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Faith, Finance, and Fitness with Nnamdi Oparanozie · Built by Margin with Laurie Chen

• 0:04
  Welcome to Built by Margin, the podcast where strategy meets the spreadsheet. I'm your host, Laurie Chen, fractional CFO and tax strategist, here to help you make smarter financial decisions, build a profitable business, and keep more of what you earn. Let's dive into the numbers that actually move the needle. Welcome to Built by Margin. Today's guest is someone who embodies what it means to be a strategic CFO and a purpose-driven entrepreneur.
• 0:35
  Nnamdi Oparanozie serves as CFO of Celebration Church in Austin Christian University, stewarding resources that fuel a worldwide vision and mission. But his story doesn't stop there. He's also the founder and co-owner of OBK Fitness and Nutrition, where he helps people pursue the strongest version of themselves. and OPK Physical Therapy, which bridges the gap between rehab and performance. On top of that, he also serves as a fractional CFO for value-driven churches, nonprofits, and small businesses, scaling their vision with financial clarity and Hi, Laurie. Thank you so much for having me. I absolutely love all the content you have online.
• 1:18
  Awesome. So you're balancing faith, fitness, and finance in such an integrated way. Let's start here. What drives you Yeah, well, the foundation is my faith, which ultimately says, you know, love God and love and serve people. And so we actually had a life changing moment happen several years ago when we moved from New York back to Texas. I was reading a book called The Three Big Questions for a Hectic Family.
• 1:45
  And the ultimate part of the book was, what is your family's rally cry?
• 1:48
  And that turned into what our family's core values were, which we now have deemed with the coin F5. And so F5 is five areas, which is faith, family, fitness, finance, and fun. And so that's the framework and the values that our family has and everything that we do inside Wow, that's really cool. F5, I've never heard of that one before, but that sounds So you're a CFO for both Celebration Church and Austin Christian University. You're stewarding not just budgets, but people and entire movements. How do you approach financial leadership when the mission is eternal and not just focused Yeah, ultimately, it all starts with vision. What is the vision of the organization, right? And that vision, in our case, is eternal. And so with vision comes who are the people that we're ultimately serving, right?
• 2:46
  And how can we make sure that we're coming alongside with them, partnering well, providing them just with opportunities to come along and be a part of that vision. And so with that vision comes with, hey, what events, what calendar things you need to take care of. Oftentimes your calendar reveals your priorities and your time. But then finally, what is the financial plan of both people and resources to help fuel and fund that mission? And so it all starts with vision. Another big thing when it comes to nonprofit and churches is that You have to have this mindset that cost are not expenses, but investments, right? Oftentimes, as CFOs, we sit there and like, OK, it costs this much and this much, expense, expense, expense. But oftentimes, those are actually investments. And so an example of this is we recently, in the past three months, hired an AI software engineer for our university. At the time, it wasn't part of the budgeted headcount or the budgeted payroll budget, but it was an investment in the future. ACU is forming students who are business leaders with a biblical worldview, and business and technology is a big part of what we do at ACU. So hiring that AI software engineer was an investment, but it's gonna pay dividends that's really cool that you're able to utilize AI within Yeah. And that's the thing is a lot of times the CFO role is called the CF no role, right? Like you're the person who, when I have an idea or want to do this new project or try this new thing, it's a no. But I often tell people that our goal isn't necessarily to say no, but to figure out a way. So there's a story that talks about, you know, God didn't give us houses. He gave us trees. And what that means is that, you know, our goal isn't to sit there and just say, hey, I want a house. I don't have a house. Why can't I have a house? But to say, hey, this is what you have in your hand right now. And we have the ability to partner with people. We have the ability to be creative through value engineering or raising funds or anything like that to help get to that end product and so I feel like in the non-profit church space and a lot of small businesses if that financial partner is focused on how can we make your vision become a reality instead of saying no it can Did you have previous nonprofit finance experience before I did. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So I actually worked for Valley Christian Church, a church in New York, for four years. So I basically oversaw their whole finance and operations, IT, data.
