00:00:04:13 - 00:00:22:18

Centricity

Welcome to the best kept secret video cast and podcast from Centricity. If you are a B2B service professional, use our five step process to go from the grind of chasing every sale to keeping your pipeline full with prospects knocking on your door to buy from you. We give you the freedom of time and a life outside of your business.

00:00:23:06 - 00:00:42:05

Centricity

Each episode features an executive from our B2B services company sharing their provocative perspective on an opportunity that many of their clients are missing out on. It's how we teach our clients to get executive decision makers to buy without being salesy or spammy. Here's our host, the co-founder and CEO of Centricity jokingly.

00:00:43:01 - 00:01:11:17

Jay Kingley

I'm Jay Kingley, co-founder and CEO of Centricity. Welcome to our show where our guests share their provocative perspective on what their target market is missing out on. I'm happy to welcome to the show Natalie Cook of Corporate Strategies. Corporate Strategies is a fractional CFO firm supporting small businesses, startups and nonprofits. Driving results via robust financial strategies in management.

Natalie is based in Seattle, Washington. Welcome to the show, Natalie.

00:01:16:16 - 00:01:19:09

Natalie Cook

Thank you so much for having me, Jay I'm really excited to be here.

00:01:19:19 - 00:01:43:01

Jay Kingley

Natalie I've been a principal in a number of startups and small businesses, even all the way through the enterprise level. I have been blessed to work with so many entrepreneurs that have started their own business, and as one of our clients likes to say, I've never met a person who started a business because they were good in business.

And what this is really trying to say is that you start a business because you are passionate about what you're going to do for your clients and customers. And that's the thing that you focus on. But simply delivering the service does not make what you're doing a business. You've got to do all the other things that are required to turn that passion into a real company.

And of course, one of those things is finance and accounting. But, you know, of all the people that I've met that start businesses, not too many of them were experts in those two areas of finance and accounting. And yet it doesn't take long before people realize that they have got to get on top of their numbers. They have got to understand how their business is performing, and they've got to make sure that they have a secure financial position.

And simply checking your bank balance at the start of every day. Well, I'm not saying that's a bad thing to do. I am saying that surely is not sufficient to run a business. Now, as someone who provides fractional CFO services to start ups through larger companies, I've got to ask you, what do you see that people struggle with when it comes to finance and accounting?

00:03:14:08 - 00:03:38:02

Natalie Cook

Yeah, it's a great question. So I, I explain this probably every week, which is accounting and finance are different things. They're different functions, they're different thought processes, accounting, bookkeeping and tax accounting are really backward facing parts of your business. You have to have them. They're really important, but they tell you what has already happened. Finance on the other side is deep thinking.

It's strategic thinking, it is forward looking and it is trying to plan what's going to happen. And so if you you need both. I really focus on what is going to happen and what is that deep thought process. I think what is really helpful for young companies and I work a lot with young companies, I also run a very young company is taking the time to think about what's going to happen to your business so that you can begin to predict how your cash is going to come in, how it's going to go out, what you can afford to do, how you can grow your business.

You can't actually grow your customer base or do any marketing unless you know your financial structure. So I've worked with all kinds of businesses. I actually my husband runs a general contracting firm, so I do a lot of free work for them and they're a great example of two guys that went into business. They are terrible at bookkeeping and accounting and finance and they do check their bank balance every week and it drives me nuts actually.

I check their bank balance every week and run their payroll, which I don't do for anyone else. But I've learned a lot from watching them struggle, and so I've been able to take what those they're so hands on. And I've worked with a lot of other business owners that have more of a corporate background and they have a little bit more finance.

And so marry the two and talk to people about what what matters to them and what's important. And one of the tools that I use is a pen and paper, which is, I think a little bit different what people expect of me. I actually don't start in an Excel or a financial tool. I take pen and paper and I write out what does my next three months look like, what is coming in, what's going out?

And I find that to be a really great strategic thinking tool. Even if you're only going to spend 5 minutes a week on it.

00:05:33:06 - 00:05:52:13

Jay Kingley

We have bookkeeping, we have accounting and we have finance. And you said that those are three different functions that are all important. Can you just take a second and tell us what is the difference between those three functions?

