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Accounting Today's Growth & Profitability Summit speaker Jeffrey Ma ended his keynote address in Las Vegas by discussing one very big blackjack hand.

It was a turning point: down $100,000 he could have easily make the emotional decision to walk away. Instead, he looked at the flip side. If he didn't play, he couldn't lose - but he also couldn't win.

Ma stayed, ending the weekend ahead $70,000, and later became the subject of the book "Bringing Down the House" and the movie "21."

"People make decisions fearing failure rather than embracing profit," Ma said.

During the practice management track I chaired, president of Golden Practices, Michelle Golden, urged accountants to get into the blogging game, noting that CPAs lag behind the legal profession. The blogs that do exist are mundane, and of the roughly 250 accounting blogs, only about 40 are niche-specific.

"A lot of CPA firms blog, but don't have conversations with people online," Golden explained. "You won't get leads at the passive level."

The marketing professionals composing the final day's lead-generation panel began with the basics, attempting to convert the audience from an outbound marketing approach to one combining both out- and inbound marketing.

The session elicited questions that came more from a fear of the unknown than Ma's described fear of failure, as the panelists explained everything from social media to video hosting.

Some audience members expressed a disconnect with their marketing team, making it clear they would have to be advocates for change in their firms.

It was a sentiment Rita Keller, president and founder of Keller Advisors, expressed during her session on understanding and embracing a diverse workforce."Status quo is not an option," she said. "You have to change."

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