January 30, 2025 • 31 mins
Unlock the secrets of financial success with our special guest, BIll Dillmeier, the mastermind behind Aperture Advisors. Journey with us as Bill shares his inspiring transformation from a traditional finance professional working with giants like Vanguard and Morgan Stanley, to a venture capitalist and private equity innovator. Discover how pivotal moments, including the 2008 financial crisis and his time with Bill Gates at Corbis, carved a new path for him, expanding his expertise beyond finance into the realms of global sales and the startup ecosystem.
Explore the fascinating world of gamification and its transformative impact on business engagement. Bill and I discuss the challenges faced by the stock photography industry and how digital adaptation was key to survival. We dive into the power of gamification not just as a buzzword, but as a real strategy deployed to enhance employee engagement and customer loyalty through innovative point systems and rewards. Even engineers at major space agencies find value in these strategies, proving gamification’s universal appeal and effectiveness in business interactions.
Get ready to elevate your professional game with insights on badging, credentialing, and data visualization. We break down the importance of platforms like Carrot and GitHub in recognizing talent and how visual tools can align and drive business momentum. Bill shares his strategies for leveraging LinkedIn to build a robust professional community and the shift from traditional SaaS pricing to more dynamic, usage-based models. Whether you're an entrepreneur or aspiring CFO, this episode is packed with valuable strategies for networking, branding, and business development in vibrant startup communities like Seattle.
Feeling stuck in your growth? Discover how to elevate your marketing, personal brand, and sales approach to attract clients who value your expertise.
Ready to make a shift?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to CFO Chronicles the secrets behind
success the go-to podcast forfractional CFOs and accounting
firm owners who want to attractmore high-paying clients and
increase their revenue.
Hosted by James Donovan fromNine Two Media, this podcast
dives into marketing strategiesspecifically designed for lead
(00:22):
generation and clientacquisition.
In each episode, you'll hearfrom industry leaders sharing
their success stories and experttactics to help you sign more
lucrative clients and grow yourbusiness.
Tune in and discover actionableinsights to transform your
marketing efforts and boost yourbottom line to your bottom line
(00:48):
.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
We're joined today by Bill Dillmeyer, founder of
Aperture Advisors.
Bill specializes in helpingventure capital and private
equity portfolio companiesnavigate complex challenges with
data-driven insights andstrategic guidance, from
improving operationalefficiencies to driving
measurable growth.
He's here to share hisexpertise.
Bill, thank you so much forjoining us today.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
I'm excited to be here.
I've been looking forward tothis for a while, awesome.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Awesome.
So, bill, you were telling mejust before we hopped on here,
based out of Seattle.
Tell me what it's like thistime of year.
I'm sure you know the weather'schanging.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
It's getting a little chilly there um, relative to
the rest of the country rightnow it's actually.
It's not that bad.
It's probably, you know, in theupper 20s.
We'll see swings from you know20 to in the mid 40s today.
And you know, the one thing Iwill tell people and this is a
really well-kept secret is thatit does not rain nearly as much
as people think it does inSeattle.
(01:45):
I tell people it's much more ona gray kind of sense from like.
I always bookend it betweensort of Halloween and like
basketball season in Marchmadness.
That's when you're most apt tobe gray and get some rain.
But you know you come here inthe summer you get 90 plus days,
bluest of blue skies, nohumidity.
So it's one of the best placesin the country to visit.
(02:06):
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, cause I've heard a lot about Vancouver,
being Canadian, that it's alwaysraining.
Everyone says they loveVancouver, but it just always
rains and I, I don't know, Icouldn't, I couldn't do with
that.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
I will say that there are days where I feel like
there's a degree of vertigoduring the winter, where 10
o'clock feels like noon, feelslike two o'clock.
It's like I tell people, it'slike you're trapped in a casino
because you don't get any senseof like change of light pattern
or like where you are in the day.
So you know, my recommendationis you know a lot of vitamin D
and you know, get out andexercise as much as possible.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Interesting.
So, bill, tell me a little bitabout how you got started in
your background, leading intoAperture Advisors.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Sure, it's a great question.
It's what I think is anatypical story.
I came up through a verytraditional financial services
rank at large companies.
So I started my career atVanguard, the mutual fund
company Trem.
Tremendous experience, learneda ton, you know, went and got
like my series seven, my seriesfour, my series 63, and really
(03:14):
was immersed in the financialcapital markets for a long
period of time.
And then I actuallytransitioned over to Morgan
Stanley Institutional on thefund management side of the
business.
So I was actually working forthe president of the mutual fund
company for a good bit of timedoing a lot of analytics board
(03:35):
reporting things like what's theinvestment thesis of our
portfolio and how does it stackup to other people who have that
same thesis and how does itstack up to other people who
have that same thesis.
So it was a nice way for theboard to be able to go ahead and
look at the efficacy and thereturns that the portfolio
managers were bringing back.
And then we also flipped it tosay who charges what we charge
(03:58):
for an institutionally managedportfolio, to go ahead and make
sure that we were competitiveand allow us to deliver that
most amount of value to ourshareholders.
After that I actually spent alot of time in mortgage banking.
I tell people I was in mortgagebanking when it was cool to be
in mortgage banking.
So I got to work for somereally interesting companies.
(04:20):
Actually, at one point I usedto call Bear Stearns and Lehman
Brothers and sellmortgage-backed securities.
So at one point I used to callBear Stearns and Lehman Brothers
and sell mortgage backedsecurities.
So at one point I wasdelivering about a billion
dollars a month of securitiesinto the open market.
And then, kind of fast forward,I got recruited to come out to
Seattle, worked for that bank,formerly known as Washington
Mutual.
So from the, you know, 2002 to2008,.
(04:44):
Worked for the CFO of themortgage company running
planning strategy, analytics.
And from there around aboutJune of 2008, you knew there was
just something a little bitaskew and, as I always say, it
doesn't take more than threefinance guys in a room with a
whiteboard to kind of plotthings out, and so we're like
(05:04):
these numbers just don'tcontinue to add up, and for me
that was like the wake up call.
So I jumped out of banking andwent to work for Bill Gates for
a number of years, worked for amedia company that he owned here
in Seattle called Corbis.
So we would compete againstcompanies like Getty Images in
the stock photography space andthere I was able to run global
(05:26):
FP&A, global treasury andactually stretched my career
into running global salesoperations.
So for me it was a nice way tomove from being behind the
numbers to being much moreimmersed in the business and
that for me was probably one ofthe biggest transition points in
my life.
That sort of catapulted me towhere I am today.
