The FP&A Guy Network

In this episode of FP&A Unlocked, Paul Barnhurst speaks with Eric Alexander about building effective FP&A functions, developing business acumen, and preparing finance professionals for leadership. Eric explains why finance teams need to look beyond the numbers, understand the business, communicate effectively, and develop the leadership skills needed to create greater impact.

Eric Alexander is the President of Six Arrows Consulting and an advisor, speaker, and author with nearly 40 years of financial management experience, including 20 years in CFO roles. He served as CFO of Happy State Bank and now provides leadership development, strategic planning, finance function, and advisory services to community banks and mid-market companies. He is also the author of Stewardship Leadership for Stinking Accountants: Serving as the CFO.

Expect to Learn:
Why business understanding matters beyond technical skills.
How to build a stronger FP&A function.
Why CFOs need leadership and communication skills.
How to make better decisions through constructive disagreement.
Why stewardship is essential to effective finance leadership.

Here are a few relevant quotes from the episode:
"Numbers that are done correctly relative to the business issue and then communicated well... that's good FP&A." - Eric Alexander
"If I live in my little silo by myself and ignore the effects upstream and downstream, I'm missing opportunities." - Eric Alexander

Eric emphasizes that strong finance professionals need more than technical expertise. They must understand the business behind the numbers, communicate their insights, collaborate across functions, and help leaders make better decisions. As professionals move toward CFO roles, leadership, strategy, communication, and stewardship become increasingly important

Follow Eric:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-alexander-sixarrowsconsulting/
Website: https://ericralexander.com/
Company: https://sixarrowsconsulting.com/

Disclosure: Portions of this episode (such as the introduction or promotional segments) use AI-generated voice narration produced under human editorial review.

Earn Your CPE Credit
For CPE credit, please go to earmarkcpe.com, listen to the episode, download the app, answer a few questions, and earn your CPE certification. To earn education credits for the FPAC Certificate, take the quiz on earmark and contact Paul Barnhurst for further details.

In Today's Episode:
[00:00] - Trailer
[03:55] - What Great FP&A Looks Like
[04:47] - Building a Strong FP&A Function
[07:43] - Understanding the Business Behind the Numbers
[09:23] - Building Business Acumen
[13:39] - Moving From Accounting to FP&A
[16:19] - The Path to CFO
[20:31] - Leadership & Constructive Disagreement
[26:06] - Pre-Mortems & Better Decisions
[30:03] - Point Estimates vs. Ranges
[38:10] - Stewardship Leadership & The CFO Role
[43:57] - Technical & Human Skills for FP&A
[46:19] - Personal Questions & Closing Thoughts

In this episode of Future Finance, Paul Barnhurst speaks with Glenn Hopper about his new book, The AI-Ready CFO, and what finance leaders need to do to successfully adopt AI. Glenn explains why CFOs must take a leadership role in AI strategy, how finance can balance innovation with risk management, and why successful AI implementation starts with data readiness, process improvement, and strong governance.

In this episode, you will discover:
Why CFOs should lead AI adoption.
How finance can balance AI, speed, and risk.
Why data readiness is essential before AI implementation.
How to build trust through governance and transparency.
How to create effective AI pilots and scale success.

Glenn explains that AI adoption is not just about choosing new tools. Finance leaders need to understand their current processes, establish a baseline, identify opportunities, run focused pilots, and use evidence to decide what should be scaled.

Follow Glenn:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gbhopperiii

Glenn’s new book: The AI-Ready CFO
https://robocfo.ai/ai-ready-cfo

Follow Paul:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thefpandaguy

Disclosure: Portions of this episode (such as the introduction or promotional segments) use AI-generated voice narration produced under human editorial review.

Future Finance is sponsored by QFlow.ai, the strategic finance platform solving the toughest part of planning and analysis: B2B revenue. Align sales, marketing, and finance, speed up decision-making, and lock in accountability with QFlow.ai.

Stay tuned for a deeper understanding of how AI is shaping the future of finance and what it means for businesses and individuals alike.

In Today’s Episode:
[00:00] - Trailer: The AI-Ready CFO
[03:54] - The AI-Ready CFO Explained
[08:59] - The Changing CFO Role
[13:27] - Why Finance Should Lead AI
[16:46] - AI Change Management
[21:32] - Building an AI Strategy
[27:39] - Trust, Governance & AI
[32:32] - Transparent AI Processes
[36:30] - AI Build vs. Buy
[40:02] - Building AI Agents
[43:21] - Closing Thoughts

In this episode of Financial Modeler’s Corner, the Mod Squad, Ian Schnoor, Giles Male, and Paul Barnhurst, speak with Peter Fuller about AI-powered financial modeling and the rapidly changing future of Excel. Peter shares how Tracelight evolved from an AI-for-Excel tool into a broader AI workspace for professionals in finance and consulting.

Peter Fuller is the Co-Founder and CEO of Tracelight, based in London, England. Before founding Tracelight in 2024, he was an early-stage venture capital investor at Entrepreneurs First and spent five years at McKinsey, including time with QuantumBlack, McKinsey’s AI practice. His background combines finance, consulting, venture capital, AI, and financial modeling.

Expect to Learn
How Tracelight evolved from an AI-for-Excel tool.
Why specialized AI tools can compete with larger platforms.
How AI orchestration is changing financial modeling.
Why enterprise AI adoption is accelerating.
How AI could transform the role of financial modelers.

