Finance Leadership at the Edge of AI Transformation With Albert Ramos Jr.

Welcome to the Level up podcast where finance leaders share real stories, insights and connections that move them forward. Tune in to learn, sharpen your edge and level up together. Nick Arako here, host of. I guess by now I can't call it the newly reimagined Level Up. I know Level up as a podcast has been around for some time, but we have been doing this now for some time featuring finance leaders from around the globe. I don't even like to call them finance leaders. I call us like the heart and soul of every business. But LevelUp is the most forward is for the most forward thinking leaders in finance. Not just from the CFO alliance community, but from beyond where we come together to share what it really takes to lead in today's unpredictable world. I think I call that an understatement. Unpredictable. Each episode I have the pleasure and opportunity to sit down with with people who I think, and I think my listeners would agree are redefining what leadership really looks like, what it takes. These are people who are stepping up, leaning in and leveling up. Hence the name Level Up. These are not theory driven interviews. Forget that. These are not academic. No way. We don't do that. They're raw. These people are real. They are packed with insights that you can really use. Past guests have included power players like Andrew Platt. I was with Andrew in San Francisco just yesterday morning. What, what a guy he is. I was with Roland in New York just 10 days ago. I didn't get to see Daniel Nelson. He. He had dad duty. But check out that episode. His priorities are right. Man, I'm gonna be with T.R. williams in Texas just a few weeks. Alana Estridge, man, she just makes the rounds everywhere. Talk about visibility and brand. She is awesome. Erin Wilkins was with me in Orange county and if you're a finance leader navigating change, challenge or opportunity, this is your podcast. Today I have the pleasure. I mean I've been trying to get this guy on Level up for like, yeah, years. I am joined by Albert Ramos Jr. Albert is. What happens like this is great when a battle tested finance leader collides with AI. Okay. Like the best of it and founders stop guessing and they start scaling. Okay. I love that collision. We're going to dive in to Albert's own journey, his insights and leadership vision in just a moment. But first, LevelUp is proudly brought to you by Oracle NetSuite. The number one Cloud ERP used and trusted by thousands of high growth finance led companies around the world. NetSuite gives finance leaders and their teams real time Visibility, automation and control across their financials, operations and planning so that they can lead with confidence and scale with speed. Oracle NetSuite is also a proud and longtime global partner to our community, the CFO alliance, supporting our shared mission of empowering finance leaders to drive strategy, build resilient teams and deliver next level impact. So if you're serious about building a modern finance function, standing that up, keeping pace with your business, NetSuite is your platform. Learn more at netsuite.com get to know them in our community. Get to know the people, the power and the performance that they can bring to you, your team and your enterprise. All right, so let's dive in. I get the pleasure of always writing my own intros because I get to know these guests and I like when I go to Texas and I get to power and facilitate a roundtable. I get to take a deep breath when Albert's there with me because I'm like, albert, run with it. Here's why I say that. Because Albert is one of the rare operators dragging people with him into the future where CFO and AI becomes an unfair advantage. And I think that's really important because I'm so tired of the noise. I'm so tired of like, what is it, what it's not. He is will tell you what it is and what it can do and he'll show you, bring it in and have it lift the business in a measurable way. He doesn't build budget, he builds financial war rooms. Cash clarity. Cash clarity is what I love about Albert. Anytime we talk about something, he's like, come on man, we got to run a business. We got to build a business. Let's talk unit economics, let's talk forecasting, let's talk automation. All in real time. Real time. Forget what was and what will be. Let's talk real time. He works with high growth, fitness, wellness, multilocation brands. I mean, like, if let's, I'll tell you this, he's sick of second guessing. And he's like, look, let's get ready to scale like adults do. That's. I feel like that's what he does when the conversation goes awry. He's like, no, let's bring it back. So if you want the CFO mindset and the AI execution that's separating winners from everyone else, Albert Ramos is your guy. So, Albert, welcome to Level Up. Wow, you've been, you've been living in my brain, sir. Thank you so much. It's like, wait a second here, what's going on here? You're recording me. I love it. No, thank you so much for the introduction, for the invitation. Been loving all the episodes, Mr. Platt. Wow. The most recent. Such a fantastic job. I mean it's been. Not only do I watch it, I also see the summary notes after the fact. Having, being being a part of the CFO Alliance, I get to see a lot of these things and threads