(05:48):
After working for Corbis andbeing able to travel to a number
of different places around theworld, see our offices, meet our
customers, really then startedto go into startup land.
My first startup was actually aportfolio company from a
venture capital firm here inSeattle called Madrona, and I
(06:09):
joined relatively early.
They had just done the B roundand I was really the first
finance hire, came in, built outa lot of models and helped them
get from $8 million to $20million in ARR in less than a
year and from there set the pathto future rounds of funding,
going ahead and helping themscale, and you know they were
(06:30):
very fortunate to have an exitthis year for I want to say 1.5
billion to a private equity firmin San Francisco and after that
was able to work for some otherreally cool startups.
There's actually a company herein Seattle called Carrot.
They actually interviewsoftware engineers on behalf of
(06:53):
other companies.
So it's an interesting market.
It's honestly more like atwo-sided market like Uber,
because you have interviewscoming one way and then you have
people who are going to conductthese live interviews on the
other side.
So for me it was very much ofthat contextual switching back
and forth about how to be ableto go ahead and deliver the
(07:13):
right number of interviews andhave a balanced staff.
And there we actually did a Cround for 100 million and they
actually hit unicorn status.
After that, and really my lasttwo roles, I've been interim CFO
for some interesting startups.
One was based in Texas.
(07:33):
I always say that they are thesort of the Khan Academy for med
school students.
It was a video platform thatallowed medical students to go
ahead and supplement theireducation and it was a B2B and a
B2C play.
So really got to see both sidesled finance strategy operations
partnered deeply with ourinvestors to be able to go ahead
(07:55):
and tell that story.
And the last one was a rewardsplatform for hourly shift
workers, which is sort of aninteresting take on.
You know, these are people whoare traditionally like the lower
end of the wage scale and itwould be like James come to work
, here's 10 points for coming towork.
And these points wereredeemable ultimately for gift
(08:17):
cards, but it was a way topromote engagement and give
these people sort of anopportunity to engage in some
game theory, to go ahead andbring some enrichment to their
careers.
And really, after those twoprojects ended, I've been really
building Aperture Advisors.
So our focus is on going aheadand working with, you know,
(08:38):
pre-seed, all the way throughSeries B companies and being
very much of a financial partnerthrough series B companies and
being very much of a financialpartner.
I think right now I woulddescribe myself as a strategic
growth architect and that I liketo look at the entire span of
the company and then be able tocome in and help diagnose and
(08:59):
then deliver that most amount ofvalue.
I've been super fortunate.
I've actually run traditionalfinance sales operations.
I can understand the marketingfunnel, can talk to sales
leaders.
I actually enjoy talking tosales leaders a good bit because
there's always that tensionbetween finance and sales.
Honestly, the first thing I sayto my sales leaders are I want
(09:21):
to make you the richest personin the room, but in order to get
there, there we're going tohave efficient growth.
I'm not going to go ahead andbuy my revenue.
I'm not going to overpay incommissions to drive revenue.
It's going to come at theproper degree of scale.
So it's really coming in,looking at the big landscape and
then adding the most amount ofvalue to where that customer is
(09:42):
in the journey.
That's a lot.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
That's quite the resume.
That's very cool.
I have so many questions basedoff of what you were just
explaining there.
I definitely want to come backto what you're doing now with
Aperture, but there's a namethat stood out there Bill Gates.
Did you ever have anyone-on-one time with Bill when
you were working for his company?
Speaker 3 (10:09):
working for his company.
I actually had the that's agreat question.
I actually had the distincthonor of building the finance
presentation layer that he wouldread every other month, so I
was fortunate enough to meet hima few times.
I spent most of my timeprepping my CFO, you know,
literally writing out talktracks.
He was very old school, fromlike a public company where he
had a prepared script, so wewould spend hours looking at
(10:31):
slide sorter and going ahead andbuilding the story arc and
getting that message just right.
I always got tremendousfeedback and I was always very
grateful for what Bill Gates hadto say about my work and it
really was a pivotal time.
Corbis was what I think of was atrue global transformation, but
(10:52):
also a true digitaltransformation.
This is, you know, 2008-ish,where commodity prices for stock
photography are just fallingand anybody with a digital
camera could be in that space.
Funny enough, by definition I'ma professional photographer
because some of the images thatI took were actually put up on a
(11:12):
website and sold.
So the barrier to entry wasincredibly low, but we were
trying to go from a filmnegative into a digital image.
That I say usually is probablyabout the size of your palm and
it's going to be on everynewsfeed in America.
So how do you create an Amazonlevel transaction velocity for
an image that's super small,super transactional?
(11:34):
So we had to really shift themindset of our Salesforce from,
you know, selling almost like abaseball card.
You're like, hey, do you wantthis picture?
Do you want this picture tothis picture to opening up an
entire catalog, to be able to goahead and really serve our
customers, which are books,magazines, newspapers, wire
(11:54):
services, to get them the rightimage at the right time.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Interesting.
That's so cool.
You also spoke about I forgetthe name of the company, but you
mentioned there was a gamgamification taking place a
points system for just forcoming into work, correct,
here's points.
You know you're still gettingpaid, but just a little bit of
added incentive and here's some,some rewards in the the form of
(12:22):
gift cards.
I I've noticed that.
Um, I'm not sure if you'refamiliar with Alex Hermosi and
the new platform he's backingwith Sam Ovens called School.
Anyways, they they're very bigon gamification to get
engagement inside yourcommunities on school.
So the more like and you cancustomize it, the more you like
(12:42):
a post comment, et cetera, youmaybe unlock access to other
courses, whatever it is.
I know a lot of companies usegamification as a huge retention
play.
I'm curious if you've seen thatwork elsewhere, if you've been
a part of any other businessesor maybe firms you're working
with now, if you even presentthat as a strategy to them of
(13:05):
hey, let's use gamification toget more out of your customers,
let's get more out of yourcustomers, let's get more out of
your employees, whatever thatis.
Can you speak a little bit tothat?
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Sure, yeah, I've seen a lot of companies, both
internally and externally, tryto use gamification.
From an internal perspective,it's much more around employee
engagement.
You'll hear companies do kudos,rewards, and you can then give
points to people who have doneamazing things, have gone beyond
and beyond and from there.
(13:34):
Those are ways to go ahead andnot only promote recognition
across a team and createcommunity, but also, you know,
there is a little something atat the end.
I was actually having dinnerlast night with um, some
engineers from some reallynotable space agencies and they
(13:55):
were talking about how that is avery common practice where, in
order to promote all of thedifferent disciplines in
engineering, that you will begiven an allotment of points to
go ahead and be like hey, you'rea hell of a mechanical engineer
and you really helped me out ondelivering X.
