Clear Concept Inc.

Clear concept is a global training organization founded by, speaker and author, Ann Gomez. For almost 20 years, it has helped organizations by providing practical productivity tools, collaboration skills, and mindset practices that have been empowering people to perform at their best.  Our workshops, coaching and training help you:
- Take control of busy days
- Boost productivity and restore balance
- Develop a high-performance mindset
- Move from surviving to thriving
- Build stronger connections, trust and collaboration

Speaker, Facilitator and Coach

KICT Inc 

KICT Inc. is consulting and training company that helps individuals and companies unleash their full potential.  After working in Finance roles for 20+ years in the CPG industry, my focus and passion is providing practical tools and strategies that drive great business performance and build confident and well rounded business leaders.

Founder

Kruger Products L.P.

Corporate (Senior) Director of Finance

Campbell Soup Company

Director FP&A

YaYA Foods Corp.

VP Finance

The Kraft Heinz Company

Reporting to the CFO and a key member of the Finance and Integrated Supply Chain leadership teams, I was accountable for delivering annual cost and cash savings, presenting financial results to Senior Management, labour and headcount analysis, capital investment process and approvals, developing and maintaining a strong internal control environment while developing a high performing team of 20 local and remote professionals.

Finance Director, Integrated Supply Chain (ISC)

Reporting to the CFO and a key member of the Cheese and Finance leadership teams, I was accountable for driving world class top and bottom line results for Kraft Canada's largest sector, leading commodity and strategic pricing, innovation financial launch decisions, revenue management & price pack architechture, strong cost control while building a high performing team and having key responsibilities that drove strong functional health.

Finance Director, Financial Planning and Analysis, Cheese & Pizza

Reporting to the Senior Finance Director, I was accountable for partnering with Senior Sales colleagues in order to develop winning bids with customers, sell in commodity and strategic pricing and improve margins across our portfolio.

Senior Manager, Sales and Customer Finance, Foodservice division

Responsible for top and bottom line P&L delivery, finance lead for product innovation launch decisions, pricing analysis.

Finance Manager, Financial Planning and Analysis

Accountable for budgeting and all financial analysis related to overhead costs.  I was a key contributor to the Nabisco / Kraft integration.

Senior Financial Analyst

Futureway communications Inc

Responsible for analyzing and properly Accounting for Fixed Assets for a fast growing telecommunications start-up.

Financial Analyst, Fixed Assets

I inspire & energize teams with my keynote and townhall speaking. I help Finance/Accounting teams be GREAT (communication, technical skills). I help teams learn how to be high performance teams.

Action-oriented Finance & Business leader with 18+ years of progressive experience mainly within the fast paced Consumer Packaged Goods industry.  I have a strong Accounting background and am a business partnering specialist who has consistently demonstrated the ability to drive world-class business results and has a passion for building and engaging high performing teams.

Key competencies include : Financial Budgeting, Planning & Analysis, Strategic Planning, Revenue Management, Full P&L and Cash Flow ownership, Commodity and Forex hedging, Extensive knowledge of the Canadian Dairy industry and the Coffee commodity market.

Does the thought of any type of public speaking make you shudder?
Do you avoid presentations or speeches at any cost?
Do you have lots of ideas but are often too nervous to share?

I would say a capital YES to all three (✅✅✅) of these questions just a few years ago.  

I now pinch myself and have tremendous gratitude that I facilitate and speak for a living!  

Such a cool day for me filming a speaker reel for Clear Concept Inc. A phenomenal company that I facilitate and speak for (thanks Ann Gomez, Speaker, Author and Founder, Susan Avery Pons, Marlo Leunissen ).  

“The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.”  Lao Tzu

When people ask me how I got over my fear of public speaking I tell them:

➡️ It was a lot of micro small steps that added up over time.
➡️ It was stepping out of my comfort zone consistently which started to stretch my comfort zone.
➡️ It was and continues to be making many mistakes and being open to learn from them.
➡️ It was learning from mentors and colleagues who are amazing public speakers.
➡️ It is having a curious and consistent learning mindset.  I try to learn from everyone!

