February 14, 2025 • 32 mins
"It's a journey, not a how-to book." - Tina O'Banion
In this episode of Brave New Wealth, host Julienna sits down with financial expert and entrepreneur, Tina O’Banion to uncover her inspiring journey from a modest upbringing to becoming a CFO and business leader.
They dive deep into:
✅ The role of integrity in business success
✅ Why stepping outside your comfort zone is crucial
✅ The biggest cash flow mistakes entrepreneurs make
✅ How financial clarity can transform your business
✅ Practical resources to improve your financial strategy
Learn more about Tina O'Banion:
Website: https://tfosolutionsllc.com/
Thank you to sponsor: Engineered Tax Services
💡 Shout out to new entrepreneurs or looking to scale, Tina’s expert insights will help you avoid costly financial pitfalls and build lasting wealth.
🔔 Watch now and subscribe for more financial wisdom!
#Entrepreneurship #FinancialFreedom #BraveNewWealth
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:08):
Welcome to the Brave New Wealth podcast, where we discuss reinventing wealth mentally,physically, socially, financially.
Yes, there are multiple ways to look at wealth, but these are the areas that we willexplore.
I'm your host, Juliana.
This podcast is sponsored by Engineer Tax Services, a subsidiary of Engineer Tax Advisory.
(00:35):
Our goal is to empower.
CPAs, advisors with proven expertise, education, and innovative strategies to help reduceclients' tax burden and make sure that they take advantage of all of the incentives
available to them.
(00:56):
Today, I am very excited to have with me Tina O'Banion.
And I'm going to go ahead and cheat a little bit because her credentials
I just couldn't memorize it.
It's a lot.
So let me tell you about my wonderful friend, Tina is also a friend of mine.
(01:20):
So Tina Obenian is a financial guru and the bestselling author of Falling Up with Grace,an entrepreneur's journey to financial clarity.
It's available on Amazon, so go and support her and give her some reviews on thiswonderful book.
With a career that spans roles like controller and CFO across industries, she's perfectedthe art of making finances work for entrepreneurs.
(01:47):
A bold leader and a dynamic change maker, Tina specializes in guiding business ownersthrough mergers and acquisitions and the financial strategies that drive growth.
All while staying true to her core, value which is integrity.
With a bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Texas at Dallas and an MBAfrom SMU's Cox School of Business, she's a sharp, she's a sharp as they come.
(02:19):
Tina isn't just about crunching numbers.
She's on a mission to empower entrepreneurs to see their business through a crystal clearfinancial lens.
Her passion lies in turning confusion into confidence, providing actionable
insights that take companies from surviving to thriving.
And I have seen Tina in action and I can tell you that she is very, very good at helpingentrepreneurs.
(02:46):
So Tina, welcome to the Brave New Wealth podcast.
Well, thank you so much for inviting me.
I am so honored to be here with you today.
It is just such a great podcast.
I love the name Brave New Wealth.
I mean, come on now, let's just do this, right?
(03:07):
Well, thank you.
And I'm sorry for butchering your intro a little bit.
I was reading and I do have to tell the listeners that, you know, if they hear an accent,it's because French is my mother tongue.
I didn't mention that on the first podcast, but so give me a little leeway here when Imispronounce certain words.
But Tina, I'm so glad you accepted to come.
(03:29):
It means a lot.
You are someone that I admire.
I admire your journey.
I admire how you got to where you are.
And I'm excited to just learn and dig a little bit more into your journey.
But before we go into how you got to where you are today with this published book thatrecently came out and, you know, speaking on stage and having all these wonderful goals
(03:56):
that you just like.
achieving one by one by one.
I know that it wasn't a straight line, so we'll go a little bit into that.
But my first question to you that I like to ask the guests who come on is, recently, whatis something you've done that is outside of your comfort zone that helped you in your
(04:17):
growth journey?
If you think about very recently, something you started doing that helped you, I'd like tostart there.
Well, that is a great intro into the beginning of 2025, right?
So a couple of weeks ago, I was a part of a virtual entrepreneur summit where there wereabout 70 speakers and we all had to submit a 20 minute, 20 to 30 minute video of us so
(04:53):
that the viewers could go and
listen to what we have to say through this video.
And I didn't think I would be nervous.
I didn't think I would totally bomb it.
I just thought, hey, it's like being on a podcast or being in public speaking or talkingto a group of people.
(05:14):
But no, it was not.
It was this video camera.
It was, I used string yard.
never used that before.
I just thought, okay, let's just hit record and bam, I had my story.
kind of knew what I was going to talk about for about 20 minutes, but my God, it wasawful.
I mean, I, I know we're our worst critics, but I've got to say that I just recorded, Ilistened to it.
(05:40):
didn't even have, I couldn't even listen to it.
It was so bad.
So many ums and so many things that were wrong with it.
So.
I decided to go ahead and submit it as is.
Then I just said, okay, I've done, you know, I've just done.
It is what it is at that point.
I've just recorded this thing so many times.
(06:04):
So after that, I decided, you know, I want to challenge myself to do better because I'm acontinuous learner.
So in being a continuous learner, I'm always...
learning new technology, learning, staying on top of what's trending and what's going onin the workforce and what's going on with the accounting firms or whatever's going on.
(06:26):
I decided to, on January 31st, I woke up at five o'clock and I said, hey, in order for meto do better, I gotta practice.
Practice makes perfect, right?
So I didn't want to be perfect, I just did it.
Sometimes just taking that risk and jumping over the ledge and just going for it.
So I decided to come up with filming in February, where I'm challenging myself 20 days inFebruary.