And externally, I think a lotof companies mechanical engineer
and he really helped me out ondelivering X.
And externally, I think a lot ofcompanies are seeing the
benefits of gamification.
(14:16):
Look at the role of badging andbeing able to go ahead and have
some degree of credential.
That was actually one of thethings that we talked about at
Carrot, because they wereinterviewing software engineers.
You met the bar to work atFortune 100 companies in
technology and if you didn't getthe job, but you were at least
(14:38):
qualified, that could actuallybe something on your resume to
say I am certified to do X or Y.
And there's actually a projectthat I'm working on right now
where we're thinking about aspin on github and thinking
about github for a differentaudience as well yeah, the
(15:02):
badging.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
I mean, as soon as you mentioned that what stands
out is, uh, meta, you know,giving people their their
official badge on instagram andhow it was so cool if you saw it
was like, wow, that person'sverified.
And now it's at the point whereI mean, you can just buy the
badge or whatever it is, but,like now, they're even taking
that gamification and modify andmonetizing off of it.
(15:25):
And I know there's a ton ofother businesses out there where
, like, credits are applied andit's just at the deeper level.
It's really such a strongretention play and I not a lot
of people, I think see it forwhat it is from, like that
higher level businessperspective, but it's such a
strong form of retention.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
Oh, exactly, and even like I'm a huge hiker runner
and you know I have a garminwatch like most people do, and
every week I'm in a competitionfor you know, a hundred thousand
steps, 200,000 steps, and youknow you just keep looking at
your ranking.
You're like, oh, all right, youknow Sally in Michigan is
(16:08):
kicking my butt today.
You know like I got to get outand get on the trail or
squeezing some miles and there'salso some longer play rewards.
It's like last year I walkedthe length of the Appalachian
trail, so I walked over 2000miles last year.
But it was nice just to see myprogress.
And you know you get badges asyou're unlocking, like different
points and it's just a cool wayto kind of keep you in tune
(16:32):
within a community and you'reultimately competing against
yourself, but it's always niceto see the support from others.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Yeah, that's really cool.
I mean to see, yeah, how faryou've walked in the year.
But I think there's somethingto be said for a lot of
businesses of where can they addin that gamification?
Because, ultimately, whatGarmin is doing, you're using
their platform all the time andyou're like I'm not going to
switch off of Garmin because Iwant to compete.
Like you said, sally, you knowacross the country, I want to
(16:59):
see how far I've walked, butGarmin is keeping your attention
on their product.
I think there's so manydifferent ways to get creative
about gamifying your own productto keep your customer's
eyeballs on your product, onyour widget, whatever it is
you're selling, and I think itcan be done for any industry.
It's just a matter of gettingcreative.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Oh for sure, and I'm also a big fan of data
visualization.
So, like so many people havedifferent learning styles, but
I've often found that a lot ofpeople will drift towards visual
.
So I'm working internally witha team like I will go ahead and
set up a full-blown datavisualization and we'll harness
API feeds from SalesforceNetSuite and bring it all
(17:44):
together, and that is week toweek.
You're measuring the charts.
You're seeing that gamificationmindset of like.
You know I killed it on SQLslast week.
Our funnel is really moving inthe right direction.
And then it's all been about amomentum play and you know, some
people think of themselves aslike momentum investors, where
(18:05):
you invest in a stock that hassome legs to it, and I think
that's a very common businessmindset, and whatever way you
can do to go ahead and createthat visualization to
gamification in your mind issuch a great way to align
management teams and leadershipteams.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Yeah, absolutely.
And leadership teams yeah,absolutely.
Bill, tell me a little bitabout how you're going out and
finding new clients to work withat Aperture.
How do you get new people tothe door?
What's been working well foryou?
Speaker 3 (18:36):
That's something that I will say is a work in
progress For me.
I start with thought leadership, so I post on LinkedIn Monday
through Friday.
Two weeks ago I did a five-partseries on the fractional CFO
revolution and so over thecourse of the week I wrote
(18:57):
really nice leadership piecesabout the different aspects of
when to get a fractional CFO,what are some of the benefits of
getting a CFO.
The week after that, I did theimportance of being a finance
business partner.
So for me, I've got a reallystrong community of people who
really like and enjoy my content.
That's actually spurred a lotof conversations.
(19:21):
The other way that I've beenreally doing biz dev is getting
out into the community.
Seattle's a really vibrantstartup community.
There's a group called StartupGrind.
They're all over, you know,major cities in the US.
It's a great way to meet youngentrepreneurs, people with ideas
, investors, bankers.
The other way that I've beenreally doing it is bankers.
(19:46):
The other way that I've beenreally doing it is working with
an accelerator here in town andhave met some talented folks.
We actually had an all-dayevent a few weeks ago.
It was a sort of little minipitch competition, but there
were also people who were angelinvestors looking for their next
round, young companies thatwere pre-seed or just getting
funded, that didn't really knowwhat the next leg was in their
(20:09):
financial journey to be able togo ahead and tell that story.
So those are the primary placesthat I've been doing biz dev,
but always appreciate feedbackand opportunities to learn more.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Yeah, awesome.
I love that you're publishingcontent on LinkedIn.
I think it's an undervaluedstrategy that a lot of people
aren't doing, and it's just away to really get in front of
the people who you want to bereading your content.
And it's not even about theamount of engagement that's on
it.
It's just about the consistencythat it's out there and that's
(20:43):
going to continue to getrecycled and and republished on
LinkedIn for lack of betterwords.
So it's not about, okay, I onlygot a couple likes or whatever
the engagement was, doesn'tmatter.
It's out there, it's going tohelp with your SEO as well, and
it's just again showing you asthat thought leader that you're
speaking about.
I hope you're putting thisunder the newsletter brand and
(21:05):
not just individual articles.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
I've been experimenting with that.
I probably need to do a littlebit more around that and there's
sort of posts, like you said,versus blogs, versus newsletters
.
I've been sort of experimentingwith a number of different
formats to be able to get outand do that.
And, you know, one of the bestways to actually drive content
is to like and comment on otherpeople's comment, and I've been
(21:33):
able to meet some amazinginvestors, people who I never
thought that I would ever havethe opportunity to be in their
same orbit.
But, you know, just after someamazing LinkedIn integration,
you're like they're, you know,coming back to me and I've
started some amazingconversations as a byproduct of
that as well.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
That's awesome, yeah, commenting, liking, engaging in
other people's things onLinkedIn, your newsfeed.
