Is hosting a podcast really just about questions and prep work or is it more about building a community, elevating leaders, and learning to listen?

In this special bonus live stream for National Podcast Day, I, Alon Arvatz, stepped into the guest seat to be interviewed by Casey Cheshire. After nearly 50 hours of conversations, I shared my journey and my biggest takeaways from interviewing top FinOps leaders this year.

We explored the core of what FinOps truly is and what it takes to drive action:

• The FinOps Mandate: I explained why the official definition of FinOps is to help organizations understand the value they get from cloud investment , which boils down to cleaning up waste and driving the best business outcomes.
• FinOps is a People Work: The most common idea on my show is that FinOps cannot be successful without collaboration across engineering, executives, and finance. As I've learned, the FinOps person doesn't have the keys to the cloud, the engineers do.
• The Biggest Industry Challenge: My guests consistently highlight that the biggest challenge is engagement with engineers. With engineers juggling quality, security, performance, and now cost , it’s extremely hard to get them to act due to competing priorities and a knowledge gap.
• My Podcasting Evolution: I shared how I overcame early challenges, stopped relying on a bank of questions, and now focus on what the guest is passionate about to make the conversation fun and authentic. My one hook question for every guest is: "What is the one thing you got wrong when you started your FinOps career?"
  
  

If you're a FinOps practitioner who needs a platform to learn and grow, or if you're trying to figure out how to drive real engagement with your engineering teams—this conversation is packed with personal stories and industry insights.

 🎧 Subscribe for more FinOps leadership conversations → https://finopsinaction.substack.com/ 

 Quote of the Show:

• “The three words [I would use to describe FinOps in Action] would be: Elevate. FinOps. Leaders.” - Alon Arvatz

Links:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alon-arvatz    

Ways to Tune In:

• Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/f25a9d18-c12f-4ee4-93f5-2aa96e509b55 
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/finops-in-action/id1790497808 
• iHeart Radio: https://iheart.com/podcast/268443483/ 
• Podchaser: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/finops-in-action-5958339 
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3IpjMc3qxDXZAjic5Zq21t 
• Substack: https://finopsinaction.substack.com/ 
• Transistor: finopsinaction.com 
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PointFiveCloudCostEfficiency