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What I Wish Finance Professionals Knew Sooner, with Syed Nadeem · The Diary of a CFO

• Wassia Kamon: [00:00:00] Today's episode is brought to you by Bill, a leading financial operations platform for small and mid-sized businesses. I'm also hosting a free webinar with them called Core Strategies for Financial Resilience in An Uncertain Economy. It's on June 24th, 2025 at 1:00 PM Eastern Time. The link to register is in the show notes. Welcome back to the Diary of a CFO Podcast, the podcast where finance leaders share the lessons, challenges, and wins that shaped their careers as well as their organization. I'm your host with Wassia Kamon, and today I'm so delighted to have with me Syed Nadeem. Syed is a strategic finance leader with over 20 years of global experience in different industries. His contribution to the corporate finance space are tremendous. He was recognized as a top LinkedIn influencer worldwide. He is the member of a FP and a Advisory Council at the A FP Shortfall Association for Finance [00:01:00] Professional. He is the founder of FBP today and the Money Mindset. He's also the host of the Career Connect podcast. Welcome to the show, Syed. Syed Nadeem: Thank you so much was for having me in this show. I'm very excited to have a good discussion with you. Wassia Kamon: Thank you so much. I'll start with, uh, the common question of tell us about your journey. What is the story behind where you find yourself with all the hats you're wearing now, and what were unexpected twist along the way? Syed Nadeem: See, I'm not the special one as you are. So I started as a normal life before with a very junior role in my country in Pakistan as a cost assistant. And, uh, I was just graduated from a university in my city when I came into finance, then I started to think that I need to progress and see my education because in our country, normally we don't decide our profession. During the education, we, we got the job first, then we decide the profession. Mindset we have in our country. So the same happened with me. I find the job of finance and I took the interest and then I [00:02:00] decided to go for CM. So I started my CMAI was not a good student before anywhere, so I got some promotion, there's some motivation is coming. So my manager told me that, Nadi, why don't you start CMA because you are getting experience in the cost and budgeting, so why don't you capitalize your experiences through your education? So I decided to go into CMA and enrolled there and by the time I progressed my examination as well and after eight years of my life in that company, I left that company. The moment I qualified was year. I got an opportunity from Saudi Arabia in. Financial controller and then I came into the distribution company because overall I have 20 years of experience having multiple industry manufacturing, freight forwarding supply chain, pharmaceutical. Currently I'm working in telecom and Saudi and since last two years as director budgeting. So it's a short journey. I have never born for finance, but uh, things happen to me and things happen to me because I'm moving. Experience education, I. 21 during COVID time when I lost my [00:03:00] job, that a corporate life is something different. It can happen for any point of time again. So I decided to start my own journey with my academy, which is finance Profession Academy, with every bit today as you talk at. So I decided to create my own academy where I started helping people. Through this academy. So I started working on LinkedIn. If you remember, we worked together earlier. So I started posting and everything. I brought people in my coaching session that was free at that time. So I was announced on LinkedIn that if you want somebody career advice, I'm available free, of course, 30 minutes, you can talk to me. So people started coming to me on these kind of advices and they gave me good testimonial and feedback and that feedback. Again, again, going back to the LinkedIn and people again joined me through those kind of things. So I did this exercise two, three years, and around more than three people joined my free coaching during those time from 15 countries. Then I decided monetization. From this experience because I build lot of stories, when I met with the [00:04:00] people, so Turkey, Singapore, us, India, Pakistan, Saudi, a lot of countries are joining me and I started knowing that what are the problems in finance in those countries? So I started. Move forward and I build my digital course of finance business partnering, which is currently available on my website. I learned how to build course, course content is not difficult for me, but how to create this, how to launch this, how to market this, how to sell this. It was a new journey as finance, so I, I had never. Learn these things in my CMA education in my corporate life. But this was a new thing that excited me that why don't we go for it and what will happen, max, nothing will happen. I will fail. But there is a lot of learning behind creating the course. So I purchased the