I recently took a masterclass in public speaking (Heroic Public Speaking) and was so fortunate to participate in our Clear Concept development day.

As facilitators we shared learnings and spent some time learning the brilliant second city ‘Yes, and’ improv approach which fuels ideas and conversations (rather than stifling them).

One of my micro steps that was actually huge for me was a simple rule.  ‘Speak at least once in every meeting.’  It was a game changer and I started developing the mental muscles to confidently speak in public forums.

Another memory for me was my first lecture at the University of Toronto for 300 business students.  Against my old self’s judgement, I said Yes to professor Michael Khan, MBA, CPA, CA, CISA, CGEIT and jumped way out of my comfort zone.  I was very very nervous and a few minutes into my lecture, I noticed a student directly in front of me was fast asleep (mouth open and probably snoring).  I had a micro moment of doubt (“should I run the heck out of here and never come back?”).  

I’m glad I decided to stick with it as I ended up getting a standing ovation.  I have now spoken to over 10,000 U of T students and have spoken virtually in India, Vietnam, Sweden, Malta, Israel and have had students in many Countries around the world.  

So if you have that nervous feeling, take one small micro step.  

✅Say hi to a stranger.  
✅Smile at someone.  
✅Speak once in a meeting.  
✅Volunteer for a presentation.

It is possible to get better at anything if you GO FOR IT! 

Ron Monteiro, CPA, CMA

Are you considering an FP&A role? 

✅ My vote is a resounding YES.  Here are some of the benefits.

➡️ Transitioning from Accounting to FP&A is hard but worth it! 

I was lucky to land at a company with a world class FP&A team (Kraft Foods) and this led to so many great things. It was a hard adjustment moving from Accounting to FP&A but anything worth getting in life usually involves hard work and jumping out of your comfort zone.

Getting an FP&A role was a massive turning point in my career. The role catapulted me from a junior support role to a senior role in the business.

➡️ FP&A roles expose you to the entire business

After spending my first few years in accounting (which were valuable), I was moved to an FP&A analyst role.  Within a few weeks I was presenting the financials to the division President. I had nowhere to hide and had to find solutions to my anxiety. It turned out to be a brilliant role. I worked with Marketing, Sales, travelled to manufacturing sites and started to really understand business.

➡️ FP&A roles make you stronger as a leader

It also toughened me up as I had to stand up for myself when I didn’t agree with a business decision. The skill I learned is to have tough conversations when necessary but still be a trusted and valuable member of the team. 

I learned to play in the grey. Does inventory need to be written off right now? Do we need to take a write down on assets now or can we turnaround around the business.  This is often uncomfortable for Accountants but in FP&A you start understanding all elements of the business and not everything is black and white.

➡️ FP&A roles require strong communication skills

The exposure I got to Marketing & Sales professionals exposed me to great presentation, persuasion, and communication skills.  I had to hone in on this to get my team to listen and buy in to my recommendations! It is a great environment to build communication skills which are pivotal to get promoted.

I went ALL-IN and quickly got promoted to an FP&A Manager of our Confections department. Another great experience that now included managing staff.

➡️ FP&A roles help you become a great businessperson

Fast forward a few years later and I got promoted to the Director of FP&A on our biggest business (Cheese). Initially I had a hard time and often sat on the fence when decisions were contentious. I quickly learned the value of making decisions or recommendations and backing it up with my thinking. The team started to really value me.

I really believe that these roles allowed me to be a confident VP of Finance in my next role at an entrepreneurial company.

I now run my own training business and I think the broad 360-degree view that FP&A provided to me has helped me become successful. I have to Sell, I have to Market, and I have to manage all aspects of my business.

Take the plunge if you are considering FP&A!  If you go ALL-IN it will be worth it.

