Turning Data Into Decisions That Matter With Valerie Martin

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. Hi everyone. Nick Arako here, host of the Newly Reimagined and here to stay. Level Up. I am founder and CEO of CFO Alliance. This is not another boring podcast. No way. I don't do that. If you know me and you know my guests, this is the furthest thing from it. Level up is where the most forward thinking leaders in finance and operations and innovation and entrepreneurship and everything not boring come together. Not just from the CFO alliance community, but from beyond to share what it really takes to lead in today's unpredictable world. Each episode I have the pleasure to sit down with finance leaders, operational leaders, tofos. We're going to talk about that business and industry leaders who are redefining what it's like to step up, lean in and level up. These are not theory driven interviews. No freaking way. I would bore you to death if I had to do that. These are raw, they're real and they're packed with insights you can use. Past guests have included power players like Andrew Platt. I mean check out that episode. Roland. Somebody who like constantly saying what can I do? Not what can I say, but what can I do? Daniel Nelson, roll up your sleeves. Samit Agarwal and visionaries Alana Estridge. I mean like give that person a stage and like she'll blow it up. Aaron Wilkins and Tracy Williams. Tracy Williams is someone that when she left her CEO role, they had to hire four C suite leaders to fill that seat. Boom. I got a powerhouse for you here today too. So if you're a finance leader navigating change, challenge or opportunity, this is your podcast. Today I'm joined by Valerie Martin. So if Silicon Valley taught finance leaders anything, it's that speed breaks companies. Unless finance is strong enough to keep up. Valerie more than knows this. She lives this. So we're going to dive into Valerie's own journey, insights and leadership vision in just a moment. I'm going to tell you more about her in just a moment. But I will tell you that Level up is proudly brought to you by Oracle netsuite. The number one cloud ERP trusted by thousands of high growth finance led companies around the world. NetSuite gives CFOs and finance leaders real time, visibility, automation and most importantly, control across their financials, operations and planning so they can lead with confidence and scale, with speed. Something I just mentioned Valerie does. 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 that keeps pace with Your business and NetSuite is your platform, learn more at NetSuite.com or talk to us and over 1500 of the 10,000 members of the CFO alliance, they'll tell you all about it. Now, let's dive in. And as you know, on Level Up, I do not use AI to write my intros of my guests, because I know my guests, because everything we do in the CFO alliance is dialogue driven. So I get to hear their voices before you do. And I've gotten to hear the voice of Valerie Martin in our roundtables, in our one on ones, all online and in person. So I'm going to tell you a little bit about her. Okay, so Valerie Martin is a Silicon Valley finance operator who has spent her career at the intersection of growth, revenue and decision making. I mean, like, okay, I could stop there, but I'm going to tell you more. She's not the kind of finance leader who sits quietly, I could never use that word quietly in the back of the room polishing anything that looks like a spreadsheet. Forget that. She's built her reputation as a partner to the CEO, the board, and the investors in the fight, working shoulder to shoulder with the business and the operating teams to turn strategy into numbers that actually work. And the last part actually work in this day and age has gotten so freaking complicated, right? I mean, she's seen the good, the bad and the ugly of scaling companies in the Valley. Hyper growth, shifting markets, investor pressure, and the constant tension between speed and financial discipline. And that last part is where I started. That's where I got to know Valerie, because I think she really gets that. And that's the environment we're operating in right now in 2026 and beyond. And what makes Valerie especially interesting is that she's one of those rare finance leaders who understands that the modern CFO role is no longer just about control. It's about judgment, influence, and helping companies make smarter decisions faster. So today we're going to get into the real stuff with Valerie, because she's built her career on making sure why the relationship between finance and sales and revenue still breaks down, because it continues to what Silicon Valley gets right and wrong about scaling and what it actually takes for finance leaders to level up from reporting the numbers to, to shaping outcomes. So Valerie welcome to level up. Let's get right into it. Thank you. Excited to be here. All right, so I always ask this question because I have to know, because everybody's answer is different. Where did the initial spark to kind of get into this world of finance and operations and, you know, that intersection of. You can't even attempt to want to grow and drive a business if you don't understand what this business is and the numbers behind it. And let me help you do that. Come from. What's the story and the spark for Valerie? Well, for me, it's all about curiosity. So I wanted to know what was going on. I wanted to know where the action is. I wanted to know, like, how decisions were made. So it's like instead of bringing your seat at the table, you bring the table. So you go where the things are broken and you're trying to figure it out. Like, it's like a puzzle. I don't know, it's like breaking down all these pieces where it seems