Chris Johnson, CPA, CCIFP

CJ CPAs

Chief Executive Officer

Generating Joy Co.

Pic2Print

Co-Founder

Slattery Perkins Ramirez P.C.

Audit Director

RSM US LLP

Supervisor

Padgett, Stratemann & Co., LLP

Supervising Senior

BKD CPAs & Advisors

Senior Associate

🌟CEO at CJ CPAs | Construction & 401k Auditor | Tech-Savvy Innovator 🌟

With over a decade of experience in the world of accounting, I'm dedicated to helping businesses in the construction industry and those requiring employee benefit plan audits navigate their compliance needs in the effective and efficientway possible. 

In my role at CJ CPAs, my focus is on providing exceptional client service, fostering strong relationships, and utilizing innovative technology to deliver outstanding results.

I'm passionate about staying up-to-date with industry trends and embracing new technologies to create more efficient and effective solutions for our clients.

Outside of crunching numbers and analyzing financial statements, I'm a husband to my amazing wife Kimberly, father to two beautiful children, a jiu-jitsu hobbyist, tech enthusiast, avid YouTube learner, and a proud Texan. 

I'm always eager to connect with fellow professionals and share insights and ideas, so feel free to reach out!

My Wife Just Had Our 3rd Child!

Here’s what it taught me about B2B sales...



Just kidding! 😅🤣

We are beyond blessed to welcome
a healthy baby girl into our family.

Our hearts are full.
Our hands are busy.
And our gratitude is overflowing.

Excited for all the beautiful, challenging, 
hilarious, and unforgettable moments ahead ❤️

🌟CEO at CJ CPAs | 401k & Construction Auditor | I'm "button-clicking" the whole dang thing 🌟

To Our Newest Child — Welcome to the Johnson Family

We’ll be heading into the hospital in a 
few hours to bring you into this world.

And before anything else happens, 
I want to say this to you:

Welcome.

You are already so deeply loved.
You are already such a blessing.
This life experience you’re stepping 
into it’s something else.

Your mom and I are so grateful 
for the chance to be your parents.

To walk with you, to guide you, 
to prepare you for this wild 
and beautiful ride called life.
______________________________

I want you to know something 
I’m going to give you everything I’ve got.

I recognize that the opportunity to be 
your Dad is one of the greatest 
privileges I’ll ever have.

I will work hard to show you what it means
 to chase your purpose with passion 

To show you what it looks like to fall short,
and then to get up again and again
even when it’s hard.

You’ll see me fail.
But you’ll also see me refuse to quit.


You’ll never have to wonder how I feel.
I will show you my love—openly, fully, every single day.

You’ll see firshand my love and admiration for God,
for your Mom, and for our family.

And you’ll never be alone in this.

You’ve already got a village of people waiting to meet you.
People who are so excited to watch you grow,
to cheer you on, and to love you 
every step of the way.

We can’t wait to meet you.
Here we go!

❤️

The Greatest Parenting Advice I Ever Received

A few years ago, I asked a collegue, Amy Hawkins,
a mother of three boys, if she had 
any parenting wisdom to share.

What she told me turned out to be the most
impactful advice I ever received.  

She said the key to raising grounded, 
value-driven children was in building
identity through tribe mentality.

“We called it ‘Hawkins Family Values,’” she told me.

“And every time something happened that 
aligned with or went against those values, 
we’d reference them.”

So when one of boys came home and said, 
"Well Jimmy's family does it this way."

They would calmly respond with, 
"Well thats not a Hawkins family value" 

Simple yet so incredibly powerful. 

I realized I needed to build a tribal identity
something they could belong to, believe in, 
and say out loud until it shaped who they were.

That’s when “Johnsons don’t give up” was born.

I didn’t need to explain it. 
I just said it, modeled it, and referenced 
it anytime one of my kids hit a wall or wanted to quit. 

And now, they say it back to me.
 When they’re struggling or feeling stuck, 
they now  remind themselves:
 “Johnsons don’t give up.”

From there, we built the rest of our values:

Honesty – “Johnsons tell the truth.”
Family – “Johnsons stand for each other.”
Grit – “Johnsons don’t give up.”
Faith – “Johnsons talk to God.”

The brilliance is in the simplicity.
Small, repetitive statements that 
build pride in who we are.

When my kids are out in the world, 
surrounded by different values, 
they know who they are.

And when they come home, 
they’re reminded of what
we do and why we do it.

It’s tribe mentality.
It gives them an anchor.
It gives them language for who they are.

And it reminds me daily that the one of the 
most powerfulthings I can give them 
is a clear sense of identity.