Here are a few quotes from the episode:
"The needs of the top 1% of users are different from the needs of the other billion people using Excel." - Peter Fuller
"The amount of value that you'll be able to add in the world is now just increasing exponentially." - Peter Fuller

Peter explains why he sees AI as an opportunity for financial modelers rather than simply a threat. As AI becomes more capable, he expects modelers to move beyond manually building spreadsheets and toward creating models that become a persistent part of how businesses operate.

Follow Ian:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianschnoor/

Follow Giles:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/giles-male-30643b15/

Follow Peter:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-fuller-/

Disclosure: Portions of this episode (such as the introduction or promotional segments) use AI-generated voice narration produced under human editorial review.

In Today's Episode:
[00:00] - Trailer & Introduction
[03:40] - Building AI for Excel
[07:14] - Competing With Big AI Labs
[11:27] - Tracelight's Strategy
[15:30] - Tracelight's Core Customers
[16:23] - AI Harnesses & Orchestration
[19:32] - The Future of AI Models
[22:10] - Multi-Model AI Workflows
[27:44] - Enterprise Growth & User Love
[33:32] - The Tracelight Platform
[43:03] - Excel, AI & The Future of Modeling
[47:13] - The Future of Financial Modelers

In this episode of FP&A Unlocked, Paul Barnhurst speaks with Soufyan Hamid about financial storytelling, finance business partnering, and how finance professionals can move from reporting numbers to influencing business decisions. Soufyan explains why numbers need context, how finance teams can systematize storytelling, and why communication, business acumen, and empathy are essential skills for creating strategic impact.

Soufyan Hamid is a finance professional, corporate trainer, EMBA lecturer, and keynote speaker who specializes in systematizing storytelling for finance teams. He helps finance professionals strengthen their communication and financial storytelling skills.

Expect to Learn:
What the “precision trap” means for FP&A.
Why timely analysis can be more valuable than perfect accuracy.
How to choose the right level of accuracy for a decision.
What questions to ask before starting an analysis.
How finance professionals can become better business partners.
How the DERP framework improves variance analysis.

Here are a few relevant quotes from the episode:
"The first technical skill...that I would love for teams to develop is the driver tree." - Soufyan Hamid
"The numbers will never share a story by themselves." - Soufyan Hamid

Soufyan explains that effective financial storytelling is about more than presenting numbers. Finance professionals need to understand their audience, prioritize what matters, provide context, and help the business make better decisions.

Follow Soufyan:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/soufyanhamid/
Website: https://www.thefinancecircle.com/

Disclosure: Portions of this episode (such as the introduction or promotional segments) use AI-generated voice narration produced under human editorial review.

Earn Your CPE Credit
For CPE credit, please go to earmarkcpe.com, listen to the episode, download the app, answer a few questions, and earn your CPE certification. To earn education credits for the FPAC Certificate, take the quiz on earmark and contact Paul Barnhurst for further details.

In Today's Episode:
[00:00] - Trailer
[03:13] - What Great FP&A Looks Like
[05:46] - Why Finance Needs Storytelling
[12:28] - Making Financial Storytelling Useful
[16:02] - Why Numbers Need Context
[19:57] - Systematizing Storytelling & the FP&A Maturity Model
[29:38] - Storytelling, Business Partnering & Influence
[34:21] - Common Finance Presentation Mistakes
[40:13] - Complexity Is a Failure of Empathy
[46:05] - Technical & Human Skills for FP&A
[49:53] - The Mindset Shift: Learning to Prioritize
[56:15] - Building Better Finance Teams & Closing Thoughts

In this episode of Future Finance, Paul Barnhurst speaks with Glenn Hopper about his new book, The AI-Ready CFO, and how finance leaders can successfully navigate AI adoption. Glenn explains why CFOs need to take ownership of AI strategy, how to balance speed with risk, and why strong governance, data readiness, and change management are essential for building trust in AI.

In this episode, you will discover:
Why CFOs need to play a leading role in AI adoption.
How finance teams can balance AI speed with governance and risk management.
Why data readiness and process documentation are critical before implementing AI.
How to build trust in AI through transparency, audit trails, and human oversight.
How CFOs can create effective AI pilot programs and scale successful initiatives.

AI adoption is not just about selecting new tools. Glenn explains that successful implementation starts with understanding current processes, improving data readiness, creating measurable baselines, and building systems that allow people to trust AI outputs. For CFOs, the future role is not becoming an AI engineer, but becoming the leader who ensures AI is used responsibly and effectively across the organization.

Follow Glenn:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gbhopperiii

Glenn’s new book: The AI-Ready CFO
https://robocfo.ai/ai-ready-cfo

Follow Paul:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thefpandaguy

Disclosure: Portions of this episode (such as the introduction or promotional segments) use AI-generated voice narration produced under human editorial review.

Future Finance is sponsored by QFlow.ai, the strategic finance platform solving the toughest part of planning and analysis: B2B revenue. Align sales, marketing, and finance, speed up decision-making, and lock in accountability with QFlow.ai.

Stay tuned for a deeper understanding of how AI is shaping the future of finance and what it means for businesses and individuals alike.

In Today’s Episode:
[00:00] - Trailer: The AI-Ready CFO
[03:54] - The AI-Ready CFO Explained
[08:59] - The Changing CFO Role
[13:27] - Why Finance Should Lead AI
[16:46] - AI Change Management
[21:32] - Building an AI Strategy
[27:39] - Trust, Governance & AI
[32:32] - Transparent AI Processes
[36:30] - AI Build vs. Buy
[40:02] - Building AI Agents
[43:21] - Closing Thoughts