I'm Bryan. I'm a 41 year old husband, father to two beautiful children, Licensed CPA in North Carolina (License #41490, verify here), PwC Alum, CPA Practice Advisor Top 20 Under 40, and founder of Kesler CPA Review and Ultimate CPA Exam Guide.
Since 2012, I've built a community of 68,000+ CPA candidates across my email subscribers, social media followers, free trial users, and paying customers. I've helped them pass the CPA exam through my podcast, this blog, one-on-one mentorship, and now a full CPA review course with study materials.
My goal is plain and simple: help you pass the CPA exam on your FIRST try.
Personal Note: I did NOT pass the CPA exam on my first try. I failed SEVEN times before I finally passed. I get tears in my eyes every time I think about all of the rookie mistakes I made when I first began studying...
If I had known then what I know now, I would have passed in no more than 6 months and saved at least 18 months of my life. It took me two+ years to figure out how to pass the hardest test in the professional world.
You can read about my lessons learned and the HUGE mistakes that caused me to fail 7 times here.
How I Built Kesler CPA Review: From Blog to Full Course (2012-Present)
People sometimes ask whether Kesler CPA Review is "new." It's not. The course and brand you see today is the product of 10+ years of working directly with CPA candidates. Here's the full timeline:
After failing 7 times and studying for 2+ years while working full time, I finally passed the CPA exam on August 5, 2010. That experience became the foundation for everything I teach today.
I launched CPA Exam Guide and began sharing CPA exam tips, study strategies, and course reviews. What started as a blog and resource hub quickly grew as candidates reached out for direct help with the same problems I had faced.
CPA Exam Guide evolved into Ultimate CPA Exam Guide, a structured paid mentorship program. This was NOT just a blog. It was a mentorship platform where I worked directly with candidates on study plans, accountability, and exam strategy.
Ultimate CPA Exam Guide became the official mentorship program for Roger CPA Review, Wiley CPAexcel (before UWorld acquired them), Gleim CPA Review, and Yaeger CPA Review. These weren't affiliate deals. These were formal partnerships where those companies recommended my mentorship program to their students because they recognized the gap between "having study materials" and "actually passing." You can still see the original partnership pages on their archived sales pages. I worked with thousands of their students during this period.
After years of mentoring candidates through other companies' materials, I saw the same gaps come up over and over. So I founded Kesler CPA Review to combine the mentorship and study process I'd refined since 2012 with dedicated CPA exam study materials. CPA Exam Guide became a study supplement with mentorship built in.
In January 2023, 15-year-old Jimmy Chilimigras reached out to me for mentorship. On June 17, 2023, during a Zoom call together, Jimmy learned he passed his final CPA exam section, making him the youngest person in history to pass all four sections of the CPA exam. His scores: BEC 86, AUD 75, REG 86, FAR 80. This was covered by the Journal of Accountancy, Accounting Today, NASBA, and Inside Public Accounting. One of the proudest moments of my career.
Kesler CPA Review expanded into a full CPA review course with a complete test bank (8,000+ MCQs, 150+ simulations), 3,200+ pages of textbook-style study materials, gamification, mobile apps, and the mentorship that's been at our core since day one. All six CPA exam sections: AUD, FAR, REG, BAR, ISC, and TCP. Kesler CPA Review is now listed as a recommended CPA exam prep course on the Illinois CPA Society's Member Discount Program alongside Gleim, Surgent, and UWorld Roger CPA Review.
What Did Passing The CPA Exam Do For My Career?
I have had a bit of a rollercoaster of an accounting career. I started working for BKD LLP in August of 2008 making 48K and before I could even get my feet wet, I was laid off at the end of my 1st busy season due to the financial crisis of 2008 and the fact I hadn't passed the CPA exam.
Thankfully with the help of my strong accounting network, I was able to get a job in a month or two at Cassidy Turley as an entry level accountant. I worked there for about 1.5 years, but I was only making 40K since the position did not require a CPA. Taking a pay cut is never fun... but desperate times call for desperate measures.
After battling with the CPA exam for 2 years, I finally passed and immediately took a job at PwC making 53K as an experienced associate. That was a 13K jump in salary just because I had 3 letters after my name!
I worked at PwC for 2 years and put in my time there auditing companies such as Anheuser Busch and Bass Pro. After 2 years, my wife and I decided that it would be best for me to quit PwC and start a career in the private industry. So I quit and took a job as a VP of financial reporting at CitiMortgage making 65K with much room for growth.
