The Business Growth Podcast

Most business owners can tell you how many deals they closed. Very few can tell you where the money actually went. Christina Gutierrez, COO and CFO of Simple CFO Solutions, sees that gap constantly, especially with the real estate investors and house flippers who make up most of her client base.

In this episode, she breaks down the Profit First system Simple CFO Solutions runs on: separate bank accounts for income, expenses, taxes, owner pay, and profit, so a business owner can see exactly what they're keeping instead of guessing from one blended account. She also gets into why finances are one of the hardest topics to build trust around, and why that makes typical marketing (ads, quick pitches) fall flat for a business like hers. Her approach instead: teach for free inside coaching groups and give away real financial tools before ever asking for the sale.

She also shares how her team holds client retention around 90%, largely by having a client success manager check in before problems start, not after someone's already thinking about canceling.

Guest: Christina Gutierrez

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-gutierrez-macc-9486a770/

Host: Leonard De Beer

Helping fractional executive firms get more clients through strategic outreach

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonard-de-beer/

Most businesses think more sales means more money. Leandro, fractional CFO at Eightx, has seen plenty of proof that's not true.

In this episode, he walks through a client that was doing $5 million a year in revenue and still losing money. The following year, that same client brought in less, $4.2 million, but walked away with $500,000 in profit. His point: the top line number means nothing if nobody's looking at what it costs to get there.

Leandro also gets into how Eightx builds financial clarity for CPG and e-commerce clients through dashboards and scorecards, why employee retention often comes down to giving people a reason for the work they're doing, and how the firm is using AI agents to turn work that used to take days into minutes, without using it as a reason to cut headcount.

He closes with the lesson that took him the longest to learn: knowing when to say no.

Guest: Leandro

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/delialeandro/

Host: Leonard De Beer

Helping fractional executive firms get more clients through strategic outreach

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonard-de-beer/

Most fractional executive firms live and die by referrals. Melissa Franks, founder of OnCall COO, built hers the opposite way, and it's working.

In this episode, Melissa breaks down why fractional COO work is still so misunderstood, and why businesses often wait too long to bring one in. She shares the exact revenue range where a COO actually makes sense (hint: it's not day one), and the signs a business has outgrown its current operating structure.

She also gets into how OnCall COO went from $9,000 in its first year to $3 million this year, and why roughly 90% of that growth came from paid advertising instead of word of mouth. Her reasoning: when the service you offer isn't something people know to look for, referrals dry up fast, so she went looking for people who already knew they had a problem and were actively searching for a solution.

She also touches on something newer: a growing share of her sales calls are now coming from people who asked ChatGPT or Claude who to talk to.

Guest: Melissa Franks

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissafranks/

Website: melissafranks.com

Host: Leonard De Beer

Helping fractional executive firms get more clients through strategic outreach

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonard-de-beer/

In a high-touch service business, growth breaks when the owner has to remember every conversation, follow-up, and next step.

That problem shows up long before the firm runs out of demand. It shows up when client work, sales activity, contracts, invoicing, and relationship management all depend on the owner keeping the details straight.

Salvatore Tirabassi from CFO Pro and Analytics has built systems that preserve the personal touch without relying on memory. His CRM manages the operational workflow, while AI reviews active deals, summarizes recent conversations, and suggests the next follow-up.

The real value of AI implementation is not removing the human relationship. It is removing the administrative work that makes that relationship difficult to maintain at scale.

Guest: Salvatore Tirabassi

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stirabassi/

Website: https://cfoproanalytics.com

Host: Leonard De Beer

Helping fractional executive firms get more clients through strategic outreach

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonard-de-beer/

Most firms treat AI implementation as a software decision. The real constraint is governance.

Once AI starts influencing contracts, client work, internal decisions, or sensitive data, efficiency is no longer the only concern. The business also needs clear boundaries, accountability, and compliance built into the system from the start.

Adam Wardel from Black Hill Law has seen why this matters, particularly in legal and professional service environments where trust cannot be separated from automation. The firms that get ahead will not simply use more AI. They will know how it should operate inside the business before scaling it.