and conversations. So, so good. And I'm so excited that you're pushing us. You're pushing us to think different. That's one thing I can't wait for. The recent at the time of this recording, the roundtable coming up here in Texas. Awesome. Awesome. So let's, let's talk about your journey because I look, I admire you and there aren't enough hours in the day. And just this week, right, Adam Zaki from CFO pushed out advice about how CFOs build brand on LinkedIn and he allowed me to give some advice too. And I feel like you're one of the people you also should have asked because I actually thought of you. I thought of you when I was provided my commentary because I'm so sick of self promotion and BS and all the AI driven stuff out there. But, but I, I feel like you're so authentic and you're so real and you're so willing to give. So. And I know this episode's going to be all about that, but I'd love to hear your story because, God, like I, you have become, in my opinion, the definition of where finance is going. We talked about this all week long in Washington, D.C. chicago and San Francisco. Where's this journey? Like, where did all of this come from? You're really defining, you know, the impact and the opportunity and the language of business that finance now is. But where, where did all of this passion for finance kind of spark and come from? Yeah, no, great, great question. First off, as I mentioned earlier, I get an opportunity with the CFO alliance group to take a look at those notes. I saw the DC notes. I was so impressed with some of the conversations that were going on there. So thank you for always posting those. And my journey is not linear and I think that drives some people a little bit nuts. But I want to respect those that do climb up the linear path as well. Because it's not easy. Right? There's a reason why I went non linear too, because there are some things that were hard, there are some things that are easy. And I'll tell you, I respect those that you know from, from accounting, FP and A to the CFO side, so, so much respect. That doesn't mean that needs to change. There's just. We're just evolving a little bit. I. From a small little town. Well, now it's big Diamondbar, California, down in. In North Orange county or LA county, however you want. We're right there. Right in the middle. Yeah, you're on that border. Yeah. That's worlds, though. It is, it is. I'm like, okay, which side am I gonna jump over today? And so I actually went to school, small little school called Occidental College, where I had the opportunity to play football, but really to get a great education. 15 kids to a class, you know, it's one of those where you go after class, have a beer with your economics professor. It was just like that, right? Whereas my sisters, they went to usc, ucla, just a different experience. And so I really enjoy that. And my friends gave me a hard time because I ended up getting my MBA at the University of Redlands on campus, and that was our football rival. So I still. They still give me heat for that. But what an amazing time to be again in a small classroom, going through Capstone and all of it. But, you know, something that always got to me was my dad is. And, and, you know, so. So my, my. My mother's family as well, from. From Peru. They're. I come from a line of entrepreneurs. But one thing my dad would tell me time and time again and I'd be at these construction sites is, you don't want to be an entrepreneur, Albert. Or he's saying, miho, you. You don't want to go through the. The ups and downs, right? Whether it's dictated by the economy or, you know, things just happen. Things slow down. You want to get a great education and climb up the corporate ladder. And so I should have probably started with that, but that's what I did. I got my great education. I climbed up the corporate ladder fairly quickly in the health and fitness space. And I just always had this itch. I had this itch. And I think I finally took action. You know, I was with 24 Hour Fitness Golds and Lifetime in some of these executive roles, where it was corporate finance as well as field operations. So I got the best of all worlds where I was able to move away just from the Excel and computer and actually lead people. So I was very privileged to get that type of training. But, you know, I had the itch. I wanted to get something started. What really started all of this with Stratego was I needed a tax shelter. And for Those that are in the corporate arena. When you're trying to protect your corporate income, it's like, okay, I got the house, we made some kids. So I'm getting some tax write out there, I'm still needing something. And so that's what I did. But it started to become bigger and people were asking me just with my finance background, do you mind taking a look under the hood? That's what I call it. And it just started progressing. And this is during the time where personal branding was really picking up. This is pre pandemic, actually when people were video. You know, if you think of Gary Vaynerchuk who was doing the whole vlog daily now, he was like the, he was like the first that was like, had a voice that we were like, you. First time you heard him, you like tilted your head and you were like, huh, this is a guy that like totally gets us. And we were kind of like, I want to list, I