(06:52):
I'm just gonna go out there and just go record myself on StreamYard, tool, learn newtools, learn new technology.
have a microphone that wouldn't work for this interview.
Learn that technology and really just kind of better myself to doing the videos.
Because honestly today's,
(07:14):
You have to learn it.
have to do it.
Or else if I don't do this, I'm going to just be left in the dust.
So I want to grow my business.
I want to reach more entrepreneurs.
I want to just be able to speak to them and in a setting such as the video in my office,in my she shed office and do that.
(07:35):
So I'm hoping by the end of it, the end of the 20 day challenge, I will do a comparativeof the
the video I did in January and the video I'm going to do at the end of February and startmy YouTube channel, all that good stuff.
That's what I'm doing.
my gosh.
It's just learning new things.
(07:57):
was saying, I love your she shed.
I've been there.
so for the listeners, it's just this little area outside of her backyard that she built,used to be, I guess, a tool shed.
She made an office out of it and it's really beautiful.
It's very warm and cozy and like a little escape and that's where she works.
(08:19):
And I think it's really, really cool.
I was gonna say just with what you just said, I mean, it's, you we are women of a certainage and we're like, don't look our age or whatever, but it is something to have to just
hop on that train that is just fast, fast, fast with all the new technology, with all thethings.
(08:39):
learning the language of today, which is knowing all the social media outlets, you know,being out there, putting yourself out there.
And, you know, like for my kids, I have teenagers, that's their language.
I mean, they just, you know, are on the camera all the time.
They don't care.
They just follow each other around, know their location.
But for us, it's a lot of new things, you know, utilizing AI and all these things.
(09:00):
So to watch you just very quickly applying,
You know, all these things, it's quite impressive actually.
So kudos to you for being like, you know what, I'm building my business.
I'm going to speak the language of today and be on that train.
And I've seen you just acting on it.
(09:20):
So with that, I'd like you to kind of tell a listener a little bit about your background.
Like what got you into, you know, becoming a CFO?
How did Tina O'Banion become a CFO?
Tell us a little bit about your journey.
And I know a lot of it is in the book, so I encourage you to go and buy the book so youunderstand even better, because there's, you know, we're limited in time share.
(09:44):
We're not going to talk about all the details, but tell us a little bit where that drivecame from, why you chose the field where you're in, which ultimately led you to write this
book to really have something to help those entrepreneurs who struggle at times.
with their friends.
It's going back on you because I have a little bit of background noise.
(10:07):
So this is a great question.
And, you know, I remember sitting in entrepreneurial class at SMU and, you know, one ofmaybe it was an entrepreneur class, but it was another class.
And the professor asked, you who's your hero?
Who do you look up to and all this stuff?
And I sat, everyone was writing down who they thought their hero was or their mentor, youknow, all that.
(10:28):
And I didn't
I didn't think about this until I was called upon and I said, look, it was my mom.
My mom is who taught me the value of money.
She was a bookkeeper herself.
We were a lower middle class family.
She was a single parent.
And, you know, when we wanted anything above, you know, shelter and food and, you know,things that, you know, we, had to pay for it.
(10:53):
So I had to buy up.
And so that value of money.
was embedded me at a very young age.
And I took a class in accounting back in high school and I loved it because I was reallygood with math, not so much English and spelling.
my gosh, don't get me to spell a word.
(11:16):
So I just decided to go down this accounting journey because, know,
debits and credits equaling, that just made sense to me and numbers made sense to me asit's dialogical in my mathematical brain.
And so I went for it.
I graduated high school and I just kind of went and started off this journey and basicbookkeeping all the way up to being a CFO.
(11:42):
And I can't say much other than the fact that
Along that journey, it was a long journey, it was a long ride, many different industries,many different things I've seen entrepreneurs do, the good, the bad, the ugly.
And all of those things helped develop me and learn what I wanted to do and how I wantedto be.
(12:07):
In the intro, you mentioned my integrity.
My integrity is my compass that drives me.
That is the most important thing.
that I will not sacrifice in any kind of relationship I'm doing.
If I'm asked to do something that's unethical, I say no.
And I've been fired for it.
I have been fired for it because I just flat out refuse to do anything that's unethical.
(12:32):
So I take that very, very seriously.
And throughout my career, I've made mistakes and I've fallen up and I've gotten back upagain.
I've fallen and I just learn.
brush off my pans and brush off the mud and I just keep going, you know, I'm high energy IListen, I I'm very passionate about entrepreneurs understanding their business through a
(12:57):
financial lens and that's That's what got me here.
Right?
You know, I think the the idea of you know reaching that
always, you know, when I reached that CFO of a publicly traded company out in Sweden, I,it is, I, I'm like, I'm here, I made it.
But then I was miserable because I was working so many hours and I was working for a CEOthat just was a bad dude, you know, just not my cup of tea.
(13:28):
you know, that's what, that's why I started my, my, business is, TFO Clarity, which is thefinancial office.
And I started it.
I said, I had been doing the side hustle so long.
mean, I had been doing, you know, friends and family called me up.
Hey, I'm starting a business.
I need some accounting work.
(13:49):
Would you mind putting this on a computer and doing this?
And I would do that.
So that's always what I've been doing all along.
And so when I finally made that decision to say, I'm going to cut the cord of corporateAmerica and go start my own journey, I could have
ask for a better dream, right?
(14:11):
Being your own boss, deciding what clients you work for and who works, you know, all ofthose dynamics.
I just, I'm thrilled to be here and I'm still very much so in love with helpingentrepreneurs see their business through a financial lens.
Thank you so much for sharing that.