Guest: Adam Wardel

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamwardel/

Website: blackhill.law

Host: Leonard De Beer

Helping fractional executive firms get more clients through strategic outreach

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonard-de-beer/

AI can speed up finance work, but it still cannot take responsibility for the judgment behind it.

Financial models, reporting, analysis, and forecasting can all move faster with AI. The risk is assuming faster output means better work.

Varun from The Algebra Group has seen this firsthand while supporting fractional CFOs, investment banks, and family offices. Their approach combines AI-enabled delivery with documented processes, experienced review, and strong client relationships.

The value is not in automating everything. It is in knowing which parts of the work can move faster without lowering the standard.

Guest: Varun

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/varun-tag/

Website: https://www.theelgebragroup.com/

Host: Leonard De Beer

Helping fractional executive firms get more clients through strategic outreach

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonard-de-beer/

Most firms treat AI as another productivity tool. The bigger shift is deciding which work still needs a person and which work should be handled by systems and agents.

Jenna Pipchuk from Big Geo is building a growth function around that decision. Her team uses an AI-first operating model, evaluates agents alongside every new hire, and turns sales conversations into faster positioning and marketing decisions.

But faster execution does not solve every growth problem. Partner-led growth is working. Traditional cold outreach is becoming less reliable. The real advantage comes from redesigning the operating model, not simply producing more activity.

Guest: Jenna Pipchuk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jpipchuk/

Website: https://biggeo.com

Host: Leonard De Beer

Helping fractional executive firms get more clients through strategic outreach

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonard-de-beer/

In e-commerce, growth can look healthy while the business is quietly running out of room.

Inventory gets too heavy. Fixed costs creep up. Marketing spend gets pulled back even when the returns are there. And every team ends up making decisions from a slightly different view of the business.

This conversation with Matt Putra from ADEX shows why financial and operating systems become more important as a company scales. The issue is not just reporting. It is connecting marketing, finance, operations, supply chain, and leadership back to cash flow.

AI can speed up analysis, SEO, quality assurance, content, and internal workflows. But the deeper constraint is still alignment.

The firms that win will not just use AI to do tasks faster. They will build systems that help the business make clearer decisions under pressure.

Guest: Matt Putra

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattputra/

Website: https://eightx.co/

Host: Leonard De Beer

Helping fractional executive firms get more clients through strategic outreach

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonard-de-beer/

In a lot of family-run businesses, the problems are not obvious at first.

People trust each other. Everyone knows the history. Decisions happen quickly because the business still feels personal.

But that same informality can become the thing that slows the business down.

Roles, money, succession, meeting notes, expectations, and personal tension all start blending together. What felt simple in the beginning becomes harder to manage as the business grows.

This conversation with Jocelyn Greenky from Cider Road shows why family businesses often need outside structure before the problems become expensive. Her work as an interim CEO and “super nanny” for family-run businesses is about helping owners create protocols, clean up operating gaps, and make better decisions without turning the business into something cold or corporate.

AI, automation, and better systems can help. But they do not replace judgment, trust, reputation, or the hard conversations families avoid.

The real issue is whether the people running the business are willing to build the structure that protects it from itself.

Guest: Jocelyn Greenky

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jocelyngreenky/

Website: https://siderroad.com

Host: Leonard De Beer

Helping fractional executive firms get more clients through strategic outreach

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonard-de-beer/

Growth is not always a sales problem.

Sometimes demand is already there. The real constraint is whether the business can deliver without lowering quality, overloading the team, or putting unprepared people in front of clients.

My conversation with Sonja Pomerleau from Next Level Now showed why specialization changes more than marketing. It affects hiring, training, systems, margins, and the speed at which a firm can scale without chaos.

We also talked about where AI is useful in finance operations, where it still creates risk, and why accuracy, judgment, and industry context still matter when automation starts touching the numbers.

The firms that scale cleanly are usually not the ones chasing every opportunity. They are the ones that know where repeatability actually creates leverage.

Guest: Sonja Pomerleau

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonjafridell/

Website: https://nextlevelnow.net

Host: Leonard De Beer

Helping fractional executive firms get more clients through strategic outreach

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonard-de-beer/