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From DataReels, this is FPNAtoday.
Helloeveryone, welcome to FPNAtoday.
I am your host PaulBarnhurst, aka the FPNAguy.
FPNA today is brought to you by DataReels, the Financial Planning and Analysis platform for Excelusers.
Every week we welcome a leader from the world of financial planning andanalysis.
Today we are delighted to be joined by KaylaPingel.
Kayla, welcome to theshow.
HeyPaul. Really excited to have youhere.
Let me just give a little bit of a background about aKayla.
She comes to us from SantaMonica,California.
She earned her bachelor's degree in accounting from Cal StateNorthridge.
She's worked in multiple finance and accounting roles for various companies over hercareer.
She currently works as a senior director of finance at2K, and I'll add on a personalnote, she's a big dodgersfan, so I appreciatethat.
Even if it was a painfulpostseason.
It was a CF forsure. So we like to start every interview with kind of a funquestion.
And so what we typically start off is what was the most challenging or hardest budgeting experience you've ever had in yourcareer?
I think forme, I've had a lot probably throughout mycareer.
I think every year you get something new forsure, but I think probably the most challenging one would have been in2020.
I was at Fox Sports at thetime, our budget season kicked off in Marchgenerally.
Sowe, we're a worldshutdown.
Sports comes to a screechinghall, and I'm trying to do a budget for nextyear, not knowing when sports will return toair, when live events willreturn.
There's, youknow, not much in the way of content when you build a entire network around livecontent.
Pretty much every day we're runningscenarios.
Just, Imean, literally a different stereo everyday.
A lot ofuncertainty. Not only are we just testing out all these differentthings, butI, we had not built models that were dynamic enough to handleuncertainty.
So at the sametime, we are reacting to try to rebuild our models to account for things that we didn't know what werepossible.
So we spent a lot of time doing that a lot of longhours.
Plus, youknow, you're working from home for the first time withlike, you grabbed your monitor keyboard on the way out and trying to figure out how to make all thatwork.
So it was definitely challenging a lot of longhours, but we didit.
I can relate obviously not livecontent, not to thatextent, but I worked for a business where a lot of our different units were based on driving because we did insuranceclaims.
So if nobody'sdriving, nobody's getting in anaccident.
So we had businessunits, you saw90% yourreduction.
I supported a lot of cardealers.
And when theyclose, obviously they all wanted to cancel their product andsee,yes, lots ofscenarios, lots of longnights.
It wasquite, quite the nightmare on myend.
Youknow, fromyou, what did youlearn?
What was maybe your key takeaway from that experience going throughthat?
Ithink, Imean, I'm beingflexible, being able to pivotquickly.
Imean, you'd wake up and there'd be new news in a new scenario and you'djust, youknow, whatever I did yesterday is going in the trash and I'm starting fromscratch.
And then certainly longterm, I've learned to build models that are a little bit more dynamic and can handle a little bit moreuncertainty.
Yeah,no, forsure, dynamic models can make a bigdifference.
I think we've all built a few of those models where you'relike,oh, that isn't easy toadjust.
Yeah,yeah. I'll get back to you next week and then we shouldn't take fiveminutes.
No, not the way the model wasbuilt.
Yeah,exactly. Allright.
So we've covered the challengingbudget.
Can you talk to us a little bit aboutyourself?
Just give us your background and how you ended up where you're attoday.
Yeah. So my board in recent LosAngeles, which is why I'm a doctorfan.
So, but I know there's not many of us outthere.
Like yousaid, I've graduated from Cal StateNorthridge.
My degrees inaccounting, I also actually became aCPA, although I've been activenow, but I am aCPA.
I started my career at Stony Pictures in corporate consolidation for accounting and FPNAactually.
So very different from being in adivision, forsure.
And then shortly afterthat, I went to a startup company fortelemedicine.
And at thetime, telemedicine was like a very newidea.
But that was a really cool experience like wearing a lot of differenthats, doing a lot of different roles andresponsibilities.
Imean, everything payrollaccounting,finance, even like HR and benefits I wasdoing.
So that was a really goodexperience, like just kind of getting exposed to different types of business and trying to figure things out on thefly.
And that forthat,I, that's when I made the move over to FoxSports.
And I was there in a hybrid role at the time for FPNA andaccounting.
They weren't separate at thetime.
And we worked through that for 18months.
