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Professional Development

Three Women Are Redefining Success in Accounting by Breaking Every Conference Rule

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When Questian Telka attended her first accounting conference—Cindy Schroeder’s Bookkeeping Buds retreat—she discovered something unexpected. Instead of vendor pitches and surface-level networking, she found genuine connection. Watching Carla Caldwell speak, Telka pictured herself on that stage for the first time. She met Nancy McClelland, who later became her podcast co-host. Most importantly, she learned the conferences that transform careers aren’t always the ones with 5,000 attendees. Sometimes they’re intimate gatherings where you can let down your guard and actually be yourself.

In this episode of She Counts, McClelland and Telka sit down with three women reshaping the conference landscape: Erin Pohan, creator of WAVE Seattle; Sharrin Fuller, chair of AFWA’s Women Who Count; and Madeline Reeves, founder of Advisory Amplified. Together, they explore how women-led conferences fill gaps that mainstream events have ignored for years.

Meet the Women Behind the Movement

Pohan launched WAVE Seattle after attending Bridging the Gap 2024 – an unusually small accounting conference focused on mental health and sustainability in accounting; she and McClelland met there. WAVE (Women in Accounting Visionaries and Entrepreneurs) brings together 100 firm owners each May in Seattle. The next gathering is May 15, 2026, and it’s already a third sold out.

Fuller chairs Women Who Count, put on by the Accounting and Financial Women’s Alliance (AFWA). This national conference draws everyone from college students to retirees. This year’s conference is October 22-24 in Mesa, Arizona, and they’re expecting their biggest turnout yet—350 attendees. Fuller also has a book, “Unfollow the Rules,” launching the following week at Intuit Connect.

Reeves created Advisory Amplified, a six-city tour focused on hands-on advisory training. Starting September 23rd in Seattle, the tour hits LA, Chicago, Austin, Atlanta, and Boston. Each stop partners with local “hometown hosts” to keep momentum going after the event leaves town.

What connects these three conferences? They’re all deliberately small, intentionally intimate, and designed to create real relationships rather than just exchange business cards.

Where Being Real Is Professional

McClelland describes what makes these gatherings different: “There was a sense of safety. We could share our experiences, fears and self-doubts, and sharing those things really encourages bonding.”

This shift from hiding struggles to sharing them creates breakthrough moments. At WAVE Seattle, Pohan witnessed one during a peer strategy session about loneliness. “I had to take the stage right after that, and I just had these tears well up because I’m like, ‘me too. You’re not alone.’ I think every woman in that room felt that moment together.”

The communication style at these conferences is noticeably different. Fuller, who spent years in male-dominated venture capital before chairing Women Who Count, puts it bluntly. “With the men you need to scream to be heard. And with the women: if you scream, you won’t be heard.”

These conferences tackle what Pohan calls the “messy middle”—that challenging space where firm owners feel stuck between starting and scaling. Topics considered “too emotional” for mainstream conferences take center stage. Fuller asks the question many women face: “How do we get to that table while being ourselves without everybody saying, ‘oh, they’re just emotional’?”

The answer isn’t suppressing emotion or copying masculine styles. When one attendee heard Fuller speak about transitioning from employee to entrepreneur, she didn’t just take notes. She quit her job and started a firm helping others with burnout and balance. That’s what happens when conferences address real challenges instead of surface topics.

Moving from Inspiration to Action

Reeves discovered a common problem at mainstream conferences. A woman on an escalator told her, “I just feel like I’m drinking from a fire hose of inspiration and ideas, but I don’t really know how to bring these back and put them into practice inside of my firm.”

Advisory Amplified addresses this with workbooks designed like vinyl records that slide out of sleeves—a playful nod to their “Warped Tour for accountants” theme. Each session includes hands-on exercises and a “resource playlist” with templates attendees can implement immediately.

These conferences also upend traditional vendor participation. Instead of relegating sponsors to expo halls, they’re positioned as knowledge partners. Reeves, who worked with companies like Fathom, Avalara, and Intuit, explains, “I would be working with thousands of firms at a time, and so my visibility into what was working and what wasn’t was much more macro than people inside an individual firm.”