want more. Exactly. I remember being on the treadmill, just watching all of his episodes. I'm like, I'm really enjoying this. You know, the kind of start of reality tv, but in a profession, the professional setting, which was really nice. So anyway, Stratego. Yeah, I target 500 to 30 million top line revenue organizations, typically in the health and fitness space. And you see that a lot on LinkedIn. I'm fairly active, but I also spend time in construction and manufacturing, recruiting firms, psychotherapy practices, so in the healthcare medical space. And so yeah, it's been a lot of fun. Again, I think I drive people crazy because I didn't get my CPA or cfp. I didn't come up the traditional ladder where I was in corporate America as a CFO per se. Right. And so, but, but I learned, I'm a big learner and I had a lot of mentors that were CFOs. And I did it as an entrepreneur and I realized, wow, there is a fundamental gap or financial literacy gap in many organizations, definitely small to medium size, who don't have the budget for a full time CFO or head of finance. And so I found a little, a little spot and I know we'll talk automation and AI here soon, but that's a whole different story too. Yeah, so, so you, I always, when I interact with you, I get a sense, like it's really interesting you, you clearly have such a strong sense of understanding of the quantitative and the numbers, but you also have such a strong grasp of relationships and people and human dynamic. Okay, so budgets, forecasts, board decks, we all know Them. Tell me a story of when the numbers became the story that changed a company's direction. Yeah, that's a great question. So this is, this is pre inflation wave. I remember coming over to Lifetime actually here in the Houston market and taking over what was 10 units at the time. It's a portfolio of about 150mil, then became a 16 unit, including lifetime clubs and lifetime work. And for those that are lifetime members in the, in the city of Texas, my daughter just had to leave because she turned 26. Oh, did she? Yeah, yeah. It was off your membership. So for those. She was loving it, man. She was living it up. And then that, that, that. It's a great model, by the way. Yeah. Disclaimer. And I'm probably gonna get a lot of heat for this because those that live in Houston that continue to wonder why the prices increase. That was my fault. You know, coming from California and your prices are at a certain level just due to the cost of living. I came over and I just saw the model as you mentioned, the unit economics and the value that was being given to those that get to experience it. So I ran some models around the pricing piece and you know, there's different variables and see, you know, when, when you lift it by a certain dollar amount or certain percentage of its base or rack rate is what we call it, how many are going to trip? And so I did some of that. Right. But before we did it though, I went into the field to your point. I'm a hit to hit type of guy. I want to experience it as a team member number one. Number two then is I want to experience it from the member point of view. And so I wanted to see, does this match up? Does my theory match up? Does my model match up to will this? Is there truly this much value here? Is the experience truly there for us to ask for? And this is where I'm going to get a heat. But the 10, the 15, the $20 more per month, right. Or per family plus. And so I saw it, I felt it, I surveyed people. So this wasn't just a Excel, right. Google sheet nowadays model. This was a. I'm gonna go bottom up. And I always recommend that is, you know, if it's a spa, get on the chair and look around. Right? You're not just the finance leader that sits in the ivory tower. That's no longer. Those days are over. No, it's finops. It's finops. It's, it's. You have to combine the, the finance and the operations. And I know we'll talk about resource management collaboration with like marketing. Those, those days are now. It's a must. It's a non negotiable, it isn't a. Maybe you're able to communicate with all of these different departments. The infrastructure of AI and technology is forcing the issue. You must collaborate. Yeah, yeah. What's the tough, toughest non finance call you've had to make and what would you do differently now? The one that really comes to mind right away, you know, having led over 30,000 team members, I've had what north of 25 direct reports. The accountability side, right. When you're, there's, there's the, the quantitative to your point that you're mentioning earlier, but there's also the assessing qualitative core competencies, right. Values and sometimes and, and, and thankfully in my experience the W's have outweighed the L's, but the L's sometimes is when you have to hold people accountable, right. And have some of these tough conversations and sometimes even leading to. I'm parting ways with someone that maybe they'd just be great at something else. And so you know, a lot of that is sure you have performance based roles and organizations and there's a lot of quantitative, as I mentioned, that's very easy, right, to see who's. We're all, we're all familiar with the green, yellow, red or a nine box, right? Talent assessment. But then there's the qualitative pieces. And the only way you know those things is you spend time