MyFinJourney

Mustafa Ladha
  • 5.0 (3)
  • Investing
  • Updated Weekly

Welcome to MyFinJourney, the podcast that breaks down the barriers of traditional finance and explores ways people are growing their wealth. People often think, "You need money to make money." But what if that isn’t true? Whether you have a lot of capital or just a little, you can challenge conventional wisdom and create opportunities to build financial freedom. In this podcast, Mustafa Ladha dives deep, uncovering different ways guests have made money and how you can too. Each episode, we will understand their journey and how their mentality has changed along the way. Here’s the secret, we’re creating a playbook for you to build financial freedom. If you’re ready to learn and grow, this is the podcast for you.

  1. 5d ago

    Cash Flow, KPIs & Fractional CFOs: How Founders Fix Their Financials | Salma Hatim

    Most founders think their problems are accounting problems. Salma Hatim says they're really visibility problems — CEOs making big decisions while flying blind on their cash flow, KPIs, and profitability, thinking they're growing when they're actually growing poorly. In this episode she breaks down cash flow forecasting, the KPIs that actually matter, when to hire a fractional CFO, and how to get real financial clarity before a crisis hits. In this episode of MyFinJourney, Mustafa Ladha sits down with Salma Hatim — CPA, entrepreneur, and founder of Cypher, a tech-forward accounting and financial strategy firm. Salma has worked with companies from startups to billion-dollar organizations and multiple IPOs, and she helps founders understand the numbers behind their business. ⏰ TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 — Cold open 00:30 — Who is Salma Hatim 01:19 — Why she wanted to be a CPA (her parents' cash flow struggle) 03:33 — Is entrepreneurship romanticized? 05:07 — Growing vs. growing poorly: the visibility gap 06:33 — Why to track your financials from day one 08:41 — The KPIs that actually matter (gross margin, CAC, NRR, ARR) 10:13 — The #1 question every CEO asks 11:04 — How to forecast six months of cash flow 13:03 — Why you can't build a business alone 16:25 — The turnaround: blind, unprofitable, bleeding cash → thriving 21:03 — When to hire a fractional CFO 22:19 — How AI is changing accounting What you'll learn: → Why most business problems are visibility problems, not accounting problems → The difference between growing and "growing poorly" → The KPIs founders should actually track (gross margin, CAC, NRR, ARR) → How a six-month cash flow forecast is built → When it's time to bring in a fractional CFO ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔗 Connect with Salma Hatim: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/salma-hatim-a109394a/ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎙️ Subscribe to MyFinJourney→ https://www.youtube.com/@myfinjourney Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/5UmpEcn 🔗 Follow Mustafa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mustafa-ladha/ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ EPISODE CHAPTERS 00:00 Cold open 00:30 Who is Salma Hatim 01:19 Why she always wanted to be a CPA 03:33 Is entrepreneurship romanticized? 05:07 Growing vs. growing poorly: the visibility gap 06:33 Why to track your financials from day one 07:52 Does this gap show up in personal finances too? 08:41 The KPIs that actually matter 10:13 The #1 question every CEO asks: cash flow 11:04 How to forecast six months of cash flow 12:15 Why founders need finance experts 13:03 Why you can't build a business alone 16:25 The turnaround story: blind to thriving 19:13 Why even a 10-year-old business can go unprofitable 21:03 When to hire a fractional CFO 22:19 How AI is changing accounting 23:16 Closing thoughts

  2. Aug 19

    Networking for Introverts: How to Build Career Success Without Awkward Events | Greg Roche

