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How I became a CFO and why I started this podcast · The Diary of a CFO

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  The path to the C -suite is rarely linear, and
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  the challenges don't stop once you get there.
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  I'm Wasee Akamon, and I'm taking you with me
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  on my journey as a newly appointed CFO, sharing
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  the hidden challenges, unspoken rules, and lessons
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  I wish I had known. So whether you're in finance,
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  working finance, or just trying to get your budget
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  approved faster, there's something here for you.
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  The purpose of this podcast is to make better
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  leaders and help leaders be better at life. Welcome
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  to the Diary of a CFO. Welcome to the first episode
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  of the Diary of a CFO. I'm your host, Waseya
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  Camon, and I'm so excited to have you here. In
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  this first episode, I want to go over who am
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  I, why I'm doing this, and what you should expect
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  in the future. I'll go through the multiple hats
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  I'm wearing. My first and obvious one is CFO.
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  I'm the Chief Financial Officer of an organization
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  called ACE, Access to Capital for Entrepreneurs.
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  We are a not -for -profit lender who provides
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  affordable loans to underserved communities and
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  entrepreneurs. Another hat I'm wearing is keynote
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  speaker. I've been speaking on change management
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  and strategic influence for the past couple years.
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  Another hat I'm wearing is guest contributor
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  and content creator, mostly on LinkedIn. I've
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  been featured in publication like the Wall Street
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  Journal, Strategic Finance and Accounting Today,
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  so writing a lot about finance and accounting.
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  I'm now a guest faculty for Wharton Online for
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  their FP &A certificate program. And these are
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  just the professional hats, okay? I haven't even
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  gotten into the not professional hats, which
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  is I'm a mom, I have two kids, age 10 and nine,
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  even though I feel like my 10 year old is older
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  than she's acting, but oh well. I'm also a volunteer.
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  I'm a board member for a not -for -profit organization
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  called HOPE, and we help single parent complete
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  their education degree so they don't have to
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  work two jobs. We help them so that by the time
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  they graduate, they don't have as much debt and
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  they have been able to actually complete an education
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  that will allow them to do better in life. And
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  also, these are all the hats. And so, why? Am
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  I doing this? Why in the world am I doing this?
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  Good question. I'm glad you asked. The first
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  reason is because it's fresh in my mind. I'm
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  launching a podcast about 30 days after starting
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  this new CFO role. I've never been a CFO before.
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  Drinking from a fire hose is an understatement.
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  I will say that I've been swallowed by the fire
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  hose. That's a better way to say it. When I announced
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  that I became a CFO, a lot of people reached
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  out to me on LinkedIn and it made me realize
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  that there is so much I want to share with people
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  about my journey and it's hard to do it by writing
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  post because writing is great but it's sometimes
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  hard to capture the complexities of how you succeed
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  in the corporate world. And I realize that podcasting
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  allows for more in -depth conversation. I want
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  to be able to provide insights that address that
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  intersection of optimizing a business financially
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  while having a rewarding career and personal
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  life. Why is this needed? Because a lot of managers
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  never received formal leadership training and
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  coaching when they're first starting leading
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  people. That was my case. I also ran a study
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  on LinkedIn that showed that, yes, I'm not the
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  only one. And so as a result, they often tend
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  to become bad managers before becoming great
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  leaders, if they actually make the shift at some
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  point. And so you realize that managers need
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  help, leaders need help. It is not easy to lead.
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  If you go, for example, on Google and you start
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  typing my manager, the suggestions that you will
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  see is, My manager is toxic, incompetent, or
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  gaslighting me. That's what Google will fill
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  in the blank for you when you stop typing my
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  manager in Google search. So I really hope that
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  through this podcast, managers and leaders alike
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  will learn, have different perspectives, see
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  things differently. And now the third reason
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  why I'm doing this is because... I haven't seen
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  a lot of people looking like me do this and do
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  it from this angle. And if you are listening
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  to the podcast, you may have not noticed, but
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  I'm a young black woman with an accent. And so
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  I'm in the category by default of least expected
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  to make it, especially in corporate finance at
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  a level where I am now in the C -suite for a
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  very well -established organization. And so I
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  want to do it, not just to inspire people, but
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  to share challenges I had to overcome so we can
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  all become better leaders, more inclusive leaders,
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  and have different angles and perspective about
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  how we approach business. I do have a fourth
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  reason, and that is AI. Deep breath in, out.