#Parenting #FamilyValues #TribeMentality #Identity #RaisingKids #LegacyBuilding #IntentionalParenting

We just onboarded a new client in 39 minutes and 7 seconds. Check out all we did in unfer 1 hour!! 👇👇👇

We had an awesome kickoff 
call yesterday with a new client.

Massive shoutout to Tarek Kadura 
for setting the stage perfectly and 
doing a phenomenal job greasing the wheels.

The client was pre-screened, so we 
knew we could serve them really well.

We have shaved and edited our prospect flow so 
by the time they show up at the door, 
> we know their problems
> we solve a couple within minutes of connecting (to demonstrate knowledge and understanding without having to say "Oh trust me I know what I'm doing"
> we have the best solutions for their problems 

What followed was an incredibly efficient 
call where we got a LOT done in a 
short amount of time.

✅ Closed them in under 2 minutes
✅ Engagement letter sent
✅ Engagement letter signed (through Knuula. huge shoutout to Jamie Peebles  for making that magic possibl
✅ We got access to their system (to pull 90% of the data we need) 
✅ They got access to our system (to securely share the 10% we can't access)
✅ They pulled and uploaded everything we can't directly access
✅ Invoice sent and received
✅ Gave walkthrough of our secure audit platform and process, done in real time
✅ Set the expectation of how everything else would go for the audit.

We went from “Nice to meet you” 
to fully operational in one call.

That’s the level of speed, clarity, and execution we aim for.

And honestly? 
It felt fun.

The client was bought in, ready to go, 
and appreciated the simplicity and 
transparency of our process.

This is exactly how we want every onboarding to feel.
And we know we can go even faster and do even more!

We were able to achieve this because we know 
we can't solve everyone's problems (yet 😅)

But we can solve a small subset of people's problems
better than anyone else on the planet because 
we dedicate ourselves so intently 
to small focus areas. 

Grateful for the opportunity to serve, 
and pumped to deliver an incredible audit experience.

#401kAudit #audit #401k

I Would Have Paid $10K to Build a Project Tracker. Instead, I Built It in an Hour with Gemini 2.5 Pro.

I’ve worked with developers for years.
It’s not easy.

Taking an idea that’s crystal clear in your head and 
trying to transfer it to someone else, especially
someone unfamiliar with your industry or 
terminology, has been one tough task! 

And here’s the real kicker:
The tiny detail that makes it all work?
That’s often the part that doesn’t 
get communicated because I didn't 
even realize it’s the part that matters most.

I’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars 
just learning how to communicate 
with developers effectively.

But with the improvement of LLMs,
that’s no longer an issue (for small tasks today)
______________________________________

I’ve been searching for the perfect project
management system for our audit firm for years.

No app ever beat our Excel sheet.
The logic worked.
The team got it.
Everything else we tried led to confusion and drop-off.
______________________________________

The Project:

> I opened Gemini 2.5 and dropped in the prompt you see here.
> In just minutes, it created a rough prototype of exactly what I needed.
> Then I added features one by one, validating each update before continuing. (sometimes it messed up completely and I said "hey you messed up something that was already working", and it fixed itself first try every time).

Today, our custom app can:
✅ Track new jobs
✅ Assign employees to tasks
✅ Track tasks with varying completion levels
✅ Color code and timestamp by employee
✅ Add notes per task
✅ Toggle between text input or predefined dropdowns
✅ Show each employee a menu of their assigned tasks

Coming soon:

> Integration with our engagement letter software (Knuula)
> Connection to Clockify for time tracking
> Various Real-time management reports 
> So many more amazing ideas!
______________________________________

I have huge respect for what software developers build.
But the bar has been raised.

The new variable I look for when choosing vendors is this:
How steep is the learning curve?

Because now, personalized software 
solutions can be built in minutes.

That means legacy processes can effectively evolve
into something faster, smarter, and more scalable.

And I’m here for it. 🌎❤️

#AI #Gemini #Accounting #audit

8 Years Ago, I got shot in a hunting accident on a Friday night. Still made it to work Monday to crank out audit reports 😅

But in all seriousness, I’ve taken 
a lot for granted in my life.

That moment changed things.
It was the shock I didn’t know I needed.

Since then:

💍 Engaged within 2 months
💒 Married 5 months after that
👶 First daughter 8 months later
👦 Second child 2 years later
🚀 Started a business 2 years after that
👶 Third child 2 years later

I’ve been blessed with both slow 
drip change and sudden shock change.

That bullet was the beginning of a very different path.