00:05:52:17 - 00:06:16:19

Natalie Cook

Yeah, so bookkeeping is really the data entry part. So what bills have you paid? What revenue have you received? There's a lot of overlap between bookkeeping and accounting. They get a little fuzzy accounting that can be a lot more strategy involved of how you account for things. What is revenue recognition? How are you meeting your tax requirements? How are you if you are a public company and that becomes a whole other level of accounting.

But essentially both of those functions record what has happened in your business. So it's already done and then you get a report of what has already happened.

00:06:28:01 - 00:06:42:21

Jay Kingley

And one of the things that every person who runs a business needs to worry about is keeping the government happy. And they think that, you know, we call that following your taxes. Now, that is normally the purview of the accountant, not the bookkeeper.

00:06:43:02 - 00:07:09:07

Natalie Cook

You can have a bookkeeper and not an accountant and an accountant. There's multiple kinds of accounting. There's tax accounting. And then there's other kinds of there's just accounting, which is making your bank statements and bank statements, financial statements. So your pencil, your balance sheet, cash flow statement, working in QuickBooks, bookkeepers are really just data entry. They're, they're like the beginning part.

And then an accountant, there's different levels of accounting. So they might be strategically helping you figure out your account, your chart of accounts. And then there's tax accounting, which is its own thing, and they very rarely overlap. But where I think people get really confused is they hear the word CPA. Sometimes people are CPAs that only do tax accounting.

Sometimes there are CPAs that don't do any taxes. And I've come across quite a bit and you actually need to accounting firms to run a business, you need a CPA and you need an accounting firm. And if you're a really small company, so if you think of midwifery firm, so kind of a bizarre example, you really only need like a bill pay bookkeeper because their business is pretty steady state.

They're just kind of managing that cash flow in and out. They're not necessarily looking to expand. They may be, but if you are growing business or you any complexity, you need an accounting firm that does bookkeeping and you need a CPA that does tax accounting.

00:08:13:19 - 00:08:38:06

Jay Kingley

Now, you mentioned that both bookkeeping and accounting are, in effect, recording what's happening and giving you that backwards looking finance is looking forward. So talk a little bit about what a person who is doing the finance part, what they are looking at. That's different from the accountant and the bookkeeper.

00:08:38:11 - 00:09:01:04

Natalie Cook

Let me give you an example, because I think that's easier or so. Accounting gives you your numbers of what you already had. Finance will often take those numbers and then forecast what's going to happen in the future. So if you have constantly been growing your revenue 3% month over month, a finance person might take that and say, okay, well, we know that just based on current growth, you're going to get here by the end of the year.

And then they'll also work with the leadership team and guide them through, well, what are your goals? So do you want to get ten X your revenue in two years? Do you want to stay steady state? What does that look like? And then they can kind of give that set them targets on whatever cadence they need to get those revenue targets.

So that's one example. Oftentimes it can be taking what's happen and doing a really deep analysis on it. So if you if you think about a physical product business, they have COGS, cost of goods sold and that's one that you need to do constant analysis on to project what it's going to be in the future. So you know where to cut costs.

So if you think of just the cost that it takes to produce a physical product that piece is just a one line item in your COGS line, and it is something that you can constantly go and renegotiate those costs. But if you aren't looking, you need the accounting piece. So what has happened? But then you need someone to take those numbers, tell a story about them, and then guide the team to see what can you cut?

Is that an area where you can cut? Here's all the things that you can lower costs. So if you are a financial leader, so CFO or director in a corporate company, your goal is to maximize revenue, set targets, minimize costs.

00:10:22:06 - 00:10:44:10

Jay Kingley

Before we move on one one more question. Let's talk about the background in the differences in the background of what you would typically see in a bookkeeper, an accountant and a finance executive. And I know these are very fuzzy, but on balance, what's the difference in training and experience and background between those three functions?

