Introducing Think like a CFO podcast!
Oct 12
Written By Melissa Houston
Hi friends and welcome to the Think life a CFO with Melissa Houston, CPA podcast!
You are joining me on the very first podcast that I’m putting out into the world, and I am super excited about this project. I have so much business information to share with you and I’m stoked to do it on this platform. I can’t believe I’m here doing this, but here I am. I am a total introvert, so launching this podcast for you today is putting me out of my comfort zone in a big way, but it’s all good. Because I get to be here with you, and I get to pass along to you so much of the business information I have learned from first hand experience throughout my a bit of 20 year career in business.
It’s the launch of the Think Like a CFO Podcast, devoted to helping women entrepreneurs master their finances and launch, grow, and scale their businesses. S…
I’ll start today with a solo episode, that way I can introduce myself, the podcast, and let you in on why I decided to start think like a cfo and tell you about what my hopes and dreams and achievements for this podcast are.
Why I decided to start the Think like a CFO podcast
I am a Canadian business entrepreneur, and when I did my own search for women entrepreneur podcast shows that had Canadian content, well, my search kind of went flat. I wanted a show that spoke to the struggles of starting your own business, of growing your business, and women run businesses. I really wanted to hear interesting stories that not only could I relate to, but could resonate with me. I wanted to be moved and inspired to do better. to be challenged. I wanted to hear about the challenges that women like me faced in business, and issues specifically for women.
And what I didn’t want is high level speak that just ended up confusing me or took too much mind energy to listen to, I just wanted a nice casual podcast with real people about real business issues that I could learn from. I wanted real interaction and real world experience and language.
As a mentor once told me, if you can’t find what you’re looking for, get out there and create it. so here I am. putting all this goodness out into the podcast community, truly hoping that you will enjoy it
And if there are some great podcast shows that I’m missing, I’d love it if you brought that to my attention. I’m always looking for great podcast shows to follow.
Then I got to thinking deeper about this podcast, and wondering, well what I can offer? what should I make it look like? how can I help listeners and add real value to the listening experience. and I came up with a vision.
My vision for think like a cfo is to help women entrepreneurs with their businesses, by looking at their finances and helping women to get to know their own business numbers. so I decided to combine my 20+ years of business experience, my formal CPA accreditation, and my joy of working with people to bring you think like a cfo.
At this point you may be wondering what a cfo is and why you should care about this. so before I go any further I’d like to define the role of a cfo. a cfo is a chief financial officer who works directly beside the CEO of a business. You keep hearing influencers speak to the importance of being a CEO and taking on that role, and now I’m encouraging you take that CEO responsibility a small step further to include the knowledge of your finances.
The CFO has primary responsibility for managing the company’s finances, including financial planning, management of financial risks, record-keeping, and financial reporting. The CFO informs the CEO of the financial health of the business and offers advice, guidance and analysis of financial info to the CEO so that the CEO can make informed decisions and do what is in the best interest of the business.
Before we go further, I just want to emphasize that I am not recommending that you become an accountant and get stuck in the weeds of the finances. No, you can leave that job to the bookkeeper and the tax accountant that you may currently already have. What I am asking you to do is to get more involved in your finances so that you know your business inside and out and can make informed business decisions. But this can be done on a higher level and I’ll speak to that further in a few minutes.
Over the years I have noticed business owners shy away from their numbers, and not know them as well as they should. The numbers become emotional where the common response is to their numbers is fear, anxiety, embarrassment, and it doesn’t need to be that way.
I get it, learning something new can feel overwhelming, but I want to break through the noise and show you that it doesn’t have to be that hard and I want to give you the information that you need without a bunch of other information to confuse you.
It is impossible to grow your business well if you do not understand your financial foundation. and I am passionate about getting this message out there.
But I also know that it would be a struggle to get your attention if I just talk about numbers all the time and business scenarios, so I took my big, brilliant idea a step further and thought – what if I interviewed real people and talked with them about their businesses, and combined a money lesson in their story somewhere? maybe that would interest you?
You see, I know numbers, and I know how much value it brings to you as a business owner to know your numbers, and I want to get you excited about numbers as much as you can, because when you know your numbers, you’ll make more money.
And yes, if you found that was a bold statement about making more money, don’t worry, we’ll also talk about money mindset issues on this show. because there is nothing wrong with making more money and want to work towards wealth. and you need to own that.
But not only do I love numbers, I love business. and I love to see other women successfully launch, grow and scale their businesses. and I want to provide a platform for these amazing women to talk about their business and the challenges they’ve faced, the ups and downs of being an entrepreneur, how they have handled the struggles and the fun and excitement that being a business owner brings.
Let me tell you a bit about myself. I am a Chartered Professional Accountant, also known as a CPA, and I live in Ottawa, ON, Canada. I am married, and we have two teenagers. My oldest just turned 18, which launches me into an ugly cry when I think about how I’m losing my baby, and my youngest is 17 yet going on 25. I adore her and she keeps me on my toes. and my husband, Jamie… well he makes me laugh every single day, and I don’t know what I would do without him.
Now professionally…. I have over 20 years of business experience that I’m excited to share with you, and have spent that time working with project managers and business owners like you, helping them to get to know their numbers, and understand their financial information.
I have helped tons of business owners and managers, and have loved every minute of it.
You will also find me in media, as I have my own columns in both Forbes and Entrepreneur. and I love that because it gives me a platform to speak to a wider audience about business and finances. In Forbes I talk about both business finances and managing personal finances as well.
To date I have also been published on Business Insider.
Accounting is my second career. my background is actually in social work, which was my first career that I embarked on right out high school, and I loved it, but I quickly realized that if I wanted to live above the poverty line, I’d need to find a more suitable career path. How I ended up in accounting, I’ll never fully understand, but I did. And I do like it, but what I LOVE is helping people.
That’s how I formed my business coaching women in all things money related. I coach on personal finance and business finance. and I love it. I feel that when I coach my clients, I approach it with my unique perspective and a combination of caring and tough love.
And I absolutely love what I do. so I am here to help and serve women, because I believe in you and I want to help.
Another reason I chose to branch out and start my own business is through experience I had seen so many well intentioned, brilliant business owners struggle with understanding and managing their financial information. and I get it, because being an entrepreneur is hard. we have to wear so many hats, and we’re not going to be good at everything. and maybe accounting and financial information isn’t your thing. and that’s totally ok.
I might be a numbers machine, but I definitely have my own weaknesses in business. and I’ll throw that right on the table. marketing. I hate marketing. some people love it, some are complete naturals at it, but for me, it’s hard. I find it a struggle to get my messaging down right and know my marketing plan and sales funnels and whatever else comes with marketing, so that is why I hire coaches to help me. it also frustrates and brings me no joy, yet I recognize that it has to be done.
I feel no shame about the fact that I suck at marketing and I need help. and that’s how I hope you view your numbers. and who knows, maybe you’ll start loving them!
You will have your strengths and weaknesses, and you play on your strengths and get help with the weaknesses. So if business finances are your weakness, then you are definitely in the right place.
So just to reiterate the point I was trying to make earlier – being more involved in your business finances and thinking like a cfo does not mean that you need to be trained like an accountant, it simply means that you should understand your business finances.
Reading financial reports and understanding what the numbers are telling you is key to understanding how your business operates. Understanding why having a budget for you business and how important it is to measure your progress against that budget is key. and knowing how to manage your cash and ensuring you meet your financial obligations is key.
When you have these 4 steps under your knowledge, you can move on to expanding your finance knowledge, and it will come more naturally to build upon because you will have that financial foundation in place.