(14:31):
And I know, you know, we've known each other for a few years now, so I've heard some ofthe stories.
even some horrible stories.
which takes me to ask you, know, and I may know the answer, but not all listener, but whatwas your tipping point?
Because I remember there was one particular story you told me one day, and we don't haveto name names or whatever, but just really high level CEOs trying to commit some weird
(15:00):
crime, I guess.
And you can't you put your foot down.
It's like, I'm not going to go along with that.
But
Give, because I do feel that, and maybe tell me if I'm wrong, but that could have been thetipping point also for you to be like, you know what, I'm done with this and I'm going to
go on my own and decide how things are done.
So can you give the listeners like a few examples of what you've observed in differentpractices, you know, different people that you helped who were really trying to use you to
(15:33):
do things that were unethical.
Well, so a while ago, I kind of went through one of the most challenging, difficult thingsin my entire career.
I was hired on as a CFO to kind of help run this company and an industry I had very littleknowledge of, but that didn't matter.
(15:57):
And I started working for this guy and about a month and a half into it, I found
that he was embezzling money and he was stealing from the company.
We had 70 or 80 employees at the time.
We a call center.
We had all these employees and I whistle-blow.
(16:22):
I kind of talked to the president of the company that he actually...
He and I met at alumni then at SMU and he said, hey, we need you, we need you.
And I said, well, okay, let's just do this, right?
So we knew each other and I told him what was going on.
And it's probably one of the most trying times of my career.
(16:45):
It taught me courage.
It taught me that I had strength.
It taught me I had leadership.
It taught me that I was well more capable than I ever thought I would.
could be or would be because I had an opportunity to grab my purse and say, see ya.
I don't want to be here.
And I chose to stay at that moment to focus on ethics and focus on those employees thatwere relying on those paychecks every single week to get by to pay their bills.
(17:18):
And I did it and we together, we were able to get the company sold within
45 days, which is unheard of and just, you know, survival mode.
And I think that that taught me that I was stronger than I even thought was possible.
And I just persevered after that.
(17:42):
I just said, I'm not going to take this BS.
And so over time, you know, I really just got down to the last three roles I had playedand not being
respected one role was the guy really just had 52 spreadsheets.
(18:04):
I'll never forget 52 spreadsheets and very manual process.
When you have a manual process like that and all these different numbers, you're going tomess up.
I would say F up.
It's not going to be accurate.
You're just moving little cells over.
You're doing this.
And it was just not my cup of tea.
mean, how boring was that?
(18:26):
After that, then I just, you know, I've been challenged many times to be unethical andthat's not my cup of tea and I will absolutely say no and I absolutely will move on from
that because I just refuse to let that happen.
My name is not going to be on any kind of financial statements, especially in a publiclytraded environment.
(18:50):
I'm just not going to put my name to it.
I just knew I had this entrepreneur spirit.
I just knew I wanted to do this one day and I had signed that corporate letter and I wasready.
I was ready, you know?
And so that's what I did.
I said, I'm done with this and I want to help more entrepreneurs and choose the clientsthat I work with and they get to choose me and I've grown my business.
(19:19):
Now I have five employees and
You know, we are, you know, setting some great practices and got some great things comingup for 2025.
just, I'm ready.
I'm ready to keep launching.
I started my business right before COVID 2019 and COVID hit.
And then because I'm very well networked, was called upon.
(19:44):
I mean, I grew significantly in 2020 and it's just been, it's been great.
Great success story, I think.
It is, it is.
It's great.
And really the story you shared speak of your integrity and the choices that you willmake, that you will choose your conscience and no matter what, and that's admirable.
(20:06):
It doesn't always happen as we know in this day and age that people will choose what isright.
Now, we don't have a whole lot of time, but there's a couple of questions I do want to askyou.
One being,
today, you know, with the role that you've taken on, with the book you've written to helpthose maybe younger entrepreneur and even more mature entrepreneur but that still get
(20:30):
lost, you know, in their numbers and don't have that clarity, what would you say are likethe three things you would counsel entrepreneurs, business owners to look at basically the
three major pitfalls that you have observed in different companies and throughout?
(20:52):
Yeah, that's a good question.
I'm embarking in kind of a follow-up to Following Up with Grace.
This is a journey, know, it's an entrepreneur's journey.
am following, you know, it's not a how-to book, but I do plan on coming out with aworkbook and a workshop to help entrepreneurs kind of
(21:19):
really understand this clarity method I'm putting together.
And one of the top things I would say is that entrepreneurs and let's just start from thebeginning.
Statistics show one out of five businesses that start their business, one out of five willfail after their first year.
(21:40):
I mean, not after the first year, within the first year.
That's one in five.
And
Nearly 50 % will fail and not see year six.
Those statistics are alarming.
And what I've seen, I've worked with startups, I've worked with lots of businesses doingmergers, acquisitions, or fire sale, or having to sell a company because something
(22:06):
happened and they've got to get the heck out or exit strategy was not there or whatever.
They were going to go through bankruptcy and they were bought out of bankruptcy and a firesale.
So there's been multiple things I've experienced.
But the thing is, what I've noticed is the number one cause of that, why those statisticsare so high is because business owners do not realize that cash is killing their business.
(22:34):
Okay.
The number one cause of that is because cash.
Cash flow.
Lack of cash foe, too much cash.
They spend it too quickly on all the nice shiny things and lack of strategy, right?
So it's cash, lack of strategy and lack of knowing their numbers, right?
(22:55):
They are focused on sales.
They're focused on operations.
They're focused on, you know, all of these different things.
Hell, could be, heck, could be, you know, focused on payroll or they could be focused on,you know, how I'm going to pay the rent.
