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213 | Top 10 Podcasts for Australian Accountants

Top 10 Podcasts for Australian Accountants in 2020

Here are the Top 10 podcasts for Australian accountants in 2020. Be inspired. Gain helpful insights. And get new ideas how to grow your firm.

Top 10 Podcasts for Australian Accountants
1 From the Trenches
2 Two Drunk Accountants
3 Accountants Daily Insider
4 Tax Wrap
5 Tax Yak
6 How I Built This with Guy Raz
7 Small Business Big Marketing Show
8 The Property Couch
9 Bloomberg Masters in Business
10 This American Life

No podcast has THE answer. Every podcast is different, has a different angle, gives you a different insight. They are all just pieces in a puzzle. So look around and try lots – and especially try these 10.

Top 10 Podcasts for Australian Accountants in 2020

To inspire you we have created this list of the Top 10 podcasts for Australian accountants in 2020 – and tax professionals and advisers of course.

The list isn’t rated – all of the following podcasts are really good.

And this list is just what we think. It’s not based on a survey or public voting – but maybe we can do that next year – maybe with our fellow podcasters in Australia.

No podcast is brilliant in every episode. And also not every podcast is right for every time of the day. Some podcasts are great when you are in work mode on the way to see a client. And others are better when you are relaxed heading home.

Here is a short summary but please listen to the episode, since we will play lots of soundbites to give you a feel for each podcast.

To listen while you drive, walk or work, just access the episode through a free podcast app on your mobile phone.

Podcast # 1   From the Trenches

From the Trenches is hosted by David Boyar and Paul Meissner in Melbourne. They have charisma, are open and funny, articulate, and regularly disagree with each other.

There is best on ground and then there is worst on ground: And then alternating with that are episodes about a specific topic or issue.

David and Paul are up to date on new ventures, new apps, new start-ups, but the best thing about them is: They have no fear. They don’t pretend. They just say as they see it. Take their visit to AccounTech in Melbourne in November 2019 in episode 124 as an example.

Podcast # 2   Two Drunk Accountants

The two drunk accountants are Tim Garth and Dan Osborne at the Central Coast of NSW with a great sense of humour and a lot of wisdom. They are both 29 at the moment and that gives them a different perspective and youthful exuberance.

Their episodes tend to start slowly and lead into a cappella performance. But then there is real gold coming your way. Take Tim and Dan’s discussion of value-based pricing in ep 70 or their talk with Ian Winn about franchising in ep 73 as examples.

And at the end there is some tight ass tip – an idea about how to save a few bucks – sometimes funny, sometimes useful, sometimes something else.

Podcast # 3   Accountants Daily Insider

The Accountants Daily Podcast is published by Momemtum Media who also run – as you guessed – the Accountants Daily Website. The host is usually the website’s editor, which is now Sarah Kendell after long-time host Katarina Taurian passed the baton.

Accountants Daily Insider is interesting, articulate and often looks at the big picture. Take Sarah’s interview with Christopher McColm of Receipt Bank published on 25 October 2019 as an example. 

Podcast # 4   Tax Wrap

Tax Wrap is a published each fortnight by Tax & Super Australia – also called TSA – and hosted by Steve Burnham. Being a journalist by trade, Steve brings a different perspective to the table, which is good, and he taps into the great tax expertise that TSA has at its fingertips.

Take Steve Burnham’s discussion with Josh Goldsmith in ep 201 as an example.

Podcast # 5   Tax Yak

And then there is Tax Yak, a podcast by Tax Banter and hosted by Robyn Jacobson.

Robyn is a tax trainer with in-depth knowledge of Australian tax, including policy, and awesome at explaining complex issues. Take the discussion in episode 34 with Ian Raspin about estates as an example.

Tax Yak is probably the technically most demanding Australian tax podcast out there but therefore also the one most likely to give you an answer to the tax question you have.

So these are 5 Australian podcasts made for us . But what about our clients? They usually do any of the following – they either run a business – and / or invest in property – and / or invest in shares (or units) – and / or have an SMSF.

Business – property – shares – and – SMSF.

This is what they do and we help them with. So we need to live in that world – and there are podcasts that help us do that.