The conferences tackle harsh realities that other events avoid. Take pricing. While traditional conferences offer formulas, women-led events dig deeper. Reeves points out, “Nobody talks about our scarcity mentality, systemic barriers that impact how we think about money, or the ways the wage gap shapes women to think we should charge less.”

They also address personal realities. Reeves openly discusses how she “had to make the decision to choose my company over my marriage.” She notes that many female CEOs are divorced or in second marriages, and those who are married “have had to do a lot of work to ensure they have a partnership that isn’t operating off traditional gender roles.”

Even technology education takes on new meaning. At WAVE, Twyla Verhelst’s AI session emphasized why women must experiment with these tools now, because AI is “directly learning from the information and inputs we put in.” If women don’t shape its development, the technology will evolve without their perspectives. This session inspired Telka to invite Verhelst onto the She Counts podcast to discuss the topic further.

Building Networks That Actually Last

Unlike conferences that end when you leave, these events create ongoing communities. WAVE Seattle runs Zoom happy hours before and after the event. “It’s never just about the day of the event,” Pohan explains. Pre-event sessions help attendees arrive knowing faces, while post-event gatherings ensure insights become action.

Women Who Count takes a radical approach to inclusivity. Fuller made a bold decision: “Every event we have is for sponsors, exhibitors, everybody. There’s no sign up sheet.” This eliminates the system where celebrities get exclusive invites while newcomers are shut out. “What about the quiet girl in the corner that deserves to be there too?” Fuller asks.

Advisory Amplified partners with hometown hosts at each stop. These are local firms who keep the energy going after the tour moves on. They exclusively work with minority-owned local businesses and donate merchandise proceeds to the AICPA scholarship fund, addressing economic barriers to credentials.

These connections create lasting impact. McClelland shares an example: “There’s an amazing tax attorney who, it turns out, lives a few blocks away. And she and I have been friends ever since the first Women Who Count conference I attended.”

Perhaps most importantly, these conferences dismantle the competition myth. Fuller recalls Darren Root’s observation: “All of you own firms and take similar clients, but you almost never compete for the same client at the same time.” Now, when clients don’t fit her practice, she sends them to colleagues whose services match better.

This collaborative mindset changes everything. As Fuller describes, “When you feel that competitiveness from someone, you want to reach out and befriend them and teach them that’s not what we do. We are all friends now.”

The Future Is Intimate, Not Massive

WAVE Seattle caps attendance at 100. Women Who Count limits registration to 350. Advisory Amplified keeps each stop to 100. This approach ensures real connections over business card collections.

McClelland and Telka are bringing She Counts to Women Who Count with a two-hour live recording session on the main stage. The topic? Sexual harassment in the workplace, with an attorney and an HR expert as guests. Not material you’d see at a typical accounting conference.

What makes this movement revolutionary is the courage to acknowledge that traditional models have been failing women for decades. When conferences prioritize vulnerability over vendor halls, implementation over inspiration, and community over competition, they have the power to transform a profession.

Ready to experience the difference? Listen to the full podcast episode to hear how Pohan, Fuller, and Reeves are reshaping professional growth and discover which conference might catalyze your own transformation.

As McClelland and Telka remind us in every episode: if you’ve ever felt like you’re the only one, you’re not. And you don’t have to figure it out alone.

Whether you join WAVE Seattle’s pre-conference Zoom happy hours, experience Women Who Count’s radical inclusivity, or dive into Advisory Amplified’s hands-on workbooks, you’ll find what mainstream conferences have been missing: a community of women who understand that real professional growth requires real human connection.

Visit the She Counts LinkedIn page to share what you’d like to see at conferences for and by women. The organizers are listening… and more importantly, they’re acting on what they hear.