They're not.
They're short-term-sided.
They don't really have a plan.
(23:16):
I think that's knowing your numbers, understanding what their long-term goals are,understanding their cash flow, and really understanding their numbers.
If you have that and you have a plan and you have goals and you measure them, you reviewthem,
(23:38):
All of that combined is what I'm putting together with the clarity method that yieldsresults.
Because I've actually seen and been through multiple bankruptcies.
I've come in to try to fix and it was too late.
So that's why I do what I want to do.
I want to help entrepreneurs see their business.
(23:58):
You know, we all have cell phones.
Entrepreneurs are great at counting their money.
But.
Because we have it on our fingertips.
We can go look at our money.
How much money do we have?
That there's a strategy behind that.
How much that money is going to last me, right?
So you got to have a plan.
(24:18):
Yes, now that's very useful.
With that, I'd like you to kind of show me or show our listeners what is a success storywhere you've helped someone, you know, find that clarity.
Like if you have a, you know, maybe a recent example where
you've worked with, you know, an entrepreneur or a business owner where you were able toapply this and see the results.
(24:43):
Right.
So I have a client that I've worked with and she is an amazing person.
She had lots of big dreams.
She decided to embark on something, new technology.
Now, mind you,
(25:04):
She is not in the technology business.
So she invested heavily in this technology and hopes to help her grow her business to bemore broad, go global, whatever.
she just didn't have a plan.
So she just kind of put all this money into this application, this technology, and it blewup in her face.
(25:33):
She didn't know how to look at the contract and understand what the contract was sayingand the deliverables and the milestones and all of these things.
And so things just kept changing constantly.
By the time she found out about TFO, she was referred by another client of mine and westarted working together and we built a plan.
(25:59):
We decided that, you know,
Now she was really, really upside down in debt.
And so we've come up with a cashflow model and projections on how to pay that debt off,all while trying to grow her business in different ways.
talk about the deer and the headlights when I first started working with her to, I'm soexcited.
(26:23):
I'm going to meet with Tina this month.
You know, I'm so excited.
We're going to do this.
We're going to do this.
And we're going to, you know, just.
Like she didn't really want to talk to me.
She didn't want to look at her finances.
No.
So from, from going that way to all the way to one 80 saying, can't wait.
That brings me pure joy.
That is, that is beautiful.
(26:43):
and I think, yeah, it's just, you know, in my area with tax, it's like that, like peopledon't want to know about it.
They just want to just, you know, take the pain, the hit and then hide.
But it's like, no, you have to look at it.
You have to, you know, know what's going on in order to.
to be smarter about the decisions that are made.
I think.
Yeah, and I think that's why, number one, we're friends, but I think that what you offerentrepreneurs is this different viewpoint than most CPA firms give, right?
(27:21):
So you have that strategy and what I'd like to...
why we're so similar is that most business owners have a CPA that file their tax returns.
Good for them.
They're doing what is required of them.
Most of them have a bookkeeper and all the bookkeeper does is make sure bills are paid andyou know, things are done, but there's no strategy.
(27:47):
They're missing the strategy.
That's why your services and my services are so important.
Let's look out.
Let's look out.
for cash and look out for the goals and look out for the big picture, right?
Thinking outside the box, not just 12 months down the road, not just six months down theroad, but actually what it's going to look like longer than three years, five years, or
(28:15):
what's their exit strategy?
What do they want to get out of the business, right?
So those things without strategy, you're just going along.
You're just...
autopilot, right?
You're not going to, you may not grow, you may not be able to reach your goals, you maynot be able to reach your dreams, you know, you're just settling.
(28:37):
Without that strategy, you just, it's a dream.
It is and it's great that you have that clarity and that you can now share it.
And with that, I want to ask you like where can people find you, you know, who now listento this and are like, you know what?
because I also have to put a plug for you that she's super fun.
(28:57):
Like she knows all these numbers and she's a number, you know, gal, but she's also superfun to be around.
So if you're a dynamic entrepreneur and you don't want the, you know, no shade on anyone,but like the boring, you know, I have to be here for what I say, but I might ask Sia to
like erase this.
(29:17):
No negativity.
But anyways, my point is,
Where can people find you if they want to work with you, follow you, you know, start onthat journey of clarity with their finances to make sure their business succeed?
Great.
So obviously, Following Up with Grace, an entrepreneur's journey by Tina O'Banion can befound on Amazon.
(29:45):
It's a best-selling book.
You can read the book if you want to.
It's on sale through the end of February.
I've been doing a specialist 20 % off.
You can find me and the financial office at by texting.
If you want to get a free gift, you know, you can text the word numbers to 2678.
(30:10):
Yes, text the word numbers to 26786 and you will be able to get my clarity method.
And there.
you will be, another way obviously is to go to tfoclarity.com.
It's a new website.
It's not perfect, but you know what?
No one's ever perfect.
(30:30):
So we're still developing that website.
It's new.
It's energized.
And we're just going to keep adding some blogs and tips and YouTube channels, et cetera.
So welcome to filming in February.
Yeah, thank you so much for having me on the show today.
(30:53):
Thank you, Tina.
And I will put all that information in the show notes so that people know where to findyou.
They can call you, have, you know, your first meeting with them, or I don't know how yourprocess is, but I will make sure that everything is there.
Thank you again for coming, for giving us some clarity on what we need to pay attentionto, you know, when it comes to, you know, finance and being organized.
(31:15):
And, you know, I might...
ask you to come again in the future.
know?
would be great.
That would be amazing.
I would love to spend time with you.
And, you know, I love this new platform you're building.
I hope this is very useful for entrepreneurs and business owners and, you know, high networth people.