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  I'm burning out a little bit about the AI buzz,
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  all the buzz around AI, because I feel like All
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  these buzz is distracting us from what really
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  matters. What do I mean by that? Yes, you can
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  write a better prompt, but if you're not able
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  to influence a human across from you that's making
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  an end decision, sorry, the end decision makers
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  will always be human. So you can... Try one of
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  these tools that say, Oh, I'll help you optimize
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  your resume. Yeah. AI you get the interview,
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  but if you are not good at interviewing, it doesn't
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  matter that you use AI or not. You will not get
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  that job. And so what I really want to cover
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  in this podcast is what are those business skills
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  that business will always need and that AI will
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  never replace things like strategic influence,
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  things like leading change. business partnering,
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  things that I really believe that AI is accelerating
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  the need for. That is really what I want to focus
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  in this podcast. So it doesn't matter whether
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  you're in finance or not, you will gain something
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  from it. Now, I told you who I was at a very
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  high level, why I was doing this, right? Because
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  it's fresh. I haven't seen somebody like me doing
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  this. It's needed. There is AI distracting us.
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  Now, what can you expect in the future episode?
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  If you're in finance and accounting and aiming
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  for any C -suite role, you will learn valuable
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  insight on how to climb the ladder without losing
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  your soul and your sanity in the process. If
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  you're already in the C -suite, you will learn
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  different ways to maximize your impact. And if
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  you're working with a C -suite or selling to
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  the C -suite, you'll have great insight into
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  what keeps us at night. to better support us
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  and help us make our organization better. Every
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  episode will likely be very different, all right?
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  Some will be long, some will be short, like this
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  one, because, you know, it's almost like a little
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  teaser, so you can come back for more. You know
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  how they do at Costco? Maybe Costco was not a
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  good example. Anyway, you got the point, right?
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  What I can guarantee you is that there will always
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  be something valuable. You will always find something
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  of value to walk away with. Now I could stop
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  here, but I wouldn't be right. I need to dive
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  a little deeper, right? Dive a little deeper
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  into who I am. Let's do it. That's a great idea.
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  Yes, I'm an extrovert. If you haven't noticed
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  that, I'm an extrovert. So having worked remotely,
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  I definitely need an outlet and a friend and
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  a friend to talk to. So this mic here is going
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  to be my friend. I will probably should give
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  him a name. So if you have ideas, please send
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  me a message. I would like to know how I should
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  call my new friend here. You know, extroverts
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  need company. All right. So you probably hear
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  in my voice, I have an accent. And that is because
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  I'm originally from Ivory Coast. Ivory Coast
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  is located in West Africa, in between Ghana and
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  Liberia. We are a former French colony, and that's
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  why the official language there is French. So
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  I grew up speaking French. From kindergarten
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  all the way to high school when I graduated I
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  came to the United States I could read I could
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  write but I couldn't understand and out of all
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  places when I graduated I came to Georgia in
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  Atlanta in the south y 'all So yes, my accent
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  my voice will be switching throughout because
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  of my heritage I've been in the state for over
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  two decades It's hard to believe but yes I've
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  officially spent more time living in the United
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  States than in the Ivory Coast. I originally
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  came to be working in actuarial science. After
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  that first statistic course, I was like, no,
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  we're not doing that. So I'm moving into accounting.
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  I took my first accounting course. I loved it.
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  And then I took this personality test. I said,
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  yes, you'd be a great accountant. And I believed
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  it. Okay. I was just 19 years old by that time.
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  So I went all in in accounting. I interned first
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  at a not -for -profit. Funny, you know, my first
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  role was bookkeeper at a not -for -profit. So
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  it's almost like a full circle moment to be now
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  my first CFO role ever is in a not -for -profit.