with people, right. It can't just be a stat and a number. And so I, I've learned over the last 16 years how to do that and to assess and spend time and constantly being, assessing your talent interviewing post interview, three months in, nine months in 20 years in constantly assessing. And so the toughest parts though are when the quantitative isn't matching the qualitative. That gets tricky, right. You can have a very top performer, but it's someone that isn't good for the organization and you have to recognize those things because it has a ripple effect. Funny enough, the ripple effect is financial because it goes down that formula of team member to customer member experience to then financials and people watch you for those that are in the CFO role or in a finance executive role. And this is a big topic we're going to talk about at the roundtable is, is casting, recruiting, how do you build your team that's so important that you're looking for some of the what I would call cancers in the team that don't want to play ball. So, Albert, I have a big question for you. You know, we've talked over the last decade plus about the increasing scope of responsibility and opportunity and scope of role of the cfo. We've seen it expand in terms of both its direct impact zone and that's very exciting. It's very stressful, it's very at times lonely. But there's no denying that it has significantly expanded. And for most CFOs, that's why they've said, I want that seat. Couple that with the fact that this is what doesn't make sense to me. Maybe you have an opinion on this. How come we're dealing with such a supply shortage then? Because if on the one hand it's become one of the most comprehensive, exciting, impactful roles, you think people would be running towards it from a supply standpoint. Where is the disconnect then? Because if it is truly one of the top roles, value driving, top line, bottom line, shareholder, value driving roles, why do we have such a void in supply of talent and why is it getting increasingly worse? Yeah, I think it's, there's a couple different variables. This is a great question and a conversation we should all be having. And it's going to require a different level of mentorship, a different level of finding those that we can educate to, you know, leave a legacy to, to fill our roles in the future. We're seeing this a lot in accounting. We're actually seeing this now. And, and, and you know, for those that are on LinkedIn, when you start to see Paul Barnhurst and Glenn Hopper and some of these others really diving into AI and showing you what it can do. Look at Carl and, and I just had a couple other guys, Chris Ortega and Chris Riley, on my podcast. Um, and they're, they're seeing the value of AI and how it is replacing certain tasks, certain things. Is it all the way there? No, but I think that's what's happening is, wait a second, why would I invest in an education that this position or job that I would potentially go after post college is going to be replaced? I think that's the fear. I think that's what's happening. And so we need to teach, we need to continue to teach the fundamentals. But teachers discuss that there isn't, as I've shown, there isn't this linear route that you need to take. And so if it is that accounting job that maybe is your entry level, post college or control or what have you, maybe there's a different route or maybe There's a combination of, and this is what I'm seeing, which is leading to, I think my next variable is there's a lot being put on the cfo, the finance executive's plate. It is no longer just finance, it's operations and it's tech and it's tech. The amount of conversations that we're hearing about modernizing the tech stack and it's not just the CTO anymore, it's the CFO involved. And that doesn't just mean from a, a cost perspective, it's actually understanding what the heck's going on in the back end that doesn't appeal to a lot of people. And so, and then I'm telling you it's very difficult and that doesn't mean you need to learn how to code or develop, but you have to have a basic understanding of what's going on because it can lead to leakage, it can lead to compliance issues, it can lead to, you know, xyz. And so I think that's what's going on here. I think, I think we need to, we need to educate on these certain things. We need to collaborate a lot more. You know, I, I, I would love to see the cto, I would love to see more collaboration even at the round tables. Maybe it's not just CFOs, it's, let's get some others from different perspectives to see how do we mesh and learn. Again, just the fundamentals. I think that's what's going on is there's this fear of this technology is potentially replacing certain roles. It's not there yet, but can it be? Sure, certain tasks go ahead. No. Two questions that come from that. So first off, our CFO alliance approach to AI for 2026 is centered around CFO Commons, which is a real, practical, peer driven environment for exchange. And it's in conjunction with the Chief AI Officer Alliance. So we're doing it with them. To your point, Albert, we listened and we know it needs to be in collaboration with, not in a silo or vacuum. So we hear you. Thanks to you and others who said, don't do it this way, do it this way. Two questions for you. First, the mainstreaming of fractional