00:10:44:17 - 00:11:07:14

Natalie Cook

A bookkeeper you've got to train yourself to be a bookkeeper without any real formal background. I know lots of really good bookkeepers in that mindset is just someone who's incredibly organized and loves kind of digging in and making sure everything's correct. And I think that can go you can kind of girl in your career as an accountant, starting as a bookkeeper, when you're talking CPA, that's an owner's own certification.

So sometimes people get like an undergrad degree in accounting and then they get a CPA on top of it. So that's a certified public accountant. It's a different like entity that certifies that it's a test. I don't know much about that, the specifics of it, but that's what that is when you're talking finance again, it can also be just an undergraduate in finance and then you go into corporate finance and kind of work in that field and then you can grow from there.

I, I didn't actually start in finance. My undergrad degree is in humanities, and I then got an MBA with a focus in finance. And I was kind of always finance adjacent prior to actually making the full switch perfect.

00:11:47:00 - 00:12:12:21

Jay Kingley

I think that gives a lot of clarity in terms of trying to understand who does what and what their backgrounds are and therefore what you can expect them to be really good at in where they're going to start to get out of their comfort zone. We've talked about the difference between finance and accounting and how accounting has also this bookkeeping function.

So you're running a business. How do you do it? You know, how do you take that and figure out what you should be doing in terms of spending your time looking at these functions? And what is it that you should be looking for.

00:12:28:14 - 00:12:59:07

Natalie Cook

When you're very, very young? Your whole goal is to sell and build, right? So build your products, sell your product, figure out what your product market fit is. And I think a lot of people hear that and then they think, well, I don't need to worry about finance and accounting. That's not true. I think I really value I really, really push people, even if you're so young, if you are not in young meaning in your business, you are you're not going to know where you're successful if you don't actually do bookkeeping.

And it doesn't matter what tool you use if you are not going to pay attention, outsource it immediately. It is worth the like 100 to $300 a month to pay someone else to do it, even if you're like barely making the money, it's totally worth it. So start there, know what has happened in the past so that you can then look forward and see what where you might be successful.

So what's a good example? Say you start your business and you have three product offerings and you track for six months and one of those just never makes any revenue cut. That product offering focus on the two that are making revenue and then go from there. So that's the accounting piece, the finance piece where I think it comes into play is just planning for the future.

So if you are super new to business like super, super now just spend some time. It can be weekly, it can be monthly. This is what I do I take on. I'll work out on a certain point in the month and I look at my calendar, I look at my client list, I look for the next three months.

I think, okay. Am I at max capacity? Is my team at max capacity, can I add someone to a client? Do I need to add a team member? Do I need to restructure a client? What? Where am I? Where are my gaps? And in you don't have to be super sophisticated about it. Honestly, like good leaders, just take the time to think about their business and that is the key to success.

It's not being the smartest. There's a lot of smart people that just ignore details and it's not even really having the right answers. It's building that the cadence to sit and think. And the more you do it, the better you get, the better you're able to do it. And there's there's a lot more detail you can go into it, but that's the bare minimum.

00:14:50:18 - 00:15:24:23

Jay Kingley

I want to give you three letters 0pm and that, of course, stands for other people's money. So lots of times if you're a start up or you're established in business, you are going to need money that comes from sources other than your business. So of course, one source is the bank or other providers of that capital, depending perhaps on your credit rating.

And the other, of course, are equity investors. And, you know, we commonly understand that as venture capitalist in angels and seed investors. So in my experience, I want to get your reaction to this. The minute you start taking in other people's money, you better be seriously thinking of the finance function in your business. While accounting and bookkeeping is necessary from day one, the world changes when it's not just your money.

And could you talk a little about how you should be thinking about finance, particularly when you're getting outside, outside sources of capital to grow and fund your business?

00:16:04:23 - 00:16:24:07

Natalie Cook

So it definitely depends on who is funding you. So banks have very different requirements than venture capital, but let's use venture capital is a really good example because that's a lot of my clients are venture backed. They will have requirements, so they will have accounting requirements. Oftentimes they will ask for gap, gap accounting financials. And so that requires a different kind of firm.

