52. 7 Power Tips for Fractional CFO Success

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What do you get when you distill seven years in business working with dozens of fractional CFO clients, coaching over a hundred fractional CFO firm owners, all while building two businesses of your own and an amazing team around you? That's exactly what I'm going to share with you today because I'm celebrating my seventh year in business. It's our seventh birthday at KFE Solutions, and a few years ago I started this tradition where on my business's birthday I, I sit down with a pen and paper and I write out what were the biggest lessons that I learned or relearned over the last year in business. And what I've done to up the ante a little bit is each year I challenge myself to come up with as many lessons learned whichever birthday I'm on. So this is my seventh year in business. So I came up with seven big lessons learned or relearned over the last year. The reason I'm so excited to share this with you today is because I know that there are going to be at least a few nuggets in here that you can apply to your business. But I also know that there's probably a nugget or two in here that you can share with your clients so that they can apply it in their businesses as well. If you're new here. My name is Michael King and this is the CFO Report where I talk about starting, scaling, and optimizing fractional CFO services. So what are those seven lessons that I learned or relearned over the last year in business? Let's go ahead and dive in and find out. The first big lesson that I learned after reflecting on the last year was in business, we should first find a problem and, and then create a solution. What I see a lot of times is we approach that backwards. First we'll go create a solution, and then we go out hunting for a problem for our solution to solve. And then we're surprised when nobody consumes it, nobody buys it, nobody wants it. So let me give you an example of what that means exactly. I see a lot of people that they'll come up to me and they'll say, mike, should I create a community for my program? Mike, should I write a newsletter for my audience? Mike, do you think I should start offering this new service or creating this new product? And the question that I always ask them is, well, tell me how many people have asked for that? And a lot of times there's like crickets in this awkward silence. And when they say, well, nobody's Asked for it. But I think it would be a great idea. Because what I want to encourage you to do is really go out and ask your audience. Ask your clients. Ask the market what is something that you could do for them or produce for them that would add them value and really listen. I think this is an underrated skill in business, is the ability to listen to what people are telling you. Look at on social media. What are people talking about? Talk to your clients. Ask them what are their goals, dreams, aspirations, fears and uncertainties, and how could you help them better reach those? So instead of trying to come up with ideas for new things that you could do, just start by listening. Start by asking questions. Start by having that critical ear. And your audience will tell you what they want. Your clients are gonna tell you what they want. You're not gonna have to guess, but you are gonna have to listen. So first big lesson in business, first identify a problem, then create the solution. The second lesson that I learned in business last year, this one really hits home for me. This is really close to my heart, is the superpowers that got might end up being the kryptonite that keeps you here. Let me give you a great example. This is coming from me. This isn't something I've seen from others. There's certain things that I have always really excelled at in business. I'm good at getting my name out there. I'm good at sales calls. I'm good at copywriting. Those things resonate with the market. It connects with people. It builds trust. It builds rapport. The way I do those things are great. And they've gotten both of my businesses to where they're at today. My team a couple months ago had what I like to call a come to Jesus talk with me. Where they told me, they're like, mike, you gotta quit doing all the sales. You've gotta quit doing all the marketing. You gotta quit doing all the copywriting, because you just don't have time to continue doing all of those things. And the other things that you need to be doing is the CEO of the two businesses that we're in. And I kind of went into this defensive posture, and I'm like, yeah, but nobody can do those things the same way that I do. And what they told me and what they've shown me and what I've seen since then is that they're absolutely right. Nobody can do those things the way that I do them. But there are plenty of other people that can do those things well. And so long as I'm Married to me doing those things, we're not going to be able to grow. Because the truth is, there's only so many sales calls that I can do in a week. There's only so many social media posts that I can write. There's only so many videos that I can record. There's only so many hours in the day. And so long as I continue to convince myself that I'm the only one that can do those things, we're not going to grow. And so it's been a real exercise in humility and keeping my ego in check and recognizing that, yeah, there are other people on the team. There's other people, other providers out there that can do the things that I've done to bring success to my businesses so far. They can do those things so that I can be freed up to do more things. That way, we can increase our impact. I can grow the team. My family can reach more of the goals that we want to reach and have the impact on our community that we want to have. The superpowers that I brought to the table around sales and around energy and coming up with these creative ideas and all those things, they were great, and they got us exactly to where we're at. And because I'm not willing to let go of some of those things and delegate and trust the team, those same things are keeping us where we're at. And it's really stunted our growth. And I'll tell you, I'm really grateful and I feel blessed that my team came to me and let me know that it was time to let those things go. Because over the last couple, three months now, I've really been doing, I think, a better job of delegating and turning over some of those things to other people. And we're already seeing dividends from. From it. So keep in mind, the superpower that got you here could end up being the kryptonite that keeps you here. All right? Third lesson that I learned in business this year, working with one client that you love is infinitely more valuable than 10 clients that you don't love. I've seen this in my own firm. I've seen this with people that I've coached. I see it with my coaching clients and with our CFO clients time and time again. We've all had these clients that suck the life out of us, right? They're the ones that push the boundaries. They're the ones that talk down to us. They're the ones that always want more, more, more. They're the ones that don't say thank you. They're the ones that make you feel like you're taken for granted. We've all had them. If you haven't had one yet, you probably haven't been in business very long yet. And we all know that we need to get rid of those clients. But we oftentimes tell us this story of why we can't because it's interesting. A lot of times those clients that are all of those things that I just discussed, a lot of times those are our higher paying clients. Especially when there are higher paying clients, it's easy to keep them around longer than we should because we tell ourselves a story. We can't let them go. I can't let Bill go despite all of these things until I get a new client or two new clients to replace them. Sometimes you need to get three or four new clients to replace them because like I said, a lot of times they're our highest paying customers. So we tell ourselves this narrative of why we can't let them go. But it's because of that energy suck, the time suck, the motivation suck that the bills of the world bring. I'm not saying Karen. We have somebody named Karen in the inner circle now. So I'm trying not to use the name Karen. It's offensive. Bill is our villain today. Bill's sucking all that energy out of us, is preventing us from having the space that we need to grow. Right? They're keeping us in this small container by virtue of all of those negative things that we're doing.