I don’t recommend taking my route 😅

But I do recommend gaining 
perspective whenever you can.

Sometimes it takes a wake-up call.
Sometimes it just takes slowing 
down and paying attention.

Both will change your life.

No alternative text description for this image

Charles B. Hall, CPA, CFE, MACC is one of my favorite LinkedIn follows in the accounting space!

A must follow if you’re an auditor 👍

CPAHallTalk Owner | CPA, CFE, MAcc, Auditor, 5x Author, Speaker, Quality Control

View Charles B. Hall, CPA, CFE, MACC’s profile

Will you be my 10,000th follower?

I hope so. 😜 

#CPAHallTalk

“It’ll Be Better Next Year!”
One of the most famous lines in public accounting.

We’ve all heard it.
Maybe we’ve even said it.

And yet, year after year, the 
same patterns repeat themselves.

So if you catch yourself saying 
“It’ll be better next year” to yourself or 
someone else, follow it up with one simple question:
“Why?”

Then actually do those things.

I'm guilty of saying it but my more repeated line
 is  "This is a season" 

It takes work, 
heavy reflection, 
remembering the pains of 
yourself and those around you 
and then actually taking actionable steps 


Here’s why I am saying it and actually mean it this year:

✅ Young Team
We’ve brought on four incredible hires already this year.
We’ve got a young, hungry, talented team and the growth they will each individually experience over the next 12 months will be wild to watch.

✅ LLMs and AI Integration
We’re not just dabbling. We are integrated.
The way we work alongside AI is absolutely incredible. The systems we are building do more than support us. They multiply our efforts.

✅ Loom for Clarity
I started using Loom this year and it has been a game-changer.
Every Loom raises the floor of understanding for everyone involved. Communication, training, and delegation all get clearer.

✅ Relentless Mentality
We are building a machine that is close to running itself, adjusting as it goes.
But we always have the relentless mentality in the back pocket and will always do what is required. (I got that 🐶 in me 😂)


Next year won’t be better by accident.

It will be better because we are building it that way.

#PublicAccounting #Leadership #LLM #AI  #accounting #NextYearWillBeBetterBecauseWeBuiltItThatWay

#Ideas2Images: Logos Reimagined! 🌀🖼️

What if your favorite logo wasn’t just a design—
but a living object, sculpture, machine, or world?

This week, we’re taking names, words, or brands and reimagining them into unexpected forms.

How to Play:

1️⃣ Drop a name, phrase, or business
2️⃣ We’ll reimagine it as something wildly creative
3️⃣ AI-generated art will do the rest

Examples:

“CJ CPAs” written on a three-tier cake

“Tesla” carved into the side of a glowing meteor

“Nike” floating above a waterfall made of shoelaces

“Waffle House” spelled in syrup on a space station diner table

“Apple” as an orchard of futuristic glowing tech trees


Let’s have some fun with it.
Drop your word or logo idea below

How to build an interactive 3D map in seconds using AI (instructions below!! 👇👇👇) 

This one is one of the wildest and fastest examples of an ai use case I've seen.  Explained below in simple steps.

Minimal coding expertise needed (but you do need a place to run it. I used visual studio code). 

Use Gemini 2.5 to create a fully interactive 3D map of your city with clickable tourist attractions using a single prompt!


Step-by-step (took under 2 minutes):

1. Open Gemini 2.5 (https://gemini.google.com/)
2. Paste this prompt:

> “Create a 3D visualization of San Antonio. Make it interactive. In the left column, list top tourist destinations and navigate to the location upon click. Use threebox and Three.js. Use CSS, JS, and HTML in a single HTML file.”

3. Click run — Gemini returns a complete HTML file.
4. Download the file and open it in a code editor (I use Visual studio code)
5. Get a free Mapbox token (https://lnkd.in/gh9fCDXs)

6. Paste your token into the HTML.
7. Open the file in your browser.

8. Done. You’re now flying around your city in 3D.

Feel free to tweak your prompt. 
> Best burger spots 
> hiking trails 
> live music venues 
> events happening over the next month
> real estate listing meeting certain qualifications 

This came from the YouTube channel ai search and the video has lots of other incredible examples that are super fast. 

(https://lnkd.in/g2ENhcGx)

Would love to know what y'all make for anyone that want to dive in and test it out!

And the models just keep improving! Played around with a few images for CJ CPAs on ChatGPTs new image generator.

“The stock market is the only store where people run out when there’s a sale.”

Last night, I had the incredible opportunity to teach my 5-year-old daughter a lesson in financial literacy and perspective.