complex, but you put them in buckets and you understand the pieces and you tell a story. So I think it's the concept of being curious, and I love a good story. So being boat of it and being in the action works very well for me. Was that you as a kid, even? I mean, like, I'm one of six kids, so I have to fight for myself. Where do you fall? So I'm the second oldest girl, and it was all about, like, how do I make sure that I have a voice, make sure I know what's going on, make sure I negotiate and make sure I actually have, you know, decisions that are my attention. So it was all about the. I don't know, I would say the same thing, right? Being curious, negotiation skills, making sure you. You find your seat on the table. I love that. I love that word. I love that word. Because you can't negotiate unless you understand what the sides are, right? So there's where your curiosity had to begin. You can't have a side unless you know there's another side to it. It's all about, I don't know, I call it psychology. Safety is understanding everybody's motivations. And from there, then, okay, well, you know, what keeps them up at night? What actually keeps them, you know, what they're interested in, and how do you drive that towards a common North Star? So that's what I. Valerie, don't. Don't you think that's so interesting? It's so counter to how finance has been positioned for the last several decades as the CF No. Or this quiet introvert. You just painted a picture of something completely altered to that. Yeah, well, like numbers. It could feel like finance or numbers or operating is actually could be boring if you think about it. But actually that's fun because that's where the conversation starts. So it starts about getting alignment. What does that number say? What does it really mean to you? The so what, what's next and where do we go? And then you paint the story. So I feel like if you take that and you shape it on like anything's possible. But let's figure out how to get there. I don't know. I think it's super interesting. It's beyond bookkeeping. Yeah, yeah. Because that's just pulling it together. It's what you do with it. So what was your first gig in finance? Like what? Like where did it all start? Well, I started in fashion at l' Oreal because I thought I was worth it. There you go. You're owning the tagline. Oh, I did, I did. I loved it. I loved it. It was actually we were building a brand new distribution center in Canada. I'm originally from Montreal and it was all about figuring out the cost of goods of like a lipstick versus a shampoo. And actually my key takeaway is the same 12. I shouldn't be saying this. It's a lot of the same ingredients in each product, but it's either more marketing or duality or so on. But figure out the negotiation. How does it work? Like I've learned a lot, but I started in, I would say in the beauty industry. Cosmetics. Yeah. So this. So how does a start in the beauty industry influence how you approach a role in finance? Interesting. Well, it's also so in finance and non finance in the beauty industry. I don't know if you noticed this, but there's always a color of the year, a trend of the year and everything was the year and tech and that moves but more slowly. Right. But in tech there's a new product that's going on live like yesterday. You need to move fads and the trade off. So I actually found tech more exciting because it was more about trade off. How do you move fast decision making, how you do this, whether the competitors do and what are you doing different, how many ahead you can go. And I think the possibility, as much as it's stressful for me was adrenaline. I loved it. So I love playing with it. A lot of pivoting, I would say. Yeah, yeah. So in finance, just like in fashion, mistakes are made. Tell me about what you did. And a lesson you learned the hard way in that first gig or one of the first gigs that you had where you were like, okay, you never got. You don't get it right always. But what can I learn from this? Yeah. Oh, it's funny because I'll be very vulnerable and tell you my biggest mistake. And it could have been a career crash, but I was tasked, I was more like mid level management at the time. And I was tasked to actually create a policy across all the boards and making sure that we redid all the policies worldwide for the discounting. So imagine global company, a lot of stakeholders, multiple language all over the place. It was crazy. And I'm like, oh, this will be fun, let me figure it out. And I tackle it on process, on process and numbers and everything goes out. And I had my checklist, who's going to approve the decision and how it's going to work. And it was great. It was a lot of negotiating, but it got me, you got me to having an award, you know, an award of get shit done award from the CEO. And it was amazing. The following year I did. They asked me to task to tweak a couple of things on pricing. I did the exact same thing. And I was close to say, okay, Valerie, this is not going to work out. Like you got complaints. And I was like, wait, what? And what I realized is that when you're going through a decision, there's different layers. So it's not because, let's just say the VP or the CEO that approved it, their team did not follow. So what happened is when the VP changed roles, then the bubble came back and says, oh my God, this is not going to work operationally in our system and it's not going to tag, oh, this is great. On paper, it's not great. How are you going to actually implement it? It's like, how do you implement a decision where the system was not ready? That's where things crash. But I've learned it very, very early on. So it was more like, oh, now I get it. So one thing I usually do is go different layers of the organization or