camera, I purchased the mic, I could lights, I made the studio. So I learned many things about creating the course. Then I launch it. So that was good to result on this course and people are learning from it. So this journey is going on. I am offering many courses, so the vision is very clear now to help people [00:05:00] and uh, from any mode we have, wherever they are sitting, I can join with them on online. Wassia Kamon: This is amazing and I like how you turned some like adversity into something that is now a catalyst for you and for many other people. Can you just pause and. On the business partnering side, so up to your time where you were in Saudi and before. Before the unfortunate layoff or fortunate layoff I should say, because now we have you and help many professionals. What are the things that you learned about business partnering when it comes to dealing with different departments? Because sometime we think about business partnering can be broad, but I learned that it's different depending on if you are working with sales or if you're in different industries. What are some of the things that you learn on your own? And also, I would love to hear more about what you learned about fp and a in other countries. Syed Nadeem: See, I'll not jump into business directly. I learned some basic things. With my personal life. [00:06:00] If I give you one example that you are going on highway and you are driving with one 40 speed and your family is sitting with you and sometime you realize they sleep well when you are driving on one 40 speed and they don't sleep in the car because you are a good driver, they sleep well in the car at the speed of one 40 because they trust you. Yes. So that kind of mentality, I realized that, and this is applicable to everyone, whether you have clients, you have audience, you have your colleagues. This is the mentality you have to build that people should trust you blindly. That is not easy. Trust is not something that you can tell someone. Please trust me. It doesn't work like this. Mm-hmm. You have to build a lot of, uh, things in your life, a lot of credibility. You should be, uh, willing to help you. Should be, you should have a good relationship. So it's not about your finance skills, because whatever you learn in your CMA or a CCC or cma, it'll not make you finance business partner. It can make you a good accountant, it can make you a good [00:07:00] director. Finance can make you financial controller. It comes to the relationship management, trust, building, presentation, communication. You have to take your own because you have two skills. These skills you are taught in your systems, which is coming from your universities, and you are paying for it. And there is no single book once year that you can read and you will become a good communicator. There are a lot of books. A lot of books. You can read this book, you can become good accountant, but there is no single book that will help you to become good communicator and good relationship manager, you know, so it'll not help you. So there is something inside you and there is something outside you. So accounting skills, you are learning from outside forces. There are some skills which you, you also heard that the Simon Sinek called us Human Skills. So you have to learn human skills, skills. It's not soft skills. Soft skills is something that you relate with the courses. So these are human skills that you have to recreate in yourself with the practices. So if you can practice these things, partnering will come into this picture. Okay? And if [00:08:00] you can relate business. The same skills you have to apply in the business with finance knowledge that will become finance business partner. Wassia Kamon: And how did you come to that realization? Because I think we all at some point had that journey of when you start your career, you're big on certification, you're big on education, and then at some point you realize that you need to develop those human skill. What was that like for you when you realized that, Hmm, I need more than the CMAI need to build those X, Y, Z? Was it a specific event? Was it a mentor? Like what led you. So that aha moment, Syed Nadeem: the moment came first time when I was very interested to present something to management in the management meeting, and my manager was not giving me this opportunity because I was very junior at that point of time. So they were not taking any kind of risk in the live environment, but that was not happening. So what I did was here, I started free training in my company. So what I did. I wanted to learn companie send me in multiple courses, a communication presentation, but nothing was working. We are [00:09:00] going for the whole day and that training was not actually training that was escape from office. So you are having some refreshments, some kind of lunch and enjoy, then come back to office with the same mindsets. You are not learning. So you have to come jump into the pool if you were learning swimming, I created the opportunity for me and I talked to my, some of my colleagues, four to five