Hello and welcome to voice notes from your CFO Bestie, I'm Harriet Formby, your fractional CFO and holistic business mentor, bringing you money chats, pep talks and financial know how that's practical, relatable, and actually feels good. Whether you're a business owner, a founder or an entrepreneur looking to get a handle on your finances, I'm here to help you make sense of it all.
Hello and welcome to the very first episode of voice notes from your CFO, bestie, I'm so excited that you're here, and today I'm talking about something I think every business owner needs from time to time, the power of a pep talk. And I also wanted to talk a little bit about how this podcast came about. So those of you that already know me might recall that particularly last year, I was running quite a few workshops and webinars and training series covering basically finances for small business owners and founders.
So everything from the fundamentals of finance running your kind of routine things through the month, cash flow management, budgeting and forecasting, managing your bank accounts all the way through to I did a special series on finance when you are neurodivergent and also starting to look into kind of like the money mindset stuff, the emotional side of finance anyway, really good topics, lots of really good content.
And always had really good feedback about these training sessions. But the one thing that they do have against them is we can't always sit down for an hour when we want to. And there's always so many things, you know, pressures on our time, lots of things to be doing that actually, it is quite tricky to find the time to dedicate to these things, and it can get overwhelming when there's so many things you want to do.
And at the same time, I was kind of thinking earlier this year, like, what should I do, sort of training wise, and I put a survey out to lots of lovely business owners who really kindly gave me lots of feedback and ideas and shared their preferences. And one thing that was coming up, kind of in lots of these different responses, was, you know, the power of audio stuff. So being able to listen on the go, being able to, you know, grab 10 minutes here or there.
You can be busy. You can be like, walking the dog, getting from A to B, doing some chores around the place. And you can be listening. You can be listening and, you know, absorbing information. So that got me thinking, actually, let's do a podcast, and let's make it nice and short and snappy. Let's make it short episodes so you can actually listen to them all the way through and feel great. Like, yes, I've done that. I've listened to it, and then the other side to it is very much the people that I work with basically like, the feedback I've got is that people really feel good when they one, when they receive a voicemail from me, hence the title of this podcast.
So when you know, we're chatting back and forth on WhatsApp or other platforms, sort of DMing, um, particularly if you are a little bit unsure about something that you're, you know, dealing with, you've got a question. Something's come up in finance, etc, actually getting like, a nice, reassuring voice note back can be really lovely and really powerful as well. So that's kind of like the background to this about why this format, this style, this length of podcast, the rest of it is open to kind of see how we get on really and if we talk a little bit more about the the title of this episode, the power of a pep talk.
So a lot of finance seems to be about, you know, the rules, getting things right, making the right decisions, knowing your numbers. It's all very logical, and lots of reason goes into it, or so you think, but actually, I've found that the biggest thing with finance is actually that we can feel, as business owners, a lot of emotion around finance, because it is our money. We might be business owners and it's a business, but it's our business. It's our creation, it's our money, it's our future, it's our risks that we're putting into these things. And so actually having a conversation and exploring your numbers is quite a big thing, and it can be very overwhelming, and that's where people come to talk to me because I've got the knowledge and I've got the skills and the insight from all the experience I've had with many different types of businesses over the years to, you know, bring good ideas to the table, bring good advice, you know, offer the solutions.
But actually, one of the most powerful things I can give to a business owner is, is the dialog. It's being listened to, it's being heard. And it's also the reassuring side of it, that you're not doing anything wrong, that you are on the right path, that your emotions are valid, that how you feel is valid, that is all really important stuff, and that's where I think the pep talk comes in, especially as you know, being a business owner, it can be quite a lonely journey at times, and you are trying to make the right decisions, get through the workload, balance all the different parts of running a business and kind of having a life at the same time. And that's where the pep talk comes in. Sometimes you just need somebody to you know,
commiserate with you.
Yes, it's difficult sometimes, but also celebrate with you and help you get perspective and help you know that actually you're doing the right thing. You're doing the best you can, and all of that side of things, so along with the insights and the advice and the tips and all of that good stuff, I am going to be bringing a lot of that kind of pep talk stuff. So it's about, you know, helping you on the emotional side of it all, and helping you, yeah, acknowledging that you feel stuff when you look in your bank account, and you look in your Xero account and all of that sort of thing. You're, you know, your accounting software, and that being okay, that being acceptable, this is going to be a place where that's acceptable and it's welcomed, and you're not alone in that journey. So, yeah, I'll try not to get too heavy for the first episode, but basically, I think there's, you know, the idea of the pep talk side is, yeah, you go away thinking, like, great, I've got something from that, that 10 minutes I've listened Harriet talking, I've got something I'm going away feeling more uplifted and positive and like I can do this thing.
So that's the pep talk angle that that we're going for, and hopefully already that you might be feeling like that. So I'd love some feedback as well. If you're listening, drop me a DM, maybe on Instagram or, yeah, get in touch and just let me know if this is resonating, if this is perhaps a different approach to finance that you've come than you've come across before. I'll get into this in later episodes. Actually, I'll talk about, you know, my view on, yeah, finance, and you, you know, the rights and wrongs, and Are you good with money or not good with money?
And all of these kind of things that come up, and the shame and all of the things that come up when we traditionally talk about finance, I'm going to be talking about that in later episodes. We've got plenty of time. There's lots of time ahead.
Yeah, so I'm probably gonna start wrapping up now for this, this voice note, because if I was yeah voice noting you on WhatsApp or on Voxer, this would be quite a long Voice Note to listen to by now. So that's what I'm engaging it by. How long would it be reasonable for you to kind of listen to, to yeah to a message for so what I'd love to yeah is I'd love any feedback you've got on you know, if this is resonating with you. But also, now I've got an amazing list already in my notes on my phone of basically topics I'm going to be covering. So I jotted down loads of stuff. Like, I've got 20 or 30 things point, sort of bullet pointed, of just stuff that's kind of like, you know, I've been gathering up of things that'd be great episodes to, you know, to cover. I'll also be jotting down things as a go, like, what's coming up, you know, as I'm going about talking to people, etc, what's coming up as a thing that will be good to cover,
but also I'm open for submissions.
So actually, I've got a form. It's on the podcast homepage. If you are listening from there, you can also get it from our dedicated Instagram, which is for this podcast, CFO, underscore, voice notes. Yeah, you can get it from the links there. Basically it's a Google form if you want to submit any questions. Or you can, like, voice me a question yourself. So that's the idea, really, is that it will be quite interactive, so that I can actually, yeah, address some questions that people, you know in the audience people listening actually have some real life stuff as well. So really, really glad that you've kind of tuned in here today and look forward to talking to you soon. Have a great rest of the day!