It's always bringing your nameand your profiling back into
others, so you really get to tapinto so many different circles
by the smallest action.
So we're always telling ourclients hey, everything we're
doing for you Awesome.
(22:11):
But don't hesitate to jump inthere Like a couple of posts
throughout the week.
Comment, give your feedbacksomewhere else.
Provide value, because nowyou're selfishly, you're
bringing traffic back to yourbrand on LinkedIn, which, in
turn, if you have your salesfunnel set up properly on
LinkedIn, it's going to sparkconversations for yourself.
So lead with the value, but itis going to just put you back in
(22:34):
front of everyone who you wantto be in front of.
So that's a great play.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Yeah, and don't ever underestimate the power of just
a cold outreach.
I mean, you know there's, surethere's.
Maybe you know you put a littlebit of lead magnet in there.
But you know, lead with yourauthenticity and like talk about
your pedigree and how you canthink about collaborating.
You know you just can't go inand be like hey give me a job or
hey, you know, let me send youa contract.
(22:58):
It's about I have similarinterests, similar experiences
that I could help at a portfoliocompany level.
I'm an operator.
I can understand the pains thatyou go through.
And from there, once they startto see you're not necessarily
asking for something in thefirst round, it's a way to kind
(23:18):
of go ahead and unlock thatconversation to be able to say
you know, this is someone whosethoughts you know could help
augment where we're going andbring you a fresh perspective.
Because I mean for me right now,you probably see, like the move
from traditional SaaS pricingwhere it was very linear, you
know, $12,000 subscription andnearly $1,000 a month.
(23:41):
So many people now aretransitioning to usage-based
pricing and that in and ofitself is a bit of a mindset
reset.
So that how do companies nowthink about what revenue is
really going to look like on aconsumption basis?
I tell people, if it's notconsistent, it's going to look
like an EKG meter.
Because you're giving thatcustomer that opportunity to be
(24:02):
like I'm going to use your toolin January, I'm going to take a
break until March and then I'mgoing to come back in December.
It makes the financials lookreally, really wonky and it's
sometimes a hard message toexplain to investors.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
That's so interesting that you bring that up.
We use a tool called Zapier andthere's.
Are you familiar with Zapier?
Oh, yes, yeah.
So with Zapier they have a neatmodel where you're paying a
flat fee per month up to acertain threshold of what your
usage looks like, and thenyou're you're consistently
re-upping.
(24:36):
So for them, I would assume ithelps with that fluctuation of,
like you said, only using inJanuary, taking a pause, where,
if you still want to have accessto all the things you've built,
all right, at least you have tomaintain at that certain level
because you still have yourtasks that are eating up your
usage.
So there's a lot of differentways to skin a cat, but that one
(24:56):
I mean.
They're getting our money everysingle month.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Oh yeah, I think from a retention play it makes so
much sense.
It makes it much easier to getinto like a three tier pricing
model, like a kind of a bronzegold, platinum type of thing, so
that as you consume more,you're getting pushed
organically into different pricetiers that are lower.
So you're getting rewarded formore usage with lower price, but
(25:22):
you're just becoming more andmore stickier and it's going to
the unwind cost is just going tobe absolutely brutal if you
were to try to get out of it.
Because, yeah, zapier for mehas been a great way to move
data super efficiently betweenplatforms, get messaging out.
No, I think it's a greatconnector tool.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
And it's tying back into that gamification, like you
were talking about thedifferent levels of, like you
know, bronze, silver, gold,platinum, and you're just you're
moving up the ranks organically, whether you like it or not,
and they don't even have a salesrep making all those sales.
It's just a natural upgrade bythe click of a button which is
powerful for some of those SaaScompanies the click of a button
(26:06):
which is helpful for some ofthose SaaS companies.
We don't have a ton of timeleft here, Bill, but I got one
last question for you.
What would be your advice toanyone who's looking to get
started in your field, or anyaspiring entrepreneurs?
What keeps you going on aday-to-day basis, as someone who
you know if you, if you don'tmake sales, you're not eating,
(26:26):
essentially Right.
So what keeps you motivated?
What's your advice toentrepreneurs?
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Now that's a really thoughtful question for me, I
would say.
First of all, having a mentoris huge.
You need a sounding board,having a super strong board of
directors, as if it were to goahead and help guide you and
craft you.
I've been super fortunate.
(27:04):
I've had a mentor since 2008.
And he and I have workedtogether at a number of
companies and I still talk tohim a couple of times a month,
so he knows my work style and hekind of keeps my head in the
game.
And you know from anentrepreneur, your motivation, I
think, is innate.
(27:25):
I would lean into what you'regood at.
So, personally, what I alwaystalk to my founders about is I
ask them one question what areyou good at?
Are you a sales founder?
Are you a technology founder?
Are you a podium speaker?
Are you an evangelist?
Identify what you're good atand be willing to raise your
hand and fill in the gaps whereyou're not as strong, and that
(27:49):
will just help you take so muchpressure off yourself as a
founder.
A lot of times.
I think people need to feellike they're omnipotent and they
need to do everything in thespectrum.
No, focus on what you can dobest.
The founders that I had dinnerwith last night.
They're engineers by training.
They're scared to death aboutmarketing.
They're super worried aboutgetting up on a stage and
(28:13):
pitching their product.
They really just want to focuson building a great new product
that serves their community.
And that's where I'm coming inand helping them fill in all of
the other pieces.
And I told them last nightsomeone joking I'm like think of
me as sort of like either yourattack dog or the Rolodex of
(28:37):
getting things done to able toenable your business to move
forward.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
That's so good.
I love the doubling down onwhat you're good at, but being
intentional to actually thinkabout it, take a second and then
run after it and then yeah,then I mean you can.
You can do a ton of cool thingswith that.
Bill, thank you so much forcoming on today.
This was an awesomeconversation.
Loved hearing about how you gotstarted, your incredible resume
(29:04):
, your thoughts on gamification,thoughts on using LinkedIn for
prospecting, growing yourbusiness.
I hope everyone who's listeningreally enjoys this, this
episode we had with you.
So again, thank you so much forcoming on.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
Thank you so much, James.
It was a pleasure to join you.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Thanks for tuning into this episode of CFO
Chronicles the secrets behindsuccess.
I hope you found value intoday's conversation.
As we wrap up, I'd love for youto do two things.
First, make sure to subscribeto this podcast so you don't
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It helps others discover theinsights we share here.
Second, if you're ready to takeyour business to the next level
(29:43):
and attract the high-endclients you deserve, head over
to accountingleadsnowcom orclick the link in the show notes
to book your strategy.