• 5:17
  all that good stuff. So the way that story goes is I moved from Texas to New York to be in corporate finance. So I graduated from UT as well with a finance and accounting degree and I had aspirations to be a CFO at a Fortune 100 company. So when I joined IBM, they had a financial leadership program and I joined that and rotated every few months and won, you know, RSUs and a few awards and some of their competitions and everything was going according to plan. And then I actually ended up connecting with a pastor at the church there and we were having coffee at Panera Bread. And so we were just talking about things and he was like, so what do you see for your future? Right. So I busted out with a Lenovo computer. For those of you who remember Lenovo computers, IBM used to own that. And so I had a 10 year plan. of my career, my job opportunities, my mentors, my education.
• 6:06
  And I basically said, hey, you know, this is what I have planned. And so he like shook his head and I thought he was impressed, but his ultimate question was, where's God in all this? And so that was the first time in my life where I said, okay, instead of saying, this is my plan, will you bless it? It was like, God, you gifted me with finances and operations and execution. How can I use that to serve your church? And Wow, that's really, that's an amazing story. Cause you know, like you said, you went there with the dream of pursuing finance, you know, like making a big, being a CFO, being in the midst of Wall Street and that culture, right? But then you found God in a much different way and that helped you pursue full-time ministry, which is really Yeah, I love working in finance in New York. So some people tell you how they knew they wanted to be in ministry from a young age or whatever the case. For me, it was a wrestle. It was, man, I love this. It's going fantastic, all the things I was hoping was happening. But basically, what I say, it comes down just to obedience. For me specifically, I felt that God was like, hey, you have the right gifting and get right calling. But instead of using it in corporate technology, I'm going to use it in the local church. And so I always tell people, you know, you go from a hundred billion dollar IBM budget to at the time a $1 million church budget. Um, and it's a big, you know, switch. Um, but I'm all, I'm a big quality, not quantity guy. So it's not always about the quantity of things. Sometimes it's about the quality of what you're working on. And for me, the local church was That's awesome. So what principles guide you when aligning money Yeah, so I think there's three that I kind of focused on.
• 7:51
  The first one is stewardship and seeing things that were managers of the things that we've been given and not owners.
• 7:58
  And so a great example of that is when I lived in New York, it was my wife, three kids. We all stayed at home and lived in a two-bedroom condo. And I was a pastor. So we weren't necessarily rolling in the dough, per se. And so there was a point in time where I had the opportunity. We needed to find a bigger home. And so when I looked at my personal budget, there was only one line item that could have made it possible for us to move. And that was our giving line item or tied. And so, you know, my wife and I talked about it. We said, no, we're not going to do that. And lo and behold, three weeks later, a couple assets that come over for lunch. I had no idea why. but they said they felt like God was telling them to let us stay in their four bedroom home on the base of a mountain the next two and a half years while he was doing nuclear engineering in Africa. So it was just crazy to have that story happen. And so the reason why I talk about that story is because when we had that home, because it wasn't ours, we took really, really good care of it because we knew they were coming back.
• 8:57
  So when it comes to managing the finances of an organization, it's the same thing. It's just like, you know, whether we're the business owner or CFO partnering with leadership, like we're trying to make sure we steer it well. So when the owner comes back, they're well pleased. The other big thing I would just say is like faithfulness. And what I mean by that is when you're faithful with little, you'll be faithful with much. So the details matter, right? And, you know, it talks about don't despise the days of small beginnings. When you're an entrepreneur, you know, I started as one, you too, Laurie, like the first days are hard. Like you're not known. People don't know who you are. You feel like you're putting all this work and not seeing the results. But you just have to remember those are the days that when you stew it well, you'll see days of Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Like when you're, you're building the blocks that will be the foundation for the business when it's bigger and it goes, it aligns perfectly well with the biblical principle of the 10 talents or doing a lot with very little being faithful in the small things. So I'm really, it's really cool how you're connecting the Even Jeff Bezos says, the greatest contributor to innovation is frugality. When you have to figure out how to get a big thing done with limited resources, that's when creative ideas Yeah, absolutely. So let's talk entrepreneurship and fitness because now you're also a co-owner and founder of a gym. So you've built OBK Fitness Nutrition, OBK Physical Therapy. So clearly you have a passion for fitness and that's a unique intersection of entrepreneurship and impact. What inspired you to create these businesses and what motivates you Yeah, that actually came from my wife's story. So my wife grew up in a home where she was abused, her mom was addicted to alcohol, and that she was told that she wasn't wanted. And as a result, her desire was to be a stay-at-home mom who could show me and her kids, our children, unconditional love. And so as a result, we made that a priority, and she stayed at home for about 15 years with our kids.