And so what I want to encourage.

You is let go of the story you're telling yourself on why you can't let Bill go. It's a leap of faith here. You gotta trust me. I've seen it in my own firm, I've seen it in actually both of my businesses, and I've seen it with so many of my clients. When you let the asshole go, it really frees you. I'm not a very Woo Woo person. I'm a nuclear engineer from lower Alabama. Right? Well, as far from Woo Woo as you can get. But there's this energy that gets drained out of you when you work with people that you don't love serving. And when you get them out of your life, it just creates this space for you to go out and find amazing new clients to work with that you're going to love getting out of bed for every single day. I don't know what the Woo Woo juju magic is behind that thing, but just the mental bandwidth, the energy, the Creative space. I don't know, it's weird, but when you let them go, it really opens up that space for you. So what I would encourage you is if you've got that client that you know you need to let go, or if one of your clients has that client, have this conversation with them and just let them know, like, look, it's gonna be okay. Let the client go. We'll find another client to replace them, and we'll have so much more energy and vibrancy with the way we show up every day. And it's gonna attract other clients. So work with one client you love. Way more valuable than 10 that you don't love. All right. My fourth big takeaway from seven years in business. This is a big one. This has been a huge one for me this year. This is going to sound obvious. You know, the common sense things aren't always common practice. Fourth big lesson this year. Sleep and physical health do more for business than any business plan or any other business, anything you could ever hope for Again, I know it sounds obvious, but really, do some reflection. Are you getting the sleep you need and are you doing the things for your physical health that you need so that you can show up every single day? The truth was, I was not. For years, I had convinced myself that I only need four, maybe five hours of sleep a night. You know, I'll do a little bit of the treadmill work or hop on the peloton bike, and that'll be enough. The truth is, that was all bullshit. I knew it was all crap. Especially as I've gotten into my 40s, I'm realizing I cannot show up every day with the level of mental awareness, with the energy, with the creativity that I need to be successful, for my clients to be successful, for my coaching CL clients to be successful, for my team to be successful if I'm not at 100%. And for me to be at 100%, I've gotta get seven hours minimum of sleep. And really, eight is the sweet spot for me. And for me, good sleep means no alcohol. You know, I did a video recently where I just hit three years of sobriety. Cause I decided to. It's a massive weight on your sleep when you consume alcohol before you go to bed. One of the other things that I've learned that's so important for me is waking up consistently at the same time and going to bed at the same time seven days a week. My wife and I joke, it's the freaking weekend. But, you know, we'll stay up and watch TV a little later, we'll go to a later movie. That doesn't work for me because if I go to bed late, I don't get my eight hours or seven and a half hours down, you know, the next day, Saturday, I'm off Sunday, I'm off Monday, you know, gosh forbid. I watched the late night game Sunday Night Football. I'm wrecked on Monday and it's like Tuesday before I'm really back in the saddle. Another one is the importance of hydration. You know, again, it sounds simple, right? I've got to consume. I always got my big yellow cup, always by me. Earlier this week, I sat down to batch. I was gonna film an office tour. You know, that episode hasn't been released yet. But I picked stuff up, right? I'm like, I don't wanna have my crap laying around. And I put my drinking cup away first thing in the morning, forgot about it. By 4 o' clock that afternoon, I'm grumpy, I'm tired, I'm short. Creativity, forget about it. I got no video work done the entire day, no batching work because I didn't hydrate. And on that same token, I didn't eat that day. I got caught up like a lot of us do in the morning. I had, you know, chores. I'm taking my wife to the airport, I'm doing this, I'm doing that. And then I get to work and I get to, you know, jump right into the content creation, I get right into the client work, all those kind of things. And I forgot to eat another couple of things. On the same token of sleep and physical health, I got a trainer last year for the first time, went all in, right? I'm not going to lie, it's an expensive trainer because I know that if I'm paying for a trainer, I'm going to show up. What that did was, is over the course of months, We've had over 100 sessions together. We meet three days a week. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I'm at the gym stretched and ready to go at 6:30am it's built that habit in, that discipline. So Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I got an hour with my trainer. His name's Eagle, right? Which is like the perfect physical trainer name. He looks like what you think he looks like. And he kicks my ass for an hour three days a week. And then on Saturday, my wife and I go and do cardio. We go out around the neighborhood and run so long as the weather permits. That hour every morning of physical energy, of physical exertion does more for my energy than any amount of caffeine that I can possibly, possibly consume. And on the days that I don't feel great, I go for a walk. It's important to do something, some kind of movement every single day. Another thing that I've learned is really important for recovery is for the last several months now, I get a massage every other week. I'm not talking about a relaxation massage, I'm talking about like the guy gets in and it's like a workout level massage, right? Like I finished that thing. I'm all, I feel like the guy just beat me up. But it helps with recovery, it helps with my blood flow. When I take those things in aggregate, the sleep, the gym, the hydration, the massage, the eating schedule, I can tell that those are vital components in my creativity, my productivity, my emotions, like all the way. As I show up, really reflect on what your sleep schedule and your physical fitness or your physical health schedule looks like and see if there's any opportunities. You might not be able to do the gym, you might not be able to do a massage every couple of weeks, but you can absolutely commit to a sleep schedule. Unless you have newborns. If you have newborns, you get a pass. If you don't have newborns, then there's an opportunity to commit to a sleep schedule. There's an opportunity to commit to hydration every day. Alright, fifth lesson learned. After seven years in business, this one is a newer addition to my life. But it's been amazing for me, this realization that one hour of quiet thinking time every morning is remarkably powerful. Most mornings, as soon as the alarm gets off, you know, wipe my little eyes, you know, roll over, what do I do? I'm picking up the phone and I'm checking emails, I'm checking slack, I'm checking this, I'm checking that.

And as soon as I do that.

I've committed my mind to other people's priorities, to other things going on in the world. And it's hard for me to get it back. So what I started doing about a month ago now is every morning when I wake up, I turn off the alarm, phone goes down on the nightstand, face down. I go downstairs and I sit in the dark for an hour and I just think. I just give my mind that hour to process, to think, meditation, prayer, just let my mind do those things. And what I found is, you know how sometimes you get those crazy ideas when you're in the shower? You know, I have those moments every morning now, right, where I get those ideas. I get the spark I get some ingenuity, some great idea, the creative thinking. It starts to happen during that hour because I haven't let other people get into my mind yet. I would just encourage you, if you've got time in the morning, I think it's important to do it first thing in the morning. For me, anyway, make that cup of coffee. I sit down, dog sits next to me on the couch, and there's like, this little nightlight. Just sit there. My wife's still asleep, and I just sit there and I think, do some breath work, some meditation and some prayer. The ideas and the peace that's come. For me, doing that has been amazing. So see if you've got that space. See if you can create that space first thing in the morning to just kind of sit in a quiet place. Even if it's 15 minutes, I think you'll see some really amazing results. An hour of thinking time first thing in the morning. Remarkably powerful. All right. The sixth lesson that I learned in business this year is that the awareness of my emotions and mental energy really matters. And I gotta give a huge shout out to my coach, the guy that runs the mastermind that I'm a member of, Nick Kennedy. Because I never really thought about this before I worked with Nick Kennedy. I'll leave Nick's information in the comments below. But when I first started working with Nick last year, he brought this emotion. That sounds so silly to say it, guys, but I'm telling you, it's a game changer. This emotions card, what Nick proposed is that a lot of times as busy business owners, right, we're like, we got all the things going on. We rarely take time to check in with ourselves and see how we're feeling. And at first, I was reluctant to really even care about it because I'm like, what difference does it matter how I'm feeling, right? I got stuff to do. There's things that need to happen. And what I learned after working with Nick for the whole year is just because I'm not aware of the. The emotions that I have and the emotional energy, mental energy that I've got, everybody else around me is my lack of awareness doesn't mean that other people don't see it and feel it and are impacted by it. And so what Nick taught me was looking at this eight basic emotions card. Eight. I'm a basic guy. Look at the eight basic emotions once a day. Just sit down and check in with yourself. Maybe during that hour of time you have in the morning, and you just.