    Think networking means awkward events, forced small talk, and pretending to be someone you're not? Greg Roche built an entire career — and now a business — without any of that. In this episode he breaks down networking for introverts: how to grow your career, your income, and your opportunities by building real relationships on your own terms, starting with the people you already know. In this episode of MyFinJourney, Mustafa Ladha sits down with Greg Roche — compensation and benefits leader, consultant, and founder of The Introverted Networker. After getting laid off in 2012, Greg rebuilt his career entirely through relationships, and now teaches professionals a networking approach that actually works for introverts. ⏰ TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 — Cold open 00:30 — Who is Greg Roche 01:21 — The 2012 layoff that changed everything 07:44 — The worst networking event he ever attended 14:01 — Why he refused to network the "normal" way 16:00 — The 3 ways people enter your life 18:50 — Start with who you already know 22:00 — Why money is only the "hygiene" of retention 29:30 — Why your top performer already decided to leave 35:37 — Grinder vs. 9-to-5: who actually deserves the raise 42:13 — The give-first networking philosophy 45:30 — Reciprocity: the Cialdini principle that builds networks 49:04 — How to connect with Greg What you'll learn: How to network effectively as an introvert (without events)Why you should start with the people you already knowWhy your network is your most valuable financial assetThe "give first" mindset that makes networking feel naturalWhy relationships beat money for career growth and retention ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔗 Connect with Greg Roche: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregsroche/ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎙️ Subscribe to MyFinJourney→ https://www.youtube.com/@myfinjourney Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/5UmpEcn 🔗 FOLLOW Mustafa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mustafa-ladha/ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Chapters00:00 Cold open 00:30 Who is Greg Roche 01:21 The 2012 layoff that changed everything 04:00 Why his network became his #1 asset 07:44 The worst networking event he ever attended 11:00 "There has to be a better way to do this" 14:01 Why he refused to network the normal way 16:00 The 3 ways people enter your life 18:50 Start with who you already know 19:19 Why most people have a networking knowledge gap 22:00 Why money is only the "hygiene" of retention 24:14 Money vs. connection: what really keeps people 29:30 Why your top performer already decided to leave 32:50 The real dollar cost of losing good people 35:37 Grinder vs. 9-to-5: who deserves the raise 38:32 How upbringing shapes your money mindset 42:13 The give-first networking philosophy 45:30 Reciprocity: the Cialdini principle 48:53 How to connect with Greg

  3. Aug 12

    Soft Skills Are the New Hard Skills in the AI Era | Sayre Blake

    In the AI era, technical skills are everywhere — but soft skills are what actually set you apart. Sayre Blake, founder of SkillSage, argues that communication, adaptability, and the ability to grow are now the most valuable and most overlooked skills for your career and your finances. In this episode of MyFinJourney, Mustafa Ladha sits down with Sayre Blake — systems engineer, classically trained illustrator, and technical founder of SkillSage, an AI-powered soft skills training platform. They talk about why soft skills drive financial growth, how AI is reshaping careers and hiring, and why the same principles show up across completely different fields. ⏰ TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 — Cold open 00:30 — Who is Sayre Blake 01:15 — SkillSage: the "Duolingo for soft skills" 05:05 — Why she opted out of the startup game 07:31 — Blue Ocean thinking (without the jargon) 10:50 — Why they built B2C before B2B 15:06 — When soft skills suddenly started to matter 18:33 — The real cost of not upskilling yourself 23:06 — Micromanagement vs. mentorship 27:26 — When it's a failure of leadership, not the person 32:14 — The interview question that changed everything 39:00 — Why "distress tolerance" is the #1 skill 40:44 — Why the game industry repeats its mistakes 46:47 — How to know when you're overreaching What you'll learn: → Why soft skills matter more than ever in the AI era → Why communication has the biggest impact on your finances → How AI is reshaping careers, hiring, and upskilling → Why the best employee on paper isn't always worth hiring → Why distress tolerance is the most underrated skill for growth ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔗 Connect with Sayre Blake: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sayre-blake ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎙️ Subscribe to MyFinJourney→ https://www.youtube.com/@myfinjourney Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/5UmpEcn 🔗 FOLLOW Mustafa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mustafa-ladha/ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Episode Chapters: 00:00 Cold open 00:30 Who is Sayre Blake 01:15 SkillSage: the Duolingo for soft skills 05:05 Why she opted out of the startup game 07:31 Blue Ocean thinking without the jargon 10:50 Why they built B2C before B2B 14:49 Why the free tier pays for itself 15:06 When soft skills started to matter 18:33 The real cost of not upskilling 20:18 Does anyone actually leave their comfort zone? 23:06 Micromanagement vs. mentorship 27:26 When it's a leadership failure 32:14 The interview question that changed everything 36:04 Same principles, different labels 39:00 Why distress tolerance is the #1 skill 40:44 Why the game industry repeats its mistakes 46:47 How to know when you're overreaching 49:01 How to connect with Sayre