work, like you're doing advisory work, that used to be an evergreen career path, that used to be the last stage, especially in the world of cfo, and now it's here to stay. I'm curious as to why you think that is and why what that's being driven by in terms of why that's become a norm and if it's here to stay, number one. Question two. There's some concern in the world of CFO alliance right now that with the way that works will get done in the world of accounting and finance, that how well equipped the future CFO will be to do their jobs if they're no longer doing what we did to get to our seats. I'm going to say it more simply. We made a boatload of mistakes to get to where we are. And if we're going to eliminate the making those mistakes because at the push of a button or an agent is going to take away that opportunity and experience, how equipped is the future finance leader going to be to sit in that seat as cfo? Is that realistic or unrealistic? Yeah. I'll go to the first question, the first question about the fractional CFO role or the consulting. You know we use the word fractional. You use advisory. I love that because that's what I tell people. What is that? Or fractional CxO, which is, you know, very hot right now. But it really is that consulting, that interim, that advisory, that fractional. Yes. Where we find it a lot is typically in organizations that cannot afford a full time cfo. Typically that is typically the case. Or more often. Right. And so what some of these organizations that don't have a budget for a full time CFO are realizing is the financial implications and not having someone with that financial literacy, that financial expertise, it could come at a big cost. And that even means, you know, going bankrupt. And so I think that has really brought back the, the, as we're focusing in on unit economics quite a bit here in each one of our businesses depend not. It doesn't matter what industry we're really, the organizations are looking for those that can still deliver yet at a, at a fraction of the cost. And that's really what it is. The, the other end is with the technology at our fingertips today and this is even pre AI we saw this in the gig economy. Well, this is over the last 10 years and it's really starting to come back now very aggressively because of the technology because we can get these deliverables done faster. And I have a opinion around hourly based work in the fractional space versus value based monthly retainer. I think we're moving away from what I call the law firm and they're even changing. And thank God. Yeah. As a former practicing lawyer. Thank God. There you go. Yeah. So I have experience there too. So I'm actually excited about it as well. And so we're moving into this monthly retainer, quicker deliverables with the technology at our fingertips. So I think it's here to stay. I think the gig economy and I'm already seeing it and I'm seeing it in the fitness and wellness space. The consumer is also going to be on a usage base. We're seeing it in the professional services space, usage based, value based. We're going to see it in the consumer in so many different ways. I could speak to the health and fitness space. You only pay when you use. That's a huge change. That's a huge change. And so yes, we're seeing that now. I don't think that the full time CFO is ever going to go away. I think there's no. Because the model breaks at some point. It does, it does. It gets too large. It gets too large and you need someone there full time. So I just don't. I see the best of both worlds to the second point, however. Right. And I think this is where a lot of the tension comes around. Equipping being educated enough, having the right experience and not going in as a fractional CFO and truly ruining an organization. I've seen that, I've heard of that. And that does put a sour taste for everyone involved in the finance space when that happens. So I don't recommend those, you know, going in full block if you haven't learned the fundamentals, if you haven't gone to some type of schooling or have some type of CFO mentor, I just don't recommend going and do that. It's going to be a long ride for you and unfortunately the decisions you make have real implications on families, on businesses. And so I just don't recommend that. And I hope no one does that and takes that, that option. As far as the fundamentals and yes, learning from mistakes and going through the weeds, I would say more of a recommendation and advice. Yeah. Is you still learn the fundamentals. Right. You still get into the model. AI is a tool to me for now. It's not a replace. Right. You're not going to go in front of a board of directors and they ask you how did you get to that point? And you say, well, you know, my co pilot told me in my Excel that that that was the case. That's just not going to go well for you and it's not going to be a fun road. Maybe the road ends there. And so I would highly recommend we those that are in the seats now continue to teach and continue to advise people. Coming up, the education journey. You've got to learn the fundamentals. Don't replace this and think that AI can replace this. It's nowhere even close to being able to do that. However, AI is a tool to get you there faster or even check your work. I like to use it for that. Continue to do it manually so you