And then I got an opportunity with Warner Brothers to go over and work on a project where they were working the outsource their accounting functions to an outsource company inIndia.
And it was a really cool opportunity because I got to travel around the world to a lot of places I would have not normallygone.
It was really my first experience managingpeople.
But what I realized in that was I probably accounting is not for me that I wanted to be closer to operatingdivision.
Luckily forme, that was about the time Fox Sports was launching Fox Sports1.
They're new cablenetwork.
My boss called me andsaid,hey, I got a newopening.
Would it be interesting comingback?
And so I made the jump back to FoxSports.
And that's where I spent the next seven years of my career just managing the PNL for the broadcast networksports.
So that's really looking at like your marquee events NFLbaseball, the woke upNASCAR.
And then as well as overseeing the shared service functions that serviced all the all the networks at FoxSports.
Afterthat, I was there until late2020.
And then the opportunity at 2k came up to come in as they were expanding their finance function and come in and at 2know, I oversee the full PNL for the business working really closely with ourleadership, assessing risk and opportunities also working with our parent company take two on our FPNAMforecasting.
In addition to full PNLresponsibilities, I have some oversight over the publishing functionsfinance, which is really marketing our commercial and growth teams product management and our studio sharedservices.
So working with a lot of different businesspartners, really getting into the details of what they do everyday.
Yeah, it sounds like you definitely have a lot of a lot of partners you're working withthere.
One thing I just want to ask you that you talk about during yourintervention, you mentioned that you got the opportunityto, youknow, helpoffshore, youknow, to a shared servicefunction, thirdparty, any advice you would offer for others thinking of doingthat.
I've seen it a few times and I know it can always be achallenge.
So justcurious, maybe one or two kind of takeaways or lessons you learned from that experience that you can offerothers.
Definitely a challenge forsure.
I think it was also my first time managing a team ingeneral.
So really working to set clear expectations in SLAs with the team to make sure and really doing regular check ins and sayinglike, are we deliveringyet, youknow, and are we keeping our stakeholdershappy?
So that was reallykey. I think the other thing is just working and understanding cultural norms of othercultures, letting you're dealing withthat.
And, youknow, that's helpful in finding what motivates people because it may not be the sameeverywhere.
And that was a really good experience aswell.
I still talked to actually some of my teamthere, like it's been I think 12years.
So that'sgreat. And I've had the opportunity to manage some people in India and do someoffshoring.
And so I can relate to what yousaid, the importance of the SLA and learning theculture.
I think thoseare, youknow, greatadvice.
So, youknow, kind of next question I have here is you've spent most of your career in the sports media and entertainmentindustry.
What's attracted you to thatindustry?
What's kept you kind of working in thatindustry?
Growing up inL.A. You're always kind of close toit, going toschool, youknow, kids parents wereinvolved.
My dad worked in the business aswell.
So Ithink, youknow, it's kind of a natural thing that I always saw myself gettinginto.
I think I obviously tested a few different types of businesses along the way in mycareer.
And it was really realizing thatone, I enjoy watching sports ontelevision.
So it makes it a lot easier when you are working on a product that you actually really care aboutsucceeding.
And Imean, I used to saylike, I'd be watching a football game on theweekend.
And while I'm enjoying and cheering for my team or whateverelse, I'm also thinking about like the businessimplications, what it might be for my business later on down the season and down theline.
And even thinking about like risks andopportunities, youknow, associated withrevenue.
And if the game isn't goingwell, it's ablowout.
Like, chances are your ratings aredown.
And youknow, your revenue may be impacted or youget, youknow, the postseasonbaseball, you get you are getting seven games in a world series or the ChicagoCubs, the year 2016 when Chicago Cubs went seven games and ended their drought of 100 and plusyears.
Like, those are bignumbers.
And it's exciting to be a part ofit.
Finance can be a little dry attimes.
So I think really working on a product isexciting.
And then with2k, it's being part of likefuture, thefuture.
I think I've entertainedit, youknow, related tosports, really close tosports.
Still, it's kept me there being on a product that keeps me engaged andexcited.
Yeah, that makessense.
If you have a passion for it and you really enjoy sports and you're able to relate that to what you do forwork, I could see how that can make it moreexciting.
And, youknow, that'sinteresting.
Obviously, I don't think about thatone.
I'm watching agame. It'slike,oh,wait, that's ablowout.
How that impact ratings or there's times when they may think ratings like when the red socks came back from three nothing to beat theYankees.