Tax Law Rewards Professional Stagnation While Punishing Growth

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A Tennessee accountant diligently studies for and passes the CPA exam. His day-to-day work remains virtually identical: same clients, same responsibilities, same desk. Yet when tax season arrives, those CPA exam costs aren’t deductible. Why? Because becoming a CPA qualified him for a “new trade or business,” even though he had no intention of changing careers, and his actual work didn’t change at all.

This real case from Glenn v. Commissioner perfectly captures the absurd reality facing today’s professionals: the very credentials and education that make you more valuable in your current role often become non-deductible under tax law. Jeremy Wells dissects this paradox in his latest Tax in Action podcast episode, where he reveals how our tax system has created a knowledge economy trap that punishes professional advancement.

While tax law theoretically supports professional development through education deductions, it systematically penalizes advanced degrees, professional certifications, and career-expanding skills by classifying them as “personal investments” rather than business necessities. This leaves tax professionals and their clients caught in a regulatory maze where maintaining your current skill level is rewarded, while pursuing excellence faces potential penalties.

The Knowledge Economy Reality Check

“For quite a while now, most of the U.S. economy has been based on not the ability of people to produce things or do things with their hands, but rather the value of what they’re able to accomplish with their minds,” Wells explains.

The financial sector, insurance industry, and professional services all depend on knowledge work. Yet our tax system treats developing those valuable mental capabilities as personal indulgence rather than business necessity.

The existing education tax breaks demonstrate this disconnect clearly. The 529 plans that parents use to save for college offer no federal tax deduction for contributions, though some states do allow deductions. Student loan interest deductions under IRC Section 221 phase out based on income, effectively penalizing successful professionals. Education credits like the American Opportunity Credit and Lifetime Learning Credit focus on traditional college expenses, not the specialized training that drives value in today’s economy.

As Wells notes, these benefits can be rather limited. The problem isn’t that tax law ignores education entirely. It’s that the benefits don’t match the reality of professional development needs.

This brings us to the question Wells hears constantly from business owners: “Can I pay for my own education and use my business to do that?” The answer reveals just how complex this landscape has become.

Educational Assistance Programs: Promise and Pitfalls

The IRC Section 127 educational assistance programs initially appear to offer hope. These programs allow employers to provide up to $5,250 annually in tax-free educational benefits, and the definition of qualifying education is surprisingly broad.

Wells explains that under these programs, “education includes any form of instruction or training that improves or develops the capabilities of an individual.” Even better, “education is not limited to courses that are job-related or part of a degree program.” This could potentially cover everything from technical training to wellness courses that make employees “better people, more productive, happier.”

The program can cover tuition and fees, books, supplies, and equipment, and even student loan repayments. The definition of “employee” is also broad, including “self-employed individuals or what we might refer to as independent contractors.”

But here’s where the system reveals its bias against small business owners.

The fatal flaw lies in the anti-discrimination rules. Any business owner with more than a 5% stake in their company cannot claim more than 5% of the total benefits paid out by the program. As Wells explains, “If you are self-employed, and you want to use this program for yourself, and you have other employees, you, as a more than 5% owner of that business, cannot claim more than 5% of the benefits paid out by that program.”

The math is brutal. If you want to claim the full $5,250 benefit for your own education, your business would need to pay out at least $105,000 in total educational benefits to all participants. For most small businesses, this makes the program impractical.

The discrimination rules add another layer of complexity. Programs cannot favor highly compensated employees: those earning over $160,000 in 2025, those with 5% or greater ownership stakes, or those in the top 20% of employees ranked by compensation.

Wells notes that for many small business owners, this means they either “don’t do this program at all” or “just exclude themselves from the program.” And there’s another catch. Unlike cafeteria plans under IRC Section 125, you can’t offer employees a choice between the education benefit and additional cash compensation.

The program also has strict substantiation requirements. Employees must provide documented proof that expenses qualify, and they can’t double-dip by receiving reimbursement and then claiming education credits on their personal returns. Wells warns this is particularly important because “it’s entirely possible that that employee would then turn around and report those educational costs on their tax return and claim an education credit.”

When Business Owners Go Direct: The Section 162 Minefield

When educational assistance programs fail small business owners, they turn to direct business deductions under IRC Section 162. This is where things get really tricky.