learn and understand the model, you understand the fundamentals, you understand why things break within your model. And I'm speaking to models since here now and then use AI to come and scrub you. It can do that, it can scrape it, it can find it and tell you or give recommendations. Here's what we would I say I it's digital species. Here's what it thinks, right? And so I would use it that way. Not thinking, it just can do your work. It's not there yet, nowhere even close. And I spent a lot of time in it and the names I mentioned earlier will tell you the same. A lot of the hype, it's, it's, you know, and that's always going to be around with any type of novelty, right? But if you're really using it, you'll find this thing's not foolproof yet. It's getting better, it's getting more powerful, but it's a tool to get it done faster or to check your work, not to replace. It's not there yet. What's one capability every CFO will need by 2030 that most you don't have or need to sharpen today? Yeah, I'll, I'll, I'll kind of build off this last point. So I was in a room of CFOs and CHROs recently and I thought, okay, I, I'm, I'm big on LinkedIn and I'll, if anyone uses LinkedIn, you know the hook, right? The attention grabber is the most important in a post or one of the most important things. So I said, okay, in this speech, you know, it was about a hundred people, what's going to really grab their attention? And so I asked the CFOs and CHROs, which was very nice to see them by the way, in the same room, what is your digital species headcount goal for? At this time it was 2025. So for 2026, what's your digital species head account goal? And the eyes are just like, what the heck is this guy talking about? You know, not human. I'm talking about your digital species. And what I was mentioning was what I was thinking about was agents, GPTs, some type of AI, right? And so I think the future CFO let me, let Me say that again. The modern today cfo, not the future cfo. The modern today CFO needs to understand how to allocate resources like we do very well at, whether it be human type of work, AI type of work, and that comes in its different forms, generative, agentic, agent work in here. Soon robotics and people might think I'm crazy, but a lot of the chatter and where it's coming, it's going to come fast. And people are seeing that in supply chain already. So it's nothing new. But for those outside of it, you're saying like how is this. There's no, it's, it's, it's coming, it's happening and it's a lot closer than it was 10, 15 years ago. And so I think the, the modern CFO today needs to understand when I'm working on, when there's a task or rollout at hand, how do I allocate resources to humans, AI or robotics. I think we need to understand those different layers and then how do we manage that, how do we protect data, how do we protect leakage, how do we maximize, optimize productivity? Right. So I think that is going to be what we need to start. If you're not doing it already learning that. So that means understanding the basics of now I'll move away from humans. I think we're there. But understanding the basics of AI and what it could, can do and what it can't do, same similar to robotics in whatever field you're in. That's excellent. You know, it gets me thinking, if I'm a CEO, an investor, a board member or a CFO charged by one of those, I should be thinking about how I can and should be assessing the value and position of my business in my industry today versus how it will be positioned not five years from now, not even three years from now, maybe 24 months from now, given the rapid advancement and disruption of the ecosystem that my business is sits in and how it works, because it will not work the same way. Right. And we have to be agile enough to, to determine how we will adapt to and differentiate ourselves in our customer experience, employee experience and our relational experience with all of that. Right. One of those being weak in one of those areas could really put us at a disadvantage that ultimately will put us at a financial or shareholder value disadvantage that could destroy us. Or make us. Let's use the positive. Yeah, yeah. Or make us. Yeah. And it sounds like there's where you're really impactful and have been throughout your career because you'll look at a turn of a dial that could really dial that up. I've always been good at, you know, one I think this comes from just getting into the ground truth. Right. And just being. Having ears to the ground, eyes wide open and hearing what potentially might come. And, and I've always just maybe just kind of predict. Not, not I'm not a good predictor. But understanding what could happen. Scenarios. Yeah. Seeing markets before they happen. Yeah. And positioning them, then taking action. Because that's the hard part. It's not just, okay, I think these are going to happen. It's like, okay, what do you do now and how you position for it to add to that last one. And I gave three different layers there. Yeah. Big one that I think right now that everyone should be doing and thinking about is infrastructure data. You got to think about AI as your DNA. What's soon going to happen too, I think is this virtual piece, this box that we're living in today is going to be a little bit different. It's going to be an immersive. And so that