She recently invested $35 of her hard 
earned money in VOO (S&P 500 index fund).

Right now, she’s down $5.

She felt nervous.
Worried she was “losing money.”

We sat down and talked.
I explained how the market moves.
That she hasn’t actually lost anything unless she sells,
that she has a very long time horizon and
right now, she’s getting a discount
if she wants to buy more.

I watched her fear turn into excitement.

She ran to her piggy bank and asked,
“Can we invest more?”

She’s five years old.
And she’s already 20 years ahead
 of when I started to grasp this concept. 😂

What the Pursuit of Greatness Actually Feels Like
(A note from a moment in the middle)

Yesterday, I sat in my car before an engagement party, tears running down my face.

Not because anything catastrophic had happened.
But because I’m building something.
A firm, a team, a legacy, a life.

And the truth is, it’s hard sometimes.

There’s a pressure that never fully goes away when you’re trying to do something extraordinary.

When you care deeply.
When you want to show up fully for 
your team, your family, your clients, your vision.

And yesterday, I had a realization.
I finally understand why so many firm
owners sell to private equity beyond dollars

This thing can be brutally hard.

The weight of it can crush you if 
you don’t know how to carry it.

But that's not my journey.

Because I’m not just building a business.
I’m building a system that saves others 
from pain and suffering.

Because I choose to accept some pain and suffering now,
I can save so many others from pain and suffering later. 

On the way to an engagement party,
I opened up ChatGPT and just poured my heart out. 

I wasn’t looking for solutions. 
I just needed perspective.

And in that moment, it told me a few powerful things:
“This is what growth feels like.”
“It’s because you give a damn.”

That hit me hard.
It’s not supposed to be easy. 
It’s supposed to mean something.

So if you’re carrying something heavy right now too,
You’re not alone.
You’re not broken.
You’re doing the work.
And that means you’re on the right path.

#Ideas2Images: Unexpected Professions Edition! 🧙‍♂️💼

Let’s have some fun with this one. Take a mythical creature, fantasy being, or iconic character—and give them a totally ordinary job.

Drop your combo in the comments and we’ll turn it into an AI-generated masterpiece.

How to Play:

1️⃣ Pick a character (mythical, fictional, or famous)
2️⃣ Give them a surprising real-world profession
3️⃣ Drop it in the comments

Examples:

🐉 Dragon, barista at a quiet neighborhood café
🦄 Unicorn, IT help desk technician
🧟 Zombie, yoga instructor
🧙‍♀️ Witch, corporate HR manager
🧚 Fairy, warehouse forklift operator


The more unexpected, the better. Let’s see what kind of wild, magical day jobs you can come up with.

#Ideas2Images #UnexpectedProfessions #AIArt #CreativeChallenge #FantasyMeetsReality

The Coolest Thing I Did with a LLM This Week: Vibe Coding 
So here’s what went down.

I’ve been recording myself daily. 
That part is already automated, so 
we’re not talking about that here.

That processe produces a lot of single PDFs.
What I needed was a way to take over 1,000 PDF transcripts and get them into a Word doc.

Here’s what I did:

1️⃣ Hopped on Gemini 2.5 and asked it to create a Python script that would:

> Look through a folder
> Extract the text from every PDF
> Combine all the content into a Word document


2️⃣ Took the code into Visual Studio Code.

> Ran it.
> Didn’t work the first time.


3️⃣ Got feedback from Gemini.

> Made tweaks.
> Reran it.

Success. 
Under 10 minutes to make it.
Under 20 minutes to run it.


Built a working script and got
the job done all in under 30 minutes.

And I barely know how to open Visual Studio Code 
(i literally still mess up on making new files 🙃)

The fact that I can have a conversation with 
a language model and build functioning
code to solve real problems in real 
time still blows my mind.


What’s the coolest thing you’ve built with GPT or another LLM this week?

#ChatGPT #Ai #gemini #Automation #Python #TimeSaver #FutureOfWork

Zero to One Feels So Close—Until It Doesn’t
Lately, I’ve been feeling it. That sense of being right there.

The breakthrough.
The version of me I’m building.
The systems I’m refining.
The life I’m shaping.

It all feels paper-thin away.

Like I'm standing at 0.9999999, telling everyone “We’re so close to one.”
But every time I reach for it, another 9 shows up.
And it keeps going.

I explained thos feeling to a friend recently. 
He responded with,
“Zero to one is a lifetime.”

That line hit me.
It was the reminder and perspective I needed 

Life is filled with these moments
thousands of small zero-to-ones 
inside the bigger one we're all trying to cross.