➡️ Last but not least, FP&A roles are FUN!


Have you ever been in a month end or budget meeting where it feels like folks want to sleep, poke their eyes out, or run out of the room?
 
I’ve been in several meetings where I couldn’t wait for the meeting to END. I could feel the audience saying in their ‘inside voices’, let’s get through this s%# and get some coffee ☕️. I was often leading the meetings 😊.
 
Many experiences later, I now know there are simple ways to engage cross functional team members and have an engaging, productive, and fun meeting where we are all pleased with the outcome (ACTION PLANS).  
 
😎 LET’S MAKE FINANCE FUN, ENGAGING AND PRODUCTIVE!
 
 Here are 5 ways to achieve that.
 
➡️1) Use the BLUF principle (BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT). In simple terms, less is more. Let’s not get trapped into showing excruciating amounts of detail. Tell the story. Cut to the chase of what is important and what actions can be taken.  The appendix is your friend.  Put as much detail as you want in it!
 
➡️2) Use visuals. Nothing is worse than a deck full of numbers. Visuals are much more engaging and easier to understand. Keep them simple and have one key message/takeaway per visual. 
 
➡️3) Avoid financial jargon and acronyms. Nothing is worse than a person spewing acronyms to a nonfinancial audience. IRR, NPV, EBITDA, DIOH, DPO, BLAH, BLAH etc. Keep it simple and explain your concepts in everyday English. My rule of thumb is to think of the person with the least financial knowledge in the room. 
 
➡️4) Have some fun. My partner (Paul Barnhurst, The FPandA Guy Barnhurst) and I have a ton of fun in our training sessions. It started accidently when I had a technical issue playing a video and asked him to tell a joke (to take the focus away from me). He pulled out his ‘Excel joke book’ and the rest was history. We now tell jokes in every session and get smiles and awesome engagement (even if his jokes are terrible).  
 
➡️5) Set the tone with your energy and body language – your energy, voice, and body language will set the tone for the meeting. I recently took a fantastic public speaking course (Heroic Public Speaking) and learned that the audience will never have as much energy or fun as the person leading the meeting or giving the speech. Bring authentic and intentional energy to the meeting! If it is tough month end, you may want to skip the jokes, but you can still bring positive solution focused energy. 

Bonus tip: Keep the meetings short and sweet. Don’t go on and on. Get to the point and your audience will always appreciate time back. Often in meetings we use the whole time rather than being intentional and thoughtful on what we really want to get out of the meeting.
 
To the linked in experts that I frequently work with and learn from. What else do you do to engage your audience?  
 
Paul Barnhurst, The FPandA Guy, Soufyan Hamid, Asif Masani, Larysa Melnychuk Nicolas Boucher Christian Wattig Carl Seidman, CSP, CPA, Wassia Kamon, CPA, CMA, MBA, Bryan Lapidus, FPAC, Abdul Khaliq


Happy Monday!

Colby Sharma is a resilience expert and best-selling author of “The Curveball” and speaker (video link in the comments)

His story is inspirational as he faced learning challenges as a young man and found ways to overcome them.  Turn adversity into your advantage!

His recent book ‘The curveball’ is an interesting story about finding ourselves in a world that often leads to us straying from our calling.  

Colby is the son of Robin Sharma (who is my favourite author) and a personal development legend.  

He is carving out his own path!  

The only strike against Colby is that he is a Chelsea fan (I am an Arsenal fan) for those who live in the footy (soccer) world.

A great conversation with Colby!

Last call for our virtual FP&A course that starts next week!

Paul Barnhurst, The FPandA Guy and I are extremely proud that we have taught 6 groups, 100+ students in several Countries around the world.

Our focus throughout the course is to provide practical training that our students can use immediately to help themselves and their businesses.

We focus on analytics, budgeting/forecasting, visualization and storytelling/business partnership.

DM me if you are interested in hearing more.

More info at : https://lnkd.in/gY6Y-_f2

Taplio

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