Treasury Regulation 1.162-5 allows education deductions if the education “maintains or improves required skills” or “meets legal or employment requirements to maintain his or her present salary, status or job.” This generally includes professional continuing education and refresher courses.

The regulation also covers education to meet an employer’s minimum requirements “if the requirements are imposed for a bona fide business purpose.” Wells gives the example of requiring employees to take spreadsheet training because “we use a lot of spreadsheets in my business, and my employees need to be able to effectively use those spreadsheets.”

Even travel for education can be deductible if “the travel is directly related to the duties of the individual in employment” and “the major portion of that business needs to include activities directly maintaining or improving required skills.” However, taxpayers must allocate personal activities during the trip separately.

But here’s where the Tax Court draws its line in the sand.

The Tax Court’s War on Professional Growth

Treasury Regulation 1.162-5(b) establishes two types of education that are explicitly non-deductible, and the Tax Court has interpreted these restrictions aggressively.

First, taxpayers cannot deduct education that meets “necessary minimum educational requirements.”  Second, and far more damaging, education that “will lead to qualifying an individual for a new trade or business” is automatically disqualified.

The logic, Wells explains, is that these expenses are “essentially personal or perhaps capital expenditures” where “you’re investing in yourself.” The Tax Court views this as an “inseparable aggregate of personal and capital expenditures” rather than ordinary business expenses.

The cases reveal a pattern of hostility toward professional advancement that spans decades. In the Glenn case, the accountant couldn’t deduct CPA exam costs even though his work remained identical. The Tax Court ruled that becoming a CPA granted “certain rights, responsibilities, privileges that weren’t there before.”

The pattern repeats across professions. In Robinson v. Commissioner (1982), a licensed practical nurse completed an RN program while maintaining virtually identical duties. The Tax Court ruled against her because registered nurses have different capabilities than LPNs.

Even IRS employees get caught in this trap. In Weiler v. Commissioner (1970) and Taubman v. Commissioner (1973), IRS revenue agents couldn’t deduct law school costs despite arguing that legal training enhanced their current tax research abilities.

Law degrees face particularly harsh treatment. Wells notes that “law degrees generally qualify for a new trade or business” regardless of the taxpayer’s current profession or intentions.

The MBA Split Decision

The MBA cases show just how arbitrary these determinations can become. In 2016’s Gora v. Commissioner, the Tax Court allowed a financial controller’s executive MBA costs because his continued work in “management and finance” didn’t represent new qualifications.

Just one year later, in Kray v. Commissioner (2017), a computer design consultant’s identical executive MBA was ruled non-deductible because it qualified her for “new tasks” like “financial analysis, managing a business, managing and overseeing a staff.”

Wells warns that “an MBA may or may not qualify” as deductible, making this area particularly risky for taxpayers.

The Practical Reality for Tax Professionals

This creates impossible situations for tax professionals advising clients. The Tax Court’s standard isn’t whether you actually change careers or even want different opportunities. As Wells emphasizes, the keyword is “potentially”—education that could potentially qualify you for different work is probably non-deductible.

The system forces taxpayers to choose between pursuing valuable education that enhances their business capabilities but facing potential audit challenges, or limiting themselves to narrow, maintenance-level training that clearly fits within existing job requirements.

Wells notes that taxpayers must be “established in a trade or business” before education expenses become deductible, and the Tax Court has ruled that “a relatively short or temporary tenure in a job before starting the education doesn’t establish the taxpayer in the trade or business.”

Even holding a position doesn’t guarantee you’ve met minimum educational requirements. University teaching assistants, for example, haven’t met the minimum requirements for permanent faculty positions until they actually have their PhD.

Navigating the Knowledge Economy Trap

Our tax system rewards professional stagnation while punishing the learning that drives economic value. Tax professionals’ continuing education to maintain existing credentials? Fully deductible. Are the same professionals pursuing advanced degrees to better serve clients? Potentially non-deductible because it might qualify them for “new” responsibilities.

