CFO Bookshelf

When did you start using Excel, and how did you learn it?Jeff Lenning is the founder of Excel University, and he joins us to discuss the biggest mistakes he sees in Excel workbooks, the differences between formal and informal training, and why both are critical.We also walked down memory lane, discussing when we started using Excel and some of our favorite functions inside this powerful application.Finally, we tip our cap to two very famous Excel MVPs and why we do so.

What would you be willing to do to feel alive in your work every day? Jack Craven asks executives from all walks of life this question.Jack is the author of Aliveness Mindset: Lead and Live with More Passion, Purpose, and Joy. His book includes more than a dozen tools and frameworks for starting the journey of aliveness.Some topics we hit in this conversation include where aliveness starts, David Robsen's expectation effect, the actual vs. the ideal self, anchoring mindsets, accelerance, and magic words.

I list the top business books I've read over the previous year each January. At the end of 2024, The Venture Mindset by Ilya Strebulaev and Alex Dang will easily be in my top three and possibly my overall favorite.The Venture Mindset reads fast and reminds me a little of Kahneman, Munger, and books about Buffett.Some of the big ideas we cover in this episode with both authors include roof shots vs. moonshots, betting on jockeys vs. the horses, winning at the piggy bank game, and what we can learn from student VC partnerships.This book is not just for those in the VC community. There are many takeaways for those working in and running small businesses.

Discover the remarkable life of banker Edmond Safra, known for his integrity and successful banking career. Learn about his unconventional banking methods and personal relationships in the industry. Explore the sale of his bank to HSBC and the tragic events that led to his untimely demise. Dive into a discussion on favorite books and upcoming book projects.

Our newest guest may not be a best-selling author on real estate yet, but we're already predicting this former World Cup soccer player will soon be a household name in Dave Ramsey's world in a few years.Vaughn Bethell is the founder of REI Junkies based in South Carolina, and in this episode, we learn his unique process of providing real estate investors with a different way to reduce stress and frustration in their investments.

One of the best management books ever written is The Effective Executive, by Peter Drucker, published in 1966. Managing For Results and The Practice of Management are other favorites of this show.Randy Wooton joins us to discuss the big ideas in The Effective Executive. He's a three-time CEO and has held senior positions at Microsoft and Salesforce. He is also the host of The SaaS Expert Voices Podcast and serves as Maxio's chief executive.In this conversation, we address why we study Drucker and his ideas on time management, effective decisions, knowledge workers, and setting priorities.

Consumers and anyone who studies business understand the subscription economy, but what about the usage economy? What is it? How does it differ from the subscription economy? Does it matter?Adam Howatson is the CEO of LogiSense and the author of The Usage Economy. In this conversation, Adam will give examples of companies that got it right with their usage-based pricing models and those that made serious mistakes, such as Wink.We'll also learn about telemetry, AI's fit, and the most important information metrics for transitioning into the usage economy.

Have you ever left a movie theater where a film left you speechless and made you feel like you needed to rewatch parts of it to figure out what you were missing?Jeff Hooke's book, The Myth of Private Equity, left me feeling that way after finishing each chapter of his tell-all book about the exaggerations and overstatements of the private equity marketing machine.During this conversation, we learned much about the myths of PE funds focused on leveraged buyouts. Some of the big ideas in this conversation include the enormous fees fund managers are collecting, the poor fund performance these funds generate, and the lack of transparency in their reporting to institutional investors.We'll also learn about one of Warren Buffett's worst investment decisions and his advice on where retail and institutional investors should invest their money. 

My favorite go-to person on all matters, Tableau and Dataviz, is Andy Kriebel.Andy was the first person to create a YouTube channel on Tableau. His subscriber base has surpassed 61,000, and his 750+ videos have 7.5 million views and counting.Andy is the co-author with Eva Murray of the book #Makeover Monday, and you can also follow his informative and insightful helpful hints each day on LinkedIn.In this conversation, we find out why Andy has been publishing online for more than ten years, why asking for a dashboard is rarely the right starting point for Dataviz, and why his five daily habits, which I found to be pure gold.

I have my theories on why W. Edwards Deming is not a household name in 'all' business circles. Many view him as the 'quality' guy who had an impact on Japanese manufacturing after the Second World War.That view is limiting as Deming's management mindset was complete with four central tenets:PragmatismThe Law of VariationHuman psychologySystems ThinkingI used to recommend Mary Walton's book to start learning about Deming. That book gave way to a new title by Edward Martin Baker. After meeting and interviewing Gene Kim a few months ago, I have a favorite book on Deming by John Willis. The title is Deming's Journey to Profound Knowledge. John was one of the earliest cloud evangelists and is considered one of the founders of the DevOps movement. John is the author of 7 IBM Redbooks. He is also the co-author of the “DevOps Handbook” and “Beyond the Phoenix Project,” along with author Gene Kim.During this conversation, we discuss Deming's influences and how he became such a complete thinker about helping others improve.