Ask yourself, like, how am I feeling right now. And once you identify how you're feeling, then the next step is to ask yourself why. What has triggered that fear? What's triggered that joy? What's the thing that caused it?

What's the catalyst for it? And then you can start doing some.

Reflection and introspection on why it is that that thing triggered that particular emotion for you. One of the big lessons that Nick taught me too is emotions in and of themselves aren't good or bad, but how you respond to those emotions can be good or bad. But without the awareness of knowing how you feel and what triggered that emotion in you, it really becomes challenging for me anyway to control the way I.

Respond to those things.

So to me, just having that self awareness of what emotions am I feeling right now and what's triggering it and.

Then how am I responding?

How is that kind of materializing to those around me? It's been really important. And I'll tell you, like probably the biggest area where that's had results for me is with my wife, you know, because a lot of times stuff happens in the office, you know, and we take those things home with us.

You know, some of the frustration.

You had your fifth sales call in a row and it punched you in the face because you didn't close them. You had somebody on your team quit. A lot of times we take those things home with us. Those emotions end up having an impact on those around us. And so I do a couple of.

Check ins a day.

Like in the morning when I'm sitting on the couch with my quiet time on the drive home, check in with my little eight basic emotions card.

And I ask myself, how am I feeling right now?

What triggered that? And then am I still showing up the way that I want to show up? As a husband, as a leader in the business, as somebody that serves other people, am I still showing up the way I want to?

That awareness has given me a lot of control around how I show up for people. And finally the seventh lesson that I learned or relearned in my seventh year of business, this goes back to stuff that my mom told me as a kid. You're the average of the five people that you surround yourself with. And man, this is so true in business. I think it's actually even a little bit broader than that. You're really the product of the people that you're around. If you're around people that are negative, that have this victim mentality that's going to find its way into you. It's like some kind of osmosis. Right. It seeps into your skin and you'll find that you take on a lot of those characteristics and a lot of those mindsets. But man, I'll tell you what, when you're around people that have a passion for life, that are dedicated to service to others, people that have big goals and dreams and aspirations, people that show up with values and ethics day in and day out, when you can get in that kind of an ecosystem, when you can surround yourself with clients that are that way, with people in your coaching programs, or your community, or people in your church, your family, when you surround yourself with an ecosystem of people that are just operating mentally, physically, emotionally at a higher level, it is just inspiring what it can do for you in your day to day life. One of my favorite sayings is it's hard to be hateful if you're grateful. And it's so true. I'm around people that have these, these gratitude practices and I find myself incorporating them into my life. But on the same token, when I'm around somebody that's constantly complaining about work or their clients or traffic, it kind of doesn't matter what it is, I find myself doing those same exact things. You know, I think this seventh lesson.

Is really a word of caution for you. Be really, really, really, really critical about.

The people you allow into your life, into your mind, because it matters. And with that, you have the seven biggest lessons that I learned or relearned after seven years in business. My hope is that you can find one of these that speaks to you, that you can apply to your business or into your life and it'll help you out. Maybe you find one that you can share with one of your clients and it could help them out. I would also encourage you, though, take moments like your firm's birthday to sit down and do some reflection and introspection on those big moments, mistakes that you made, the lessons that you learned, the lessons that you relearned. Because I've just found that there's so much value in that intentionality when I.

Sit down and do it, it really.

Enables me to do more of the things that work and to do fewer of the things that didn't work. But if I didn't have that practice of sitting down and really kind of journaling out those lessons learned, I wouldn't have that opportunity. So I hope you found this episode helpful. I can't wait to see you back here, same time, same place, next week. I will see them at the IT.