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Welcome to the accounting for California podcast. My name is David Hemphill, the information officer here at the California Board of Accountancy. And I am honored to be joined by our recently elected CBA president, Christian Latta, CPA, welcome. Thank you. Excited to be here. All right. We're excited to learn a little more about you. And here, kind of have you look ahead to what 2026 has in store for the CBA.

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What motivated you, first of all, to get involved in CBA leadership and run for this role? Yeah, I joined the board about 3 or 4 years ago. It'll be soon. And I actually wasn't planning on it. It wasn't something I thought about initially, but I got some nudges from my colleagues very early on at the end of my first year to go ahead and apply for leadership, and I didn't really think I was ready, but they assured me that I was more than ready, and I did.

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And it's been really rewarding and not as intimidating as I thought it would be, because the board staff supports us. So. Well. So yeah, it's been a very smooth transition. They kind of baby step you up the ladder and that helps a lot. Kind of work your way up, right. Secretary treasurer then vice president. And now here you are as the pres.

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Yes. All right. We like that. Well, before we get into the CBA's plans for this year, I'd love to hear about when you first figured out you wanted to pursue a career in accounting and become a CPA. Let's go back in time. Yeah. So I actually was interested in going to fashion school, but I was a competitive cheerleader and I wanted to do my sport through college.

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So I ended up going to the University of Louisville in Kentucky to cheer there. It's one of the best cheering colleges in the country, and there was no fashion program there. So I decided to get a business degree, and I chose accounting specifically because I did some research, and I found that it was the most transitional degree of all of the degrees.

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And I also knew that I wanted to be an entrepreneur at some point. And I felt that that would support that as well. Did you have a specific mentor that kind of guided you? I did have another, accountant in my family, which was my grandmother on my dad's side, but I actually didn't find that out until I had already decided to be an accountant.

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My dad didn't share that with me early on, so I was exposed to accounting by one of my college friends who his major was accounting, and I didn't know what that was, and I learned more about it once I decided I wanted a business degree and I kind of researched finance, I initially chose finance, and then I ended up switching to accounting because I liked it a lot better.

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Oh that's neat. Well, you've held a lot of interesting jobs with interesting companies, I would say already in your career. I'd like to hear start by kind of focusing on your own business that you created a couple of years ago, because I think it can be inspirational to a lot of CPAs. So you founded glow CFO, which is a company that supports creative women entrepreneurs in the fashion industry, which is one of your passions.

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So what was your inspiration for starting that business? Yeah, glow CFO was actually my third business. The first business was called the chic CPA. And that was, accounting for fashion and beauty brands specifically. And I was doing that business when I first got onto the board. But as I did that, I found there was just a natural evolution towards more strategic and educational type of financial work.

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So that's why I pivoted to Glo CFO, because I found that I like more like fractional CFO type services, like budgeting, forecasting, more like helping the entrepreneurs on a more intentional strategic path versus just the accounting side, which is the reporting and like transactional side. Okay, one of my clients, actually, my first client was woman owned wallet, which is a woman owned business, and she has a little boutique where she only sells products made by women.

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And I think working with her, I got a natural inspiration to work specifically with women. And just in my journey of like, learning about her business and how much she supports women in business, and I found that I like, really wanted to broaden my audience, not just fashion and beauty, but all creative women entrepreneurs. I like that a lot.

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Is there a specific challenge that you faced as you were kind of starting and launching into the entrepreneurial world that you could share and, help out those maybe along the same path? There are a lot of challenges, and there always will be a lot of challenges. I think figuring out where to focus has been a challenge for me, because when you're an entrepreneur, you really can do anything.

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And having that broad scope of like, what should I do for me was really hard to narrow down and hone in on what I wanted to do. And I would say just really learning that you're not really married to anything, like you can always pivot if you try something. If it doesn't work, try something new, like getting used to that process of failure or trial by fire essentially is really challenging.

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It's not like the Thomas Edison theory, right? He failed 10,000 times before you figured out the light bulb or something like that. It's a little rough, but you get used to it, right? So yeah, I really like how you've carved out this niche kind of in the world of fashion. And you're you're expanding beyond that now. But I think that's one of the big draws of the accounting profession, that there are jobs available and such a wide variety of industries.

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Is that how you see it? Yeah, I always, once I finished, you know, my stint in public accounting, I always wanted to get into the fashion industry. And the more that I've taken different steps in my careers, like, there are very specific interests that people have. Like, I have a friend who's into gaming, so he wants to work for Xbox, or I have friends who are into sports, so they want to go work for the NFL or the NBA or something like that.

