GrowCFO Show Kevin Appleby

Are you in control of your own life, or are the demands of all the other things around you taking over? Too much pressure at work to have a personal life? Perhaps you aren't feeling fulfilled? If any of that describes you then it's time to take control back and make decisions that benefit you and not just your organisation. In this episode, Catherine Clark joins us to talk about the importance of making the right decisions for your own wellbeing. She draws on both her own personal experience as a CFO and the situations she comes across every week when she is mentoring other finance leaders.







If you aren't happy with where you are right now it's time to do something about it and take action. Catherine has some great advice to offer about how to find out what you really want and then take the right steps to get there. We talk about the importance of having the right mindset, and the importance of stepping forward even when there might be fear and uncertainty.







This is the third episode in a mini-series looking at your well-being. In the previous two episodes, we've looked at resilience with Leanne Spencer and self-awareness with Susana Serrano-Davey.







Links







* Mentoring at GrowCFO with Catherine Clark* Susana Serrano-Davey on LinkedIn* Kevin Appleby on LinkedIn* Susan Jeffers - Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway: How to Turn Your Fear and Indecision into Confidence and Action on Amazon UK and Amazon US







Timestamps







01:50 Are you feeling dissatisfied?







03:14 Getting in touch with your feelings







04:00 Go with your gut and your subconscious mind







06:03 Having the right people around you to support you







08:40 Some examples of situations people find themselves in







10:17 The decision isn't about moving on and changing job







12:01 The mindset shift that's needed







14:52 The fear of change, doing things differently, making a mistake







15:50 What do you need to stop doing? start doing? continue doing?







16:15 What do you want?







17:16 Overwhelm







18:12 Feel the fear and do it anyway







20:33 Where do you want to be in 3 years' time?







23:15 Do you stay? Do you move on?







24:50 You can't lose, just make a decision!







27:06 What do you do after you make a decision?







29:32 Some practical exercises you can do right now

Self-awareness is key for well-being. When you know yourself well, you can make better decisions and thrive in all areas of your life - including your career. As a finance leader, it's important to be self-aware so that you can set realistic goals and healthily manage stress. In this episode, Susana Serrano-Davey, our very own Executive Coach & Mentor at GrowCFO joins Kevin Appleby once again to discuss the importance of self-awareness as a cornerstone for wellbeing. We discuss the importance of self-awareness and how it can help you achieve success both professionally and personally. Susana gives some great advice on some practical things you can do to be more self-aware







Self-awareness is the ability to see yourself clearly and understand your thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. It's an important part of well-being because it allows you to make healthy choices, set realistic goals, and healthily manage stress. When you're self-aware, you're more likely to achieve your goals and be successful in all areas of your life.







There are many benefits of self-awareness, but here are a few key ones:







* When you're self-aware, you can make better decisions. You know your strengths and weaknesses, so you can make choices that are in line with your values and goals.* When you're self-aware, you're more resilient. You know your triggers and how to manage them, so you're less likely to be derailed by setbacks.* When you're self-aware, you have a better understanding of other people. You can see things from their perspective and build relationships that are based on trust and mutual respect.







Self-awareness is an important part of well-being, and it's something that you can work on every day. Susana gives us some practical strategies:







* Get feedback, how do people perceive you?* Understand your feelings, and why you feel a certain way* Learn more about your personality* Make sure you meet your own needs before others







Listen to the full episode to find out more.







Links







* Mentoring at GrowCFO with Susana Serrano-Davey* Susana Serrano-Davey on LinkedIn* Kevin Appleby on LinkedIn* Episode 93 with Leanne Spencer on Well-being* Episode 74 Personality types with Merrick Rosenberg* Episode 71 Strengthsfinder with Jim Brophy* 168 Hours by Laura Vanderkam on Amazon UK and Amazon US







Timestamps







00:41 The previous episode with Leanne Spencer about well-being and beating burnout







01:15 No point in achieving your goals and being unhappy







03:37 You really need to know more about yourself







05:22 How others perceive us







10:03 Getting feedback from others







13:45 Becoming aware of your personality type

CFOs and finance leaders are under more pressure than ever before. They are responsible for ensuring the financial stability of their company, and often have to make tough decisions that can impact the bottom line. This high level of responsibility can take a toll, and many CFOs and finance leaders find themselves struggling with burnout. In this episode, Leanne Spencer, an award-winning entrepreneur and a key-note wellbeing speaker and burnout prevention expert joins Kevin Appleby to discuss how to better manage stress, prioritize recovery and ultimately reduce the risk of burnout.