cross functional to say, yes, this is great, but can we make it happen? And is it, Are we ready for that type of change? And how operational does it work and what does it tech versus just a check mark. So for me it was huge because I was so like, well, this works too. It shifted my mindset of how to do things, how it should do in policy and kind of the typical finance, like, let's look at Actuals and let look at everything that works reporting the past to know you're moving to transformation. What does that mean? It's. You need to be agile, you need to pivot. You need a policy organization. You cannot leave anybody behind. You know, and what's the outliers? And it's funny because I always see this as, you know, when you're on the highway and people get stopped, you're like, oh my God, what that person did or so on, and you're like, is it a red car? Did they speed? Or whatever? But it's because there's an outlier. And like, it's like those are the ones where now I'm actually looking at the outliers either in surveys or anything because that's what is the most telling. And it gives you your range of how you need to navigate and move. Yeah, it's interesting that you say that because I feel like now more and more individuals and enterprises are starting to pay a lot more attention to those outliers. You got that lesson learned earlier on you. Maybe you were ahead of us in some ways. I don't know. It was painful. It was painful. But I flipped it around. I flipped it around. Like I pivot. I flipped it around, but I had to put my ego aside. I'm like, okay, well I got this. Let's, let's pivot. Yeah. So you know, budgets, forecasts, board decks, we all know them. I mean, and you're, you seem to be someone who can take the visual and also once again, probably real strong strength for you. Have it tell a story. Can you. Is there a time when the numbers became the story and it changed a company's direction or a change in individual's direction? Can you give us an example of it? And why do so many finance leaders struggle with this? I mean, I think some of us are getting better at it. Yeah. Yeah. But why. Why were some like you so good at it and some others struggle with it? And is there a time where you can give us a concrete example where it really shifted the direction of an enterprise or a, or, or, or a project or, or a product line or something? Yeah. And let me tag it to something. So I do think. So I do think storytelling is where finance skills needs to lead in. Like I think I could go on on where I think teams skill sets they need. But storytelling is a good one and, but before I go on the why, let me give you an example. So basically when you tell a story, you could have the perfect analysis. You could have like everything Perfect on your slide. Which by the way Valerie, what we were taught, like you have to have that. I feel like, I feel like our education as finance leaders, so much of it was taught for that first part. Get it right. Yeah. Not tell it right. Yeah. But you know what it is. Let me like but now you're true. Because at the end of the day finance has accountability. We have accountability in our role to get the numbers right and be okay on reporting either for earnings or boards and so on. Great. But with the level of data that we have today in the market, the level of technology and tools and we really sit at the cross functional of product, customer, sales, we have access and we're kind of non biased. We're like, okay, we have all this information and you leverage the skills. You've learned what's right, what's not, what's connected, what's pipeline means to finance versus sales versus like you need to really reform that core skillset that's in us that's going to work. However, how do you make data transform to information? You could use technology now and boards and so on, how you translate it to insights. That's when the partnering like as a finance person you need a partner and really understand the so what and dig and be curious come in. But what drives it to action is how you tell your story. And then people are busy, there's a lot of action. Then what comes in is like how do you prioritize? What do you need to put on it? How do you understand the person will make a decision? Do they like to have the data ahead or not? What's going to be triggered? So that comes back of understanding the partnering but beyond the numbers, it's how they think, how they resonate. So a lot of it that comes influencing. So for me it's like, it's like that progression where you do need the core, you do need to leverage the tools because you need to get decisions more faster out there. And the reason was really it's blocking. Like we say we want everything faster but it's like how do you drive those decision? And I think finance, if you tell the story or point in the right direction and again forget the problem of tomorrow, what's the problem of today and then yes, you need to look in the future too. But forget this cadence of what you need to do and you set that architecture, then things will go go quick. But the story is like a number doesn't mean anything. If like you go in a QBR and you're like oh great, numbers are Great. Things are great, but so what? Well, we're going to take action. Great. But it's like how do you tell the story will drive. Oh my God. I need to pay attention to this. This is a decision. Yeah, yeah. And I look, I think part of it is that so many of the CFOs grew up in the with accounting as the basis and foundation for the pathway to CFO. And you fast forward to 2026, that's not typical now of the pathway to CFO. It's not even the majority of of those in the CFO seat in the mid market and emerging CFO space. Right. And so it does change the bit of, of how I got here and how I then prioritize