Hey all, Logan here… Finally! 😅 Here is what to expect moving forward with the newsletter: bi-weekly releases with dives into the accounting industry, firm-building (written by me), as well as community spotlights, behind-the-scenes conversations, and stories shaping the people and firms inside Counter (written by Dalton Schafer, Counter’s Community Manager). If you’re not a part of the community already, we have been known to drop free trials from time to time, so be on the lookout.

It’s 2026, and people still ask tax pros why they’re out in public during tax season.

Social media doesn’t exactly help with this…

Around the deadline, you start seeing the same kinds of posts over and over again:
“I have 100 returns left in 5 days.”

I’m not sure there will ever be a day when the public doesn’t expect you to be working all the time during tax season.

4 years ago (2022), I was making a video about waking up at 4:30 AM every morning to complete all my work during tax season. That may have been my “worst” tax season as a firm owner. I worked like a dog, gave it my all, and then crashed and burned after 4/15.

I was burned out for 3 months after the 2022 tax season… I didn’t want to work on projects, I didn’t want to work on my firm. Summers are for breaks, yes, but they're also a great time to start changing or working on client acquisition strategies.

But that’s really hard to do if you’re burned out. So you use the summer for recovering… Only to get too busy to work on your firm in the fall due to extensions and tax planning.

I think I finally broke that cycle. It’s 4/17, and I worked on my firm yesterday, the day after the deadline. Cause I wanted to…

What did I do? I uploaded some videos to a newly made YouTube channel for my CPA firm… I also brainstormed how I’m going to update my intake form process.

(search The Graf Tax Co. PLLC in YouTube)

We’ll talk about those in a future newsletter.

Feels silly bragging about doing those simple things for my firm, but compared to 4 years ago, this is a huge accomplishment.

I hope the same for you if you’re interested in avoiding burnout.

I think we need to question the norm of burnout.

Does it actually have to be this way?

Not, “Is this the way it’s always been?”
Not, “Can people survive it?”
Not even, “Can we push through one more season?”

I mean: should this still be the norm?

I’m not writing this because I have the perfect solution. I’m writing it because I think the profession stays stuck when we stop ourselves from even asking better questions.

What if busy season didn’t require sacrificing your entire life?

I don’t think the industry will change until the mindset does.

This sounds similar to one of the first newsletters, but now is the best time to decide whether you want to continue with the norm or be Counter to the norm.

Thanks for reading.

Logan

4/22 - Tax Season Debrief with Logan Graf

4/30 - April 2026 New Member Orientation - Meet New Friends!

5/6 - Google My Business Working Session

5/21 - Monthly Booked & Balanced Bookkeeping Session with Erin Pohan