Burnout can have a significant impact on CFOs and finance leaders. When individuals are burned out, they may feel exhausted, both physically and emotionally. They may also feel cynical or negative about their work and may have difficulty concentrating or making decisions. Burnout can lead to absenteeism, staff turnover, and a decrease in productivity. It can also adversely affect an individual's health. But what action can you take to protect yourself? Leanne has plenty of answers!







You need to increase your resilience. But what does that actually mean in practice? Lots of people talk about being more resilient, but few people have their own practical strategies to make it happen. Leanne talks about giving yourself slivers of recovery. Time for yourself every single day. A small part of your overall bandwidth. These slivers can have a very significant impact on your overall wellbeing







Links







* Leanne Spencer on LinkedIn* Kevin Appleby on LinkedIn* Cadence: the secret to beating burnout and performing in life and work on Amazon UK and Amazon US* Rise and Shine: Recover from burnout and get back to your best on Amazon UK and Amazon US* Mentoring at GrowCFO







Timestamps







00:39 About Leanne Spencer and Bear Grylls







01:24 Remember what is first for you







02:34 How does this apply to finance leaders?







05:20 Slivers of recovery







07:20 Learning from elite athletes







10:28 How do you recover when there's always something else to do?







11:30 The golden hour before sleep







16:30 Turn off notifications







18:41 Simple things done every day







23:00 Decompress at the end of the day







24:17 Alchohol, good or bad?







25:26 Cadence, the overall message in the book







27:44 A business book needs to be short and easily digestible







29:24 Cadence: the secret to beating burnout and performing in life and work

As a CFO in a fast-growing business, you have a lot on your plate. You are responsible for ensuring that the company is making money and growing at a healthy rate. But what if you could take your career to the next level by having a mentor? A mentor can help you learn new skills, make important connections, and give you guidance when it comes to difficult decisions. Ian Simpkin specialises in mentoring CFOs who find themselves in that exact situation.







Ian Simpkin is one of GrowCFO's experienced CFO mentors. In this episode, he joins Kevin Appleby to discuss how he mentors CFOs in fast-growing businesses. We talk about his career and experiences and how this impacts his approach to mentoring.







Ian, a Chartered Accountant (FCA), qualified with KPMG and trained at Insead in their International Executive Program. He has over 25 years of finance director experience and was European CFO of a Nasdaq 100 multinational during rapid growth from $20 to $450m.







Ian has a great practical understanding of driving business growth, fundraising, acquisitions and exit planning. Besides mentoring new CFOs, he advises SMEs on financial strategies to help grow their businesses. He is passionate about helping his mentees develop their skills and expertise to realise their potential and provide Board level strategic advice.







Links







* Mentoring at GrowCFO * Meet the GrowCFO mentors* The CFO Competency framework* Ian Simpkin on LinkedIn* Kevin Appleby on LinkedIn







Timestamps







00:57 Introducing Ian Simpkin







02:00 Growing a company from $20m to $400m







03:11 Making acquisitions to grow







04:20 What challenges do you deal with day to day as a mentor and portfolio CFO?







05:28 How do you approach mentoring?







06:52 What are the biggest issues you find with CFOs in their first role?







07:57 The CFO competency framework







10:00 The CFO as a strategic business partner







11:48 Ian Simpkin outside the office







13:16 Why choose Ian as a mentor?

