, and I'm holding on to names for confidentiality, but they know who they are, and if you know, you know. But, and I'm not gonna talk about client stuff, but I will say there is and has been some difficult times, and it's all part of the journey, you know. I just brush it off and like we got this. It's just learning for us, it's been a beautiful cleansing exercise, actually. It really has. We've learned a lot, we've cleansed a lot, and that just shows there's foundation there, and wherever it leads, man, we've learned a lot. But we are literally doing good work, great work. My guides are like, not good, great. We're doing great work, we're not perfect, but we have heart behind it. Yes, there is change, and we have backup plans upon backup plans. Do we make mistakes? Absolutely. Who the hell doesn't? And if they claim to not, they're lying. But we've seen really bad shady business deals go down, we've seen really bad equity and debt structures to the point of complete demonic, if you ask me. Um, we've seen clients that were promised things and never delivered, and it's really sad, very sad. Claims to be able to do the work and not actually be able to do the work. They they weren't trained to do the work. People have not been trained to do the work. And we've offered, but I'm not gonna push marketing and all the bullshit. No, you know what we can do. And we do have training programs, by the way. We have a toolkit, number one, and we do train others. Ask. Ask.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

Because we'll rock it. But here's the key.

SPEAKER_02 7:51

I haven't pushed a true training program for what Simply J does because it's gonna have to have an impact of holding people accountable. There it is. It's got bird flying right by my window confirmation. I and the team have not gone out on this endeavor to do a training program for others to do what we do because they won't be held accountable. I'm seeing it. People don't want to work, they don't want to do the work. They think AI is gonna do everything. Well, guess what? You gotta teach AI. You gotta do the work. Either way, you gotta do the work. And the good, excuse me, the freaking amazing practitioners like us do the freaking work. And it takes time and it takes energy. Most of our time is educating clients on what we do and why we do it because they don't understand. They were not taught, they don't have business acumen, they've never actually run a business, they're new. Because our strongest clients have run businesses and they see us and go, yes, please. And do we make mistakes? Yes, of course.

SPEAKER_01 9:17

And we own up to them, and we fix it, and we change to not do it again.

SPEAKER_02 9:28

And my job, our job, is to hold ourselves accountable and everyone else. So there has not been a lot of accountability in the finance world. Public accounting is absolutely disturbing. Absolutely disturbing. And it's just a scheme to get people rich, quite frankly, to work people to death to get others rich. That cycle's ended. That cycle started to end when I was in it, and I went, This is stupid. Why am I working so much? Yeah, I'm getting paid so much, but have I done the hourly rate? Like, my time is everything. I had the most billable hours in the second firm that I worked for. The most billable hours. I had to fight and claw for everything I earned. My leader had to fight and claw for everything I earned. And then he kind of turned on me because of resentment and guilt. I was crying at the freaking end of busy season party, for God's sakes, of how evil people are. I had to take month-long sabbaticals, which I loved and earned it overseas for the years that I worked in public accounting, the latter years, because it was soul sucking for me to cleanse my soul. I'm like clenching the phone as I record this. But it's in truth.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Enough's enough. It does not work. That's why I built Simply J.

SPEAKER_02 11:17

We are humans that work 40 hours a week.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

We have benefits, and by God, this will continue. This will continue.

SPEAKER_02 11:32

And we've had dark times. I've had dark times in running this organization because of what I've seen and witnessed. Of these bad negotiations, of these really difficult situations, of humans not truly understanding what it takes to run a business, of seeing really good humans being crucified in the mix.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

Enough's enough.

SPEAKER_02 12:16

What we stand for is so much more than bookkeeping and accounting. We've been wearing masks too. We're healers behind the scenes trying to help business owners.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

That's who we truly are.