That's one piece. So that's the accounting piece. That's not what we're going to focus on or focus on the finance side. But you will usually have a cadence of board meetings, so that often it's quarterly, sometimes monthly. It depends on what stage you're in, but what you want to focus on is telling the story of what's happening in your business during those meetings.

So that way you can tell your investors, Hey, we're being very successful, or these are pain points and get advice, or you simply they just have requirements and they want to know. So what I would focus on is building a really solid set of KPIs that tell your story in the right way. Now, that might be fuzzy to a lot of people.

What is the right way to tell the story? Well, it's to be honest about what has happening in your business so that they can either say, yes, this was a really awesome investment, we're going to come and invest more money or, hey, we have a whole bunch of support available to you. So that you're struggling. We're going to get you to where we want to go because investors want their money back.

They want you to be successful. They want to help you. They do not want you to fail. And I think that when you understand that investors are they have your back, then you're able to kind of tell that story. So let's focus on what does a finance person do for them to share that story. One is we will say, okay, we'll take the accounting, the financial statements from the accountant and write the commentary.

Okay. So this is this is what happened in the past. And this is where the finance and accounting feature overlap a lot, where I think that people get confused, but I will pretty it up not change the numbers but pretty it up. Like I want you to focus on these three things in the financial statements and I want you to understand the commentary.

So yeah, we've been mis we didn't get our revenue this month but look at all other places that we succeeded. Look at the customer growth and how it relates to revenue. So I do a lot of that storytelling. Then there's the KPIs. So how have you set up your KPIs? A lot of young companies haven't set it up.

It's hard when you are young because you don't know what they're going to be. But if you're thinking just financial, very simple revenue customers, your customer acquisition costs your lifetime value, how do those change over time? So you can show the changes? You can show, Hey, we're on track or we're off track. That's really the key that you get with this fractional CFO that you don't really get.

If you aren't a finance expert, you're kind of just making it up as you go and you can get a lot more support by having an outsourced person.

00:18:55:13 - 00:19:24:17

Jay Kingley

I have taken in other people's money through venture capital into my business. I have at various points in time gone the debt route, both straight that convertible debt. When you're on the other side of the table, it's the money that gives you the leverage. If things aren't going the way you want them to go, it's ultimately that you're control of the money because as a company you are cashflow negative.

You are relying on outside finance to get you to the point where you can go from cash flow negative to cash flow positive at a much bigger scale than if you had to finance that totally internally. So there is an absolute need to be on the same page as the providers of that capital, and that is telling the story.

It's also understanding their concerns positively, addressing those concerns rather than having a big fight. As we experience changes in the economy, which of course happen all the time, that can influence the thinking on that financial capital that can be made available to your business. So when you're in boom times, people want to throw more money at you and of course then expect you to do something constructive and positive, accelerate your growth, become bigger.

But when times look a little bit shaky, then they start to turn off that type of money that your business plan might be relying on. And you better have a good finance person who can figure out the different scenarios so that if you find out that that investment that you are counting on isn't going to come in the door, you have a plan B that you're on right away that secures the viability of your business.

And I have always found that if you don't have a good finance person on your team, you are really going to struggle when it comes to managing these external stakeholders in an environment which almost by definition is never stable. Now talk about when you when you have that function dealt with correctly, you've got your accounting and bookkeeping squared away, but you now have the appropriate finance capability for your business.

What has been your experience for how that business benefits from that capability?

00:21:22:08 - 00:21:43:08

Natalie Cook

Yeah, I think that you are able to make decisions in your business with a of somebody else. They're kind of having your back. But I often play the bad guy role and I think that that provides a lot of them like distress for my clients of like, oh, okay, yeah, someone else told me I need to make a different decision.

So, hey, I don't want you to hire anybody right now because you're going to run out of cash. Like that's a that's a true scenario that has happened. And when I see my clients face, when I say like, yeah, you don't have the money to do it, you can make me the bad guy. They just like, oh, sense of calm, of like I didn't really want to do this, you know, I didn't know.

So that's kind of one benefit. I think if you have a really good finance person, they should be able to increase your EBITA. So now I can't remember, you know.

00:22:15:10 - 00:22:20:18

Jay Kingley

Earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortization. Thank you very much.