might be, you know, that, that that's coming quick. Right. I think the whole open AI and all of the rest of that came kind of put. Made that fly under the radar. But I think even our work dynamics in a virtual environment immersive, not what we're used to in Zoom and Google Meets and all of that and teams. This is going to be an immerse. It's going to be different. It's going to be our, our working environments can be different too. But your infrastructure play data collection, data cleansing, data security is very important right now. If you're not getting ahead of that and, and by the way, and what people don't realize is, and I see some companies doing this and some are leveraging in an incorrect way where they're almost foreshadowing that we're going to replace your jobs. I just don't think that's the right approach. But you should be sure. Killer, by the way. Oh my goodness. Is hey, we're going to, we're going to record and we're going to track everything that you're doing because we need to know, I mean, in a sense know everything that you're doing because we're eventually going to. I mean, do they not know how much coming out of audit? Like, do they not know how it doesn't matter how many times you put bagels out on the table? Yeah, it doesn't feel good. No, no, exactly. But I do think there is a. You think about you think about intellectual capital. Right. And we've all experienced this where your best person goes and gets promoted or maybe someone made a big mistake and you lose them and you lose all of that knowledge capital. Right. It's like how do we replace this? Well nowadays you can use transcribers on calls or meetings and you don't have. You have an actual brain knowledge base of your organization. So a lot of people aren't thinking about those things as everything that all your employees are doing, your customers are doing are data points. And if you're not gathering those things today, it's going to be very difficult to to. To. To be as quick as what is here today and what's coming the compute is. It's insane what's happening you know over the last three months. It's insane when you look at what cloud has just turned into what chat. You know a lot of. I know a lot of people use that too has turned into. And it's thinking model and I read how it's thinking. I'm watching you know I say thinking but you know how it's predicting so infrastructure. If I was to leave anything on this podcast today Nick, it would be. That is what are you doing about the data infrastructure play Understanding AI will be will not maybe will be. It will be your DNA of your org. Oh and I I agree with you because there's new habits and rituals that have been formed as a result and that are continually changing in terms of the way we interact and work and the way that inputs and outputs both of them. Right. That drive measurable performance top line, bottom line and shareholder value individually team wise, enterprise wise. That's business, right? Yeah in and of itself it's way. The way it is getting done is getting done differently. That's right. Oh I love that. Yeah that's true. Right. No, I love that And I think if once people get a hold of that adoption and I already saw it in 26. Yeah, I'm. You're busy. I'm busy. We're all. We're all getting busier because of this is the adoption rate. Got it. People are getting it because of what you just said. This isn't a to be anti or non anti. It's the way we're getting there is just different and this is just what we do. So long as it's secure. Right. I want to keep hitting on that too because I think more challenges my finances involved. I got asked why are some of the first chief AI officers coming out of finance? It's because the governance principles, the risk mitigation, that tightrope of opportunity and risk management, that finance walks and walked in so many key areas has to be applied here. Yeah. I think those that really enjoy you, you said audit and those that really enjoy loss prevention and leakage, you're going to have a blast. There's a huge business for that. There's not enough chatter. I know you, you're chattering about it. You're chatting about it at CFO alliance, which is key. That is a huge business that I think just we're so excited about what we can go do and top line and productivity and all of that. But where, you know, a lot of people think it's the unsexy part of the job around LP and compliance and leakage. There's just massive amounts of opportunity there. That. Speaking of, you know, career makers, that's a big one. I would definitely keep your eye on that side of the business. For sure. It is. So what do most people not know about you in terms of the kind of the personal side of Albert? Yeah. So some might know this. I post about it every now and then. But I've been married for 10 years to my beautiful wife and she's. I call her my Christian wig for those that watch snl. She is tall, blonde, lanky and very, very funny. And so love my wife. And then we got her to a round table. I don't know, I think she, she probably eat all the food, be so bored. You know, anytime I talk about this stuff and I get hyper passionate about, she's just like, can we watch Southern Charm or Desperate Housewives? I'm like, sure. A glass of wine? Sure. Fun. While I'm doing my model, I'm like, sure, let's, let's do it. Um, so we have to