  4. Aug 5

    Why the Wrong People Keep Getting Promoted | Ellza Malok on Leaders vs. Titles

    Why do the wrong people keep getting promoted? Ellza Malok has a sharp answer: companies confuse a title with a leader. The best salesperson gets made manager, keeps their quota, has never led anyone — and a year and a half later, the whole team still quietly goes to "Joe," the person who actually earned their trust. In this episode of MyFinJourney, Mustafa Ladha sits down with Ellza Malok, founder of Blue Monarch Group, a behavioral research and engineering firm. Drawing on psychology, linguistics, and years advising leaders, she explains why great strategies fail on execution, the real difference between agreement and emotional buy-in, and how understanding people becomes a competitive advantage. ⏰ TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 — Cold open 00:30 — Who is Ellza Malok 01:17 — From creative kid to behavioral science 05:05 — The books that shaped her thinking 07:39 — How language programs people 09:00 — Agreement vs. alignment vs. emotional buy-in 10:33 — Why people can "smell" a fake leader 15:28 — Introverts, extroverts & where the real value is 19:01 — How to lead people whose lives differ from yours 22:49 — Why leadership is a service role 23:51 — Why the wrong people get promoted 25:17 — Leader by title vs. leader by trust ("Joe") 30:32 — 48 Laws of Power vs. empathy 33:24 — Turning behavioral science into a real advantage What you'll learn: → Why a title doesn't make someone a leader → The measurable cost of "agreement" vs. real buy-in → How language quietly programs behavior → Why your best performer often shouldn't be the manager → How to lead people whose lives look nothing like yours ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔗 Connect with Ellza Malok: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ellzamalok ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎙️ Subscribe to MyFinJourney→ https://www.youtube.com/@myfinjourney Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/5UmpEcn 📍 CHAPTERS00:00 Cold open 00:30 Who is Ellza Malok 01:17 From creative kid to behavioral science 04:46 The book that started it: Influence 05:05 Books that shaped her thinking 06:14 How her Kosovo background connects 07:39 How language programs people 09:00 Agreement vs. alignment vs. buy-in 10:33 Why people can "smell" a fake leader 13:52 Gen Z, malls & the human need for connection 15:28 Introverts, extroverts & where value is 19:01 Leading people whose lives differ from yours 22:49 Why leadership is a service role 23:51 Why the wrong people get promoted 25:17 Leader by title vs. leader by trust 28:01 Why trust is the hardest skill to find 30:32 48 Laws of Power vs. empathy 33:24 Turning behavioral science into advantage 37:01 Why the same buyer converts differently 40:51 Why tone changes everything 43:04 How to connect with Ellza

  5. Jul 29

    Are Video Games Actually Bad for Kids? A Game Industry Insider Answers | Jennifer Javornik

    Are video games actually bad for kids? Jennifer Javornik has spent over a decade making games that teach — and her answer surprises most parents: well-designed games may be a better use of your kid's time than passive social media scrolling. In this episode she explains the psychology behind why games are so engaging, how to tell a healthy game from a manipulative one, and what to do instead of just taking the device away. In this episode of MyFinJourney, Mustafa Ladha sits down with Jennifer Javornik of Filament Games, whose team has built learning experiences with Roblox, Amazon, Meta, Unity, and the Smithsonian. It's a conversation about how people learn, how habits form, and why engagement is one of the most valuable currencies in business. ⏰ TIMESTAMPS: 00:30 — Who is Jennifer Javornik 01:16 — Why adults misunderstand games (the median gamer is 38) 03:05 — The parenting gaming debate, head on 06:06 — How to spot a manipulative game (loot boxes & grind) 08:00 — What to do instead of taking the device away 10:32 — Why games beat passive social media 12:26 — The real educational value of games 17:15 — The learning science behind great game design 21:44 — How she went from IT consulting to games 23:16 — How games build real communities 28:23 — Minecraft, Fortnite, Roblox & kid identity 32:09 — Why "content creator" is the #1 career kids want 34:06 — Is the gaming industry saturated? What you'll learn: → Why passive scrolling may be worse than active gaming → How to identify games designed to manipulate vs. teach → The "zone of proximal development" and why games nail it → A better parenting strategy than banning screens → What games teach about breaking big goals into small steps ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔗 Connect with Jennifer Javornik: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-javornik/ 🎙️ Subscribe to MyFinJourney→ https://www.youtube.com/@myfinjourney Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/5UmpEcn 🔗 FOLLOW Mustafa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mustafa-ladha/ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📍 CHAPTER00:00 Cold open 00:30 Who is Jennifer Javornik 01:16 Why adults misunderstand games 02:57 The parent's fear: is gaming bad? 04:51 Women vs. men gamers (it's basically equal) 06:06 How to spot a manipulative game 08:00 What to do instead of banning screens 10:32 Why games beat passive social media 12:26 The real educational value of games 14:00 The data game that taught kids analytics 17:15 The learning science behind game design 20:12 Games as a bastion of trial and error 21:44 From IT consulting to game design 23:16 How games build real communities 28:23 Minecraft, Fortnite, Roblox & kid identity 32:09 Why kids want to be content creators 34:06 Is the gaming industry saturated? 37:05 How to connect with Jennifer