00:22:21:15 - 00:22:44:17

Natalie Cook

I know my brain. Sorry, but they should be able to increase it if they're, you know, depending on the type of business, 1 to 15% like you should see that number go up. And that's because they're constantly looking and paying attention to are you meeting your revenue targets? Are you cutting costs where you can? It's it's so easy as a business owner to be so attached to what you've already spent money on.

And so having someone who really it's their job to be like to spend money on that is just a such a huge benefit that you will you will far out way whatever you pay the CFO in your cost savings like it will just happen. It may not happen right away, but it will happen. And so I just I highly encourage it.

And you can get a very minimum amount of CFO services. It can be a quarterly call of just having someone to talk to about these decisions. And that's that's a huge benefit done.

00:23:19:03 - 00:23:45:01

Jay Kingley

I think a great job at teasing out the differences between thinking in your bookkeeping and accounting are taken care of versus you actually have a true finance function in place to help you move your business forward. So let's say I've got the accounting. I really need to put the finance in place. What are the steps that I can follow that would allow me to do that?

00:23:45:04 - 00:24:07:06

Natalie Cook

So if you want to self do this, the first thing is to set KPIs. So those are key performance indicators. You can literally just Google search, what are the basic KPIs, keep it simple, keep it trackable, and then set a cadence for how you're going to track those. And so that's really dependent on your business. If you're stuck, you're like, I don't know, do it monthly and then get organized to get an accounting, a bookkeeper.

Again, this is where they those features overlap, right? You have to have good backwards looking data in order to project forward looking data. So if you're not going to do it yourself, hire someone. It should be kind of your first outsource thing. They're not very expensive if you're a small business and then create a schedule. So that's kind of I guess they kind of are set up, but create a schedule for managing your KPIs and your finances.

An accounting firm will report on a regular basis, take that, have a process, set your own. If you're a single person doing your business, start a monthly meeting, set a weekly meeting to manage it. Look at your financials, what's going on, what happened in the past, but what's going on in the future? What do I think is going to come up?

Do I like my product offerings? Are they making money or are they not making money? Are my costs going up? Those are the things you kind of want to look for. And within that schedule, then manage your cash flow and your accounts receivable and your accounts payable. Those really should be done weekly, maybe biweekly. If you really know if it's steady.

State weekly is great because even if nothing happens, you know what's what's going on in your business. And and it is more than checking your bank account, but it is timing. It is understanding the timing of when payments come in and when payments are going out. And you can actually avoid having a credit card if you have really good cash flow.

So just that's a really key thing. And then track monitor, pay attention to what is happening. A lot of people just don't going to get nervous. They think finance is math. It's not math. It's paying attention. And I think when you get past that, because I really struggled, like if someone told me that I would be like really nerdy about finance, I would have laughed in their face like 15 years ago.

I wouldn't really know. But what clicked for me was understanding that finance is the language of business. It's understanding the inflows and outflows and what's happening in the physical world. And it's really not math. I mean, yeah, sure, there's some math involved, but you can have someone else do that part. If you understand the touch points and how those relate, you'll get it and then the last thing is just adjust regularly.

If this process isn't working or your forecast isn't working, look at it again. So a key example there is definitely kind of reforecast on a quarterly basis and then pricing, that's a one that I think people kind of sometimes forget about, look at it quarterly, you don't change it, but look at it quarterly. That economy shifts, pricing costs of things are shifting.

You might be able to charge more because you're better at what you do. There's lots of things so those are my five steps.

00:26:40:09 - 00:27:24:14

Jay Kingley

Well, I certainly made the mistake that I see so often repeated, which is thinking that it was about the bookkeeping in the coming, not paying attention nearly the level I should to the finance side. I have got huge battle scars from my first start up where we took in extra money, where I had a good controller, which is really on the accounting side and bookkeeping side, but didn't have the right finance and then was unable to communicate effectively with my investors because they were asking me finance questions and all I had was a controller and a bookkeeper.

So I think you've talked about some great things today and the ROI of having that head of finance, I think is just gold really causes you to think about. This is not just an expense item, but this is an area that actually has a strong are y. We're going to take a quick break. And when we come back, we're going to learn a bit about Natalie.