people, and I told them that I wanna teach you excel. I was good in Excel at that time, so I gathered them 30 minutes. I made some presentation and trained them on some formulas and Excel, you know? Mm-hmm. So that 30 minutes, then I give them that I'm teaching you and you have to give me feedback. They gave me that feedback and that was very good. So I applied this feedback, I and I arrange another training. Wassia Kamon: Nice. Syed Nadeem: With 10 people. I invited some of my more friends, always free. I'm not charging anything. They came to the room and they learned something. And third training, I invited four people. Four training. I went to my HR that I have this proposal if you want, I can start training of Excel to the [00:10:00] whole company. It's very essential for the company. So they decided to arrange this kind of things and then I realized that that four training or five training changed my complete perspective about software skills and human skills. So what I was giving training, I was not learning only communication. I was learning communication. I was learning presentation, team building. I was learning, listening. Practice how to listen people, I was learning time management. I was letting leadership skills and people are building trust on me. Mm-hmm. And I was creating my personal brand on my company because I was known for Excel expert. Many thing automatically triggered when I just, these started trainings and that was a game changer. And people were realizing that he can speak good, invite him in the meeting. Wassia Kamon: Nice. Nice. I love it. I love how you, you created that opportunity. Amazing. And then at some point you mentioned what you learned from FPNA in other countries. 'cause I remember when we worked [00:11:00] together on some of our LinkedIn collaborations that we talked about soft skill. And when we started talking, we realized that it felt like we were working in the same country. Because we were going through the same pain when he came to business partnering how there is a gap between our technical skills and where we really wanna be. So what have you learned from working with people in other countries as well? Syed Nadeem: See, every country has different problems and different opportunities. Wassia Kamon: Mm-hmm. Syed Nadeem: But the goal is same if they are started their career journey, the end goal is to become a C mindset. They have people. Started, started with this concept that they will become CO, but after few years they forgo their dream. Wassia Kamon: Mm. Because Syed Nadeem: they're stuck in their different kind of life. They're stuck into the function of finance. They're stuck into their different problems. Maybe have they have health problem, they, they have finance problem, but they don't realize that any problems coming into achieving your goal or temporary. I picked [00:12:00] many people, even they are, many CFOs are coming to my forum and I, I remember the one guy came to me that say, my company is going into the IPO and they are asking me to become CFO. Please help me. I'm not c I'm a financial controller. But because the restructuring, they are pro, they are proposing me to become CFO. These kind of calls are coming on that side, and people are coming from different, I tell them, you, you are good in accounting. You don't need to focus on many things. Because when I learned that people are investing a lot of money and time on technical skills, they finish CMA, then they switch to A C, CA, then finish a C, CA, then they switch to cma. Wassia Kamon: I Syed Nadeem: said the stop, stop. This is not your life. You are jumping into one plus one. You are investing a hundred percent amount and you are getting 10% value. Mm. Because you already have done cma. You cannot get more value or a hundred percent value from this new A CCA. So I advise them, please invest your time and money to learning different things. You have to create your personal brand. People should know you. [00:13:00] You should be known for something. You cannot be expert for everything. Finance has a lot of dynamics, you know? Wassia Kamon: Yes. Syed Nadeem: Payable receivable FP and A tax IFRS. You have to choose something and you have to be expert on something. CO is not about accounting and I-F-R-S-C-F-O is about CFO is a personality and mindset. Mm-hmm. In that mindset, you have to invest in your time. You have to follow people, you have to understand, take inspiration. At least once in a week or 15 days, you have to arrange a complimentary call from some people. They are active on LinkedIn and try to learn their journey. You will get a lot of inspiration. Sometime you don't learn from your surroundings, you know? Mm-hmm. Sometime you are not living with the right people, but this is not your fault. This is part of your job. But if you ask me 15 years ago, that was so difficult to leave your comfort zone and find out new people. Today because of social media and LinkedIn, you can reach to anyone in the, in the world. Any, we, we reached it. I, I started my journey. You remember we had a call [00:14:00] I