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And when you have those types of work perks, in a field that you enjoy, it's really rewarding and kind of, you know, adds more joy to your life versus just being at a company that you're necessarily not connected to or feel aligned with. Right? Yeah, 100%. One last fashion question. Then we'll move on. Wow. How would you describe your fashion sense?

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Because you always come very well dressed for the CBA meetings. I will say, I would describe it as bold. That fun. And I always say edgy. Okay. I like to push the envelope a little bit, but I always know where the line is, and that's key. All right, who says accountants can't be well-dressed? Exactly. You're trying to start this?

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Yeah. Okay, so we'll talk a little bit more about some of the other highlights of your career a little bit. But let's shift back to the CBA now. So what key priorities or initiatives will the board be focusing on this year? This year we've crafted our 2026 priorities to align with the 2025 through 2029 strategic plan that the CBA created and approved last year.

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This document will guide us through a lot of board activities for the next few years, so some of the highlights that we're will be hitting this year would be our outreach, which for that, we will be increasing our focus on consumer related events such as senior fairs, career fairs and community events, rather than just focusing on our licensees or our candidates.

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In the workforce, we want to have some more consumer facing outreach this year, we also will be revamping the CBA website to ensure it meets stakeholder needs and provides increased functionality and interactive elements. And we've improved our website very, very much since I've started the next few years. It's really nice to see that evolving, especially, adding the new technologies and functionalities for our licensees and our candidates, and also will be engaging with accounting firms and academia during the licensure requirement transition to ensure that everyone has a proper understanding of the resources to navigate those upcoming changes so well.

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We have a heavy focus on outreach this year. Yeah. That's good. I know campus tour was a big deal in the fall, and it's going to extend again into the spring. All right. Any others? Yeah. So also we are continuing our business modernization. And that is a multi-year project to explore ways to expand CBA connect, the platform presently used for license renewal, to modernize and launch a new online system for CPA exam applications.

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To make that simpler for our candidates. And this would be followed by integrating it with the online process for CPA licensure and eventually firm licensure. So we're just trying to automate and modernize whatever we can. Yeah that's exciting. Yes. And then our final thing will be our AB 1175 implementation. So we will complete the rulemaking process to implement the changes from AB 1175.

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And that's anticipated to be October 1st. And then we'll establish the process to gain CBA recognition of degrees or certificates. And again, with the outreach events, we're going to continue our CBA campus tour to continue to inform on that topic as well in the spring for universities and community colleges. Now, you were the, we call it the headliner, since it's the campus tour of a few of our campus tour events in the fall, how does it feel to you just knowing that what you're sharing in front of those aspiring CPAs is helping them so much on their CPA journey?

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Yeah, it's really fun. One of my favorite things is to go talk to the students. And I learned that early in my career when I would go to the, what they call it, the firm, meet the firm, meet the firms. That's what it is. I was recruited by the partners to go do the meet the firm's visits, because we were a small firm, so we didn't have recruiting department or H.R.

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To do those things. So they would take the staff. And that's when I learned. I really love talking to the students. So any opportunity I have to get in front of them is great to just show them a different career path. As far as CPAs concerned, being an entrepreneur and in a more fun, lively industry. So I know a lot of young aspiring CPAs are excited to hear and see those things.

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Yeah, definitely. It's I really enjoy getting out there in front of them as well. And your story is is very inspirational and they can really look up to someone like you. So we're always thrilled when you're out there with us. So thank you for that. How do you hope your leadership on the CBA influences future generations of CPAs?

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As probably one of the younger presidents that the board has ever had? You know, I'm 36, and to be on a board with my colleagues who are partners and, you know, further along in their career, that was something that intimidated me when I first joined, just if my voice would be heard or my opinion would be respected. But it's never, ever been that way.

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Like no matter what age, what background, whether you're an entrepreneur or you're too small firm, like there's no egos really on this board and everyone is just working together. So it feels really special to be in a room of colleagues and such accomplished, you know, men and women who respect me and value my opinion and trust me to lead the board.

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Yeah, it means a lot to me that I'm like younger and they trust me. And I think that will show a lot of other CPAs or aspiring CPAs, like how progressive this board is and how you can come from a different path and get to a position like this. Like, I definitely didn't expect to be in this position, at this level of my career.

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So yeah, I think it is good to have representation not only ethnically as a black woman, but also having the younger professionals to be in these rooms, making these decisions, impacting the future of the industry. I love that, don't wait to get involved. Let's go do it now. So you are an active member of the National Association of Black Accountants in LA, and you're also involved with the Alliance of Black Women Accountants.