and how I act in that role and how I influence in that role then too. Yeah, right. It's super important and it's interesting because you take the topic about, you know, as a leader like how do you build a good finance team? Like how does it work? Right. So and making sure it delivers because at the end of the day it needs to deliver impact. But a lot of it is yes about architecture, how you do your org structure, how does it tie with the limit. Like that means a lot of. But that's only the foundation. If you look at the best team I've seen it's across different business unit or different complexity and you could separate your B2B versus your B2C and have in centers of excellence or look at the funnel cell, whatever. But the structure really it helps understand the operating reality. So you'll go deep understanding how operation works and the decision and the bottleneck. But I don't think the structure is enough. It comes back to your question is the skill sets are moving quickly. So if you look at for me what I really think where it's going, there's really three things and there's more. But if I just go to the core of what I've seen personally, first of all is like the business understanding. Right. So if you understand what the company creates value. So not understanding, yes we do a product and yes we do like a lipstick or tech or whatever it is. It's like how do you bring value and what's the value of the company and how do we make sure we differentiate? And every things you do is always prioritize about that company value. So that's kind of number one and that brings a lot of curiosity. Right. Like it's not what is it? I don't think you're going to get the heart of that without that curiosity now and that mechanisms that you need to deploy in how you execute in that seat and embody that in the way that you interact and communicate up, down and throughout in your respective role. You can't inform, right? Exactly. Yeah. And I think the second is data fluency. Right. So now we don't only have financial data, we have marketing data, sales data, we have market data. Like we have all the above now we even have scenario modeling with AI like it's the bar is raising so quickly. So if you look at, you know, I was at a conference yesterday where the data was actually a tool where if you had your source of truth, everything was connected through all your system workday and whatever it is. But the question was, okay, well now you have agents that's actually doing your task where they're actually now doing modeling skills. So then where does finance sit now? So if all these generative works on the analysis. So when it becomes a finance bar is it's not challenging the how you do it or the architecture, the complexity and things. You know, there's always situations, right. But it's like how do you really raise. What does that mean? What's that translation layer? What's that interpretation layer and what does the single set. And that's where finance is going to be critical because we're going to see everything across the board. We'll have all our tools faster. But what does it mean? So getting closer to date like to that, to how to interpret and translate and talk to same language is very, very, very key. And third is exactly what you mentioned early on, the storytelling. So it's not reporting the numbers because they're like okay, great, but how do you get leaders to understand what those numbers mean? What does it mean for sales, what does it mean for marketing? What does it mean on our P and L and what do we need to do next? And fortunately I think this is super exciting time for finance because we sit at the intersection of all of it. Like finance is no, largely only I don't know our forecast, for example are reporting the three statements where at this interstation when we have a lot of data, we use our core skill, as you mentioned, validation source of truth, make sure our process work. What does it mean? You larian curiosity, you learn okay, how what does it mean that interpretation layer? And then basically you're driving decision faster. So you're at the center of all of it. So for me I think it's great. And the last piece when you work with C staff or above is like now you could Drive accountability because you drive whatever data it is, what matrix and then you can put a structure, whatever you mean, goes look like what we need to do in our goals. But then the accountability creates clarity. And if you get clarity then do you move faster? Yeah, so, so it's so interesting our story, we got connected because I, I've seen you in action. I knew you. No, no, I do. I've seen you in action. I've seen you work with early stage companies and you helping stand up finances and execution engine as an advisor, as a board member and someone saying, listen, I'm going to help you ensure that, that we position you for growth and scalability and sustainability in action. And then I know your reputation as standing up FPA as an execution engine, not as a forecasting function. Right. However, I've seen the dumbing down of FPA in the last year because I've seen it being, I've seen some organizations say oh now I just push the button and the button just spits it out. And I'm sorry. So frustrated by the removal of the human factor in it. Too soon, too soon. And it's, it's, It's Friday at 12:30pm Eastern Time, 9:30am Pacific Time. So that's when I get this number or that's when I get this. And I don't, I don't need to know why or I don't go a level deeper. I'm so concerned that it's, it's going back to being a reporting engine, not an execution engine. How do we pull that back? Why has that happened in the last six to 12 months? Is it just a market response that'll course correct yet again? Is it just a flattening of the FPA area? But