introduce her to Alex Giuliano. Alex is a CFO alliance member and he is Orion Sirhan's right right hand. So yeah, there you go. There you go. Yeah. That's awesome. We got three kiddos. They're amazing. I'm starting to get all my gray hairs though, so they're also wild. So we have an eight year old, my, my, my boy Jameson. And then he's my math wigs. By the way he's doing. It's incredible. Don't you love that? Oh, I love it. I'm loving it. And. But we're still on the chalkboard. I'm still all about financial proof. Right. Because he's doing it in his head. He has a little AI. My son was that way too. He was from 2 years old doing math. And I'm like, you got to show me your math. Show me your math. Like that and that we're going to continue to do that. And you know, he, I built him a little AI GPT tutor so he loves that. So I said, no, proof, proof it. Get on the chalkboard and proof it. And like, why I know this. I'm like, show me. You have to show, show because you need to teach as well. And then my bruiser, my. The payback for everything I've done in my life is Henry. He's my six year old with a smile. And then our boss, everyone's boss in the house, aside from my wife, is my princess Charlotte. I knew you were going to say that. Yeah, there's always one. She's a Scorpio all the way through. She. She just runs, runs the show and she could do no wrong in my eyes. So the. It's so true that they just get. You get wrapped around their fingers. That's. I'm one of those dads, so that's awesome. Well, I will tell you, I cherish every moment. Life is too short and the days, weeks, months and years fly by and they should be your top priority and it sounds like they are. Your face lit up when you started talking about all of them. So God bless them and God bless you. Thank you. So what is. You are a busy person, but you're so passionate about all of this and I know you want. You give to get, not to get, but give to give. And so what is the best way for people to connect and to. To get to know you and what would get your attention? So how can people connect with you, Albert? Yeah, so I'm very active on LinkedIn and I read all the DMs. I do have a team on the marketing side and all that, but I do jump in there. I like to comment on a lot of things. I love the announcements when people join the CFO alliance group and you know, I just, I love welcoming them when they're throughout the country to. But yeah, you can find me on LinkedIn. Shoot me a DM. You. There's my booking link. Go book a call if you want to book a call. We can chat and just collaborate and talk about this. I also am the host of the owner Seat podcast is specific to the health and fitness space. But we do have a lot. I mentioned some of those names. They're watching, they're on the show and so we have a lot of finance and AI executives. I Mentioned Glenn Hopper's been on the show, Chris Ortega, Chris Riley, we got Christian Waddick coming on, Christian Martinez, those that follow on LinkedIn and maybe even use their resources they're jumping on. We just have good chats about this, so feel free to go on the show and watch. I. I have a newsletter every Tuesday. The show comes out Monday, Friday. I have a free CFO playbook, fractional CFO playbook. So for those that are looking into that, go in there. But yeah, reach out to me on LinkedIn. And then my website is www.stratego intel.com. you can learn more about what Stratego is all about, too. Love it. Love it. Listeners, take Albert above all of these offers. Subscribe to his podcast as well. And most importantly, I mean, I will tell you, he's one of the most active, passionate, authentic people you will meet. Connect with him, follow him, and most importantly, comment and share and listen to him. He will share with you what he believes will be most critical in terms of what you can and should do in terms of staying relevant, impactful, and future ready in terms of your next move. Because he's. He is more willing than anybody to give, just to give. And so, Albert, thank you for all that you do to just share and to be so personal and provide your personal edge to all of us. Thank you for sharing with us today, too. My pleasure. No, thank you so much. I will add one thing. For those that are out there that are doing F3, keep doing it. And for those that don't know what that is, take a look. We're doing workouts. It doesn't matter what creed or background or what you believe in. We want people just fellowship men to come out and. And by the way, women, we love you too, but I'm just saying this is just for. Sometimes we isolate. I thought you. You said God bless you. God bless you. Tune in. Thank you so much for that. I appreciate that and those words. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And listeners, if you enjoyed this episode today and have recommendations for people that inspire you, like Albert inspires all of us, please reach out to me, reach out to our guests too, as well. And we'd love to bring you people like this who inspire all of us listeners. And Albert, stay well, stay safe and stay connected to all of us. And stay. Stay tuned for future episodes of Level Up. And thank you for joining us today. Thank you for tuning in to the Level up podcast. Subscribe so you don't miss the next episode. More stories, insights and connections to help you level Up.