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  I then went to work for a CPA firm. I learned
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  a lot about high net worth individual tax strategies
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  for LLC, S Corp, and all that stuff. But it was
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  boring to me. Okay, so I decided to, hey, let's
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  try audit, especially in college. It was all
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  about the big four. And I got an internship at
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  PWC, PricewaterhouseCoopers. Hated it. It didn't
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  fit my personality. I didn't realize in college
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  that when you're an auditor, this minute you
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  step in, people want you out. And I like people,
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  I like being around people. And that... Feeling
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  of daily rejection, I was like, no. So I was
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  fortunate enough to land a role as staff accountant
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  in a manufacturing company that was also a technology
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  company. I stayed there for almost nine years.
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  Actually, I stayed there for nine years. And
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  that's where I really learned the world of corporate
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  accounting and finance. The company grew tremendously,
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  almost doubling. if not tripled in size while
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  I was there. When I started, the department was
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  just barely five people. By the time I left,
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  I was controlling that, overseeing over 15 direct
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  and indirect report. The reason I left there
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  was, one, because I had started the Financial
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  Planning and Analysis Department, FP &A, and
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  loved it, but it was only 25 % of my job, so
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  I wanted to do more of that. And the second reason
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  was because I didn't speak Greek. Yes, that company
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  was Greek owned. It was, uh, traded on the Greek
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  stock exchange, but we're private here in the
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  U S and they really liked the CFO to speak Greek
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  and be able to conduct business in Greek and
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  present budget in Greek. And he's having a woman
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  now. I just learned English. Should I learned
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  again another language? Why? Okay. So I left.
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  And so. From this role, I went into 100 % FP
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  &A and a pharmaceutical company. Great culture,
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  there COVID hit. COVID hit me when I was there.
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  And COVID, like many other things, was that time
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  of the great resignation, looking for more, looking
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  for better, wondering what are we doing in this
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  world? And that's how I started building my brand
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  on LinkedIn, starting speaking. and wanted to
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  see more of the world. And I took this role as
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  VP of Finance and Accounting at a chemical manufacturer.
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  And then I fell in love with not -for -profit
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  because at about the same time, I had joined
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  the board of a not -for -profit called HOPE.
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  And what we do at HOPE, because I'm still with
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  HOPE, I'm the treasurer, is that we help single
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  parent complete their education degree. So people
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  can actually go to college, go from being maybe
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  at a McDonald's to becoming a nurse. And while
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  they're doing it, they're required to have a
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  full -time job. They're also required to be at
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  school at a part -time with a certain grade point
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  average. And so it's been an amazing experience.
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  And that's when I started that journey of, oh,
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  I really want to work for Impact. And I got and
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  a great opportunity to join a CDFI called the
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  Low Income Investment Fund that is also in the
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  same space as ACE. So after I left the Low Income
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  Investment Fund, I became now Chief Financial
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  Officer here at ACE. And what we do is helping
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  entrepreneurs in areas that banks like Bank of
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  America, the Wells Fargo may not be able to give
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  because of some of their regulations. But we
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  able to have such an impact here in the state
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  of Georgia, it's amazing. I will probably have
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  a whole episode about the work that we do, but
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  it's been an amazing journey. And being an impact
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  lending, working for not -for -profit, I will
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  say, doesn't mean that the accounting is easier.
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  If not, I think it's even more complicated. It
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  doesn't mean that, oh, we're not paying bills
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  or we're not meeting with funders or investors.
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  All accounting and finance is the same, is the
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  same people. It is the same. It's just as hard,
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  just as demanding. The hours can be crazy. We
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  need better systems. We need to upscale. So the
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  needs are really the same. And I'm really looking
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  forward to us having better decisions on how
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  we can do better. How should we be doing a better
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  job as finance and business leaders? This is
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  it for today. I know, you want to hear more.
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  So watch the next episode. Thanks for tuning
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  in. If this episode resonated with you and you
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  are just as excited as I am for what's to come
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  next, don't forget to subscribe and share it.
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  I'm Osia Kamwe and I will see you next in an
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  episode with more insight to help you be a better
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  leader and be better at life.