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So what do you find most rewarding about your involvement with those organizations? I so with ABA, which is the Alliance for Black Women Accountants, they have a mentorship program. And one of my passions is like helping other people grow and teaching. So I did sign up as a mentor. And so I have a mentee and we are supposed to get new mentors every year.

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But she loves me so much she we've stuck together past that. So, I am helping her and that's really great. And she's actually a mid career changer. So she's in banking and she's older than me. But again, like the respect that I receive from people who are older than me, this is just really amazing. In this industry.

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She's switching from banking to being a CPA and she's like, went back to get her masters so she could transition into being a CPA. So that's been the most rewarding thing, is like being able to be her mentor and make a good connection with her, and she supports me as well with other things. That's cool. And you've kind of alluded to this, but I'll ask you specifically, why is diversity and representation important to you within the CPA profession?

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Yeah, I think it's important to find that community no matter what you're doing. I think earlier in my career, I didn't really have that or like have the examples or if sometimes microaggressions or things like that happen in the workplace. And if you don't have someone who has a similar experience to you, it can feel very isolating. So I think just as support on your career path to, go through those experiences that are uniquely experiences of people of color, I think is important.

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And then also just for representation to have the different perspectives, a part of the decision making process for important things of the things that the CBA does or any organization, it's really good to have that diversity. And being a part of the CBA has shown me true diversity. I've never experienced diversity like I have here. It really is a broad background of members.

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I think that's a very exciting thing and I totally agree with that. Well, let's talk. You're kind of alluding to the career again. So you've worked for Snapchat. So that's interesting. I'd love to hear about that. You've worked for several well-known companies. So you were a financial reporting consultant. Is that right at Snapchat? So what was it like working for such a a new and vibrant company like that?

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I'm actually still there on contract and it's really, really fun, a Snapchat, it's in Santa Monica. So it's like pretty close to the beach. I've had some days where I would leave work around sunset time and like finished working on my laptop at the beach, which is amazing. It's rough. That's rough. Snapchat is just great. It has a great culture.

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They really take care of their employees. We have days called Council where we just like connect with one another on a personal level. Sometimes we're just making crafts or like just things to, you know, uplift and like, have you have a good day? And they actually feed us, right? Yes. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, coffee, matcha, all day is a good all day long.

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Yeah. Nice. So that's a very good perk. I will say, when you work for a very huge company as big as Snapchat, the benefits definitely extend a lot beyond what a usual corporate environment would be. And you know, being able to just be yourself, wear casual, dress like connect with your team. And I guess I should talk about the accounting part.

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So I like this part too. So yeah, I'm doing, financial reporting and technical consulting and I'm more of a project based hire. So like any ad hot project that they might need is kind of what I do. So it's very different. I have different projects from even daily, sometimes weekly. So yeah, it's kind of a very unique accounting role.

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I'm not like really doing traditional accounting things. Interesting. That kind of stuff fascinates me. Companies that grew that quickly. Right. It just must have been I don't want to say the word chaotic, but just in those early days must have just been, whoa, we gotta keep up with everyone who's using our apps. Must be crazy to have had the foresight to create something.

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Why couldn't we have thought of these things? I know, come on. All right, so you've had another company that people will definitely know is, you've had a variety of roles with guests. Another well-known fashion brand, of course, that aligns with your love. Their. So what did you find most rewarding about your time there? I guess that was my first role in a more creative environment, which I'm very thankful for that this was pretty early in your career.

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Yeah, right. This was about like four years into my career when I was a senior accountant, right after I, like, passed the CPA exam. Okay. Once I passed the CPA exam, it was a good opportunity or time to move. I actually wasn't licensed yet, but they didn't care because I had passed the exam and they were like, well, that's good as done.

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You're on the way. Yeah. And that actually was a financial reporting role as well. So I was in the traditional side of that role doing the quarterly filings, the annual filings, that the public companies do. Yeah, I really enjoyed it. I think it opened my eyes to like how much more and enjoyable work could be when you're in an environment that feels aligned to you.

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Right? Because I did always feel a little repressed or restricted in a more traditional, business casual type of environment. So that was my first time like being able to fully express myself and go to work, which was really cool. And did that open some doors to go somewhere else? Yeah, actually, I networked my way over to a fashion role while I was there.

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It was called merchandise planning, which is also a financial role, but very much on the fashion side. And what I did was I pretty much like forecasted sales and inventory for the different clothing items that we sold. And I would work with the buyers, who are the people who esthetically choose what we should sell. Okay, that was a really fun U-turn or what?

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I don't know what you would call it. That's like the perfect combination of both of you. Yeah, it was fun. It was very wild though. I love hearing about the career and all the different things you've done. I'm impressed with how you blend your financial expertise, but with creativity and customer centric thinking. So is this an approach that really has shaped your career?