• 11:08
  But then when it came time for all of them to go to school, we basically got to the point in the season saying, well, what's next for her? And I just wanted her to do something that she was passionate about and that she could flourish in.
• 11:18
  And so as we talked about it and got advice from friends, we decided that opening up a gym is a great opportunity to help the community. You get people from all different backgrounds, economical, ethnicities, all those great things, and to be able to pour into serving to them. So we went from a 400-square-foot garage where we used to train people for free to now a 4,000-square-foot facility where we do nutrition coaching, personal training, and group How does your CFO mindset shape the way that you build these Yeah, I think the thing is, usually when you're in health and wellness, you have you have a high passion for helping people and their fitness and nutrition, right? And so that's what drives you at first. But when you decide to take the step into entrepreneurship and being a business owner, you now have to learn all the other skills, cash flow management, budgeting, planning, resourcing people. risk management with insurance and other things like that as well. And so what a lot of fitness, passionate fitness people do is they start the business without knowing the business piece. And so for myself, being a CFO, those are all the things I love doing. And so it's a great partnership between my wife and I, because she's super passionate about the fitness. I mean, we used to work out when we dated 22 years ago, we were working out together is how we first started. But now, you know, she gets to serve the people and fulfill a passion and flourish. And I get to also do Yeah, that's awesome. So do you still work out every day like the five daily non-negotiable since you own a fitness studio, so Absolutely, every day. So like you said, we're being a part of elite five days, seven days a week for at least 45 minutes. That means if I get done with a workout and I still have 10 minutes left, I jump on a bike or a rower just to get my 45 minutes in. But I love it. I love working out. You know, it's similar to when you, again, entrepreneurship, like it's hard, right? You have to push through the pain. You know, it's, you know, a new movement you've never done before that you have to learn. And so it's just those kind of things. I just love how both, you know, you can be physically fit, but can help you mentally as well.
• 13:27
  So you basically built this from scratch, right? Cause it's, it's your own brand. It's not part of a national chain or anything like that. So you build your own brand, build your own gym from what, 400 square foot to 4,000 square feet, right?
• 13:42
  What are kind of, what was the hardest part about building this gym and like, what were some risks that you Yeah, one of the biggest risk moments was when we decided to sign the lease. When you start something from the ground up and you're signing a three-year personal guarantee to have this space, whether the business makes it or not. And so statistically, 80% of health and wellness businesses fell in the first year. After that, 50% fell a year after that, five years after that. This year we get to celebrate our sixth year. We're having the best year ever with team and with finances.
• 14:21
  And so it is really, it can be challenging, but it's worth it Wow, the sixth year already. That's awesome. And Yes, we're in Round Rock, Texas, near IKEA and H-E-B on University Boulevard. Yeah, I mean, it's a great place. Round Rock, as you know, is growing tremendously. And so we just love meeting people who've moved from out of the country to across the nation and to those OK, cool. What is the Yeah, it's just the three letters. O B K fitness.com. Um, we always start with just a consultation to kind of see where you're at your past, Okay, awesome. So yeah, if you're located in Austin, Texas area, which a lot of my listeners are since I'm in Austin, definitely check out OBK Fitness and Nutrition. Okay, let's talk more CFO and long-term value initiatives. So you also serve as fractional CFO for churches, nonprofits, small businesses, trying to scale their vision. What does financial clarity mean to you in practice? And what is something that you may have helped founders Yeah, well, financial clarity, I think it's there's two things. There's financial clarity and there's financial health. So financial clarity is, do you have a plan for the future? A lot of us look at historical, you know, like this is what happened. And oftentimes by that, by the time you look at it, it's too late. So having financial clarity is having timely and accurate financial information so you can make important leadership decisions. The second part of that is not only making good decisions, but I'll say data-informed decisions and not data-driven decisions. And so what I mean by that is oftentimes a CFO can get really focused on the numbers, you know, is it up or down, what's the cause, but instead of knowing that there's more things into play by just, you know, what a number says on a spreadsheet. Right.
• 16:17
  I think a great example, Laurie, you talk about being risk worthy. Like when you take a risk on something, there's more than just the financial risk or the number risk. Right. You talk about this idea of entrepreneurs take that risk for more than just the numbers, but for things that are more qualitative and quantitative. So the same thing with financials as Yeah, absolutely. So you talked a little bit about how you're utilizing AI in your work with Austin Christian University. What about AI that you're implementing with clients?