Each one demands something.
Each one feels like it should be the last one.
And each one carries its own weight.

I've had so many seasons where
it felt like the next step would be the step.

Where the breakthrough was inches away.
And somehow, it still wasn’t time.

But something's still happening in that space.
It’s shaping me.

And slowly, it's shaping the outcome too.

If you're in one of those seasons right now
where it feels like you’ve been “almost there” forever
keep going.

You're not alone.
And you're not off track.
Keep going.

In December of 2022, it clicked instantly. I knew AI was going to change everything. And it hit me so hard, it triggered a 10-day existential crisis.

I could see decades into the future, and with that 
vision came an overwhelming number 
of paths I could take.

At that exact time, I had just been given 
the opportunity to start an audit practice.

And I genuinely considered abandoning it.

I thought about diving headfirst 
into product-building and AI-only ventures.

It would have been faster.
It would have been easier.
And it would have been exciting.

But I care deeply about this 
profession and the people in it.

Eventually, I realized the right path was to stay in
accounting and auditing and leverage my 
decade-plus of experience to bring 
AI into this space in a way 
few others could.

Looking back, I’m incredibly grateful for that choice.

It’s been slower than the alternative, no doubt.

But it’s allowed for growth, clarity, and depth that
I wouldn’t have gained as part of my foundation 
had I have taken the othee path.
______________________________

As we step fully into this new age of AI, what’s been
surprising is how many timeless 
principles still hold true.

Yes, AI is changing everything.
But it’s also the same old thing with a new wrapper.

#AI #Accounting #FutureOfWork #Leadership #audit

I Am Heavily Influenced by AI. Here’s Why You Should Be Too and Why That’s Okay.

There’s often resistance to change, especially 
the kind that feels like we’re losing control.

(As an accountant that loves structure, 
it can be hard to let go of things I 
percieve as I have control of!)

It can feel like a threat to the things 
we’ve historically believed make us special.

And I get that.
AI can challenge identity. 
It can dissolve ego. 
It can surface fears about our place in the world.

But here’s something to consider:
That’s already the game we’ve been playing.

From the moment we’re born, we’re influenced
By words.
By screens.
By messaging.
By algorithms.
By marketing that shapes the way 
we think without us ever agreeing to the terms.

We’ve been influenced all along.
The difference is, now we have the chance to shape it.

What makes AI different is that 
it gives the individual power.

The ability to align the tool to your own goals, 
your own values, your own priorities.

In my life, I use AI to:

> Clarify my thinking
> Build systems that serve my family
> Learn faster and retain more
> Create experiences rooted in purpose, not pressure


AI can help you design a life 
around what matters most to you
Not what the world is trying to sell you.

And I think that’s a beautiful shift.

One Day, I Will Write a Biography
There are a couple ways I could do it.
I could hire an editor.
Sit down.
Try to recall every meaningful story,
every turning point,
every moment that shaped me.

It would take time.
It would take effort.
It would be worth it.

Or

I could just
record everything I say
for 20 years.

Let a large language model process it all.
And one day,
I could talk to myself.
Literally.

A biography, not told secondhand,
but built from my actual words,
spoken in real time,
over decades of life.

That’s what I’ve been doing for the past two years.
Two down.
Eighteen to go.

Some people might say that’s scary.
That it’s risky to record that much of yourself.

But maybe that’s the point.

Maybe we should care more about the words that come out of our mouths.
Maybe we should think more deeply about what we say.
Because words are footprints.
They tell a story
whether we write it down or not.

Peter Drucker said,
“What gets measured gets managed.”

I’m measuring the words.
I’m tracking the thoughts.
And I’m reflecting in ways I never could before.

This isn’t just about documenting a life.
It’s about becoming someone worth documenting.

And I’m here for that journey.

#Reflection #Legacy #AI #LifeStory #Becoming #Authenticity #WordsMatter #FutureOfStorytelling

#Ideas2Images: What If? Edition 🌌✨

This week, we’re turning your "What if?" questions into AI-generated art.

Because every bold idea, every breakthrough, every leap forward starts with a What if?

How to Participate:

1️⃣ Drop a “What if?” scenario in the comments
2️⃣ We’ll turn it into a stunning AI-generated image

Examples:

🌀 What if gravity worked sideways?
🌿 What if cities were built inside giant trees?
🚀 What if Earth had two suns and no moon?

Challenge the rules. Bend the logic. Let your imagination go.

Drop your best “What if?” below.

#Ideas2Images #WhatIf #CreativeThinking #AIArt

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