(31:35):
You know, it's about building financial wealth.
Not about, but, you know, that's always good to have good financial wealth.
So brave new wealth.
I love it.
Good job.
It's all the aspects, know, mental, physical, social, financial.
We need to look at it all and it's okay if you're not there in the high net worth yet, butwe want to take you there.
(31:59):
with what we do, thank you so much, Tina, and come back again.
All right.
High five.
Thank you for having me.
Bye.
Thank you.
Welcome to the Brave New Wealth podcast, where we discuss reinventing wealth mentally,physically, socially, financially.
Yes, there are multiple ways to look at wealth, but these are the areas that we willexplore.
I'm your host, Juliana.
This podcast is sponsored by Engineer Tax Services, a subsidiary of Engineer Tax Advisory.
(00:35):
Our goal is to empower.
CPAs, advisors with proven expertise, education, and innovative strategies to help reduceclients' tax burden and make sure that they take advantage of all of the incentives
available to them.
(00:56):
Today, I am very excited to have with me Tina O'Banion.
And I'm going to go ahead and cheat a little bit because her credentials
I just couldn't memorize it.
It's a lot.
So let me tell you about my wonderful friend, Tina is also a friend of mine.
(01:20):
So Tina Obenian is a financial guru and the bestselling author of Falling Up with Grace,an entrepreneur's journey to financial clarity.
It's available on Amazon, so go and support her and give her some reviews on thiswonderful book.
With a career that spans roles like controller and CFO across industries, she's perfectedthe art of making finances work for entrepreneurs.
(01:47):
A bold leader and a dynamic change maker, Tina specializes in guiding business ownersthrough mergers and acquisitions and the financial strategies that drive growth.
All while staying true to her core, value which is integrity.
With a bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Texas at Dallas and an MBAfrom SMU's Cox School of Business, she's a sharp, she's a sharp as they come.
(02:19):
Tina isn't just about crunching numbers.
She's on a mission to empower entrepreneurs to see their business through a crystal clearfinancial lens.
Her passion lies in turning confusion into confidence, providing actionable
insights that take companies from surviving to thriving.
And I have seen Tina in action and I can tell you that she is very, very good at helpingentrepreneurs.
(02:46):
So Tina, welcome to the Brave New Wealth podcast.
Well, thank you so much for inviting me.
I am so honored to be here with you today.
It is just such a great podcast.
I love the name Brave New Wealth.
I mean, come on now, let's just do this, right?
(03:07):
Well, thank you.
And I'm sorry for butchering your intro a little bit.
I was reading and I do have to tell the listeners that, you know, if they hear an accent,it's because French is my mother tongue.
I didn't mention that on the first podcast, but so give me a little leeway here when Imispronounce certain words.
But Tina, I'm so glad you accepted to come.
(03:29):
It means a lot.
You are someone that I admire.
I admire your journey.
I admire how you got to where you are.
And I'm excited to just learn and dig a little bit more into your journey.
But before we go into how you got to where you are today with this published book thatrecently came out and, you know, speaking on stage and having all these wonderful goals
(03:56):
that you just like.
achieving one by one by one.
I know that it wasn't a straight line, so we'll go a little bit into that.
But my first question to you that I like to ask the guests who come on is, recently, whatis something you've done that is outside of your comfort zone that helped you in your
(04:17):
growth journey?
If you think about very recently, something you started doing that helped you, I'd like tostart there.
Well, that is a great intro into the beginning of 2025, right?
So a couple of weeks ago, I was a part of a virtual entrepreneur summit where there wereabout 70 speakers and we all had to submit a 20 minute, 20 to 30 minute video of us so
(04:53):
that the viewers could go and
listen to what we have to say through this video.
And I didn't think I would be nervous.
I didn't think I would totally bomb it.
I just thought, hey, it's like being on a podcast or being in public speaking or talkingto a group of people.
(05:14):
But no, it was not.
It was this video camera.
It was, I used string yard.
never used that before.
I just thought, okay, let's just hit record and bam, I had my story.
kind of knew what I was going to talk about for about 20 minutes, but my God, it wasawful.
I mean, I, I know we're our worst critics, but I've got to say that I just recorded, Ilistened to it.
(05:40):
didn't even have, I couldn't even listen to it.
It was so bad.
So many ums and so many things that were wrong with it.
So.
I decided to go ahead and submit it as is.
Then I just said, okay, I've done, you know, I've just done.
It is what it is at that point.
I've just recorded this thing so many times.
(06:04):
So after that, I decided, you know, I want to challenge myself to do better because I'm acontinuous learner.
So in being a continuous learner, I'm always...
learning new technology, learning, staying on top of what's trending and what's going onin the workforce and what's going on with the accounting firms or whatever's going on.
(06:26):
I decided to, on January 31st, I woke up at five o'clock and I said, hey, in order for meto do better, I gotta practice.
Practice makes perfect, right?
So I didn't want to be perfect, I just did it.
Sometimes just taking that risk and jumping over the ledge and just going for it.
So I decided to come up with filming in February, where I'm challenging myself 20 days inFebruary.
(06:52):
I'm just gonna go out there and just go record myself on StreamYard, tool, learn newtools, learn new technology.
have a microphone that wouldn't work for this interview.
Learn that technology and really just kind of better myself to doing the videos.
Because honestly today's,
(07:14):
You have to learn it.
have to do it.
Or else if I don't do this, I'm going to just be left in the dust.
So I want to grow my business.
I want to reach more entrepreneurs.
I want to just be able to speak to them and in a setting such as the video in my office,in my she shed office and do that.