Podcast # 6   How I Built This 

There are several podcasts with the same title and you need to listen to the one by Guy Raz – published by NPR – NPR as in National Public Radio – that one is awesome. Full of insights, really interesting and inspiring for anybody with an interest in business.

Guy Raz hosts the podcast and is – according to The New York Times – “one of the most popular podcasters in history”.

Guy’s podcasts on NPR have a combined monthly audience of 19.2m downloads. That number is mind-boggling – 19.2m per month – that is almost like the entire population of Australia listens to Guy every month.

Podcast # 7   Small Business Big Marketing Show

The podcast Small Business Big Marketing Show is made by a true Aussie bloke – Tim Reed. Tim has a huge fan base, not just in Australia but also overseas, notably the US. He is very funny and has a huge arsenal of dead jokes.

Based in Melbourne, each week Tim interviews successful small business owners about their business and marketing. At the end of each interview Tim lists the 3 or 4 main learnings he took away from that interview.

And at the end there is a prize draw where Tim reads a listener comment about how they took action and implemented things.  Because we all know that it is so much easier to talk about it, and really tough to do it. So credit to Tim for giving the doers a shout out.

Podcast # 8   The Property Couch

The Property Couch is THE podcast when it comes to Australian real estate – hosted by Bryce Holdaway and Ben Kingsley. And if Bryce’s voice sounds familiar to you, then you have probably seen him on ABC or Foxtel.

The Property Couch gives a helpful insight into Australian real estate with a huge following – they receive hundreds of letters and messages each week from grateful listeners, some of which they share.

To give you a feel of what the Property Couch sounds like and is about, take Bryce and Ben’s discussion about mental triggers as an example.

Podcast # 9   Bloomberg Master in Business

This podcast is for you if you or your clients invests in shares or units or bonds, options, foreign currency, any derivates, anything you can’t touch. The podcast is hosted by Barry Ritholtz.

Barry interviews big names in fund, portfolio and investment management, economic and social policies, banking, entertainment, you name it. And he meets with professors, authors, nobel prize winners, industry leaders, decision makers – they discuss a wide range of topics from global trends over industry-specific issues to personal stories.

But Master in Business is not a hands-on podcast like The Property Couch. You won’t get 4 pillars and 5 steps. And it is not about small business like the Small Business Big Marketing podcast. Instead it is more about economies, global organisations, global markets and large enterprises. It is more a looking around, looking for truth and wisdom, understanding a certain aspect of a problem, and not a hands-on guide how to invest wealth. But to invest well, we need this global perspective, we need to understand what is happening behind the scenes.

And at the end there is always a 10-question speed round where Barry asks his guests a range of personal questions. Some answers are funny and some are very personal.

So now we should talk about SMSFs.

Podcasts # 1 to # 5 all cover SMSFs in some of their episodes. And we – as in Tax Talks – do as well.

But when it comes to pure SMSF podcasts, the landscape has thinned out – 4 SMSF podcasts have gone into hibernation since 2018. There is still one left standing – the SMSF News and Strategies podcast with Chris Reed and Sarah Power, but this is aimed at SMSF trustees, so sticking to the basics – and so I think it might be too basic for you. And DBA Lawyers started a podcast But charges a fee per episode. So all up there is no SMSF podcast at the moment that should be on this list.

But there is another podcast that should. We really want to tell you about this one.

Podcast # 10   This American Life

Here are the masters of storytelling. This American Life. Hosted by Ira Glass and based in NYC, their episodes are masterpieces of creativity, investigative journalism and just pure audio craftmanship.

Some episodes go deep into American politics. And don’t cover accounting or tax or business at all. So why on earth is this a Top 10 for Australian accountants? Because sometimes you find food for thought where you least expect it.

To prove our point, we go through two examples. The first one is about a marketing campaign in Columbia, described in Act 1 of episode 575 of This American Life. And the second example is about building cars – Act 2 in ep 561 of This American Life.

Top 10

So these are our Top 10 Podcasts for Australian Accountants in 2020. Please try them – we think you will be glad you did.

 

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Disclaimer: Tax Talks does not provide financial or tax advice. All information on Tax Talks is of a general nature only and might no longer be up to date or correct. You should seek professional accredited tax and financial advice when considering whether the information is suitable to your or your client’s circumstances.