Financial Flourishing Tip #1 from a former CFO
Hello from Baltimore! I’m Dave Valentine and it feels great to join you all. I’m Deb’s other half and have joined her Thriving For Equity business. I’m a Philly native, but spent time in LA (6 years) and now live in Baltimore...
Hello from Baltimore!
I’m Dave Valentine and it feels great to join you all.
I’m Deb’s other half and have joined her Thriving For Equity business. I’m a Philly native, but spent time in LA (6 years) and now live in Baltimore.
Deb already told you I’m a former CFO, but since I’m new here, I want to tell you just a little about how I got there and share one of the lessons I learned along the way.
I had a non-traditional path to the CFO roles I spent the last 8 years in. My undergraduate major was in finance, not accounting, and truth be told I would’ve switched to being an English major if I wasn’t a semester away from graduating.
Side Tip #1, your internal compass is a pretty good guide and if I had to do it over again, I would’ve made the switch.
Since I spent most of my time in the nonprofit realm, job growth came through being flexible, moving to new roles or organizations multiple times, and taking on higher level roles with each move. My first CFO role took us to Los Angeles. My most recent one brought us back East to Baltimore.
This was not a “get an accounting degree, work at an audit firm, get my CPA and then move into the CFO track” path.
So what made me stand out?
I was very receptive to the change and growth that technology, systems, and processes could bring.
I was good at collaboration and that worked well in environments where change was occurring and silos were being dismantled.
I realized that I liked to focus on the future (budgeting & forecasting) instead of the past (accounting).
I could present information well and I have an even demeanor, which allowed people to trust me.
I could lead and I like managing people (don’t be surprised if you end up having very few managers who are good at this).
Finally, I realized that the numbers were telling a story, and if you are good at telling stories, then understanding your finances in ways where you can weave them into a narrative will be amazingly helpful as you look for funders, apply for loans, or look to partner with other businesses or nonprofits.
I’ll end up telling you more about those experiences in future posts, but having given you a little sense of my path, for today, I want to focus on my first tip for you if you want to shift from surviving to thriving financially —whether you’re a leader of a non-profit organization, a solopreneur, or just want to get a better handle on your personal finances.
When looking to increase your skill in understanding and managing your finances…
Play to your strengths.
Like I noted in what made me stand out, I was able to identify the things unique to me, and each of you has a set of skills and capabilities that are unique to you.
You don’t have to get good at everything to get good at your money.
I’ll touch on more tips over the next few days.