it's really bizarre to me that it happened so quickly that we saw this compression. Yeah, well, it's interesting because, and I know you're not an offender as the architect because you built these high performing FP and A functions. No, no, no, no, no, I get it. I think it's interesting because I see maybe pockets of that, but I don't see trends. So if I assume a pocket where you're sitting in a role and you think your role is just pushing data, well, you're in the wrong role then because basically yeah, yeah, yeah, you're going to be replaced. The wrong people or the wrong, you got the wrong people. So it comes back to what managers or leaders are doing about it and what's the culture they want to do in their team success look like and Even be clear about what your team is expected to be done. Because if you want to be, I say left behind but let's admit it like in order to technology is not going to replace humans but it's going to replace task. And if you think your job in finance is a task and it's great. And I always see technology in two buckets, right? Because technology could be noise but if technology could replace to get your analysis quicker, your data streamlined, save you hours. Like I was looking on this LLM the other day and built my three statements in two second flats. I'm like, well that gives me more time to make judgments and decisions. So put in two buckets. Anything that will help you to be more efficient, get you to point A, to point B or even as a thought partner. Have you thought about like it's amazing. And then on the other side where the, the human, the center is always going to be the one that will know their critical thinking, the judgment and how to make decisions. So if your role is to just push number you're just in the wrong lane and you have like it's a choice. So I haven't seen a lot of those but I do understand if you're stuck on that then how can you leverage it to move more that judgment and critical thinking and what it is like for me my dream to is see technology challenging me. Valerie, is this good? Is this bad? Have you thought about this? Like that's where I want it to go. It's not yet, but it's at the point where you know, if it's not triggering the risk and opportunity, I'm like great. Well it's going to help me with get all the data so I could actually think about judgment and how does that go? So are we. So, so it's interesting. I, we did a Texas swing last week through Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio. And our Dallas members when we gathered said, seriously said it's time, it's time to. We know CFO alliance has been around for 15 years, but it's time to change the name to COFO Chief Operating Finance Officer alliance because that's what we really are. And the operating is not to take the COO role. It's an adjective. We're operating finance leaders. And so and, and so I said can you. What does that mean? You know, it's not a threat to the CEO. But what does it mean? What are they really saying? What should the, what should everybody take from that? Not a, not a pointy elbow. It's not saying I want More what's it really saying to everybody when a group of finance leaders say, hey, what we want everyone to know is that we are what? Yeah, well, in my mind, it's like, sorry, I like to see it as like, you're flying a plane. So when you fly a plane, there's different instruments. Right. So you're like, okay, you know, the marketing, you know, like, whatever. It's like the same thing at altitude or distance or so on. And gas. Right. But in order to be able to connect the dots, this is where finance is sitting. You're connected to dots and you're able to tie it to where we're trying to land. So our financial statements or whatever strategic bets you need to do and how you translate it to land the plane, that's where you go. So it's no longer finance. You report the number, it's finance. Like, help me understand what everything means and how do you connect it and where does it go? So that core skill of, you know, making sure there's process, definition, taxonomy, where everything work means the same thing. We're not debating numbers anymore and we're not negotiating. We're moving the conversation of, okay, all this is working and there's that structure. We all know what those numbers mean. Then it becomes, okay, what do we do about it? What's next? How do we go? And that comes back when. Where do you line the plane and how fast do you want to line the plane? Which direction do you want to go? A detour or not? Or do you want to go straight or fast? Like, that's where I think, you know, we could call it co, whatever you want, but that layer where we have access to data, we know how to structure, we know how to. But how to connect, you need to be curious and connect to the business. You can't do it alone. And this is where I see it more as like copilot versus we're all trying to do it, but the story comes back at the end of the day, are you making money or not? What are we doing? And. And that's where the finance could help direct and predict it. Because it's all about predictability. And at the end of the day, that's what people want to know. They want finance, they want to trust them. In order to trust them, well, you need predictability and transparency. Yeah. Those two traits lend itself to really strong leadership capability and applied the right way to the right team and in the right environment, wild success as a leader as well. Tim Natty and I, CFO of Savannah Bananas Launched this joust series. And one of the first jousts we did was, if you're a really, really successful cfo, why not take the CEO seat? And I said, why not? And he said, why would you. What do you think of that? Should you take it? If you're damn good at the CFO spot, why not? Why