call with different kind of influencers on LinkedIn, like, and Sophia and, uh, us if they all are our friend now. Yes. And we, we learned from them, you know, so I advise them and everybody has their appointment calendar. People that they are giving you time. So if you can join these people, learn their journey, how they're, you will find different stories, you'll find different inspiration, and you need to apply it. Only you are not reading books. I'm not asking you to go to university and take the admission. Just 30 minute call with any influencer on LinkedIn can change your life. Wassia Kamon: Wow. Wow. Thank you so much for sharing that. And I, I agree. And one thing I love is how you said you're not necessarily surrounding yourself with the right people. Right? Because as you're trying to grow, if the people that are around you are just like you, you not being stretched. Social media is a beautiful thing because we are having this conversation on two different continents, which is beautiful. Yeah. So thanks for [00:15:00] sharing that. I really appreciate that. And I wanted to go back to the certification piece because one of my first posts was about. Certification and it blew up. That's how it first went viral on LinkedIn where I talked about the top 10 accounting certification, top 10 finance certification. Everybody was on certification because I feel like there is some type of comfort in knowing that I do 1, 2, 3, I'll get here, but then you get to a point and you, you realize that, okay, I need other skills. I need to meet more people. I need to stretch my thinking. So what do you think is the ideal balance? Is it that I do one certification and then I'm good? 'cause I have three? Because I was tired about going for more. 'cause I went through three credentials before I realized, okay, this is, this is not getting me anywhere. But what would you say is the ideal balance? 'cause I know for example, I'm originally from Avery coast and back then you have to be a certified accountant. If you wanna do anything in finance. If you don't have it. It's very hard [00:16:00] for you to break through. It's not necessarily the same here in the us. So what would you say you've seen in, in all your conversations is that, how do you find that balance of, okay, I got this technical skills, I got this credentials. How do I move on for it from it? Let's take a quick break to thank Bill who is sponsoring today's episode. They help businesses and accountants automate all the back office work that slows you down so you can focus on the strategic stuff. If that sounds like something your team needs, visit bill.com to learn more. Now, back to the episode. Syed Nadeem: The certification, I normally call it is the key only, right? The purpose of Key is to open the door and hang. Hang the key behind the door. That's it. This is the only purpose of the key. The inside, you are home inside. The key is not working. Your doors are open, your kitchen is open, your bedroom is open. You can go to any point, any place in your home. The same applies to the corporate life. Every door is [00:17:00] open once you are in the door, in the house. So only key you have to achieve just to get into the house. This is the only purpose certification, and if you have one certification was here, this is enough for you. You, you don't need to have multiple keys to open the door, and that is master key. If you are A CMA, it can open multiple doors for you. Yes, it's a master key. So if I suggest you, you should not go for a CCA. The problem is where the focus, you know, every company has two kind of task. One is low value task, one is high value task. What? What does it mean? Low value task means repetitive task. You know, you are going for accounting, entry de credit reconciliation, bank reconciliation there every month, closing. These are repetitive tasks, which I call it low value task. If you are working 24 hours, you will not grow with 24 hours proportion. But there are some tasks in the same organization, which are high value task, which is fp and a working capital Management. You know, the, the, the feasibility studies, business cases, a meeting [00:18:00] with management presentation to the board. These are high value tasks that can influence company decision. So if you are part of those kind of tasks, your growth will be much faster. If you're working as an AP accountant, it's not something bad, but your focus should be different. If you're starting first five years in your life, you're hiring criteria normally on technical skills when you are junior. Mm-hmm. They wanna assist you with accounting. But as you grow after five years counting, knowledge will remain there, but your focus should go towards your software skills. I can say your requirement of hiring a job. 80% technical skills, 20% soft skills. But as you move forward, after five years, your focus should shift soft skills to 50% and 50% should remain with your technical skills. But after 10 years of your life, your focus of technical skills should remain only 20% and soft skills on 80% because you're moving