In this episode of Compound Growth, Colin and Wheeler sit down with their colleague and the third leg of the stool — Shae Murray — for a candid, wide-ranging conversation about non-traditional career paths, what it really takes to build confidence in a new field, and why growth often looks nothing like you planned.

Shae shares her journey from early childhood education — working across Montessori schools, Head Start programs, and a childcare center for MGH doctors — to landing in the world of financial services completely by accident. What followed was a crash course in everything from the stock market to the Series 7 exam, navigating corporate culture, getting licensed, and ultimately finding her place at CoFi Advisors as the team's very first employee.

Along the way, Colin and Wheeler get personal. They talk about identity (yes, the name thing), the mentor who shaped how Shae approaches her work, what it means to be a client's first point of contact, and a surprisingly spirited 53-minute conversation about AI that nobody planned to have.

Shae also shares her perspective on women in financial services — where the industry falls short, what the RIA space gets right, and why she thinks the tide is starting to turn.

It's honest, warm, funny in places, and — yes — it does start with a very sad stuffed horse named Fuego.

Follow Us:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/compoundgrowthpod
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CompoundGrowthPodcast
• TikTok: http://www.tiktok.com/@compoundgrowthpod
• Wheeler’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wheeler-crowley-0a63933b/
• Colin’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colin-walker-mba-6099a038/

Credits:
Created By: Wheeler Crowley and Colin Walker
Production, Editing and Post-Production: Tori Rothwell

Did you know that in the United States, anyone can sign your tax return — no license required? Katrina Kowalski found that out the hard way when her husband got hit with a $50,000-plus IRS audit, courtesy of an unlicensed preparer who was a family friend. That moment set her on a path from mortgage industry burnout, to quitting a Big 5 accounting firm on the day after Christmas, to eventually building On Point Wealth and On Point Tax Services in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

In this conversation, Katrina joins Wheeler and Colin to talk about what business owners get wrong about taxes, why the goal shouldn't just be paying as little as possible, and how the right CPA relationship looks less like damage control and more like a long-term financial partnership. She walks through the hidden complexity of RSUs and IPO stock — including the client who watched their stock fall 65% and still got the tax bill — and why your CPA and your financial advisor need to be in the same conversation, not separate silos.

The episode goes deeper than tactics: Katrina talks about launching her firm in August 2019, six months before COVID, building a partnership with her now-co-owner Emily Roster, and why she believes the CPA talent shortage is a direct result of an industry that still rewards volume over relationship. And with $34 trillion of wealth transferring across generations, she makes the case that women need to be at the financial table — not just inheriting a box of paperwork they've never seen before.

Katrina's guiding philosophy: do the best you can until you know better, then when you know better, do better.

Follow Us:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/compoundgrowthpod
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CompoundGrowthPodcast
• TikTok: http://www.tiktok.com/@compoundgrowthpod
• Wheeler’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wheeler-crowley-0a63933b/
• Colin’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colin-walker-mba-6099a038/

Credits:
Created By: Wheeler Crowley and Colin Walker
Production, Editing and Post-Production: Tori Rothwell

Ferrari announced a $640,000 electric car with worse performance than a Tesla Model S — and screened the journalists who came to see it based on how they felt about EVs. It's a strange move for a brand built on confidence. It's also a pretty good lens for what's happening across a lot of big institutions right now.

The bigger conversation this month is the SpaceX IPO. One theory floating around is that it's a head fake entirely — that Tesla absorbs SpaceX instead, because the demand simply isn't there to support a deal that size. If the IPO does happen, it would be the largest the market has ever seen. Either outcome changes things. The Cerebras IPO already showed what happens when the demand doesn't show up.

Underneath all of it: strong tech earnings, real AI adoption, and the honest question of whether this ends like the internet revolution or the dot-com crash. The gladiators are in the arena. It's too early to call.

Follow Us:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/compoundgrowthpod
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CompoundGrowthPodcast
• TikTok: http://www.tiktok.com/@compoundgrowthpod
• Wheeler’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wheeler-crowley-0a63933b/
• Colin’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colin-walker-mba-6099a038/

Credits:
Created By: Wheeler Crowley and Colin Walker
Production, Editing and Post-Production: Tori Rothwell