I am still in disbelief over what passing the CPA exam has done for my career, my family and my life. In just 2 short years, I went from making 40K living in a 550 sq ft. apartment to making 65K and owning my own house with a backyard for my dog!
The ONLY reason I was able to accomplish this is because of the CPA exam!
My friend, that is true career power, and I want to share as much of it with you as I can!
Do you want to start your journey to obtaining some of the same career power right now?
Take the Free CPA Exam Study Personality Quiz below, and I will share with you exclusive tips tailored to your specific situation.
Why Did I Create CPA Exam Guide and Kesler CPA Review?
Being the entrepreneur that I am, I wanted to find a way to give back to the industry that has taught me so much.
It started with the blog and podcast. I started CPA Exam Guide in 2012, and by 2015 it evolved into Ultimate CPA Exam Guide as a formal mentorship program because I kept seeing candidates with access to great study materials who still couldn't pass. The problem wasn't the materials. It was the process, the accountability, and the study strategy.
From 2019 to 2022, the major CPA review companies agreed. Roger CPA Review, Wiley CPAexcel, Gleim CPA Review, and Yaeger CPA Review all made Ultimate CPA Exam Guide their official mentorship partner.
After years of working inside those ecosystems and seeing what worked and what didn't across tens of thousands of candidates, I founded Kesler CPA Review in 2022 to bring the study materials and the mentorship together in one place. In 2024, it became a full course with a complete test bank, textbook, and all six CPA exam sections.
Today, 68,000+ CPA candidates have come through my ecosystem across email, social media, free trials, the podcast, and the blog. Some used my mentorship alongside Becker, UWorld, Gleim, or Surgent. Others use Kesler CPA Review as their primary course. Either way, the mission hasn't changed since 2012.
After recruiting for two years at PwC, I learned so much about how to speak to students and get them truly excited about a career in accounting and the importance of sitting for the CPA exam as soon as possible.
I am by no means claiming to be the only way to pass. But I did pass the CPA exam while working full time and have an inspiring story to back it up.
My goal is to share my story as honestly as possible to help you succeed. So if you have already started working in the accounting industry, I hope that you will find value in my story and be able to apply my successes and/or failures to help you advance your career.
If you are brand new to accounting or are just thinking about starting, then you have come to the right place. I reveal everything that is involved in studying for the CPA exam and the basics of how to dominate your accounting career.
Please feel free to subscribe to CPA Exam Guide Newsletter, and be sure to take the Free CPA Exam Study Personality Quiz above, and I will share with you exclusive tips tailored to your specific situation.
Last Word. Please Read:
I don't consider myself an "Accounting or CPA exam expert." The information you will see on my blog is based on my personal experience studying, my 13+ years mentoring CPA candidates since 2012, and the lessons I've learned from working with 68,000+ people in this space. I am not trying to sell you a "career enhancement gimmick."
Passing the CPA exam and having a successful accounting career takes hard work, the right CPA Review Course and patience, and you can find a lot of the information you need to start taking the CPA exam on my blog or around the Internet. If you need help with anything please just email me, (bryan(@)cpaexamguide.com) and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
I know that my story is inspiring, and I truly hope that I can inspire you as well. However I want to make sure I do it in the right way. Everything on my blog is from personal experience, so please don't feel like you owe me anything because of it. This blog is my way of paying it forward to you.
NOTE: If you are an accounting professor, I also have resources for motivating your students to take the CPA exam here.
Thanks again for taking the time to get to know me better! I hope to see you around on the blog sooner or later!
Cheers!
Bryan Kesler
Passed the CPA exam on 8/5/2010 (a day I will never forget)
Founded CPA Exam Guide in 2012
Founded Kesler CPA Review in 2022
68,000+ CPA candidates served and counting
P.S. Want to learn more about my flagship course that has helped thousands of CPA candidates pass the CPA exam?
Click HERE to learn more about Kesler CPA Review
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Bryan Kesler is a Licensed CPA in North Carolina (License #41490) and founder of Kesler CPA Review (founded 2022) and CPA Exam Guide (founded 2012), which earned him a spot on CPA Practice Advisor's Top 20 Under 40. From 2019 to 2022, Ultimate CPA Exam Guide was the official mentorship program for Roger CPA Review, Wiley CPAexcel, Gleim CPA Review, and Yaeger CPA Review.
He has helped 68,000+ CPA candidates through his podcast, blog, mentorship, and study materials since 2012. In 2023, Bryan and the Kesler CPA Review team helped 15-year-old Jimmy Chilimigras become the youngest person in history to pass the CPA exam. You can contact him via email bryan@cpaexamguide.com