Call it's time to positionyourself as the advisor your
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And don't forget you canconnect with me on LinkedIn to
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We've got more exciting topicscoming up, so stay tuned for the
(30:04):
next episode of CFO Chronicles.
Until then, keep pushingforward.
Your growth is just onestrategic move away.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Thanks for listening to CFO Chronicles the secrets
behind success.
We hope today's episodeprovided valuable strategies to
help you attract more highpaying clients.
Be sure to subscribe, followand share with fellow
professionals.
Connect with us on LinkedIn andleave a review or comment to
join the conversation.
Your feedback helps us bringyou the best insights in finance
(30:34):
and marketing.
Until next time, keep strivingfor success and unlocking your
business's potential.
Welcome to CFO Chronicles the secrets behind
success the go-to podcast forfractional CFOs and accounting
firm owners who want to attractmore high-paying clients and
increase their revenue.
Hosted by James Donovan fromNine Two Media, this podcast
dives into marketing strategiesspecifically designed for lead
(00:22):
generation and clientacquisition.
In each episode, you'll hearfrom industry leaders sharing
their success stories and experttactics to help you sign more
lucrative clients and grow yourbusiness.
Tune in and discover actionableinsights to transform your
marketing efforts and boost yourbottom line to your bottom line
(00:48):
.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
We're joined today by Bill Dillmeyer, founder of
Aperture Advisors.
Bill specializes in helpingventure capital and private
equity portfolio companiesnavigate complex challenges with
data-driven insights andstrategic guidance, from
improving operationalefficiencies to driving
measurable growth.
He's here to share hisexpertise.
Bill, thank you so much forjoining us today.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
I'm excited to be here.
I've been looking forward tothis for a while, awesome.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Awesome.
So, bill, you were telling mejust before we hopped on here,
based out of Seattle.
Tell me what it's like thistime of year.
I'm sure you know the weather'schanging.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
It's getting a little chilly there um, relative to
the rest of the country rightnow it's actually.
It's not that bad.
It's probably, you know, in theupper 20s.
We'll see swings from you know20 to in the mid 40s today.
And you know, the one thing Iwill tell people and this is a
really well-kept secret is thatit does not rain nearly as much
as people think it does inSeattle.
(01:45):
I tell people it's much more ona gray kind of sense from like.
I always bookend it betweensort of Halloween and like
basketball season in Marchmadness.
That's when you're most apt tobe gray and get some rain.
But you know you come here inthe summer you get 90 plus days,
bluest of blue skies, nohumidity.
So it's one of the best placesin the country to visit.
(02:06):
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, cause I've heard a lot about Vancouver,
being Canadian, that it's alwaysraining.
Everyone says they loveVancouver, but it just always
rains and I, I don't know, Icouldn't, I couldn't do with
that.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
I will say that there are days where I feel like
there's a degree of vertigoduring the winter, where 10
o'clock feels like noon, feelslike two o'clock.
It's like I tell people, it'slike you're trapped in a casino
because you don't get any senseof like change of light pattern
or like where you are in the day.
So you know, my recommendationis you know a lot of vitamin D
and you know, get out andexercise as much as possible.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Interesting.
So, bill, tell me a little bitabout how you got started in
your background, leading intoAperture Advisors.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Sure, it's a great question.
It's what I think is anatypical story.
I came up through a verytraditional financial services
rank at large companies.
So I started my career atVanguard, the mutual fund
company Trem.
Tremendous experience, learneda ton, you know, went and got
like my series seven, my seriesfour, my series 63, and really
(03:14):
was immersed in the financialcapital markets for a long
period of time.
And then I actuallytransitioned over to Morgan
Stanley Institutional on thefund management side of the
business.
So I was actually working forthe president of the mutual fund
company for a good bit of timedoing a lot of analytics board
(03:35):
reporting things like what's theinvestment thesis of our
portfolio and how does it stackup to other people who have that
same thesis and how does itstack up to other people who
have that same thesis.
So it was a nice way for theboard to be able to go ahead and
look at the efficacy and thereturns that the portfolio
managers were bringing back.
And then we also flipped it tosay who charges what we charge
(03:58):
for an institutionally managedportfolio, to go ahead and make
sure that we were competitiveand allow us to deliver that
most amount of value to ourshareholders.
After that I actually spent alot of time in mortgage banking.
I tell people I was in mortgagebanking when it was cool to be
in mortgage banking.
So I got to work for somereally interesting companies.
(04:20):
Actually, at one point I usedto call Bear Stearns and Lehman
Brothers and sellmortgage-backed securities.
So at one point I used to callBear Stearns and Lehman Brothers
and sell mortgage backedsecurities.
So at one point I wasdelivering about a billion
dollars a month of securitiesinto the open market.
And then, kind of fast forward,I got recruited to come out to
Seattle, worked for that bank,formerly known as Washington
Mutual.
So from the, you know, 2002 to2008,.
(04:44):
Worked for the CFO of themortgage company running
planning strategy, analytics.
And from there around aboutJune of 2008, you knew there was
just something a little bitaskew and, as I always say, it
doesn't take more than threefinance guys in a room with a
whiteboard to kind of plotthings out, and so we're like
(05:04):
these numbers just don'tcontinue to add up, and for me
that was like the wake up call.
So I jumped out of banking andwent to work for Bill Gates for
a number of years, worked for amedia company that he owned here
in Seattle called Corbis.
So we would compete againstcompanies like Getty Images in
the stock photography space andthere I was able to run global
(05:26):
FP&A, global treasury andactually stretched my career
into running global salesoperations.
So for me it was a nice way tomove from being behind the
numbers to being much moreimmersed in the business and
that for me was probably one ofthe biggest transition points in
my life.
That sort of catapulted me towhere I am today.
(05:48):
After working for Corbis andbeing able to travel to a number
of different places around theworld, see our offices, meet our
customers, really then startedto go into startup land.
My first startup was actually aportfolio company from a
venture capital firm here inSeattle called Madrona, and I
(06:09):
joined relatively early.
They had just done the B roundand I was really the first
finance hire, came in, built outa lot of models and helped them
get from $8 million to $20million in ARR in less than a
year and from there set the pathto future rounds of funding,
going ahead and helping themscale, and you know they were
(06:30):
very fortunate to have an exitthis year for I want to say 1.5
billion to a private equity firmin San Francisco and after that
was able to work for some otherreally cool startups.
There's actually a company herein Seattle called Carrot.
They actually interviewsoftware engineers on behalf of
(06:53):
other companies.
So it's an interesting market.
It's honestly more like atwo-sided market like Uber,
because you have interviewscoming one way and then you have
people who are going to conductthese live interviews on the
other side.