  6. Jul 22

    Why 9 Out of 10 Startups Fail (It's Not the Product) | Cristina Imre on People Debt

    Why do 9 out of 10 startups fail? Cristina Imre says it's almost never the product — it's what she calls "people debt": the compounding cost of unresolved leadership friction, founder burnout, and organizational misalignment that investors consistently fail to spot until it's too late. In this episode of MyFinJourney, Mustafa Ladha sits down with Cristina Imre — fractional executive, strategic advisor, and creator of the Mirror Test Framework. With a medical and psychiatry background and two decades applying behavioral science inside startups, scale-ups, and corporations, she explains the warning signs that appear years before a company's financials break. ⏰ TIMESTAMPS: 00:30 — Who is Cristina Imre 01:24 — From psychiatry in Romania to advising founders 05:52 — Coachability: the trait that predicts success 08:54 — The "year two" wall founders hit 10:30 — Why 9 out of 10 startups fail (and how to halve it) 12:00 — "99% of the time, it's a people problem" 14:49 — What "people debt" actually means 16:47 — The Mirror Test Framework explained 17:18 — How AI is changing the business landscape 22:59 — Why AI companies can't stop themselves 26:12 — Who's actually working on AI safeguards 28:34 — Why leaders stop hearing the truth 33:47 — Building a future worth inheriting What you'll learn: → Why founder psychology predicts company failure better than financials → The "year two" transition most founders don't survive → What coachability looks like — and why it's non-negotiable → The warning signs investors consistently miss → How leadership isolation quietly changes decision-making ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔗 Connect with Cristina Imre: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/cristinaimre Website: cristinaimre.com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎙️ Subscribe to MyFinJourney→ https://www.youtube.com/@myfinjourney Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/5UmpEcn 🔗 FOLLOW Mustafa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mustafa-ladha/ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Chapters 00:30 Who is Cristina Imre 01:24 From psychiatry in Romania to advising founders 05:52 Coachability: the trait that predicts success 07:00 Why she stopped trying to help everyone 08:54 The "year two" wall founders hit 10:30 Why 9 out of 10 startups fail 11:30 What investors miss when founders start to break 12:00 "99% of the time, it's a people problem" 14:49 What "people debt" actually means 16:47 The Mirror Test Framework explained 17:18 How AI is changing the business landscape 20:00 Why AI researchers started getting scared 22:59 Why AI companies can't stop themselves 26:12 Who's actually working on AI safeguards 28:34 Why leaders stop hearing the truth 31:00 How power changes a person's judgment 33:47 Building a future worth inheriting 36:32 How to connect with Cristina

  7. Jul 15

    How Multifamily Real Estate Syndication Actually Works | August Biniaz, $225M in Deals

    August Biniaz started as a real estate agent, then built custom homes through his own development company. Then he realized something: home building has a ceiling. Private equity real estate doesn't. Today, as Co-Founder and CIO of CPI Capital, he's helped close more than $225 million in US multifamily acquisitions. In this episode of MyFinJourney, Mustafa Ladha sits down with August to unpack why he left home building for real estate private equity, how Canadian investors access US multifamily deals (without ever dealing with the IRS), and his honest read on the Texas and Florida markets right now. ⏰ TIMESTAMPS: 00:30 — Who is August Biniaz 01:37 — Growing up in a real estate family (and Iran's hyperinflation) 04:53 — The one rule: watch your debt 07:44 — US vs. Canada: mortgages, lenders, and cap rates 11:38 — Should you rent or buy? August's honest take 17:48 — Why CPI invests in Texas and Florida 20:13 — How Canadians invest in US deals without IRS filings 23:33 — Using Canadian retirement accounts to invest in real estate 30:46 — The truth about DFW and San Antonio oversupply 34:08 — Why not Austin or Houston? 36:07 — The Tampa hurricane and the insurance lawsuit 39:19 — The Hormozi rule: 10-skill person in a 2-industry 44:08 — Why home building kept him small 45:30 — GP/LP economics: small money in, astronomical returns 47:18 — How to connect with August What you'll learn: → Why private equity real estate scales where home building can't → How Canadians invest in US multifamily without double taxation → What cap rate expansion means for property values right now → The honest risks in DFW, San Antonio, Austin, and Tampa → How GP/LP deal structures actually pay ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔗 Connect with August Biniaz: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/augustbiniaz 🎙️ Subscribe to MyFinJourney→ https://www.youtube.com/@myfinjourney Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/5UmpEcn 🔗 FOLLOW Mustafa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mustafa-ladha/ Episode Chapters 00:30 Who is August Biniaz 01:37 Growing up in a real estate family 03:08 Iran, hyperinflation & why real estate is king there 04:53 The one rule: watch your debt 07:44 US vs. Canada: mortgages, lenders, cap rates 11:38 Rent or buy? August's honest take 15:05 When renting actually makes sense 17:48 Why CPI invests in Texas and Florida 20:13 How Canadians invest in US deals without the IRS 23:33 Using retirement accounts to invest in real estate 26:36 Debt, taxes & value-add vs. development deals 30:46 The truth about DFW & San Antonio oversupply 34:08 Why not Austin or Houston? 36:07 The Tampa hurricane & the insurance lawsuit 39:19 The Hormozi rule: 10-skill person, 2-industry 42:53 Custom homes vs. multifamily margins 44:08 "You'll never see the B-word in home building" 45:30 GP/LP economics explained 47:18 How to connect with August

