Ashley Connell spent a year having 60 one-on-one conversations with accounting firm owners before deciding to go all in on the profession. What she heard most often surprised her: loneliness. Not just the need for peers, but the need for someone inside the business they could actually talk to.

Ashley is the founder of Prowess Project, which matches accounting firm owners with fractional operators, experienced operations professionals who embed in a firm and help the owner step back from running the day-to-day so they can focus on growing the business.

In this conversation, Ashley breaks down how the matching process works, why emotional intelligence is the trait she screens for above all else, what she got wrong early on, and why she built monthly roundtables specifically for firm owners who feel like they are carrying everything alon ...