For tax professionals, this creates compliance challenges and ethical questions. Do we advise clients toward valuable education that faces potential tax challenges, or recommend they limit learning to “safe” options that maintain the status quo?

Wells warns that employers and self-employed individuals “really need to be careful when they’re trying to deduct those work-related education costs.” The Tax Court “can be pretty strict about education either meeting those minimum requirements for a profession or even more often than that, qualifying the recipient of that education for a new trade or business.”

Understanding these limitations is about recognizing how tax policy shapes professional development decisions across the entire economy. The knowledge economy demands continuous adaptation and skill development, but our tax code remains anchored to an industrial mindset that views capability expansion as personal indulgence rather than business necessity.

Listen to the full episode of the Tax in Action podcast for Wells’ complete analysis and detailed guidance to help clients make informed decisions about their professional development investments. Don’t let the knowledge economy trap catch you or your clients unprepared.

The Secret to Turning Fear Into Career Fuel

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Picture Nancy McClelland at 40, standing backstage in a short fringe dress, her heart pounding as she prepares for her first go-go dancing performance. The stage lights are bright, the music is starting, and all she can think about is what people will say when they see her “hauling her 40-year-old heiny across the stage.” This wasn’t just stage fright. This was the terror of pursuing a lifelong dream that felt completely at odds with her professional identity as an accountant.

Yet in that moment of pure vulnerability, McClelland discovered something that would reshape her entire approach to career growth. When she confided to fellow dancer Laurel that she wished she could be fearless like her, Laurel’s response was life-changing: “Oh no, no, no, no, Nancy, I’m just as scared as the next person. The difference is that I do it anyway.”

In this episode of the She Counts podcast, hosts Nancy McClelland and Questian Telka explore the relationship between fear and professional success. They share raw stories of moments when they chose courage over comfort, from McClelland’s dancing debut to Telka’s surprise presentation to 500 people instead of 80. Their conversation reveals an uncomfortable truth about women in accounting: we’re often told to be fearless when what we really need is to be strategically courageous.

The most successful women in accounting don’t overcome their fears. They harness them as career accelerators. They transform every terrifying moment into evidence that they can handle whatever comes next. This builds the muscle to move forward when every instinct tells you to retreat.

Why “Don’t Be Afraid” Is the Worst Career Advice Ever

The accounting profession has a fundamental problem with fear, and it starts with the most damaging piece of career advice ever given: “Don’t be afraid.” We’ve all heard it in conference rooms, performance reviews, and networking events. But McClelland and Telka discovered this advice isn’t just impossible to follow; it’s actively harmful to career growth.

“I personally wish we could delete the phrase ‘don’t be afraid’ from our lexicons,” McClelland explains. “Being afraid is an extremely natural, very human way to be.  Our bodies do this to keep us safe. So by saying, ‘don’t be afraid,’ we’re like, ‘Pay no attention whatsoever to all of these hormones that are coursing through you.'”

The distinction between courage and fearlessness isn’t just semantic; it’s career-defining. Fearlessness is the absence of fear, which Telka points out is completely unrealistic: “I’ve never met someone that doesn’t have fear and doesn’t get afraid. Some of us are better at hiding it than others, but fearlessness is the absence of fear. And that’s just completely unrealistic.”

Courage, however, is something entirely different. As Telka defines it: “Courage is accepting that you feel the fear and acting despite being fearful anyway; doing it anyway.”

This reframe changes everything. Instead of viewing fear as a weakness to overcome, successful women in accounting learn to see it as valuable information. McClelland discovered this through her unlikely mentor, Laurel, whose words became her operating system: “As I say those words out loud, I can feel the goosebumps on my arms and my legs. It’s become a mantra to me. I see fear as something I’ve earned. And courage is the thing that makes me strong—not being fearless.”

Fear often signals you’re approaching something meaningful enough to accelerate your growth. Your body cannot distinguish between fear and excitement: the sweaty palms, rapid heartbeat, and nervous energy are identical responses. The only difference is your mental interpretation. When you reframe these sensations as excitement about an opportunity, rather than terror about potential failure, you transform your body’s natural alarm system into a career accelerator.