SPEAKER_02 12:32

Most of my day, and paid by the way, let me know if you're interested, is helping business owners get past their mental blocks. Because they are. They're blocked. And that's part of their rate. They don't realize I'm doing it. They don't realize the energy that we're putting in to helping them and how they succeed with us. They think we're replaceable. We've had clients completely drop us for truly no reason at all. Completely false. And again, I'm not gonna waste my energy on chasing and complaining about that. Because karma's coming. I've been the result of karma myself in the past. I know how it works. I built my life on karma. I've tested it. But going back is and being an auditor, and I dig. I can dig, I know how to track data. I can dig and see the truth. Bookkeepers and accountants, including tax teams, we see the truth of what happens in a business. And it ain't pretty. I can tell you that right front and center. And why is this important in the spiritual realm? Because you have to learn to balance the material world with the spiritual world. And I'm doing it. And God, I've learned a lot. I've learned a lot, owl hooting for confirmation. I've learned a lot. My entire life has led me to this point of being the truthsayer. You want truth, you come to me. You want truth? You work with us. You want truth, you listen to this podcast. This is truth. I have big plans. We have big plans. It's like the stock market. Like, what's that all about? Yeah, I'll play the game, but my all mo most of my money is not there, I can tell you that right now. Because I read financial statements and I know they can be d deceived. And it's a lot of is betting on illusion. And yeah, it's made money, but has it really? I don't know. It's interesting. I know. Makes a lot of people go, come on now. I'm meeting with my person today about that side of the business, so stay tuned. On that. Everything's cyclical. Everything ebbs and flows. You gotta ebb and flow. So either you're in it for the long game or you're in it for the short game, right? Well I like the slow and steady. I don't like to dump, drop, and run and dump, drop, and run. That just causes chaos. So take that for what it's worth. That's a big nugget for ya. For all of you in that world. So I'm um a psychic, obviously. Um my CPA has never been re actually used, although I've carried it, just because it had weight. Well, that industry's actually going to absolute shit in a handbag. And um we all know why, the those that are in it. Um I'm letting my license lapse. I'm letting my memberships lapse. I'm throwing in the keys there. That no longer suits me. It never did. But keeping accounting, I'm rock we're rocking Simply J not by being CPAs, by the way. That's just a term. We're rocking Simply J because of our hard work, our truth, our sacrifice, our support, our guidance, our love, our energy. This foundation there, huge foundation. Um But it's been challenging because we have not been heard, we have not been understood, we're gonna be. We're getting there. We are there. But it's been a challenge. And a lot of others are seeing it true. And I said true and too. That's a confirmation I'm speaking my truth right there. Yep, I had a body movement to confirm as well. That's truth. The days of marketing false promises are over. Those illusions are falling. I don't know if anyone's noticed that that's happening. When I sit here in my apartment, second floor apartment of the building I own, just watching it all. I could get out the popcorn I have to just be like, oh my god. And a lot of it, ear popping confirmation, a lot of it has been self-sabotage. Definitely of myself, because of my upbringing and not ever being seen or heard or loved. And I'm done with that. But self-sabotaging of others, I watch them self-sabotage themselves. We've had clients that have taken, taken, taken, taken, and when we finally go no, they're like, what do you mean? No. And then it's like complete and utter um how do they call it? Victimization? They feel victimized. We got proof in the numbers. We track all of our hours. You're not paying us our value. You must go. There's nothing, there's no other words. And no is a full sentence. We're gonna tell you truths, we're gonna hold you accountable, we're gonna help you, and we're gonna make you thrive. We see it. We have clients that are thriving, and yes, of course, it's their own hard work, but they also appreciate the numbers. They appreciate the foundations, they appreciate the processes and the procedures. We have clients that come and go, they're just so distracted with running a business and doing the things. And then they return. It's wild the inconsistencies we see. It's wild seeing the vendors that they hire that don't serve them at all. And we throw the flags. We got we got some suing right now. It's brutal, absolutely brutal. And we really do our best. We really do. We have good intentions. We had one client leave us, we dedicated so much time and energy to get them clean. They were a mess, an absolute mess. We dedicated so much energy and love and time, and they dropped us for false reasons. We have evidence to go do something else or whatever. And it's sad, it hurts. It does hurt. We are humans, we have emotions, and we should, by the way. We should have feelings and emotions. Every human should balance their femininity. That's that's healing. That's good. Bird fly by my window is confirmation. That's truth. Every man should step into their feminine. I'm not talking about you're gonna you know your mind's gonna go right to what do you expect me to wear earrings? And it's like, stop it. Just stop. Talking about. Feeling the warmth of within. Talking about how you feel to your significant other. Being supported and seen and heard. Because the world is brutal. Absolutely brutal. And so it hurts. It hurts when staff leave us unexpectedly for whatever reason. It's them. They need, yep, I had body movement for confirmation. They have a different life to lead. We've done what we could to support them, and they're off. That's truth, owl hooting. What we do at Simply J is nothing but remarkable. There's lots of miracles going on behind the scenes. And that's not what this podcast is for, but that's truth in my journey. There's foundations there that will be utilized and continued. We're pressing on. There are people out there that need us. And they'll find us. We have our marketing feelers out there, of course. Honestly, to contribute. When we do marketing, our social media is contributing. Contributing. Yes, of course, we're gonna show what we're selling. Of course. But there's value there. But we also contribute with motivation, with empowerment, with insight, with knowledge, with truth. And here we are, full circle. It begins here. The um CPA industry, the finance industry has a lot of illusions that are falling. And I am leading the charge with enough's enough and why we've built Simply J. We are a firm of the future. We have foundations, but we are very aware of risks and liability. AI, artificial intelligence, be warned. Know what you're using because there are leaks everywhere, and it's only a matter of time before that comes to the surface, and it's coming. Be careful because we are. We're not just jumping in there. We have tons of client, confidential financial data in our possession, and we do everything we can to protect it, and a lot of AI tools are not supporting the protection, and hence why we're slowing down a little. It's not fear, it's intuition. It's happening. So either you take the risk and go down, or you hold true to what you believe in, what feels right for the better of your clients, and they might not appreciate it. And guess what? That too shall pass. There'll be others who do. Confirmation belly. My stomach growled, just confirming. There always will be others that need truth and support. Because it is not easy out there. Love and light. It begins here. Thanks for listening. Love and light to all you beautiful human.