Summary: Chris always liked doing audit and tax work for doctors, but she had a revelation when someone asked her if she understood what a physician does and how one gets paid. This led to a monumental mindset shift: She realized she needed to genuinely know these doctors if she truly wanted to help them. Sound familiar? That’s why industry specialization is at the heart of the CLA Promise. And it’s why today our health care specialists include actual health care advice along with financial services. Learn from Chris’s groundbreaking journey in this edition of Industry Forward.<br> [00:00:04]<br> Jeff Vrieze: Chris always liked doing audit and tax work for doctors, but she had a revelation when someone asked her if she understood what a physician does and how one gets paid. This led to a monumental mind shift. She realized she needed to generally know these doctors if she truly wanted to help them. Sound familiar? That’s why industry specialization is at the heart of this CLA promise. And that is why today our health care specialists include actual health care advice along with services.<br> Learn from Chris’s groundbreaking journey in this edition of Industry Forward.<br> MUSIC<br> [00:00:53]<br> Hello, CLA family. Welcome to Industry Forward, a podcast designed to tell the stories behind the CLA promise. When the CLA promise comes alive, we create opportunities and live the culture. A culture that promotes entrepreneurs, owners, leaders. At the center of the CLA promise is our desire and commitment to know you and to help you. Behind the CLA promise are a set of core beliefs.<br> [00:01:25]<br> Two of them drive the strategic advantage of industry specialization, that belief that specialization enables us to know our clients better so that we can help them. A belief in helping versus selling. That’s industry specialization at CLA, a belief that if we specialize, we’ll be able to get to know our clients better and help them more fully. If we do it effectively, we drive growth. Quick reminder, growth is not something we do. Growth is the result of doing the right things. So to help us understand his more, we’ve invited Chris Abell to the microphone.<br> [00:02:03]<br> Chris is the managing principal of our physicians and cleanse group. She’s based in Phoenix, moved from Minneapolis, and has been active in our healthcare group for a great number of years. So, Chris, let’s start with your journey. It’s been one of interest and intrigue. Share a little bit.<br> [00:02:24]<br> Chris: It has been an interesting story, and actually I’ve been with CLA for about 11 years. I started my career over 30 years ago, so for those of you who weren’t even born, I was still doing this. But it started in St. Louis, actually, and I worked at a small firm. I was a generalist, doing mainly tax and audit or assurance work. I had several clients in various industries, such as restaurants and convents and senior living and physician practices.<br> [00:02:55]<br> And then I moved to Minneapolis in 2000 for a various number of reasons, family reasons mainly, and I started at a larger local firm here that worked a lot with physician practices. And that’s where I truly found my passion in physician practices and learned about MinnesotaCare Tax, which was something brand-new to me, coming from Missouri.<br> From there, I had a couple of principals here in the Minneapolis office give me a call one day and said, “Hey, Chris, we’re hearing you’re doing a lot of great things in the physician community. We’d like to talk with you.” And so I had that conversation with them, and they offered me a job, and I actually said no. And a year later, I called them back and I said, “Is that offer still open?” And they said, “Yes, it’s still open, but this is the last time that it’ll be open.” Here in Minneapolis,