(07:35):
So I'm hoping by the end of it, the end of the 20 day challenge, I will do a comparativeof the
the video I did in January and the video I'm going to do at the end of February and startmy YouTube channel, all that good stuff.
That's what I'm doing.
my gosh.
It's just learning new things.
(07:57):
was saying, I love your she shed.
I've been there.
so for the listeners, it's just this little area outside of her backyard that she built,used to be, I guess, a tool shed.
She made an office out of it and it's really beautiful.
It's very warm and cozy and like a little escape and that's where she works.
(08:19):
And I think it's really, really cool.
I was gonna say just with what you just said, I mean, it's, you we are women of a certainage and we're like, don't look our age or whatever, but it is something to have to just
hop on that train that is just fast, fast, fast with all the new technology, with all thethings.
(08:39):
learning the language of today, which is knowing all the social media outlets, you know,being out there, putting yourself out there.
And, you know, like for my kids, I have teenagers, that's their language.
I mean, they just, you know, are on the camera all the time.
They don't care.
They just follow each other around, know their location.
But for us, it's a lot of new things, you know, utilizing AI and all these things.
(09:00):
So to watch you just very quickly applying,
You know, all these things, it's quite impressive actually.
So kudos to you for being like, you know what, I'm building my business.
I'm going to speak the language of today and be on that train.
And I've seen you just acting on it.
(09:20):
So with that, I'd like you to kind of tell a listener a little bit about your background.
Like what got you into, you know, becoming a CFO?
How did Tina O'Banion become a CFO?
Tell us a little bit about your journey.
And I know a lot of it is in the book, so I encourage you to go and buy the book so youunderstand even better, because there's, you know, we're limited in time share.
(09:44):
We're not going to talk about all the details, but tell us a little bit where that drivecame from, why you chose the field where you're in, which ultimately led you to write this
book to really have something to help those entrepreneurs who struggle at times.
with their friends.
It's going back on you because I have a little bit of background noise.
(10:07):
So this is a great question.
And, you know, I remember sitting in entrepreneurial class at SMU and, you know, one ofmaybe it was an entrepreneur class, but it was another class.
And the professor asked, you who's your hero?
Who do you look up to and all this stuff?
And I sat, everyone was writing down who they thought their hero was or their mentor, youknow, all that.
(10:28):
And I didn't
I didn't think about this until I was called upon and I said, look, it was my mom.
My mom is who taught me the value of money.
She was a bookkeeper herself.
We were a lower middle class family.
She was a single parent.
And, you know, when we wanted anything above, you know, shelter and food and, you know,things that, you know, we, had to pay for it.
(10:53):
So I had to buy up.
And so that value of money.
was embedded me at a very young age.
And I took a class in accounting back in high school and I loved it because I was reallygood with math, not so much English and spelling.
my gosh, don't get me to spell a word.
(11:16):
So I just decided to go down this accounting journey because, know,
debits and credits equaling, that just made sense to me and numbers made sense to me asit's dialogical in my mathematical brain.
And so I went for it.
I graduated high school and I just kind of went and started off this journey and basicbookkeeping all the way up to being a CFO.
(11:42):
And I can't say much other than the fact that
Along that journey, it was a long journey, it was a long ride, many different industries,many different things I've seen entrepreneurs do, the good, the bad, the ugly.
And all of those things helped develop me and learn what I wanted to do and how I wantedto be.
(12:07):
In the intro, you mentioned my integrity.
My integrity is my compass that drives me.
That is the most important thing.
that I will not sacrifice in any kind of relationship I'm doing.
If I'm asked to do something that's unethical, I say no.
And I've been fired for it.
I have been fired for it because I just flat out refuse to do anything that's unethical.
(12:32):
So I take that very, very seriously.
And throughout my career, I've made mistakes and I've fallen up and I've gotten back upagain.
I've fallen and I just learn.
brush off my pans and brush off the mud and I just keep going, you know, I'm high energy IListen, I I'm very passionate about entrepreneurs understanding their business through a
(12:57):
financial lens and that's That's what got me here.
Right?
You know, I think the the idea of you know reaching that
always, you know, when I reached that CFO of a publicly traded company out in Sweden, I,it is, I, I'm like, I'm here, I made it.
But then I was miserable because I was working so many hours and I was working for a CEOthat just was a bad dude, you know, just not my cup of tea.
(13:28):
you know, that's what, that's why I started my, my, business is, TFO Clarity, which is thefinancial office.
And I started it.
I said, I had been doing the side hustle so long.
mean, I had been doing, you know, friends and family called me up.
Hey, I'm starting a business.
I need some accounting work.
(13:49):
Would you mind putting this on a computer and doing this?
And I would do that.
So that's always what I've been doing all along.
And so when I finally made that decision to say, I'm going to cut the cord of corporateAmerica and go start my own journey, I could have
ask for a better dream, right?
(14:11):
Being your own boss, deciding what clients you work for and who works, you know, all ofthose dynamics.
I just, I'm thrilled to be here and I'm still very much so in love with helpingentrepreneurs see their business through a financial lens.
Thank you so much for sharing that.
(14:31):
And I know, you know, we've known each other for a few years now, so I've heard some ofthe stories.
even some horrible stories.
which takes me to ask you, know, and I may know the answer, but not all listener, but whatwas your tipping point?
Because I remember there was one particular story you told me one day, and we don't haveto name names or whatever, but just really high level CEOs trying to commit some weird
(15:00):
crime, I guess.
And you can't you put your foot down.
It's like, I'm not going to go along with that.
But
Give, because I do feel that, and maybe tell me if I'm wrong, but that could have been thetipping point also for you to be like, you know what, I'm done with this and I'm going to
go on my own and decide how things are done.
