6 May 2026
Better Humans Ep. 28 - Kristy Barber
We're back on the Better Humans Podcast, and today I'm joined by Kristy Barber — founder of Kristy Barber Consulting, accounting expert, and one of those rare people who can do both spreadsheets AND black-and-white portrait photography (and refuses to apologize for it). Kristy and I get into what it actually looks like to walk away from a corporate accounting job that was crushing her soul, bet on herself in 2015, and build a consulting practice that helps small businesses grow without their books falling apart underneath them.
Kristy shares her full story — growing up in an entrepreneurial family, going to school for accounting because her grandpa told her "you learn numbers, you are worth gold," getting rejected from every firm during the era when nobody under a 3.9 GPA could get hired, and ending up working for the family business. She talks about her time as CFO of a manufacturing company in Colorado, the short and miserable detour into corporate America that she only took because she wanted to buy a house, and the two-week vacation where she prayed and heard God say "you're done here" — and then waited until July 1st to actually do it.
We get into the part of accounting nobody talks about — that most clients don't know what's actually wrong, they just feel that something is. The pain isn't usually where they think it is. We talk about the Toyota Way and Kanban systems, why you fall to the level of your systems and not your last revenue benchmark, and the painful moment when she has to tell a client their financials look great but they forgot to account for inventory and they're actually not doing well at all. (She plays good cop when she can. Some days she just has to wear the red shirt.)
We also go deep on AI — why Kristy thinks the doom-and-gloom in the accounting industry is overblown, how PE firms are gobbling up mom-and-pop accounting practices, and why she believes the human element of experience is something AI just can't replicate. Plus we get into the creative side of who she is — her years shooting black and white photography in the LA music industry working with artists on promo and headshot work, why her accounting teacher told her she couldn't like both art and math (spoiler: she does both), and how God speaks to her in pictures and dreams the same way he speaks to me.
On the business side, Kristy breaks down what she actually does — deep dive assessments, building accounting departments that scale with the business, and creating an experience around something most people associate with anxiety and dread. Her retention rate is basically 100% and once you hear how she works with clients you'll understand why.
If you're a business owner who's been letting your sister or your CPA "handle the books" while you focus on the fun stuff — or if you're someone stuck in a corporate role wondering if it's time to bet on yourself but talking yourself out of it for the fifth year in a row — this one's for you.
Connect with Kristy at christybarber.com (http://christybarber.com) or christy@christybarber.com (mailto:christy@christybarber.com) — same handle across Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.
We're also on Spotify and Apple Podcasts
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5oou7RXcQ177Fgd2UmCtqO?si=19356ebbcad74d9a&nd=1&dlsi=38d5711d17704412 (https://open.spotify.com/show/5oou7RXcQ177Fgd2UmCtqO?si=19356ebbcad74d9a&nd=1&dlsi=38d5711d17704412)
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/better-humans/id1795206136 (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/better-humans/id1795206136)