So for me it was very much ofthat contextual switching back
and forth about how to be ableto go ahead and deliver the
(07:13):
right number of interviews andhave a balanced staff.
And there we actually did a Cround for 100 million and they
actually hit unicorn status.
After that, and really my lasttwo roles, I've been interim CFO
for some interesting startups.
One was based in Texas.
(07:33):
I always say that they are thesort of the Khan Academy for med
school students.
It was a video platform thatallowed medical students to go
ahead and supplement theireducation and it was a B2B and a
B2C play.
So really got to see both sidesled finance strategy operations
partnered deeply with ourinvestors to be able to go ahead
(07:55):
and tell that story.
And the last one was a rewardsplatform for hourly shift
workers, which is sort of aninteresting take on.
You know, these are people whoare traditionally like the lower
end of the wage scale and itwould be like James come to work
, here's 10 points for coming towork.
And these points wereredeemable ultimately for gift
(08:17):
cards, but it was a way topromote engagement and give
these people sort of anopportunity to engage in some
game theory, to go ahead andbring some enrichment to their
careers.
And really, after those twoprojects ended, I've been really
building Aperture Advisors.
So our focus is on going aheadand working with, you know,
(08:38):
pre-seed, all the way throughSeries B companies and being
very much of a financial partnerthrough series B companies and
being very much of a financialpartner.
I think right now I woulddescribe myself as a strategic
growth architect and that I liketo look at the entire span of
the company and then be able tocome in and help diagnose and
(08:59):
then deliver that most amount ofvalue.
I've been super fortunate.
I've actually run traditionalfinance sales operations.
I can understand the marketingfunnel, can talk to sales
leaders.
I actually enjoy talking tosales leaders a good bit because
there's always that tensionbetween finance and sales.
Honestly, the first thing I sayto my sales leaders are I want
(09:21):
to make you the richest personin the room, but in order to get
there, there we're going tohave efficient growth.
I'm not going to go ahead andbuy my revenue.
I'm not going to overpay incommissions to drive revenue.
It's going to come at theproper degree of scale.
So it's really coming in,looking at the big landscape and
then adding the most amount ofvalue to where that customer is
(09:42):
in the journey.
That's a lot.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
That's quite the resume.
That's very cool.
I have so many questions basedoff of what you were just
explaining there.
I definitely want to come backto what you're doing now with
Aperture, but there's a namethat stood out there Bill Gates.
Did you ever have anyone-on-one time with Bill when
you were working for his company?
Speaker 3 (10:09):
working for his company.
I actually had the that's agreat question.
I actually had the distincthonor of building the finance
presentation layer that he wouldread every other month, so I
was fortunate enough to meet hima few times.
I spent most of my timeprepping my CFO, you know,
literally writing out talktracks.
He was very old school, fromlike a public company where he
had a prepared script, so wewould spend hours looking at
(10:31):
slide sorter and going ahead andbuilding the story arc and
getting that message just right.
I always got tremendousfeedback and I was always very
grateful for what Bill Gates hadto say about my work and it
really was a pivotal time.
Corbis was what I think of was atrue global transformation, but
(10:52):
also a true digitaltransformation.
This is, you know, 2008-ish,where commodity prices for stock
photography are just fallingand anybody with a digital
camera could be in that space.
Funny enough, by definition I'ma professional photographer
because some of the images thatI took were actually put up on a
(11:12):
website and sold.
So the barrier to entry wasincredibly low, but we were
trying to go from a filmnegative into a digital image.
That I say usually is probablyabout the size of your palm and
it's going to be on everynewsfeed in America.
So how do you create an Amazonlevel transaction velocity for
an image that's super small,super transactional?
(11:34):
So we had to really shift themindset of our Salesforce from,
you know, selling almost like abaseball card.
You're like, hey, do you wantthis picture?
Do you want this picture tothis picture to opening up an
entire catalog, to be able to goahead and really serve our
customers, which are books,magazines, newspapers, wire
(11:54):
services, to get them the rightimage at the right time.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Interesting.
That's so cool.
You also spoke about I forgetthe name of the company, but you
mentioned there was a gamgamification taking place a
points system for just forcoming into work, correct,
here's points.
You know you're still gettingpaid, but just a little bit of
added incentive and here's some,some rewards in the the form of
(12:22):
gift cards.
I I've noticed that.
Um, I'm not sure if you'refamiliar with Alex Hermosi and
the new platform he's backingwith Sam Ovens called School.
Anyways, they they're very bigon gamification to get
engagement inside yourcommunities on school.
So the more like and you cancustomize it, the more you like
(12:42):
a post comment, et cetera, youmaybe unlock access to other
courses, whatever it is.
I know a lot of companies usegamification as a huge retention
play.
I'm curious if you've seen thatwork elsewhere, if you've been
a part of any other businessesor maybe firms you're working
with now, if you even presentthat as a strategy to them of
(13:05):
hey, let's use gamification toget more out of your customers,
let's get more out of yourcustomers, let's get more out of
your employees, whatever thatis.
Can you speak a little bit tothat?
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Sure, yeah, I've seen a lot of companies, both
internally and externally, tryto use gamification.
From an internal perspective,it's much more around employee
engagement.
You'll hear companies do kudos,rewards, and you can then give
points to people who have doneamazing things, have gone beyond
and beyond and from there.
(13:34):
Those are ways to go ahead andnot only promote recognition
across a team and createcommunity, but also, you know,
there is a little something atat the end.
I was actually having dinnerlast night with um, some
engineers from some reallynotable space agencies and they
(13:55):
were talking about how that is avery common practice where, in
order to promote all of thedifferent disciplines in
engineering, that you will begiven an allotment of points to
go ahead and be like hey, you'rea hell of a mechanical engineer
and you really helped me out ondelivering X.
And externally, I think a lotof companies mechanical engineer
and he really helped me out ondelivering X.
And externally, I think a lot ofcompanies are seeing the
benefits of gamification.
(14:16):
Look at the role of badging andbeing able to go ahead and have
some degree of credential.
That was actually one of thethings that we talked about at
Carrot, because they wereinterviewing software engineers.
You met the bar to work atFortune 100 companies in
technology and if you didn't getthe job, but you were at least
(14:38):
qualified, that could actuallybe something on your resume to
say I am certified to do X or Y.
And there's actually a projectthat I'm working on right now
where we're thinking about aspin on github and thinking
about github for a differentaudience as well yeah, the
(15:02):
badging.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
I mean, as soon as you mentioned that what stands
out is, uh, meta, you know,giving people their their
official badge on instagram andhow it was so cool if you saw it
was like, wow, that person'sverified.