So can you give the listeners like a few examples of what you've observed in differentpractices, you know, different people that you helped who were really trying to use you to
(15:33):
do things that were unethical.
Well, so a while ago, I kind of went through one of the most challenging, difficult thingsin my entire career.
I was hired on as a CFO to kind of help run this company and an industry I had very littleknowledge of, but that didn't matter.
(15:57):
And I started working for this guy and about a month and a half into it, I found
that he was embezzling money and he was stealing from the company.
We had 70 or 80 employees at the time.
We a call center.
We had all these employees and I whistle-blow.
(16:22):
I kind of talked to the president of the company that he actually...
He and I met at alumni then at SMU and he said, hey, we need you, we need you.
And I said, well, okay, let's just do this, right?
So we knew each other and I told him what was going on.
And it's probably one of the most trying times of my career.
(16:45):
It taught me courage.
It taught me that I had strength.
It taught me I had leadership.
It taught me that I was well more capable than I ever thought I would.
could be or would be because I had an opportunity to grab my purse and say, see ya.
I don't want to be here.
And I chose to stay at that moment to focus on ethics and focus on those employees thatwere relying on those paychecks every single week to get by to pay their bills.
(17:18):
And I did it and we together, we were able to get the company sold within
45 days, which is unheard of and just, you know, survival mode.
And I think that that taught me that I was stronger than I even thought was possible.
And I just persevered after that.
(17:42):
I just said, I'm not going to take this BS.
And so over time, you know, I really just got down to the last three roles I had playedand not being
respected one role was the guy really just had 52 spreadsheets.
(18:04):
I'll never forget 52 spreadsheets and very manual process.
When you have a manual process like that and all these different numbers, you're going tomess up.
I would say F up.
It's not going to be accurate.
You're just moving little cells over.
You're doing this.
And it was just not my cup of tea.
mean, how boring was that?
(18:26):
After that, then I just, you know, I've been challenged many times to be unethical andthat's not my cup of tea and I will absolutely say no and I absolutely will move on from
that because I just refuse to let that happen.
My name is not going to be on any kind of financial statements, especially in a publiclytraded environment.
(18:50):
I'm just not going to put my name to it.
I just knew I had this entrepreneur spirit.
I just knew I wanted to do this one day and I had signed that corporate letter and I wasready.
I was ready, you know?
And so that's what I did.
I said, I'm done with this and I want to help more entrepreneurs and choose the clientsthat I work with and they get to choose me and I've grown my business.
(19:19):
Now I have five employees and
You know, we are, you know, setting some great practices and got some great things comingup for 2025.
just, I'm ready.
I'm ready to keep launching.
I started my business right before COVID 2019 and COVID hit.
And then because I'm very well networked, was called upon.
(19:44):
I mean, I grew significantly in 2020 and it's just been, it's been great.
Great success story, I think.
It is, it is.
It's great.
And really the story you shared speak of your integrity and the choices that you willmake, that you will choose your conscience and no matter what, and that's admirable.
(20:06):
It doesn't always happen as we know in this day and age that people will choose what isright.
Now, we don't have a whole lot of time, but there's a couple of questions I do want to askyou.
One being,
today, you know, with the role that you've taken on, with the book you've written to helpthose maybe younger entrepreneur and even more mature entrepreneur but that still get
(20:30):
lost, you know, in their numbers and don't have that clarity, what would you say are likethe three things you would counsel entrepreneurs, business owners to look at basically the
three major pitfalls that you have observed in different companies and throughout?
(20:52):
Yeah, that's a good question.
I'm embarking in kind of a follow-up to Following Up with Grace.
This is a journey, know, it's an entrepreneur's journey.
am following, you know, it's not a how-to book, but I do plan on coming out with aworkbook and a workshop to help entrepreneurs kind of
(21:19):
really understand this clarity method I'm putting together.
And one of the top things I would say is that entrepreneurs and let's just start from thebeginning.
Statistics show one out of five businesses that start their business, one out of five willfail after their first year.
(21:40):
I mean, not after the first year, within the first year.
That's one in five.
And
Nearly 50 % will fail and not see year six.
Those statistics are alarming.
And what I've seen, I've worked with startups, I've worked with lots of businesses doingmergers, acquisitions, or fire sale, or having to sell a company because something
(22:06):
happened and they've got to get the heck out or exit strategy was not there or whatever.
They were going to go through bankruptcy and they were bought out of bankruptcy and a firesale.
So there's been multiple things I've experienced.
But the thing is, what I've noticed is the number one cause of that, why those statisticsare so high is because business owners do not realize that cash is killing their business.
(22:34):
Okay.
The number one cause of that is because cash.
Cash flow.
Lack of cash foe, too much cash.
They spend it too quickly on all the nice shiny things and lack of strategy, right?
So it's cash, lack of strategy and lack of knowing their numbers, right?
(22:55):
They are focused on sales.
They're focused on operations.
They're focused on, you know, all of these different things.
Hell, could be, heck, could be, you know, focused on payroll or they could be focused on,you know, how I'm going to pay the rent.
They're not.
They're short-term-sided.
They don't really have a plan.
(23:16):
I think that's knowing your numbers, understanding what their long-term goals are,understanding their cash flow, and really understanding their numbers.
If you have that and you have a plan and you have goals and you measure them, you reviewthem,
(23:38):
All of that combined is what I'm putting together with the clarity method that yieldsresults.
Because I've actually seen and been through multiple bankruptcies.
I've come in to try to fix and it was too late.
So that's why I do what I want to do.