to leadership [00:19:00] roles. So if people are making mistake, they are not focusing on this kind of journey. They are focusing on 2080, only in the beginning five years, and they spend their whole life in this allocation of resources. Wassia Kamon: Wow. Syed Nadeem: That is a main problem in our finance community, and they are not focusing on the right areas. So if they start focusing on right areas, nobody can stop their growth. Believe me. And they are smart people in the market. They are doing the same process. Therefore, in the same process, which I'm giving you, I reveal the secret, I think. Wassia Kamon: Oh yeah, that's, that's a great one. And it's one that I learned the hard way, and you probably learned the hard way too. Like nobody sat us down and said what you just said about you start your career, 80% will be technical skills, 20% will be soft skills, but you have to be intentional about. Making that switch, like you said, learning every week. What are you learning every month? Who are you meeting with to actually get to the 20% technical skills and 80% soft skills leadership skills. [00:20:00] Really, this is a great secret. Thank you so much for sharing. So what else do you have for us that you can share about business partnering? Syed Nadeem: I can tell you in corporate life, every other person is your customer. Every other person you have to treat us. Every individual in your company as your customer. Whenever you meet with them, you have to sell something. Sales something means you can sell the idea. You can sell how they can grow their sales. You can sales I can help you to grow by brings them insight. Every person in your company is the customer, and you have to create value for your customer. This is the difference between employee mindset and the employer mindset. So when you work on employee mindset, your mindset is nine to five job. You have to start your day and finish your day. This is the only target you have in your eight hours job, and you are just waiting for the five o'clock so that you can go for Netflix, right? Wassia Kamon: Why did you have to say Netflix? You know I'm a Netflix fan.[00:21:00] Syed Nadeem: Focus is everything, and your attitude is everything towards your journey where you wanna reach. So treat everybody as your customer and your mindset will completely transform. Wassia Kamon: Wow. I love how you said over and over mindset, and you're even a founder of Money Mindset Academy. I'm gonna ask you again, at which point did you realize the power of the mindset? Because sometimes I, I feel like because we are in numbers or spreadsheet, we feel like those concept of personal branding or having a mindset are for maybe other functions, maybe sales, marketing, but we don't realize that they replied to all of us. Really just because you're a human being, you need it. What was that shift? What, what was the aha moment for you when it came to that, and what can others learn from it? Syed Nadeem: Some difficulty teach you a lot. You know, when I lost my job, I realized that this is not because of I am bad in accounting. This is [00:22:00] not because I'm bad in my technical skills and I lost my job because maybe I have some weak relationship. Maybe I have some trust issues, maybe I have some presentation issues. So I realized after that, because when it happens was, yeah, I could not sleep for first three nights. Wow. Because when you lost your job, you see the entire next five years you have rent, you have family, you have a schooling, you have grocery, how you have to handle this kind of situation. And it happened with me. And uh, that was very tough situation. So. And I don't recommend people start learning when they lost their job. Wassia Kamon: Yes. Syed Nadeem: They have to learn these things before they lost their jobs. That's why I started my academy. So that create different mindset, different lines, and I realized that if you want to become a CFO, you have to start wearing the lines of CFO before you become c. Wassia Kamon: You know, if you Syed Nadeem: have income statement, income statement can be seen by different people, by different [00:23:00] purpose. Accountant can see income statement, maybe the purpose is to reconciliation, sales and cost of sales. A financial controller is seeing the same report. Maybe he can see some compliance issue. Maybe he has to face auditor, but c, O and C, the same income statement. He will see the health of the company, goal of the company, how they can reinvent the money into the business. So the moment you will realize that you have to start wearing C lens. This is the moment that you have the aim to become a CFO. Wassia Kamon: Mm mm Okay. So let's dive deeper into what you just said about the layout for you and how we change your mindset. So how long, how long was it like between the time you, you lost it and the time you found a new role? What were the shifts? Like what, how were you better in that next role? 