00:27:49:19 - 00:28:12:12

Centricity

Wondering how much longer you have to grind and chase after every lead conversation. And client, would you like clients to knock on your door so you no longer have to pitch follow up and spam decision makers? While centricity is, the Tipping Point Program uses a proven five step process that will help you get in front of the decision makers you need by spending less time on doing all of the things you hate.

It's not cold calling called email called outreach on LinkedIn or any other social media platform or spending money on ads. But it has a 35 times higher ROI than any of those things. Leveraging your expertize and insights that your prospects and network value. The best part, even though you'll see results in 90 days, you get to work with the centricity team for an entire year to make sure you have all the pieces in place and working so you can start having freedom of time and a life outside of your business.

So email time@centricityB2B.com to schedule an 18 minute call to learn more.

00:28:48:05 - 00:29:07:02

Jay Kingley

Welcome back. We're talking to Natalie Cook of Corporate Strategies. Let's find out a bit more about Natalie. I want to start by understanding the pain points that you address for your clients. And why do your clients need you to get rid of that pain?

00:29:07:07 - 00:29:34:10

Natalie Cook

Yeah, great question. So a fractional CFO and I think specifically our firm really focuses on providing clarity to their CEOs, telling a great financial story and guiding them in their strategy and their vision. And we do this because we set up really good processes and controls. We kind of have a thought per first process that is about that deep strategic thinking and and pushing our CEOs to really understand their business.

So working with a client right now where they're new to their business model and so it's a lot of conversations on how you actually operationalize this so that we can push them in the right direction and give them some validity to their model.

00:29:48:18 - 00:30:14:08

Jay Kingley

So whether it's looking for a fractional CFO or any expertize that you're looking to bring in, I have never talked to a CEO, head of business who has said is you can you recommend someone who's average in this area actually for what I need. Mediocre will do just fine. So the next time that happens will be the first time.

Everybody, of course, wants to work with the best because ultimately that is a reflection on themselves. So I'm going to ask you that very direct question. Not only what is it that makes you and your team cooperate great at what you do?

00:30:29:06 - 00:30:52:07

Natalie Cook

So I'm a big believer that being trained in multiple disciplines makes you a lot better at whatever your expertize is. If you really narrowly focus a lot of times your blinders on, you can't really see things outside of it. I had a really robust operations background before getting into finance, and so I saw how businesses operated. I saw the things that I didn't really like about them.

I did a lot of budget reviews when I was in grantmaking, and so they weren't things that were like very financing. But I got to see like, what was the big picture of these businesses? And so then when I was in finance and what when I started to just really love that industry, I was able to tell a story so much differently than I could tell my financial counterparts that didn't have that background.

They really just focused on an Excel spreadsheet and they were big clung to it like a blanket. I mean, they were lovely, but it was kind of like a security blanket. And I didn't have that. I didn't I wasn't bogged down by the right way to do things. I just did things the way that made sense to me.

And I think when the way that I try to explain to my clients finances is really just a normal language and it's been very successful. I don't use crazy financial terms and I mean I do sometimes when I have to, but I will break it down to them in real word terms so they understand that working capital is a really important part of your business, and it's actually not that hard to figure out.

00:31:56:23 - 00:32:19:09

Jay Kingley

Well, I encourage everybody to go to LinkedIn. Look up and connect with Nathalie. You'll get a sense of that broad experience that she's talking about that she brings to bear on what it is that she does. Now, Nathalie, I want to ask you something, a different question. Tell us what's happened in your life that would most explain why you do what you do.

00:32:19:11 - 00:32:39:05

Natalie Cook

There's kind of two things. One is I had a lot of different kinds of jobs. I graduated undergrad in oh eight right at the height of the recession. And I did not know what to do because when I started college, people were like, You just need a bachelor's degree and then you'll figure it out. That was not true four years later, and I think we're about to hit something very similar.

So if you are a college student listening, I contact me and you know, we'll chat. But essentially I had all these little jobs that not little jobs, normal jobs office admin jobs. I kind of focused on what could I just kind of continue to build that wouldn't get me out of the market. I didn't want to be a barista.