I want to help entrepreneurs see their business.
(23:58):
You know, we all have cell phones.
Entrepreneurs are great at counting their money.
But.
Because we have it on our fingertips.
We can go look at our money.
How much money do we have?
That there's a strategy behind that.
How much that money is going to last me, right?
So you got to have a plan.
(24:18):
Yes, now that's very useful.
With that, I'd like you to kind of show me or show our listeners what is a success storywhere you've helped someone, you know, find that clarity.
Like if you have a, you know, maybe a recent example where
you've worked with, you know, an entrepreneur or a business owner where you were able toapply this and see the results.
(24:43):
Right.
So I have a client that I've worked with and she is an amazing person.
She had lots of big dreams.
She decided to embark on something, new technology.
Now, mind you,
(25:04):
She is not in the technology business.
So she invested heavily in this technology and hopes to help her grow her business to bemore broad, go global, whatever.
she just didn't have a plan.
So she just kind of put all this money into this application, this technology, and it blewup in her face.
(25:33):
She didn't know how to look at the contract and understand what the contract was sayingand the deliverables and the milestones and all of these things.
And so things just kept changing constantly.
By the time she found out about TFO, she was referred by another client of mine and westarted working together and we built a plan.
(25:59):
We decided that, you know,
Now she was really, really upside down in debt.
And so we've come up with a cashflow model and projections on how to pay that debt off,all while trying to grow her business in different ways.
talk about the deer and the headlights when I first started working with her to, I'm soexcited.
(26:23):
I'm going to meet with Tina this month.
You know, I'm so excited.
We're going to do this.
We're going to do this.
And we're going to, you know, just.
Like she didn't really want to talk to me.
She didn't want to look at her finances.
No.
So from, from going that way to all the way to one 80 saying, can't wait.
That brings me pure joy.
That is, that is beautiful.
(26:43):
and I think, yeah, it's just, you know, in my area with tax, it's like that, like peopledon't want to know about it.
They just want to just, you know, take the pain, the hit and then hide.
But it's like, no, you have to look at it.
You have to, you know, know what's going on in order to.
to be smarter about the decisions that are made.
I think.
Yeah, and I think that's why, number one, we're friends, but I think that what you offerentrepreneurs is this different viewpoint than most CPA firms give, right?
(27:21):
So you have that strategy and what I'd like to...
why we're so similar is that most business owners have a CPA that file their tax returns.
Good for them.
They're doing what is required of them.
Most of them have a bookkeeper and all the bookkeeper does is make sure bills are paid andyou know, things are done, but there's no strategy.
(27:47):
They're missing the strategy.
That's why your services and my services are so important.
Let's look out.
Let's look out.
for cash and look out for the goals and look out for the big picture, right?
Thinking outside the box, not just 12 months down the road, not just six months down theroad, but actually what it's going to look like longer than three years, five years, or
(28:15):
what's their exit strategy?
What do they want to get out of the business, right?
So those things without strategy, you're just going along.
You're just...
autopilot, right?
You're not going to, you may not grow, you may not be able to reach your goals, you maynot be able to reach your dreams, you know, you're just settling.
(28:37):
Without that strategy, you just, it's a dream.
It is and it's great that you have that clarity and that you can now share it.
And with that, I want to ask you like where can people find you, you know, who now listento this and are like, you know what?
because I also have to put a plug for you that she's super fun.
(28:57):
Like she knows all these numbers and she's a number, you know, gal, but she's also superfun to be around.
So if you're a dynamic entrepreneur and you don't want the, you know, no shade on anyone,but like the boring, you know, I have to be here for what I say, but I might ask Sia to
like erase this.
(29:17):
No negativity.
But anyways, my point is,
Where can people find you if they want to work with you, follow you, you know, start onthat journey of clarity with their finances to make sure their business succeed?
Great.
So obviously, Following Up with Grace, an entrepreneur's journey by Tina O'Banion can befound on Amazon.
(29:45):
It's a best-selling book.
You can read the book if you want to.
It's on sale through the end of February.
I've been doing a specialist 20 % off.
You can find me and the financial office at by texting.
If you want to get a free gift, you know, you can text the word numbers to 2678.
(30:10):
Yes, text the word numbers to 26786 and you will be able to get my clarity method.
And there.
you will be, another way obviously is to go to tfoclarity.com.
It's a new website.
It's not perfect, but you know what?
No one's ever perfect.
(30:30):
So we're still developing that website.
It's new.
It's energized.
And we're just going to keep adding some blogs and tips and YouTube channels, et cetera.
So welcome to filming in February.
Yeah, thank you so much for having me on the show today.
(30:53):
Thank you, Tina.
And I will put all that information in the show notes so that people know where to findyou.
They can call you, have, you know, your first meeting with them, or I don't know how yourprocess is, but I will make sure that everything is there.
Thank you again for coming, for giving us some clarity on what we need to pay attentionto, you know, when it comes to, you know, finance and being organized.
(31:15):
And, you know, I might...
ask you to come again in the future.
know?
would be great.
That would be amazing.
I would love to spend time with you.
And, you know, I love this new platform you're building.
I hope this is very useful for entrepreneurs and business owners and, you know, high networth people.
(31:35):
You know, it's about building financial wealth.
Not about, but, you know, that's always good to have good financial wealth.
So brave new wealth.
I love it.
Good job.
It's all the aspects, know, mental, physical, social, financial.
We need to look at it all and it's okay if you're not there in the high net worth yet, butwe want to take you there.
(31:59):
with what we do, thank you so much, Tina, and come back again.
All right.
High five.
Thank you for having me.
Bye.
Thank you.
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