• 16:49
  Is there any tools that you recommend? Anything that you found has Yeah, so I do use a lot of chat GPT to help brainstorm and think through things. I haven't found a good software that like you can plug financial data into. I'm also having to be very aware about confidentiality as well. I have played with it with my personal finances just to kind of see and unless you have something that's very like the same across the board and it can kind of try to pull numbers and analyze, it's very difficult. The accounting software that we work with at Celebration ACU, we have, so we have, so Celebration has locations on three different continents. So we have three different currencies we pull into the system. We have multiple entities in each one of those areas. And so, what we tend to do is first thing, okay, let's find a piece of AI that fits within our software. So we know all the compliance is there. And honestly, a lot of times, they're just in the beginning stages of that. So we are trying to find a solution that's going to helpful. We actually there's a solution that we're just looking into, we don't know yet called data rails. Just to see, hey, is that it's an AI software that pulls data information into it, and then spits it out. But I'm still on the lookout for things that can quantitatively analyze things.
• 18:06
  Right now it's just more brainstorming and stuff like Yeah, I've heard of data rails. And I heard it's pretty good. I definitely think it's only used for like multimillion dollar companies. So I wouldn't advise any of the startups or smaller business sites I work with to use that. But certainly anyone that's making 5 million ARR or more, like have multiple entities, I would recommend data rails. But yeah, I've heard that it's pretty good. Curious to your experience with chat GPT and the numbers. Do you feel like chat GPT is fairly accurate with the prompts that you give it as it relates to numerical Um, I do feel like I'll say if I had to give a percentage, I would say like 85 to 90% accurate, which means when it spits something out, I can't just take it and run with it. I have to look at it and make sure it's accurate. Or did it, did it actually factor in everything correctly? Um, and so really right now it's just more of a getting another perspective as I kind of evaluate what's going to help best, but I'll give you an example. Like, um, you know, my personal budget, you know, I plan out a year in advance plus. And so I was trying to use that Google sheets is what I use. I have it by month and revenue, expense, net worth, all the things. And when you try to just plug that into Chachi Petit through Google, it won't work. You're going to spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to change the data into a way you can use it than actually using the tool, at least Many leaders get caught in survival mode. What advice would you give them to shift toward building long-term value? Because you are very focused on building an internal perspective Yeah, I would say three things. First is having a plan and strategy in place, right? Oftentimes we're in survival mode because we don't know what the next step is. We can't, we forget why we got onto it or we don't have a plan to go back to, right? So having that vision and then a plan and strategy that supports the vision is very important to stay out of survival mode. It helps us, you know, a lot of people say work on the business instead of in the business all the time. The second thing I would say is building systems and framework to support that. So you can have an awesome vision, an awesome plan, but if you don't have the systems and the frameworks to make sure it runs efficiently and actually execute on what you plan to, you'll quickly stay in survival mode.
• 20:33
  And the last thing I would say is implementing daily habits that make, you know, you achieving your goals inevitable. So, you know, whether it's looking at your cash flow on a daily or weekly basis, having a monthly review of your financials with leadership, doing quarterly checkpoints as well, like what are the habits that you're doing that are going to make sure that, you know, you're not looking back Absolutely. Yeah. That's something that I've gotten from Dan Martell as well, as well as from James clear, because really what they're trying to say is, you know, how we don't rise to the level of our goals or rise to the level of our system. So you're talking about, you know, what systems you have in place to track your progress, to measure how far you've come, especially in the financial realm.