I was back east at thetime.
And that's all anyone talkedabout.
And so Ikeep, youknow, the ratings werehuge.
So I can see how you can directly see it in what you're watching andunderstand.
Okay, youknow, if this series goes toseven, I know that's going to help ourbusiness.
Then there's the there's the sports sideof, but I want my team towin.
Yes. Imean, I'm a chargerfan.
So it's a littletougher.
Youknow, to yourright.
It'spainful. So I guess the flip side is and I accept what itis.
I'm a Titansfan. I wasa, youknow, I learned as akid.
Soyes, I can understandpainful.
Yeah.So,uh,yeah, kind of movingforward, you earned your degree inaccounting, but you've mostly ended up working in finance and FPNA.
I think you hinted a little bit in your intro aboutthis.
But why theswitch?Why, youknow,what, what made you decide to focus more on the finance side than the accounting growingup?
I didn't really know what I wanted todo.
And my parents pushed me towards accounting andsaid, you'll have a job after college and we won't have to support youanymore.
But my dad reallysaid, if you have an accountingdegree, you can pivot in a lot of differentdirections.
So I think in the hybrid role that I had at Fox four twers doing both accounting and F PNAs when I really realizedlike,okay, F PNA is looking forwarded into the future and really helping a business like achieve itsgoals.
And that's what excitedme.
I think accounting's a little bit more present or past focus and they just was not as exciting forme.
So once Irealized,okay,yeah, you get to work with the businessoperations, help influence decision making and all that kind of stuff was really what pushed me in the F PNAdirection.
I can relate tothat.I, youknow, I didn't do an accountingdegree, but I've always really enjoyed the business aspect of FPNA.
I've always tried to steer clear of the corporate roles where you're just doing consolidation and roll up because I like working with the businessunit.
I like having those conversations with partners and trying to influence the decisions and being able to see the impact ofthat.
And it sounds like kind of similar for you as well as that's what youlike.
Yeah, I think maybe 10 yearsago, mycareer, I thought I want to be a COO like when I got toFox, we were working a lot with the COO and in providing financialinformation.
I waslike,oh, that's really cooljob.
That's why I want to doit.
And being in FPNA, you get into all the business areas of the business and so it waslike, that's my path forward and what excitesme.
And so kind of progressed on that path tosay,cool, I'm learning about all these different areas of the business and how it all comestogether.
I totally agree that F PNA sets you up for a natural path to dooperations.
Youknow, in smallcompanies, you often see the CFO also being theCOO.
It's not uncommon atall.
And I remember he's a CEO now who tellssorry, that he's like F PNA is the only group outside of the CFO and the CEO to get to see the wholecompany,right?
You got that 360 view and you're talking to everybody and that gives you if you focus on learning the business and not just thefinances, which is what you should bedoing, it gives you a great understanding of the operations that other people don't get and you get that through a financial lens in addition to theoperational.
So I think it's agreat, great springboard for operations forsure.
So I'mcurious, youknow, in the sportsindustry, I know it's going to vary a littlebit, youknow, what kind ofcompany, but what are some of the mostcommon, youknow, kind of KPIs and metrics you've looked at over your career that you've kind of had atrack.
Imean, the biggest one for sure at Fox was ratings because on a broadcastnetwork, youknow, it is how they make money is adrevenue.
The ratings driveeverything, the viewership and you can go be up ordown, youknow, and have material swings based off of a blowout or a really tightgame.
So ratings was the number one thing I was focusedon.
It's also sports is one of the only things left that people watch live that rating can really changeeverything.
So ratings washuge. The other thing that we really focused it on was the cost to produce a game because when you look at theNFL, forexample, you only have a set amount of broadcast windows and multiple games will air in that broadcastwindow, regionalized throughout thecountry.
And so if you for some reason end up with an extra game or one lessgame, there is no incremental revenue necessarily associated withthat, but you're incurring incrementalcosts, ofcourse, whereas like withbaseball, youknow, you add an extra of postseason game in a series and you're getting extra revenue to cover that gamecost.
So we spent a lot of time assessing the cost of producing the individualgames.
Sure, I would imagine that has to be one of the most expensive things is the production cost from the host and what you have to pay them to thecamera, to thecrew, to just everything that goes into thatshipping, all the equipment on andon.
Imean, there's the sixth side of it forsure, the camera and the crew and the things that you need to dothere, but there's a variablecomponent.