And now it's at the point whereI mean, you can just buy the
badge or whatever it is, but,like now, they're even taking
that gamification and modify andmonetizing off of it.
(15:25):
And I know there's a ton ofother businesses out there where
, like, credits are applied andit's just at the deeper level.
It's really such a strongretention play and I not a lot
of people, I think see it forwhat it is from, like that
higher level businessperspective, but it's such a
strong form of retention.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
Oh, exactly, and even like I'm a huge hiker runner
and you know I have a garminwatch like most people do, and
every week I'm in a competitionfor you know, a hundred thousand
steps, 200,000 steps, and youknow you just keep looking at
your ranking.
You're like, oh, all right, youknow Sally in Michigan is
(16:08):
kicking my butt today.
You know like I got to get outand get on the trail or
squeezing some miles and there'salso some longer play rewards.
It's like last year I walkedthe length of the Appalachian
trail, so I walked over 2000miles last year.
But it was nice just to see myprogress.
And you know you get badges asyou're unlocking, like different
points and it's just a cool wayto kind of keep you in tune
(16:32):
within a community and you'reultimately competing against
yourself, but it's always niceto see the support from others.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Yeah, that's really cool.
I mean to see, yeah, how faryou've walked in the year.
But I think there's somethingto be said for a lot of
businesses of where can they addin that gamification?
Because, ultimately, whatGarmin is doing, you're using
their platform all the time andyou're like I'm not going to
switch off of Garmin because Iwant to compete.
Like you said, sally, you knowacross the country, I want to
(16:59):
see how far I've walked, butGarmin is keeping your attention
on their product.
I think there's so manydifferent ways to get creative
about gamifying your own productto keep your customer's
eyeballs on your product, onyour widget, whatever it is
you're selling, and I think itcan be done for any industry.
It's just a matter of gettingcreative.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Oh for sure, and I'm also a big fan of data
visualization.
So, like so many people havedifferent learning styles, but
I've often found that a lot ofpeople will drift towards visual
.
So I'm working internally witha team like I will go ahead and
set up a full-blown datavisualization and we'll harness
API feeds from SalesforceNetSuite and bring it all
(17:44):
together, and that is week toweek.
You're measuring the charts.
You're seeing that gamificationmindset of like.
You know I killed it on SQLslast week.
Our funnel is really moving inthe right direction.
And then it's all been about amomentum play and you know, some
people think of themselves aslike momentum investors, where
(18:05):
you invest in a stock that hassome legs to it, and I think
that's a very common businessmindset, and whatever way you
can do to go ahead and createthat visualization to
gamification in your mind issuch a great way to align
management teams and leadershipteams.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Yeah, absolutely.
And leadership teams yeah,absolutely.
Bill, tell me a little bitabout how you're going out and
finding new clients to work withat Aperture.
How do you get new people tothe door?
What's been working well foryou?
Speaker 3 (18:36):
That's something that I will say is a work in
progress For me.
I start with thought leadership, so I post on LinkedIn Monday
through Friday.
Two weeks ago I did a five-partseries on the fractional CFO
revolution and so over thecourse of the week I wrote
(18:57):
really nice leadership piecesabout the different aspects of
when to get a fractional CFO,what are some of the benefits of
getting a CFO.
The week after that, I did theimportance of being a finance
business partner.
So for me, I've got a reallystrong community of people who
really like and enjoy my content.
That's actually spurred a lotof conversations.
(19:21):
The other way that I've beenreally doing biz dev is getting
out into the community.
Seattle's a really vibrantstartup community.
There's a group called StartupGrind.
They're all over, you know,major cities in the US.
It's a great way to meet youngentrepreneurs, people with ideas
, investors, bankers.
The other way that I've beenreally doing it is bankers.
(19:46):
The other way that I've beenreally doing it is working with
an accelerator here in town andhave met some talented folks.
We actually had an all-dayevent a few weeks ago.
It was a sort of little minipitch competition, but there
were also people who were angelinvestors looking for their next
round, young companies thatwere pre-seed or just getting
funded, that didn't really knowwhat the next leg was in their
(20:09):
financial journey to be able togo ahead and tell that story.
So those are the primary placesthat I've been doing biz dev,
but always appreciate feedbackand opportunities to learn more.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Yeah, awesome.
I love that you're publishingcontent on LinkedIn.
I think it's an undervaluedstrategy that a lot of people
aren't doing, and it's just away to really get in front of
the people who you want to bereading your content.
And it's not even about theamount of engagement that's on
it.
It's just about the consistencythat it's out there and that's
(20:43):
going to continue to getrecycled and and republished on
LinkedIn for lack of betterwords.
So it's not about, okay, I onlygot a couple likes or whatever
the engagement was, doesn'tmatter.
It's out there, it's going tohelp with your SEO as well, and
it's just again showing you asthat thought leader that you're
speaking about.
I hope you're putting thisunder the newsletter brand and
(21:05):
not just individual articles.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
I've been experimenting with that.
I probably need to do a littlebit more around that and there's
sort of posts, like you said,versus blogs, versus newsletters
.
I've been sort of experimentingwith a number of different
formats to be able to get outand do that.
And, you know, one of the bestways to actually drive content
is to like and comment on otherpeople's comment, and I've been
(21:33):
able to meet some amazinginvestors, people who I never
thought that I would ever havethe opportunity to be in their
same orbit.
But, you know, just after someamazing LinkedIn integration,
you're like they're, you know,coming back to me and I've
started some amazingconversations as a byproduct of
that as well.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
That's awesome, yeah, commenting, liking, engaging in
other people's things onLinkedIn, your newsfeed.
It's always bringing your nameand your profiling back into
others, so you really get to tapinto so many different circles
by the smallest action.
So we're always telling ourclients hey, everything we're
doing for you Awesome.
(22:11):
But don't hesitate to jump inthere Like a couple of posts
throughout the week.
Comment, give your feedbacksomewhere else.
Provide value, because nowyou're selfishly, you're
bringing traffic back to yourbrand on LinkedIn, which, in
turn, if you have your salesfunnel set up properly on
LinkedIn, it's going to sparkconversations for yourself.
So lead with the value, but itis going to just put you back in
(22:34):
front of everyone who you wantto be in front of.
So that's a great play.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Yeah, and don't ever underestimate the power of just
a cold outreach.
I mean, you know there's, surethere's.
Maybe you know you put a littlebit of lead magnet in there.
But you know, lead with yourauthenticity and like talk about
your pedigree and how you canthink about collaborating.
