Name: Leoma Brehmer
Title: Staff Accountant
Tenure: 8 Years
Hobbies: Camping, Hiking, Kayaking, And Any Other Outdoor Activity
Bio: Leoma Brehmer knew what she wanted to do from a very young age. She had the wherewithal as a high school student to study a wide array of subjects so that, as an adult, she would be able to really, fully, do whatever she wanted to do.
And Leoma wanted to work in finance.
“I’ve been in it since I was in high school,” she laughed. “It’s something that I enjoyed doing. This sounds really bad, but it came naturally to me, so I just decided that’s what I wanted to do.”
It doesn’t sound bad at all. Because how many high school students have even the faintest idea of what they want to be “when they grow up?”
“When you go through your electives and you’re trying to find something to do, I wanted to make sure that I had lots of experiences to try and decide what I wanted,” Leoma said. “I took AG, I took welding, I took auto mechanics, I took shorthand and keyboarding. I took all of these things trying to discover what I was good at. Bookkeeping was one of the courses that was offered, so I took that from Mr. Bell.”
Years later, she would work with a different Mr. Bell – Dick Bell, the Managing Partner of CPA Consulting Group, LLP.
But the first Mr. Bell in her life was a teacher who doubled as an accountant and bookkeeper for several businesses in Casper. He taught Leoma everything he knew.
“I loved it so much,” she beamed. “The first year, I took two semesters and by the third semester I was actually his teacher’s assistant. I love it. It’s the checks and balances of it; the pure simplicity of it.”
Those checks and balances would lead Leoma to a decades-long career.
“I attained my accounting certificate here in Casper the first two years and started on with life,
she stated. “You know, having a family and kids and what not. I worked a couple different places before I landed my first really big accounting position, which was with First American Title here in Casper. Then, I went to Custom Fiberglass and was there for 14 years. Eventually, I decided I wanted to see about doing public accounting, to see if it gave me a little bit more of a challenge. And a job was offered here at CPA Consulting Group, so I took it.”
That was in 2014 and, in the proceeding 8 years, Leoma has certainly been challenged. She has learned a lot, she has taught a lot and she has calculated a lot of numbers.
“I interviewed with Dick [Bell],” she said. “When I applied, I didn’t think I was qualified for the job, but I was going out on a limb. He decided to give me a chance, and when I got here, I realized how much I really enjoyed it.”
In fact, Leoma said that she enjoyed the job so much that she decided to go back to school. She’s currently working towards receiving her Masters in Professional Accounting, and hopes to take the CPA exam in 2023.
Leoma stated that she loves working with her team, she loves working with her clients, and she loves the “balance” of the profession.
“It’s the checks and balances,” she stated. “The yin and the yang of it. That for every positive, there’s a negative. It’s really neat when everything works out and everything balances like it should. Plus, the income tax aspect of it – how what you do on an everyday basis affects your taxability and liability at the end of the year- and how that works is very interesting to me. It’s always an ongoing process of learning, which I enjoy.”
It was while working for CPA Consulting Group, LLP that Leoma also experienced another life-changing moment; she met the love of her life.
“I actually got married the year after I started working here,” she said. “I raised my kids myself and I call him the love of my life because I waited a long time to find the right person. He’s been very supportive of me and he’s one of the driving factors behind me going forward [with my career]. He had the confidence in me that I didn’t have in myself.”
That confidence is still hard to come by sometimes, but in her 8 years with CPA Consulting Group, LLP, Leoma has consistently proven herself to be a valuable asset to the team.
“I have worked with several different CPA’s throughout the years with different businesses,” she stated. “And the one thing that I really enjoy about CPA Consulting Group is that we have some very intelligent accountants here that cover a broad spectrum. We can handle just about anything that walks through the door and collectively, we have years and years upon years of experience. And our CPA’s are willing to share that experience and use it for the best benefit of our clients. And I’m really glad that I’m getting to learn from these people. There is not a better team of accountants that are going to work for the benefit of our clients than CPA Consulting Group, LLP.”
Leoma should know. She’s been wanting to do this since she was a teenager. She began writing this chapter of her life all the way back in high school. She knew what she wanted to do back then, and she’s spent the rest of her life actually doing it. Not many of us can say that. But she can, and CPA Consulting Group, LLP is all the better for it.