You can't control your sports rightscosts,right?
You agree to pay a certain amount of rights for a certain amount ofcontent.
And so really production costs is one of the few areas that you can actually go on control costs andmanage.
Soyeah.Yeah, and that makessense,right?
Becauseyeah, you pay a fixed amount to the NBA or the NFL for those contracts that are oftenfive,seven, eightyears, billions ofdollars.
So you got to figureout,okay, where else do I controlcosts?
If the economychanges, if ad revenuesdown, whatever else it maybe, you're limited in how much you can scaleback.
Exactly.Exactly.Yeah, that makes a lot ofsense.
Any industry where you have heavy fix costs can always be challenging when thingschange.
Oh,yeah. I got to look at the airlineindustry.
You know what it is like 13 different spreadsheets emailed out to 23 different budgetholders, multipleiterations, versioncontrol,errors, back and forthupdates.
You never really feel in control of the consolidation and collectionprocess.
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I'mcurious, youknow, having worked in thisindustry, gaming andsports, how have you seen the rise of streaming onlinegaming, youknow, kind of impacting the business and how you forecast and think aboutthings,right?
Because we're definitely going through a huge change within the media and entertainment and gaming industry ingeneral.
So I'm just kind ofcurious, how's that kind of impacted the way you forecast and think aboutthings?
I mean streaminghas, there's more content out there than everbefore.
And so you're really competing for eyeballs for people to engage in your content and differentiating yourself is really important in that regard and trying to get people into thegames,engagement, playinglonger, the hours that theyplay, you're considering all of thosethings.
So I think what's great is that with streaming and even online gaming on a broadcastnetwork, you're waiting for a waiting for a Neilson rating to give you some feedback on performance after the fact with the information that we're able to see much quicker in the datanow.
We can certainly planand, youknow, look at indicators tosay,okay, maybe we have a risk coming up or maybe we have a really good opportunity because we're seeing a lot moreengagement, youknow, earlier than we expected and look at thesoft, youknow, revenue opportunity in thefuture.
So Ithink, youknow, there's a lot of opportunity withthat, with the data and theanalytics, for surethat, youknow, we can get in this newworld.
The only thing I'll say is we're streaming on the televisionside, forsure, you brought in some new companies entering the media landscape and definitely on the sports side that's driving the costup.
Soagain, thinking about the different ways now you pay to watch an NFL game through a subscription with likeAmazon, where you had it in the past when I was on CBS orNBC.
So they have a new way to monetize that the broadcast networks may bedone, but what other things can you do to again attractpeople, bring people into yourcontent?
Sure, Imean, that's Thursdaynight,right?
The Amazon God is thatthe,yep,yeah,no, I know herelocally, I'm kind of just talking about allthis, I'm a Utah jazzfan, big jazzfan, and they just added streaming option to watch all thegames.
Inaddition, they put it back on localTV, so it's not on cableanymore, it's on localTV, and then they did a streaming package aswell.
Yeah, so it's definitely changed thegame, forsure.
And it's made everything morecompetitive, but Ithink, youknow, from a forecastperspective, where you're able to see things quicker and reactquicker, to make sure you're providing content that you'reconsumer, your playerwant, forsure.
Sure, versus waiting the next day andsaying,okay, how did we do on the preliminary Nilsenratings?
What do those final numbers looklike?
What do they reallymean?
I would imagine it's a little bit of a weightversus,okay, we could seetoday, something's popped on thisgame.
It's up20% what's goingon, and is there something we can do to continue thatbehavior?
Exactly. And so is that one of the biggest things kind of in the streaming is just looking atthe,well, particularlygaming, I'm guessing it's kind of time ongame.
Is that usually the most commonmetric?
Are there other things you kind of look at within that play that helps you understand how it'sperforming?
Yeah, Ithink, youknow, hours played andengagement, youknow,again, online gaming gives hundreds of hours ofcontent, youknow, and people can keepgoing.
Soyeah, looking at where they'reengaging, Imean, we can see across the whole life of thegame, youknow,oh, NBA tipoff, maybe they're engaging a little bit more around that part of the season ormaybe, and you can assess all thosethings.
So I think that's one of the big things we use forsure.
Yeah, I know that that'sgreat.
And youknow, kindof, I'll tellthis, since we're talkinggaming, I once applied to work for a gamingcompany.