You know you just can't go inand be like hey give me a job or
hey, you know, let me send youa contract.
(22:58):
It's about I have similarinterests, similar experiences
that I could help at a portfoliocompany level.
I'm an operator.
I can understand the pains thatyou go through.
And from there, once they startto see you're not necessarily
asking for something in thefirst round, it's a way to kind
(23:18):
of go ahead and unlock thatconversation to be able to say
you know, this is someone whosethoughts you know could help
augment where we're going andbring you a fresh perspective.
Because I mean for me right now,you probably see, like the move
from traditional SaaS pricingwhere it was very linear, you
know, $12,000 subscription andnearly $1,000 a month.
(23:41):
So many people now aretransitioning to usage-based
pricing and that in and ofitself is a bit of a mindset
reset.
So that how do companies nowthink about what revenue is
really going to look like on aconsumption basis?
I tell people, if it's notconsistent, it's going to look
like an EKG meter.
Because you're giving thatcustomer that opportunity to be
(24:02):
like I'm going to use your toolin January, I'm going to take a
break until March and then I'mgoing to come back in December.
It makes the financials lookreally, really wonky and it's
sometimes a hard message toexplain to investors.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
That's so interesting that you bring that up.
We use a tool called Zapier andthere's.
Are you familiar with Zapier?
Oh, yes, yeah.
So with Zapier they have a neatmodel where you're paying a
flat fee per month up to acertain threshold of what your
usage looks like, and thenyou're you're consistently
re-upping.
(24:36):
So for them, I would assume ithelps with that fluctuation of,
like you said, only using inJanuary, taking a pause, where,
if you still want to have accessto all the things you've built,
all right, at least you have tomaintain at that certain level
because you still have yourtasks that are eating up your
usage.
So there's a lot of differentways to skin a cat, but that one
(24:56):
I mean.
They're getting our money everysingle month.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Oh yeah, I think from a retention play it makes so
much sense.
It makes it much easier to getinto like a three tier pricing
model, like a kind of a bronzegold, platinum type of thing, so
that as you consume more,you're getting pushed
organically into different pricetiers that are lower.
So you're getting rewarded formore usage with lower price, but
(25:22):
you're just becoming more andmore stickier and it's going to
the unwind cost is just going tobe absolutely brutal if you
were to try to get out of it.
Because, yeah, zapier for mehas been a great way to move
data super efficiently betweenplatforms, get messaging out.
No, I think it's a greatconnector tool.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
And it's tying back into that gamification, like you
were talking about thedifferent levels of, like you
know, bronze, silver, gold,platinum, and you're just you're
moving up the ranks organically, whether you like it or not,
and they don't even have a salesrep making all those sales.
It's just a natural upgrade bythe click of a button which is
powerful for some of those SaaScompanies the click of a button
(26:06):
which is helpful for some ofthose SaaS companies.
We don't have a ton of timeleft here, Bill, but I got one
last question for you.
What would be your advice toanyone who's looking to get
started in your field, or anyaspiring entrepreneurs?
What keeps you going on aday-to-day basis, as someone who
you know if you, if you don'tmake sales, you're not eating,
(26:26):
essentially Right.
So what keeps you motivated?
What's your advice toentrepreneurs?
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Now that's a really thoughtful question for me, I
would say.
First of all, having a mentoris huge.
You need a sounding board,having a super strong board of
directors, as if it were to goahead and help guide you and
craft you.
I've been super fortunate.
(27:04):
I've had a mentor since 2008.
And he and I have workedtogether at a number of
companies and I still talk tohim a couple of times a month,
so he knows my work style and hekind of keeps my head in the
game.
And you know from anentrepreneur, your motivation, I
think, is innate.
(27:25):
I would lean into what you'regood at.
So, personally, what I alwaystalk to my founders about is I
ask them one question what areyou good at?
Are you a sales founder?
Are you a technology founder?
Are you a podium speaker?
Are you an evangelist?
Identify what you're good atand be willing to raise your
hand and fill in the gaps whereyou're not as strong, and that
(27:49):
will just help you take so muchpressure off yourself as a
founder.
A lot of times.
I think people need to feellike they're omnipotent and they
need to do everything in thespectrum.
No, focus on what you can dobest.
The founders that I had dinnerwith last night.
They're engineers by training.
They're scared to death aboutmarketing.
They're super worried aboutgetting up on a stage and
(28:13):
pitching their product.
They really just want to focuson building a great new product
that serves their community.
And that's where I'm coming inand helping them fill in all of
the other pieces.
And I told them last nightsomeone joking I'm like think of
me as sort of like either yourattack dog or the Rolodex of
(28:37):
getting things done to able toenable your business to move
forward.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
That's so good.
I love the doubling down onwhat you're good at, but being
intentional to actually thinkabout it, take a second and then
run after it and then yeah,then I mean you can.
You can do a ton of cool thingswith that.
Bill, thank you so much forcoming on today.
This was an awesomeconversation.
Loved hearing about how you gotstarted, your incredible resume
(29:04):
, your thoughts on gamification,thoughts on using LinkedIn for
prospecting, growing yourbusiness.
I hope everyone who's listeningreally enjoys this, this
episode we had with you.
So again, thank you so much forcoming on.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
Thank you so much, James.
It was a pleasure to join you.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Thanks for tuning into this episode of CFO
Chronicles the secrets behindsuccess.
I hope you found value intoday's conversation.
As we wrap up, I'd love for youto do two things.
First, make sure to subscribeto this podcast so you don't
miss any future episodes.
If you enjoyed today'sdiscussion, please rate and
review the show.
It helps others discover theinsights we share here.
Second, if you're ready to takeyour business to the next level
(29:43):
and attract the high-endclients you deserve, head over
to accountingleadsnowcom orclick the link in the show notes
to book your strategy.
Call it's time to positionyourself as the advisor your
clients need.
And don't forget you canconnect with me on LinkedIn to
stay up to date on what'shappening in the world of
accounting and financial growth.
We've got more exciting topicscoming up, so stay tuned for the
(30:04):
next episode of CFO Chronicles.
Until then, keep pushingforward.
Your growth is just onestrategic move away.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Thanks for listening to CFO Chronicles the secrets
behind success.
We hope today's episodeprovided valuable strategies to
help you attract more highpaying clients.
Be sure to subscribe, followand share with fellow
professionals.
Connect with us on LinkedIn andleave a review or comment to
join the conversation.
Your feedback helps us bringyou the best insights in finance
(30:34):
and marketing.
Until next time, keep strivingfor success and unlocking your
business's potential.
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