A CPA moving into fractional CFO work learns that public speaking on stages, podcasts, and webinars is the best way to land clients. The host teaches a repeatable talk built on the Critical 4 financial metrics (revenue, gross profit, net profit, cash) and shows how to demo cash-flow forecasting as your core topic.
Are you looking to get more fractional CFO clients this year? If you are, hands down, the best way to do that is by speaking on stage, speaking on podcasts, or getting on webinars. But the most common question that I get asked from fractional CFOs that are ready to start speaking is what in the world do I talk about? In this episode of the CFO Report, I'm talking to one of my inner circle members. She's excited to start speaking, but she's not really sure what to talk about. In this episode, I'm going to break down the one topic that I've been speaking on for years that audiences absolutely love and get a ton of value out of. What is that topic? Let's find out.
So I'm a CPA. I've been in business for 22 years doing cloud accounting services for mostly financial advisory firms. That's my niche. So I'm trying to venture into the CFO world. I, you know, doing this a long time, so I think I'm already doing some of the services that, you know, would consider a cfo probably. Yeah, I'm trying to formalize it, you know, more formalize my service offerings in terms of CFO work. So with that said, I am interested in the idea of speaking in front of groups. You know, I, I believe that that is a very good way to kind of get out there, get your name out there, get clients. But I'm curious, when you speak to groups that you might want to get clients from, what do you talk about? I know financial stuff very well. But to stand there and talk about it, I mean, I guess I'm not sure.
Yeah, but you, you know, you do know. I promise, you know, what's the number one problem that every business runs into at some point or another or always? What's the one thing that they all struggle with as it relates to finances?
Cash flow.
Cash flows. You didn't know the answer. That's all I talk about. That's all I ever talk about. And so I have this, I have this whole thing, right? And it's the same talk every time. And there's a great discussion in the somewhere in Slack today where I went through some of this stuff in detail, but this is what I talk about. So you start off with your story, right? And make sure it's not like you're telling your story, but you're telling it in a way that relates to them. Like, why should they care what your story is? So you tell your story, and then I talk about the Four financial metrics that every business needs to know inside and out. And so I call it the critical 4. Revenue, gross profit, net profit, and cash. I have a whole thing where I talk about it, and I'm like, there's all these other numbers, and you need your CFO or your CPA or your accountant to worry about those. They're important, but not for you. You need to know these four inside and out. I go through it and then I talk about. So cash is the fourth one. And then I segue into how to do cash flow forecasting. And I literally teach them while I'm on stage, right? And I have some. Some slides that go. And I teach them how to do it, and they all love it. Because it doesn't matter if you're a brandy new business or a 50 year old business. Every business either has or has suffered from concerns about cash flows. They all do. It's a universal problem. And so then I'm like, you know, looking into the future, the forecast, and like, what you can get out of it, and all the problems that it solves for you, right? And it's like super relatable to them. And I'm like. And that's the kind of stuff a fractional CFO helps you with, is looking into the future, figuring out the roadmap, helping you identify the potholes that are gonna come. And so if you're a business that looks like this, this, this, and this, and you're interested in that, that's what we do. And so you can contact me here, right? It's the same thing every time.
You answered a question I was gonna ask is, do you present the same thing every time?
Yeah. So here's the thing. Here's the thing that people don't, I don't think people, like, recognize until they do a lot of speaking. If you go and look at Tony Robbins, Brendan Burchard, Dean Graciosi, who's the slimy guy that I can't stand, the Scientology guy. His name escapes me. But you look at the guys that talk all the time, Dane and John, they all have the same talk. They've got a 30 minute, a 60 minute and a 90 minute version of the same talk. Because if you want to be a great speaker, you have to give a great talk. And if you've got four or five different things, you don't ever get good at any of them. And so you'll start to find the things that you say. Every audience lights up, and so you know where to pause, you know where to talk. Faster. You know where you're going to lose them. And so you start to learn when to raise your voice or talk faster. You realize where they're like writing. You know when to slow down so that they can catch up. You know the things to highlight, but you also know the things to avoid. You know how to use tone and pace. Like all of those things. Like, if you want to be a good speaker, the only way to figure that stuff out is just through reps. So if you got three or four or five, you don't ever get that experience. And I'm like, I've been doing this for years now, and no one gets tired of me talking about cash flow forecasting but me. I'm the only one gets so tired of it. But like, I spoke last October to a group of a thousand people in Scottsdale of moving company CEOs about cash flows. And they're like, you're coming back this year to talk about cash flows, right? And I'm like, okay, yep, I'm coming back this year to talk about cash flows. So, like, find that one thing and get really good at storytelling through it. Like, tell story. Use examples and metaphors as much as you can. All right, my friend, I hope you found this episode of the CFO Report to be helpful. If you did, you might want to check out this recent edition of my newsletter, the 5 Minute Fractional CFO. In this edition, I'm sharing three humongous holes that I've recently uncovered in my firm and what I'm doing about it. You can check out the newsletter using the link in the description below. In the meantime, I can't wait to see you back here next week, my friend. I'll see you then.