'cause I'm sure that you didn't start doing maybe the same mistake or you didn't have the same approach between the two. So what was it like? Syed Nadeem: See, there are completely shift of mindset at that time [00:24:00] because if you are in corporate life and it happen, it can happen again. Your personal brand is so important. If you go to 10 years ago, if you didn't have email addresses, you are not existing. Today, if you don't have personal brand, you cannot survive for a long period. So I started leverage LinkedIn when I started my post and I decided that I have to start something my own. I have to start helping people because everybody can face this problem. And I found a lot of opportunity and people came to me and start learning my journey. So there are many people are facing in Middle East, job laws issues, so I'm guiding them how to handle these issues, not something bad. Job loss is not bad, but the problem is how you have to. You cannot take a new job because, so difficult for you if your job last to take a again job. So you have to some take small steps. What I did, I started my different kind of jobs where I game went down to 30% salary of my, that salary that when I left.[00:25:00] So I accepted this situation because I need to run my kitchen. Mm-hmm. I need to run everything. So people think that if I go for low salary, your profile will. Low. It is misunderstanding your personality, your brand. On the same side, you are taking low salary, but on the other side you are building your brand. So there are two different things will run parallel. Wassia Kamon: Mm-hmm. Syed Nadeem: It's not happening that you are gonna low salary and your profile will become low. You have to take another action to build your brand as well. So I was working on LinkedIn and I was taking my low salary, so I was not disclosing salary to everyone, but that was. There are two shifts. One is going to your salary again and brand yourself, and that brand will help you to reach again to your package. Wassia Kamon: Wow. Syed Nadeem: So that was, that was the process was going on in the same day because I had plenty of time. So I did free coaching, I did free classes. I was writing on LinkedIn. I was posting many things. So I was just took the leverage of Den and my time as. [00:26:00] Came back to my original role, but that journey was very amazing. Wassia Kamon: Wow. Because I saw you speaking, I saw you doing so many amazing things. Love it because I got into personal branding after watching a personal branding course. It was right after COVID, and the course was called The Badass Workshop. It was by the former CMO of Netflix, OMA San John. And she was saying that if the only person who know that you are great are in your company, what happens when you leave or when you're trying to do something more? If I Google you, what will I find about you? Definitely. And that for me was like. Okay, I have to do something for you. It was a layout, but for me it was that course that was a wake up call of, okay, so anything can happen like you said, but how are you ready to bounce back? How are you building yourself to bounce back Syed Nadeem: Bad days? You, I normally says your life is like a EC, G right [00:27:00] now, heart, E, c, G. So sometimes it's going up, sometimes down. So this is normal processes happening with everyone in this planet. Nobody is going only the success graph. Nobody is going only for failure graph. So this is like a life, and I learned from this ECGA lot and it's a clear message that it can happen again if you are on top. Next is down. So don't be afraid of these kind of up and down. But the only thing you have to understand when you are going down, how you have to behave, how you have to treat yourself, how you have to take a decisions that will, again, translate your graph into the upward side. So you have to understand life. Believe me, you'll understand your profession. Professional life are going together. They're not separate. Wassia Kamon: Yes, because I don't believe in like work-life balance on how you turn off work and you get life. It's all, it's like a big, it's a big salad. Syed Nadeem: Definitely. So your life will teach you a lot how to manage your corporate life. It's not separated. They are same. The only thing you are going for corporate life to make money [00:28:00] just to serve your family and yourself, but as a human being, these are different skills we have to learn. I was sitting with a doctor, just a very good. Discussion. I told, ask with them. I asked with my friend, he was a doctor. I asked him, tell me what is the skills behind successful doctor, you know, what was the answer? Communication skills. I said, what? You are a doctor. You spent five years of your life to become a doctor, and you are saying your success is behind communication skills. He said, this is fact. We deal with the people with our communication. If I tell my patient, you are okay. 50% disease gone out. Wow. And this is the beauty of communication. Every profession has the same issues. Wassia Kamon: Wow. That's amazing. I love it. I love it. Now when we think about finance, and I wouldn't think that about a, a doctor, but makes total sense because they have to appease