I moved to Seattle right around that time and I just kind of got frustrated with how these businesses were running. How is like now if I could just like run my own business, I can figure it out. Took a really long time to kind of get there, but I just kind of paid attention in the background of what was happening and what I didn't like or what I did like.

And then kind of on the flip side, on a it wasn't one event, but on the flip side, on a personal note, I just always wanted to run my own business, not even because of those frustrations. I just knew that I wanted that I wanted the ownership over my time, over my work and my business. And I just I think at one point in time I read a list of like, what are the traits that make a good CEO?

And I was like, Oh, I have all those, but I'm not there yet. Like, it was a very weird moment because I was very young. I was maybe 26 at the time, and I was just like, How do I get there? And so I have two kids under the age of five. I had fixer upper house. I wanted to do other things.

And to me, starting my own business was like pure freedom. So there wasn't any particular moment. It was a lot of moments. But in August 2020, for one moment too, to really sink your teeth into. I was three months pregnant with my second son. I was burnt out. We were all stuck at home and I was like, This is the time.

If I don't do it now, it's going to take me like five more years. So I quit my job and I worked my butt off until I had my baby. And then I've been growing it ever since.

00:34:26:22 - 00:34:54:21

Jay Kingley

Now I know that there's a lot of people when you say finance and accounting, they're thinking that's not the sexiest thing in the world. But one of the things that I think we've taken from our discussion today is just how critical it is to business success that you have the right capability, that you're using the right kind of tools and dashboards, and that you're allocating sufficient time to pay attention.

I am sure that many in our audience would love to reach out. Continue the conversation with you on this very important topic. What's the best way for people to get in touch?

00:35:06:02 - 00:35:22:15

Natalie Cook

Yeah I think email so they can email me at Natalie copyright strategies dot com. I do have a calendar link that I think you're going to put in the show notes. I won't spell it, but it's copyright 25 minutes or something like that, so I'll let you deal with that part. But we can definitely set up a free consult via email.

00:35:23:02 - 00:35:59:10

Jay Kingley

And I, as Natalie, as you suggested, I will put this in the show notes, insert in the video along with your LinkedIn address, make it easy for people to reach out. Well, Natalie, this has been amazing. I loved the perspective that you've brought. I think you've really both educated us as to the difference between booking, accounting and finance, but more importantly, talked about the value, why it's essential, and how to think about those critical functions and the thing I know you know lot, I'm not the only business to business show out there.

And I know that there are plenty of show hosts that would just love to have you on as a guest. I'm just going to tell everybody you're so picky and choosy. So you know, hey, I'm I'm very blessed. Don't answer that, by the way. No, no comment on that. We're just going to go with that story. But I just know that for any other lucky host, they would literally be doing that happy dance.

They'd be declaring victory, they'd be sending little messages to all their friends and colleagues saying, I have just done the best show with one of the best guess out there. And while that is true, I look at that almost look down my nose and say, yeah, that might be good enough for you. It's not good enough for me.

Most importantly, it is not good enough for our amazing audience. So I'm sorry. Not sorry. I'm going to have to raise the ante, ask for just a little bit more so you could meet our demanding standards. And let me tell you what I'm thinking. I think you could throw a little out there, a little sweetener to our audience for staying with you and for learning and hopefully reaching out and engaging with you.

Natalie, what can you do to sweeten that pot?

00:37:26:08 - 00:37:36:07

Natalie Cook

You know what? I think I can do a free 90 minute strategy, consult for anyone who emails me and says that they listen to the best kept secret podcast.

00:37:36:14 - 00:38:02:14

Jay Kingley

And just to make this really clear to people, this link that Natalie are commonly link that she gives out to all and sundry 25 minutes she is offering for you guys 90 minutes that means you can get to some real substance, have a really impactful conversation that might change your future direction for your business. So let's reach out to Natalie.

Let's take advantage of this very kind and generous offer. Natalie, I want to thank you so much for being the amazing guests that you are to my audience. Let's continue to crush it until next time. Okay?