How to Avoid Taking CFO Client Outcomes Personally

Sometimes as a fractional cfo, when our clients don't hit their big targets or their financial goals, it can be easy to take that personally. My name is Michael King, and this is the CFO Report, where I talk about starting, scaling, and optimizing fractional CFO services. In today's episode, I'm talking to one of my coaching clients who is an extremely empathetic fractional cfo. And she shares with me that sometimes when her clients miss the mark, she takes it really personally. Today I'm sharing some perspectives with her on how she can take that less personally. And I share with her some things that she needs to focus on to remember the value that she's adding to her customers. So it takes a little bit of the sting out when the clients don't hit their financial goals. Let's take a look.

I'm an empath. And so when my clients are stressed, like, I feel it too. And I had asked Carlos yesterday, like, you know, when you do this projection, and then, like, things go wrong, like, how do you handle that? And, I mean, he was very honest, and he was like, I don't stress about it one bit. Like, those aren't my numbers. Those are their numbers. And I was like, oh, my gosh. Like, I never thought about it that way. Like, I almost take ownership over what I'm telling my clients as possible. And so I just wondered, like, because you have all these clients, especially, you know, you talk about things that are going on with economic hardships, having. And I think it's holding me back because I'm afraid, like, the more clients I take on, like, that's just going to add to my stress as well. Like, because I'm. We're taking on clients that need help. Right. So they're problem clients. And so until you get them to the point where they're, like, able to celebrate things, is there anything that you've done just in your business to help with that and, like, those feelings?

Yeah. I think I probably lean a little closer to you than Carlos on this. I tend to struggle sometimes with getting caught up in the outcomes for my clients and getting, you know, emotionally connected to that. And that's no slide against Carlos. We're just different people. Right. But I do agree with Carlos that at the end of the day, we've got to remember it's not our business. We didn't make the decisions in the business. We're not there holding their hand or, you know, whatever every single day. And also remember that the value you're providing goes beyond what the projections. Beyond you delivering projections to them, you're also that accountability person. You're the person that's helping them from a decision making perspective and a leadership perspective. So your value as the CFO isn't limited to the accuracy of projections. So when I kind of couple that with the fact that it's not my business and I can't control what they do, all I can do is show up and give them the best information I can so that they can make the best decisions possible for their business. And at the end of the day, I'm able to look myself in the mirror and be proud of that work. Then, you know, it's a little bit of an easier pill for me to swallow. I don't know if that, if that really like, gives you the guidance you were looking for or the help that you're looking for, but you know that that's it.

Like, you can't give them advice. That's going to move the needle. Thousands of dollars like every single time that you talk to them. And I feel like in my mind, like I have to do that. And I'm trying to figure out how to get out of that mind trap.

They don't always just need the 4,000 or the 40,000 or the $400,000. Aha. Moment. Bit of insight. Yeah. You've got to deliver some of those along the way. The reality is not every client's going to have those opportunities every month. Sometimes it's just the accountability, sometimes it's just the fact that they're on the call, looking at what happened with the business last month and being intentional about figuring out what they're going to do next month. A lot of times there's exponentially higher value in that to the client. When it comes to generating CFO reports for my clients, my firm, two non negotiables. The process has to be accurate and it has to be efficient. That's why my firm only trusts G Accon. At its core, G Accon is a data connector between accounting platforms like QuickBooks and Xero and Google Sheets. But G Accon is so much more than just a data connector. Right out of the box. You're going to get hundreds of templates for all the reports that CFOs and accountants need to run for their everyday workflows. Everything from balance sheets to PNLs to AR aging reports. Or you can use GFON like my firm does to create our custom CFO reports every single month. My favorite part about G Accon is that you can set it up to automatically create all of these reports. That means every month I'm getting fresh reports with fresh data ready to deliver to my clients. And because GFCON is automated, that has completely eliminated the need for my team to download data from QuickBooks, upload it into Google sheets, manually, apply formulas. All of those things that take up a lot of time and are prone to errors. In fact, Giacon has completely replaced all the other tools, services and workflows that we were using to generate CFO reports. Giacon is literally our one stop shop for making all of our CFO reports automatically every single month. If you're ready to start saving time and reducing errors, then you need to check out G A Con right now. Be sure to use the link in the description below to save 30%. That means you can get started with GFCON for as little as $28 a month. Join my firm and over 10,000 other firms and try Ghan today. I did that video, that YouTube video recently where I talked about like, I asked the client, like, what is it that we do that you like so much? Is it the forecast or the projection? He's like, no, no, it's none of those things. He's like, yeah, those are helpful. But he's like, you help me think through big decisions. You help me be more accountable as a CEO, right? He's walking through those and those were his words, not mine. And I was like, oh, it doesn't always have to be about the monetary thing, the monetary aha moment. Sometimes it's just the perspectives or the accountability and those kinds of things. And I think I would venture to say it more times than not, it's about those things. It's about the confidence that you're giving them that they're doing the right thing. Sometimes you just need confidence to make a decision. Even if they pick the wrong thing, they at least are one step closer to the right thing. So I think it's like recognizing the fact that it's not necessarily just about financial outcomes. There's more involved to it. I had an Instagram reel the other day. Really what you need to be selling is confidence, security, empowerment, right? You want to go and do all these things. You want to make confident decisions. You don't want to have that imposter syndrome anymore. There's a couple tools you need. So instead of preaching about cash flows or doing a webinar on cash flows, do a webinar on how to make safe, confident decisions in your business. This is literally the low hanging fruit on becoming a thought leader right now. Quit selling the forecast and the projections and the goal setting. Right. What they're really here for is the confidence. They're here for the accountability. They're here for those other things. And I would venture to say you are delivering those every single month, every single phone call in some way, shape or form, right?

Yeah. And I think it's. I forget about those because then I'm looking at the financial side and not things that aren't necessarily financially driven or that have a financial metric related to it. And it's hard for me to connect.

Don't lose sight of the financial things, but remember that you bring more than just that. If it's just the financial stuff, if you're only delivering the financial outcomes, interestingly, they won't be a client for that long. Anyone can do that.

I mean, I've had meetings recently where, like, we're there to go over, like, a CFO call, and they don't even want to talk about the numbers. Like, they want to talk about everything else. And then I feel like I didn't do what I was supposed to to. And then I'm like. But then at the end of the day, like, that's really what they wanted, and so I shouldn't worry about that. We didn't go over.

Now, I want you to give them space at the beginning of the call to talk about those kinds of things, Aaron. But it's also your job, again, from that leadership perspective. It's also your job to make sure that they're looking at the financial things, too. Don't let the whole conversation go down a rabbit hole. That's a therapy session. Let them vent those things out. But you, you've got to guide that call. You've got to keep the rails on that call. So it's a balance. I want you to keep that empathic. There's a human being on the other. But also, we got a job to do. We got to go over this stuff. We got to get into the numbers and talk about what's happening next month, next quarter, and next year. It's a balance of both. All right, my friend, that's it for this week. But listen, if you're looking for expert guidance on your journey to starting, scaling and optimizing your fractional CFO firm, then I want you to check out the Inner Circle. The Inner Circle is my monthly group coaching program where I go live and share the tools, the perspectives, the hacks, everything that I've learned in my journey over the last seven years of. Of scaling my firm. The best part about it is you can check it out your first month for just $1. You literally have nothing to lose. You can cancel at any time if you're ready to get started. To accelerate your journey, go to the cfoaccelerator.com innercircle get started right now for just $1. Again, you can cancel at any time. I can't wait to see you in there. In the meantime, I'll see you right back here next week, my friends. See.

Sam.