This understanding is especially crucial for women in accounting, who face additional pressure to appear “professional” while receiving contradictory messages about vulnerability and emotion. The moments that terrify us most often contain the greatest potential for professional transformation.

When Terror Becomes Your Greatest Teacher

The most profound professional transformations often begin with a phone call that changes everything. For Telka, it was discovering just days before Intuit Connect, that her carefully planned presentation for 80 people had been moved to a 500-person auditorium.

“I full panic, full panic, like from 0 to 11,” she recalls. “And I stayed there until after my presentation was over. I feel like I missed half the conference because I was just so scared and terrified.”

But here’s what happened next: “It was literally one of the best things I have ever done. And my favorite part was engaging with the people in the audience.” The very thing Telka feared most—not being able to answer questions from a large crowd—became the highlight of her experience.

This experience taught Telka a lesson about her capabilities: “If I did that, I can do anything. There’s nothing more terrifying to me than standing up in front of a room of 500 people. And so now I’m like, okay… and I just did it.”

McClelland learned similar lessons through an unlikely teacher: skydiving. Despite her intense fear of heights and her boss’s logical observation that not wanting to jump from a plane is perfectly reasonable, McClelland completed the full training course and solo jump. The experience taught her that “training mitigates risk. Learning how to do the thing will build your confidence.”

This insight transforms how we approach career challenges. McClelland applies this principle when working with bookkeepers who say they “could never do advisory work.” Her response: “I bet if you studied how to do advisory work, you would be confident enough to do advisory work. But you’ve got to actually learn how to do the thing and really dig in and test yourself.”

Yet even understanding this concept doesn’t eliminate fear from future challenges. McClelland emphasizes this crucial point: “Courage builds courage. I’m not afraid of all the same things I used to be afraid of.” But new fears replace old ones, and even familiar challenges can still trigger anxiety.

These transformative moments don’t happen by accident. They require specific tools and strategies for moving through fear rather than around it.

The Professional Toolkit for Acting Despite Fear

The difference between women who advance in accounting and those who remain stuck isn’t the absence of fear. It’s having a systematic approach to harness that fear as career fuel. McClelland and Telka shared practical strategies that work in any challenging situation.

Start with Your Why

The foundation begins with reconnecting to your purpose. As Telka explains: “I constantly come back to my why. And that generally helps me make a decision. And it helps me mitigate the fear that I have around those decisions.” When you remember that you care more about your goal than your fear, the choice becomes clearer.

Separate Action from Feeling

McClelland learned from her therapist that your three selves—thinking, doing, and feeling—don’t actually need to be aligned to accomplish something. “You can be lying in bed depressed and be like, ‘I do not feel like doing the thing,’ and your brain can be like, ‘Doing the thing is the worst idea in the world.’ And you can still get your butt out of bed, and you can do it.”

McClelland’s shorthand for separating the action from the need to want to do it is “putting your yoga pants on.”. This approach makes it easier to develop courage as a habit over time.

Commit When You’re Not Terrified

McClelland developed a crucial strategy: “I say ‘yes’ ahead of time. I say ‘yes’ to whatever it is I’m going to do when I’m not terrified. And I have a policy of not backing out.” This worked when Financial Cents asked her to teach 700 people the Time Warp dance at a virtual conference. She said yes when it sounded exciting, then honored that commitment when fear kicked in later.

Use Physical Exercise to Burn Adrenaline

McClelland’s therapist taught her that adrenaline is a finite resource. “If you are really scared about something, go get some physical exercise. Use up all that adrenaline. It takes a while for your body to regenerate it.” This is why you’ll find speakers like Misty Megia doing jumping jacks before big presentations.

Borrow Confidence from Others

Telka credits both McClelland and Megia with providing crucial support: “Find someone who believes in what you’re doing, who believes in you, even if it’s something that you’re scared to do.” You can amplify this by speaking your fears aloud or writing them down. McClelland explains: “You can actually magnify that by saying it in a group of friends. You can magnify it by saying it to a mentor and borrow your confidence from them. So simultaneously, you’re taking the power away from the fear and you’re borrowing confidence.”

