Launching CFO Secrets. What it means to be a CFO.

📣 CFO Secrets launches on January 6th. The Friday morning newsletter for the CFOs of today and tomorrow. This is the teaser of what's to come in 2023.

“You need to clear the sh*t from your eyes”

Tim was being hard on me. He knew I was good. But he wanted to me to be better than good.

This was his way of telling me.

I was 25 y/o and in my first role after I left the Big 4. A reporting manager in a $100bn public company. It came with a team of 6. I was talented, but immature; this was a step.

Tim was my assigned mentor. His job was to say the words needed to inspire me to be the best I can be. All whilst away from the heat of the day job.

His ‘clear the sh*t from your eyes’ comment woke me up. But it was what he said next that hit home.

“You gotta start noticing stuff. You are working with some of the best finance professionals in the country. You don’t have to wait to be a CFO to behave like one.”

You don’t have to wait to be a CFO to behave like one.

Sounds small, but that sentence changed my career forever…

It made sense.

Appointing first time CFOs was full of risk for Boards. The best way to become a future CFO, was to behave like one now.

The problem? How the f*ck is a CFO supposed to behave? Feet up on the desk and read the Wall St Journal, right? Right??

Not so much.

Tim moved on, and over the months and years that followed, I had to work it out for myself. How a CFO behaved.

So I started to keep notes:

• How to identify talent

• How to organize a finance team

• Best way to present a budget

• Managing cashflow

• Handling banks

• Board management

• CEO/CFO relationship

• M&A

• Raising finance

• Etc, etc

I could list hundreds.

If I heard a turn of phrase I liked, I would write it down. Or a piece of body language.

I was ‘noticing stuff’.

And then I started to put it into practice.

I got it wrong at first. But the more reps I put in, the more I nailed what worked and what didn't. I soon realized, that the valuable stuff, was actually pretty unconventional.

The stuff that mattered - that really made great CFOs - wasn't the obvious stuff. And no-one was talking about it...

Over 15 years later, and I have thousands of notes across dozens of journals. Filled with best practice for being a winning CFO.

As I became a CFO myself, I put it into practice. Ditching the stuff that didn’t work, and doubling down on what did. Always refining.

What I have now is a playbook tested on over 20,000 hours as CFO of billion dollar businesses.

In this newsletter I will share that playbook.

Exactly what it means to ‘behave like a CFO.’

My goal for CFO Secrets is to educate, inform and entertain the CFOs of today and tomorrow.

All from the trenches… not the textbooks.

I’ve got an exciting vision for where I could take this over time. My biggest constraint is my own time. I’m a working CFO, who is doing this for fun.

Here’s what you can expect from me for now:

• Weekly newsletter (Friday am)

• Less than 5 minute read

• Practical stuff you can use straight away

• Fun / easy to read

We are going to dive deep into all corners of the CFO office. One post at a time. Every Friday Morning (starting January 6th)

So stay tuned, this is going to be fun.

But before you go ... a quick queston to help me know you better:

I hope you enjoy the holidays and look forward to the first edition on Friday January 6th.

Stay crispy,

The Secret CFO

PS - Please share this with any current or future CFOs. I want to grow this thing!

Oh and if you haven’t already, subscribe now…

Disclaimer: I am not your accountant, tax advisor, lawyer, CFO, director or friend. Well, maybe I’m your friend. But I am not any of those other things. Everything I publish represents my opinions only, not advice. Running the finances for a company is serious business, and you should take the proper advice you need to make the right decisions.