• 21:20
  Yeah, because you want a financial plan. The difference between that and what most people do is they at the end of the month or the end of the quarter, they're trying to figure out where did my money go? Right. Where did it go to? And instead of thinking about, OK, this is why I'm telling it where it should go in the future. And that's a big difference from survival versus strategy is Yeah, so there are a couple of themes that I'm seeing in your work. So I'm seeing purpose, impact, and freedom in health and financial systems and vision. How do you define purpose, impact, Yeah, well, I think, you know, freedom and purpose is the freedom to choose where you want to go and the purpose that you're created for. Right. And so the ability to pursue, you know, here where we live, it's like you can have a vision, you can have a dream and you have the choice to pursue it and you have the ability to. And so. You know, as a CFO, that's really what I get to do. I get to partner with organizations and business leaders to say, hey, you have a vision, you have a plan, you have a purpose. And how can we align the resources, the people, the systems, the processes to make sure that you're going to hit where you're trying to go? And so I just think it's very empowering and equipping to entrepreneurs when they Yeah, it's a financial health framework. So a lot of business owners and leaders don't even know where to start when it comes to financials. So one of the best ways to start is to have a financial health kind of checkup or scorecard. And so I've created this 25 point checklist to kind of get an initial, hey, this is where you're at. I look at things like vision and strategic alignment. Do we have a vision and a strategy in place? I look at things like revenue and profitability. It's great to have revenue, but you also want to make sure you're profitable so that you can survive. We look at things like cash flow and reserves to help you in tough times, systems and reporting, and finally, teams and accountability, right? That you have the structure and Yeah, so if you message me on LinkedIn, if you just search Nominee Au Pair Nozier, just message me the word health, H-E-L-T-H, and I'll send you a copy of that 25 checkpoint OK, awesome. Yeah, we'll definitely link in the show notes your LinkedIn so that people can find you there. Okay, so let's do just a rapid fire round of questions just to get to know you better. What's one So I say one is every day I read 10 pages of the John Maxwell Leadership Bible. It's just a good combination of biblical truth with leadership principles. And so it helps me not only stay grounded, but making sure I'm developing as a person. I do have a second, which would be being plugged into my local church. It just allows you to have community, to be supported, a network of people who can help you along the way. We talk about how safety is found in a multitude of So do you also go to Celebration Church in addition Yes. And I've been at Okay, awesome. So what's your favorite workout Power cleans, hand down. I did power cleans this morning during my workout. I love the speed, the power, the flow of them. You get to throw around heavy weight. So my power clean is my favorite movement.
• 25:00
  So you kind of mentioned this, you mentioned John Maxwell as book, but is there a scripture that has shaped your approach to Yeah, I would say one that just always does, which is Romans 12 too, it says, don't be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will know God's will for your life. It's good, it's pleasing, and it's perfect. And so it just reminds reminds me that you have to constantly be feeding your mind and pursuing the things that God has for you. Because it's easy to be conformed to all the things around you. You know, in the Dan Martell program, we talk about feed your mind, right? And so just feeding your mind. And then the one that I want to share with entrepreneurs and leaders, too, because we often go through tough times is in James, it says blesses the man who remains steadfast under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will see the crown of life. for those who love Jesus. And so the idea is that when you're doing entrepreneurship, when you're pursuing a big vision and dream, there's going to be hard times. And oftentimes your good thing that you're looking for is on the other side Yeah, that's awesome. I love Romans 12 too. And I love James, the whole book. So yeah, that's awesome.
• 26:10
  What is one piece of financial wisdom that you wish every Yeah, just the idea of being data informed and not data driven. You know, as a founder, you don't have to know all the numbers if you partner with somebody who can help you, but you want to be informed, right? It's your business or it's your organization. But also with that is it's a great combination of where you're trying to go and how data can help you get there. where finances can help you get there. And so just being data informed, but not data driven to the point where, you know, in the health and wellness space, if you're all about the revenue and all about the profit, you think about the people and the That's awesome. I love how you make that distinction between data informed, data driven. I think in our culture, like our very competitive culture, we're always data driven and that's like highly valued. But, you know, like you said, being How can people find you and learn more about your work? Are you on Instagram? You Yeah. LinkedIn is the best place to find me, um, for CFO type stuff, uh, or finances or anything. Uh, it's just nom de opere nosie on LinkedIn. Um, if you're looking for health, uh, you can also DM health to OBK dot fitness on Instagram and then physical therapy as well. That's OBK underscore PT on Instagram. And we love to help you in any way we Awesome. Well, we'll definitely link all of those into the show notes on the podcast website, BuiltByMarjan.com, so that people can connect with you. Nnamdi, thank you so much for being here today, sharing your expertise and experience. You have a really unique set of experiences. And you've given us some really solid insight into scaling smarter and being more efficient. And thank you everyone for tuning in to another episode of Built by Margin. Don't forget to subscribe and share. Until next time, keep building your business with intention and margin. Thanks for tuning in to Built by Margin. If you're ready to turn insights into income, subscribe and join me each week as we break down the numbers behind smart business growth. I'm