Break Tasks into Smaller Steps

Instead of focusing on overwhelming challenges, break them into manageable pieces. This approach makes the insurmountable feel achievable.

Develop Personal Mantras

McClelland keeps reminders like “remember who you are inside” and “go with the freak-out flow.” Telka draws from science fiction, reciting from Dune: “I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it is gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

The ultimate insight is that you don’t need to feel ready to act. You just need to act. Each time you choose action over comfort, you build evidence of your capability to handle difficult situations, creating a career acceleration system that transforms fear from an obstacle into an opportunity detector.

The Fears That Hold Women Back in Accounting

Women in accounting face specific challenges that require courage to overcome. These fears are deeply connected to how we’re perceived and judged in professional settings.

The Emotional Professional Paradox

Telka came from a Big Four environment where “if you have an emotion, you need to step away. Do not be emotional.” She used to take it as an insult when someone called her sensitive or emotional. “But I think it’s my strength at this point,” she reflects. “My emotions, my empathy, my compassion, my sensitivity—I used to take it as an insult, but it’s actually my strength.”

Setting Boundaries and Asking for Money

For firm owners, the challenges multiply. Setting boundaries with clients and team members requires constant courage. McClelland admits: “It’s been really, really hard for me because I feel so much empathy for them. Sometimes you just have deadlines and it’s terrifying. I just get paralyzed sometimes.”

Asking for money remains one of McClelland’s biggest challenges. “I don’t want to have to sell it. I don’t want to have to ask you for money. I just want to do these things that I want to do that I think will make a difference in the world and be paid, and then just skip the part where I have to ask for it.”

Admitting You Don’t Know Something

Perhaps the most universal fear is admitting ignorance. As McClelland learned from teaching music theory, “The best thing to do when you’re teaching and somebody asks a question you don’t know is to earn the trust of the students by saying, ‘I don’t know the answer to that, but I know where to find it, and I’m going to get back to you on it.'”

The Motherhood Penalty

The guilt around balancing career and family creates another layer of fear. Telka boldly states: “I do not have guilt leaving my kids to go to conferences.” McClelland, though not a mother herself, reinforces this: “Your children need to see an example of you having a healthy, enthusiastic relationship with your work and with your hobbies and with your friends.”

These fears are normal and shared by successful women throughout the profession. The difference is that successful women develop strategies to act despite these fears rather than letting them dictate their choices.

Your Next Breakthrough Is Waiting

The most successful women in accounting share a secret that has nothing to do with technical expertise and everything to do with their relationship with fear. They’ve learned that fear isn’t the enemy of career advancement; it’s the most reliable indicator that they’re approaching something meaningful enough to accelerate their growth.

Consider how this approach transforms common career challenges: Instead of avoiding difficult conversations with clients, you prepare thoroughly and have them anyway. Instead of declining speaking opportunities because you’re not an “expert,” you accept them and become one through the experience. Instead of staying in safe employment because entrepreneurship is scary, you start your firm and learn to navigate the fear of the unknown.

Every major career breakthrough requires moving through fear rather than around it. The women who advance fastest act despite their doubt. They understand that professional growth happens not when we feel ready, but when we choose to act anyway.

Each time you choose courage over comfort, you’re building the muscle that makes the next scary decision a little easier to navigate.

The next time you feel that familiar terror before a big presentation, client meeting, or career move, remember McClelland standing backstage in her go-go boots and Telka discovering her 80-person room became 500 people. They didn’t wait to feel ready. They didn’t eliminate their fear. They simply chose to act anyway.

Listen to this full episode of She Counts to hear more strategies for transforming fear into professional fuel, and discover how other women in accounting have built careers by repeatedly choosing courage over comfort. Because your biggest breakthrough might be hiding on the other side of your biggest fear. The only way to find out is to do it anyway.