  8. Jul 8

    I Was Renting a Life." Born Stateless, Now Building Wealth in America | Ghiath Arodaki

    Ghiath Arodaki was born and raised in Kuwait — but could never be a citizen. No right to own a home, no path to belonging, and the constant knowledge that he could be deported at any time. He describes it as "renting a life." Today, he works at the intersection of AI and enterprise strategy at IBM, and teaches kids the financial literacy nobody taught him. In this episode of MyFinJourney, Mustafa Ladha sits down with Ghiath to unpack the scarcity mindset that shaped his childhood, the moment a 12-year-old cousin shattered his view of what was possible, and why he believes wealth is knowledge and mindset before it's ever money. ⏰ TIMESTAMPS: 00:30 — Who is Ghiath Arodaki 03:23 — How identity and environment shape your ambitions 05:30 — The Bill Gates moment with his father 07:00 — "You can make your own Sonic" — the mindset shift 10:28 — Growing up stateless in Kuwait 15:00 — "Renting a life" — the metaphor that defines it all 17:43 — Where his curiosity and questioning came from 27:40 — Resentment, rebellion, and turning it into fuel 35:38 — Teaching kids financial literacy from age 9 40:50 — Building wealth for descendants 500 years out 43:22 — The "purple elephant" — why finance hooks kids 46:04 — What he's building with StarkCore What you'll learn: → How a scarcity mindset forms — and how to escape it → Why "wealth is mindset and knowledge before money" → The difference between renting a role and owning your future → Why financial literacy is the one subject nobody teaches kids → How mentorship and apprenticeship beat passive schooling ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔗 Connect with Ghiath Arodaki: Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/ghiatharodaki ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎙️ Subscribe to MyFinJourney→ https://www.youtube.com/@myfinjourney Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/5UmpEcn 🔗 FOLLOW Mustafa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mustafa-ladha/ 📍 CHAPTERS00:00 Cold open 00:30 Who is Ghiath Arodaki 01:28 From systems engineering to AI at IBM 03:23 How identity shapes your ambitions 05:30 The Bill Gates moment with his father 07:00 "You can make your own Sonic" 10:28 Growing up stateless in Kuwait 13:50 "Shut up or I'll deport you" 15:00 "Renting a life" — the metaphor 17:43 Where his questioning mindset came from 19:57 The Moses story and thinking bigger 25:12 Fences, elites, and getting out 27:40 Resentment, rebellion & turning it to fuel 31:26 The George Bush airport story 35:38 Teaching kids financial literacy from age 9 38:00 Why every kid's enemies are broccoli and math 40:50 Building wealth for descendants 500 years out 43:22 The "purple elephant" — why finance hooks kids 46:04 What he's building with StarkCore 47:27 How to connect with Ghiath

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About

Welcome to MyFinJourney, the podcast that breaks down the barriers of traditional finance and explores ways people are growing their wealth. People often think, "You need money to make money." But what if that isn’t true? Whether you have a lot of capital or just a little, you can challenge conventional wisdom and create opportunities to build financial freedom. In this podcast, Mustafa Ladha dives deep, uncovering different ways guests have made money and how you can too. Each episode, we will understand their journey and how their mentality has changed along the way. Here’s the secret, we’re creating a playbook for you to build financial freedom. If you’re ready to learn and grow, this is the podcast for you.

Information

  • Creator
    Mustafa Ladha
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    62
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Mustafa Ladha
  • Show Website
    MyFinJourney