not take the CEO seat? You could if you want. It comes back about accountability and roles and responsibility and where you can drive the lever and where you can make impact. All the skill are very transferable if you think about it. But it's like making sure there's clear lanes of who's. It comes back to that, but it comes back. Okay, so if you're saying that what do leaders have? Critical thinking, strategic vision. They understand. Like, they understand there's financial savvy and that's where the CFO has. Yeah, but then you need to be that visionary and you need to push. But also the risk taking. So, yeah, you could be either or, but the question is whether, which responsibility, what lane, and to make sure you have the team to support you. So I see you. I see you. One of the reasons why I call on you so frequently now, when you know, because we make these connections that count within our community, one to one, one to many, and we created this safe environment for what are you seeing that I'm not? Or what have you done that I haven't, that I could learn from? That's what we're known for in this community. And I call on you frequently now. You have so many runways that you have in front of you. What, how determine what's next for you in terms of your own career. I mean, you've done so much in a short period of time and you're so willing to talk about mistakes you've made to help others avoid them too. Like what's. How do you prioritize what's next for you? You see so much in front of you. What's the next chapters that you're looking at too? I'm just curious. No, no, it's a good question because I've asked that myself too. But I really like to sit at the intersection where companies outgrown their current process or they don't know where they're going. So that intersection of either growth or transformation, or they haven't defined their strategy and they actually try to figure out how to get it. So a leader that I understand the numbers, I understand that, like how to. How do you get your North Star? How do you translate it to strategy? How do you create the operating engine to make it happen? How do you build teams about it and how do you have the tough conversations? So it's basically that. And if you translate in and find finance, I see it a lot as a strategic finance business partner or a either it could be a change agent in finance. How do you get it to the next seat? So it's definitely fits under the CFO organization as it fits under FP&A, but it has to have that. You know, every company has different size of maturity, but what are they trying to do? Are they trying to displace, are they trying to transform? Are they trying to scale? And that's where you're like, okay, well I need somebody that comes in that takes this complexity, simplify it and make sure it actually wraps up and we have clear sight of what to do. Yeah, I, I talked to, I referenced you in Austin when we were talking about a company at a growth stage needing someone like you when they're relying on heroics instead of structure. Ah, yeah, well, that makes sense. It does. All of a sudden they're relying all on and prioritization becomes the issue and they need to bring someone like you in to say, okay, we got here on heroics. We can't do that going forward. Let me be the one to say, okay, let's put the structure in place now for scale. It's kind of architecture, architecture, operation and operator. But it's interesting, I love this plane analogy so much because when the plane, you're like in a flight and there's no turbulence, things are working great. You're just. When there's turbulence, you just hope things work right. So it's a question of when you're starting seeing these V bum. Okay, which one of the instruments are telling you what. And if everybody doesn't understand what they mean or how they connect or they're going well, then you know, it's probably too late. But hopefully it doesn't happen on the planes. But it's a question of how do you get in a business? Because at the end of the day you're driving towards that North Star. Yeah. And it all comes back about capital allocation, trade offs. Like what does it mean? How does it go? And it's interesting because I was in a different podcast yesterday and it was go to market versus finance. And they're like, well, finance is validator forecast and I'm not going to give you my number. And it's afflated. I'm like, fine, but okay, let's let me break it down for you. Right. If it's a pocket of number and you're saying it's going to be X, I need to translate that to revenue. Because when I'm going to have my revenue, my. Your pipeline is against your goal. I need to translate it to revenue. And through the revenue, I'll tell you how much budget you have. What we need to judge and I need a guide. This marketing needs more dollars to help you close a deal or do I need to ship the X and Z and create a spiff so you can make more money? But because you're hiding that transparency, it's like how do I move to action? So it comes back a lot about once you create that. But it brings another interesting part though. In order to do that, we talk about finance and architecture. We talked about CEO is culture. How do you build that culture where it's okay to be transparent and be able to make mistakes and understanding ranges. So this is where finance could also think outside the box of how do you create frameworks of confidence level or ranges so people are more trust about what's good, best and worse. So you already have a range. At least you're not guessing a million off and that person feels more safe. So like you play that psychology safety. Yeah, yeah. Don't make it a game. It's not a game of risk and you're not playing against. But then they need to be comfortable. So it's like do you