people. They have to get people through tough situation and communication. Definitely. Even though we only see them for five minutes and you wait for two [00:29:00] hours to get to the office, but, oh, well. But for finance, what would you say are some of the shifts that we seeing in the industry that maybe we're not paying enough attention to? Things that may be keeping people up at night. Syed Nadeem: See if you want to grow in your career or as a, if you want to take a leadership role, you don't need to sit in your office. You have to decide that within eight hours, within two hours, you have to spend some time somewhere. And I realize that your lunchtime is very important. We don't realize it when you go to lunchtime. Nobody wears their. Whether they're CEOs, CFOs, and they are a normal human being, and this is an opportunity to talk to them. Even car parking in the lift. There are many occasions, many opportunities, many places where they are very informal. So if you want to show yourself as a leader, you have to find this opportunity and talk to them. Introduce yourself, talk different topics, share your insight, what you learned. Maybe your [00:30:00] CFO is not aware of you. 'cause you are sitting somewhere and he's so busy. Whenever you find an opportunity, just discuss with him that I want to sit with you for five minutes and learn from his journey and talk to him so he will remember you. So try to be remembered. People should know you. I normally do one technique that I sent one email at least, and copy senior people so they can remember me when I will go into the inbox. So when you are in the inbox, people will remember your name and when you will meet them. Oh, you are so, yeah. Oh, I remember your email. So you have to link the things when you're working in eight hours is not only your job description. You have to add the flavor in your eight hours job because your relationship matters a lot. And you have to enjoy your eight hours. You're spending more than your family with these people. Yes. So if you don't have a relationship, so you have to build this kind of family type environment where you want to grow yourself. And this is a message I want to give everyone here. Wassia Kamon: [00:31:00] Thank you. Thank you. And it, yes. And the shift to remote work. Definitely what you just said is a, is a great advice because in remote world, like you said, people may not remember you, but if they're on the email, they will. And I love how you said try to be remembered and using your lunch break, especially for the, for the few times maybe you go in the office or if you still in the office five days a week, try to be remembered. That's great. Thank you for sharing that. Two more questions before you go. What is the best career advice you've ever received? Syed Nadeem: This is my personal advice. Learn to sell. How to sell yourself. You are a salesperson. Everybody on this planet is a salesperson. If you're finance, if you're a doctor, if you're engineer, if you cannot sell your skills, you will not ever grow. Wassia Kamon: Wow. Thank you. And then the last thing, what's your favorite thing to do outside of work? You know, mine is Netflix, but what is your favorite thing to do outside of everything else that's finance [00:32:00] related? Syed Nadeem: See, there's finance related, right? Wassia Kamon: No, it is not finance related. Something else than numbers business partnering. What is your favorite thing to do outside of all of this? Syed Nadeem: You can see this place where I'm sitting uhhuh. This is my favorite place where I coach people. I teach people I spend up for corporate life most of the time here. Wassia Kamon: Okay, Syed Nadeem: because coaching is my passion and I wish if I can change the world by sitting here. Wassia Kamon: Wow. Thank you so much for sharing. I thought you would say something like cooking or bicycle. You like coaching. Wow, you're so, so good. Syed Nadeem: That coaching, teaching. I don't need money. I am that kind of passion. Wassia Kamon: That's amazing. Thank you. Thank you so, so much for being on the show. Syed Nadeem: Thank you Vasia for having me. And I really enjoyed what. Wassia Kamon: That's it for today's episode of The Diary of a CFO [00:33:00] podcast. Thank you for tuning in and thank you to Bill for sponsoring this episode. Don't forget to register for our upcoming webinars, and you can also find great webinars and resources on their website by visiting bill.com. That's BIL l.com. I'll drop the link again in the show notes. If you enjoy the show. Don't forget to like. Review, subscribe, and share with others. Our website is the diary of a cfo.com. That's where you can find all the episodes, access all the guest profiles, see their bios and the social media links. It is also the place where you can apply to be a guest on the podcast and have information about how you can sponsor the show. As always, if there is any topic you would like me to cover in the future. Just email me at Ask at the diary of a cfo.com. Again, the email is ask at the diary of a cfo.com. See you [00:34:00] soon.