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It is really taking a big role in my career choices now. It mainly comes from me being very right and left brained. I'm very creative and I'm very like analytical. Earlier on in my career, I pretty much was just abandoning the creative side of myself and I was very unhappy. So the more that I've like, kind of tiptoed into finding different ways to have that be a part of my career.

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Like the more fulfillment I have found just in my personal life around so many creative people. Like, one of my hobbies is dancing and like, I'm around a lot of dancers, or I used to work for a professional hair company, and so I know a lot of hairstylists and like, the more I've been around artists like, the more I feel like my inner artist is, like kind of bubbling to the surface.

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I know that a lot of artistic types or creative types of people don't feel that their brains are meant to retain or understand numbers or money or accounting. I think that because I have a gift for teaching, and I understand how they think, because I'm also that way that I can kind of bridge that gap and like help them to know, like, you don't have to be an expert, but you can understand it.

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And if you especially if you're an entrepreneur, as a creative person, it's very vital that you understand and don't leave yourself exposed to fully rely on another financial professional to the extent that, like, you can even check to make sure something looks reasonable. Well, that sounds like a recipe for success when you can blend your creativity with. And the more kind of professional expertise.

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So you're doing a great job. And and that's accounting has those opportunities for people out there. You have been involved in so many aspects. I would say, of the accounting world already at this point in your career, what's what's one of the biggest challenges you faced and how did you overcome it? There's a few challenges. I think, like before you step outside of the box, you don't really know what's there.

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And so you're going to have people, they're just not have that mindset and they want to keep you on the traditional path. For example, recruiters, when I was like, I want to work for a fashion company and I only want that they were like, well, you're limiting your opportunities. Like you should not be. So specific. Yes, that is true.

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However, I knew I would not be happy in a more traditional environment. So I still interviewed with some things that were a little bit out of what I was looking for, but I'm so glad that I stuck to my guns because right when I was like in final rounds with one of these, it was like an equity firm or something like that.

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So I was not crazy about it. And right when I was like at final rounds, the recruiter calls me and is like, Gus is looking for, SEC financial senior, like, do you want to do that? And I'm like, well, I don't know what that is, but if I'm qualified, like, yeah, I want to do it. It was a little bit kind of above my experience because they wanted someone experienced they wanted a CPA, but I prepared well enough for the interview that they hired me.

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There you go. So I think you just have to have that conviction to know what you want and don't let other people push you off of your path, because that's going to happen. Yeah. If there's people out there that are thinking about maybe transitioning from a traditional role into kind of where you've gone entrepreneurship or freelance consulting work, what would be some advice for them?

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I would say you definitely want to have a certain level of skill before you can do that. Like me as an accounting consultant, I'm like 12 years into my career and I've done a pretty good variety of things, which makes me a good fit for consulting because, you know, they want to be able to just, like, plug you in somewhere and know that you can kind of run with it.

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Public accounting is a great way to develop that skill set. It's very well respected and common and usually desired to start your career in public accounting and then switch to private accounting. I would say you have to put yourself out there and you have to do something different, especially with entrepreneurship. You can always start something as a side hustle.

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That's probably the most pragmatic way to do it. It is very hard in accounting to do that because our hours are very demanding and our jobs are very draining. So one thing you can do is shift to a role that is less demanding, so you have the time and energy to start back to putting yourself out there. Actually, because I started my business and made a website and specifically carved out fashion and beauty, I got the opportunity to be on the Board of Accountancy.

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I was recruited by the governor's appointment secretary, who found my website, and I also got an opportunity to be head of finance for a beauty startup called Danger Jones. They make professional hair colors that really vibrant, you know, hot pink, green type of colors. And the founder found my website and he picked me because I specifically said that my market is fashion and beauty.

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So while, you know, the broader advice is going to be like, don't box yourself out from other opportunities, it will draw the opportunities that are specifically for you, by you being bold and putting yourself out there, flag in the sand or whatever. Here's what I am. Here's what I want to do. Yeah, so it is it is scary, but it will pay off.

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Okay. Well, hey, a lot of these experiences I think are very inspirational for a lot of younger, aspiring CPAs or people that are CPAs, but still kind of in the early phases of their career and really, I think kind of opened their eyes to some of the possibilities that are out there. Thank you for sharing. I was I was excited to hear a lot of that because I knew bits and pieces of your story, but to hear it actually coming from you, that was really neat.

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So yeah, we are looking forward to your leadership on the CBA for 2026. So thank you for joining us today and best of luck. I know it's going to be a great year. Thank you for listening to the accounting for California podcast. Until next time. Bye bye.