One of the biggest challenges of financial modelling is creating models that are accurate and realistic. Financial modellers need to have a good understanding of all of the different formulas and functions in order to create an accurate model. Many people, even experienced modellers, use less than 5% of the functions available. Excel models need to be properly structured too so that others can easily validate them, and they can be checked for errors. There are lots to learn about, and many tips and tricks that can make your life much easier. That's why Myles Arnott and Giles Male set up Full Stack Modeller.







In this episode, Kevin Appleby chats to Miles and Giles to discover more about the challenges of building great financial models in Excel and how the Full Stack Modeller training and community of members can help you.







We teach financial modelling basics in GrowCFO's finance team training, but if you want to develop really deep specialist modelling skills Full Stack is the place to go. If you want to join Full Stack Modeller's next cohort this coupon code will give you 15% off: GROWCFO15AUG. Registration opens on 8th August.







Full Stack Modeller will give you:







* Excel Mastery. From core function knowledge and confident use of Excel Tables and Pivot Tables, to a truly unique way to develop your shortcut and navigation skill mastery. * the major modelling standards, setting you up for more advanced modelling exercises to come further on in your journey.* Advanced Financial Modelling. Covering the fundamentals of three statement modelling, valuations, scenarios & sensitivities, and more. * Data Visualisation & Analytics. How to use Power BI to analyse data, and we help you understand how best to share your insights with others. These are skills that are rare to find, even amongst very talented and experienced modellers.







Listen to the full episode to find out more.







Links







* Giles Male on LinkedIn* Myles Arnott on LinkedIn* Kevin Appleby on LinkedIn* GrowCFO for Finance Teams* Find out more about Full Stack Modeller (use coupon code GROWCFO15AUG to get 15% off at checkout)







Timestamps







01:04 About Full Stack Modeller







03:37 What are financial models used for?







04:50 Don't most people teach themselves how to use Excel?







07:30 Power Query







09:48 What about apps that replace Excel?







11:40 What bad habits do self-taught experienced modellers generally have?







13:12 The problem of too much data







15:05 Data visualisation







18:55 How do you teach modelling when there are so many different applications of models?







20:40 Trapping errors in models







26:34 What are the 5 or 6 key things we really need to know?







29:11 The danger of a single Excel guru in a company

It's no secret that boardroom experience is important for aspiring CFOs. But what happens when you don't have access to boardrooms? How can you overcome this obstacle and get the experience you need? In this episode Dan Wells, founder and CEO of GrowCFO, joins Kevin Appleby to discuss the launch of GrowCFO's Virtual Boardroom.







Over 80% of aspiring and first-time finance leaders have little or no boardroom experience. Very few have conquered the most common challenges regularly faced by CFOs during board meetings. This lack of exposure can easily prevent you from landing your dream CFO role, or negatively affect your performance during difficult boardroom situations within your existing finance role. GrowCFO’s Virtual Boardroom provides you with essential first-hand experience of dealing with real-life boardroom challenges that most CFOs encounter early on in their finance leader career.







If you're serious about becoming a CFO, don't let a lack of boardroom experience hold you back. There are plenty of ways to gain the experience you need, even if you don't have direct access to boardrooms. The GrowCFO Virtual Boardroom can help you get the confidence you need in the boardroom. In addition you should seek out opportunities to present to boards. Get involved with organizations that focus on board governance, and network with experienced board members. With some effort and perseverance, you can overcome this obstacle and take your career to the next level.







Links







* Dan Wells on LinkedIn* Kevin Appleby on LinkedIn* GrowCFO Virtual Boardroom* Find out more about becoming a CFO







Timestamps







00:52 What is the Virtual Boardroom?







03:20 The CFO wears 2 hats in the boardroom







04:49 How does the Virtual Boardroom work?







06:08 Does it involve a lot of prep like a real board meeting?







08:52 Dealing with the different perspectives of individual board members







11:56 What time commitment do you need in order to participate?







14:04 The Virtual Boardroom is supported by online learning







16:16 The role of professional mentors in the Virtual Boardroom







17:39 How to find out more