create a structure or a culture to reward? Not always the carrot. It's like how do you make it a learning environment so you could constantly pivot, you know? Yes. I think gone are the days of, of us versus them. It's a we equation. I mean it's just I. It's not. This isn't the way it was. It is. It's completely different now. No, the silos, this, their silos are broken. Like there's no more silos. And now it's like how do you connect it? How you sew it together? Basically. Yeah. And honestly, you get stronger together. You know, that's the reality. You'll go stronger together because yeah, everybody is covering one of your blind spot. Like I don't. I will never say I know it all and if I don't know it, I don't know it. But how you get together, you learn and you pivot and it like diverse teams will perform better. So how do you get that diversity, you know? Yeah. So what's something that, that most people don't know about you that you were willing to share with us. Habit, some rituals, quirk or something. Well, I. I recently did this MIT class on neuroscience this year, and it was my way of trying to figure out, like, how do you get. Because we all know we need to pivot in this age of AI, things are moving fast and they're crazy. And it's a lot about being adaptable and, you know, resilience. And I'm like, okay, well, great, but how does it work in your body? And my quirk right now is I need a drink. 0.5 of a liter of water per 30 pounds that I weigh. So I'm constantly drinking water because it's helping me make better decision. But try it out. You'll try this out. I was laughing because it was an experiment we had to do. It comes back to, you need to sleep well, you need to hydrate. But if you concentrate on the hydrate, I always think you need great water to have great, great skin. You know, hydrates created balances. You know, a glass of, you know, a cocktail you have at night. But try drinking at least a liter to close to 1.5 in the morning and pace it with your coffee and you'll see how you're more awake and your decisions are faster. It's so interesting. I never thought about it. I'm gonna try it now, and I think our listeners should try it too and see if it. See what it does. I was told that it's so funny. They're like, you know how you need to sleep eight hours or you need to exercise or take breaks, but my quirks is this, it's water. And I do know every, I think hour or so, just a five minute stretch or actually dance break. I put music and I dance with my dog and I come back. It's like, how do you reset? That's the only way you could survive resilience. So I don't know if that's the answer you want it, but this works for me. You threw it out there. What kind of dog? Oh, I got a pit mix. I got. It's a pit terrier mix. His name is Trouble and he's adorable. Trouble. That tells us something about you too. I know Valerie in Trouble. Yes. I love it. I love it. So if people want to get to know you better, what's the best way for people to connect with you? Well, currently I'm very active on LinkedIn, so feel free to reach out on LinkedIn. Just mention that you heard me on this podcast. I know how to connect. I usually don't. You know, I love Strangers. But I want to make sure that I know that I'm connected somewhere. So actually she can layer that with the conversation and see if this is interested. But yeah, reach out. I. I'm happy to learn from all of you, too, you know. Then I have this question for you. The top trait that you're going to seek out when you have to make your next hire, when you're in that next role that you decide, what will it be beyond intellectual curiosity and critical thinking. And I ask you that because I. I think it'll be something that you believe will complement you. What will it be? Well, I need somebody that is courageous. Let me explain that. So I think I mentioned a lot about you. Probably I need somebody that could be agile, could pivot, because it's just technology, but I kind of see that as a given. And we talk about curiosity, but what about courageous? So you're at the point where you need to be able to challenge. Like imagine AI spinning all these. I'm just going futuristic, or even what it is today. Courageous of asking the question of what does it mean? Or courageous to say. Have you thought about this? Our courageous is. I'm not sure this is right, but courageous to be able to kind of step up, because I think we need more of that. I love it. I love it. Well, you inspire me and you give me energy and you inspire us in our community and I hope that. Listen, I think you inspired our listeners today, too. So I. Valerie, thank you for joining us. You have lots more to share and you share so, so openly. I. I thank you on behalf of the CFO alliance community, too. And I thank you for. Welcome. Thank you for the cf. Yeah, absolutely. So this is why we do the Level up series, to hear what's really happening in these roles and to hear how peers are making their next plays. And so don't just read about leadership. Connect and learn from people and inspiring leaders like Valerie Martin. These days you need this type of connection, this type of visibility, this type of real inspiration. And that's what CFO alliance is here for. That's also why Oracle Netsuite sponsors that this. Connect with them. Connect with us. If you like this episode, Please subscribe to LevelUp and stay tuned for more. If you have recommendations for guests, connect with me, connect with Valerie. Let us know. And most importantly, I want you to stay, well, stay connected. And we want you to level up in your careers and lives. Thank you, thank you, thank you for tuning in to the Level up podcast. Subscribe so you don't miss the next. Next episode, more stories, insights and connections to help you level up.