CFO Bookshelf

Mark provides five titles in this special CFO Bookshelf episode that inspire and educate. 

Mark wraps up the show with some financial food for thought - what statement do you present first in a reporting package and why?

What is a Fractional CFO? That term has become a household name for financial experts who help small business owners in various industries.

However, do we have a concise and complete definition for this type of professional services provider?

In this special episode, we break down what the fractional CFO is based on their three unique and primary roles to small business owners. We also give the best definition of a CFO you have probably never heard before.

As I think about our next guest, Jody Grunden, he reminds me of the successful business leader who Mixergy's Andrew Warner should feature. 

Jody co-founded Summit CPA Group in the early 2000s and decided to focus on financial leadership instead of offering the conventional services many small firms provided.

This discussion addresses the accounting shortage, effective accountants, and why accounting professionals have nothing to fear about AI technologies.

When did you start using Excel, and how did you learn it?

Jeff Lenning is the founder of Excel University, and he joins us to discuss the biggest mistakes he sees in Excel workbooks, the differences between formal and informal training, and why both are critical.

We also walked down memory lane, discussing when we started using Excel and some of our favorite functions inside this powerful application.

Finally, we tip our cap to two very famous Excel MVPs and why we do so.

What would you be willing to do to feel alive in your work every day? Jack Craven asks executives from all walks of life this question.

Jack is the author of Aliveness Mindset: Lead and Live with More Passion, Purpose, and Joy. His book includes more than a dozen tools and frameworks for starting the journey of aliveness.

Some topics we hit in this conversation include where aliveness starts, David Robsen's expectation effect, the actual vs. the ideal self, anchoring mindsets, accelerance, and magic words.

I list the top business books I've read over the previous year each January. At the end of 2024, The Venture Mindset by Ilya Strebulaev and Alex Dang will easily be in my top three and possibly my overall favorite.

The Venture Mindset reads fast and reminds me a little of Kahneman, Munger, and books about Buffett.

Some of the big ideas we cover in this episode with both authors include roof shots vs. moonshots, betting on jockeys vs. the horses, winning at the piggy bank game, and what we can learn from student VC partnerships.

This book is not just for those in the VC community. There are many takeaways for those working in and running small businesses.

I had never heard of Edmond Safra until I read Daniel Gross's informative and inspiring biography, A Banker's Journey.

For those who knew him and did business with him, he was everyone's favorite banker. His banks never had to write off loans, and many of his early deals were on a handshake. He never needed a government bailout, nor did he ever head to DC complaining about regulations. 

While his professional and personal story is uplifting, the Shakespearian periods of his life include the American Express saga and how he died.

During this conversation, Dan Gross gives us a dozen compelling reasons to revisit this banker's remarkable life.

Our newest guest may not be a best-selling author on real estate yet, but we're already predicting this former World Cup soccer player will soon be a household name in Dave Ramsey's world in a few years.

Vaughn Bethell is the founder of REI Junkies based in South Carolina, and in this episode, we learn his unique process of providing real estate investors with a different way to reduce stress and frustration in their investments.

One of the best management books ever written is The Effective Executive, by Peter Drucker, published in 1966. Managing For Results and The Practice of Management are other favorites of this show.

Randy Wooton joins us to discuss the big ideas in The Effective Executive. He's a three-time CEO and has held senior positions at Microsoft and Salesforce. He is also the host of The SaaS Expert Voices Podcast and serves as Maxio's chief executive.

In this conversation, we address why we study Drucker and his ideas on time management, effective decisions, knowledge workers, and setting priorities.

Consumers and anyone who studies business understand the subscription economy, but what about the usage economy? What is it? How does it differ from the subscription economy? Does it matter?

Adam Howatson is the CEO of LogiSense and the author of The Usage Economy. In this conversation, Adam will give examples of companies that got it right with their usage-based pricing models and those that made serious mistakes, such as Wink.

We'll also learn about telemetry, AI's fit, and the most important information metrics for transitioning into the usage economy.