And in theinterview, I gottold, when we gotdone, I asked the person that if I had anyconcerns, and I'mlike, I don't think you're passionate enough about videogames.
And so I didn't get hired and I kind oflaughed.
I'mlike, so I joke sometimes withkids, I'mlike, you just need to play video gamesmore.
It could help yourcareer.
I will sayI, youknow, had not played video games probably since I was a teenager when I got this job at2K.
Ofcourse, new NBA2K, youknow, youknow, those things rightaway.
Like it'shuge. ButI, one of the first things I didwas,okay, I need to buy aconsole.
And which was tough at the time in2020,2021, I got a console during thattime.
You, you pay topremium.
Yes.Yes.So, but I waslike, I need to understand thisproduct.
So I went out an Xbox and then downloaded our games and started playing maybelike,okay,what?
Imean, there's so much more complicated than they were when I played Nintendo 64 regular Nintendo as akid.
But reallyunderstanding,like, what are the elements that go into this and really trying to make sure I understand what we're producing andcreating?
I love that you took the time to test theproduct, to learn the product because that adds so much value to what you're doing in yourjob.
Oh,yeah. I think it'shuge.
I still remember in college kind of talkingabout, youknow, buying a gameconsole.
I had a friend who he did his master's thesis onvideo, a videogame, like protagonist orsomething.
He ended up getting a master's in gaming lateron.
And so hewould, he bought a few differentgames.
He got agrant. And so we had always joke everyweekend.
We were helping him do his research when we playedgames.
Yeah, but it reallydid.
He would be observing things and helping with hisresearch, not so muchus, but that was ourexcuses.
We were helping him with hisresearch.
Sono, I think forsure, like early on when I started at2k, there was we weredebating, youknow, with one of thegames, youknow, do we spend the extra money to put these featuresin?
Do wenot? Youknow, there was a discussionhappening.
And after the game came out and I played thegame, I waslike,well, I'm actually reallyhappy.
We spent the money intothat.
Like that is really cool assomebody, youknow, a casual player ofgames.
So it makes you appreciate those things and understand it a little bit more forsure.
Sure. When you're in the conversation and then you can actually see it and play it and belike,oh,wow, that is reallygood.
Or I wish we would have spent the money to put this in or that really would have added to thegame.
Right. And I helped my partnership in discussing withpeople, I'mlike,oh,okay, like I understandyou, youknow, andlike, let me helpadvocate, youknow, and build a business case and why we would want to add features or certain things forsure.
Yeah, because I'm sure the on the game side they want to addeverything.
And you'relike, youknow, how much that's going tocost?
How do you think about thatprocess, youknow, kind of being finance of helping them manage thatof, youknow, what features go into the product and allthat?
Any thoughts or advice you'd offer to financeprofessionals?
Because we all deal withthat, whether it's in game or whatever it might be ofscope,creep, and product cost and those type ofthings.
I am not an expert at giving itall, which I'vesaid,right?
Like, so I'm going to really trust the experts to come andsay, this is why I need this and I really needthis.
And I'm going to help find a way to support theirdecision.
So if that's where itis, is lookingat,okay, is there a revenue opportunity or something else outthere?
Or is there somewhereelse?
Maybe we could try to find a way to reduce spent to make sure you get thisfeature.
That's really important to you becauseyeah, I'm not theexpert.
I'm just a financeperson.
And if you tell me it'simportant, I will help you find a way to getit.
What youwant? And I likethat.
You're trusting the expert and then it'sokay.
Having thatdiscussion, which I think is so critical of how can we dothis?
Youknow, there's often a view thatfinances.
I've heard it referred toCF.
No,right? The office ofno.
And that never wins friends when it's justlike,nope, that's tooexpensive.
And you shut down the conversationversus,okay,well, why is thatimportant?
How can we increase the revenue to supportthat?
Because rightnow, it doesn't economically makesense.
Ican't. You'll bring itforward.
And then they appreciate it when you really kind of help educate them on the financial side of what your concerns are and try to help them come up with the solution versusyeah, you may be theexpert.
I'm just going to tell you know the budget's notthere.
Yeah, I tell people a lot of my businesspartners.
Isay, think of me as youragent.
I'm going to go out and negotiate this for you from a financialperspective.
Tell me what you need and let me help gosell, youknow, sell this somewhere else so that we can make the case and doit.
Likethat. I haven't heard that one of theagent.
I like thatone. That's a goodone.
We're going to lawsports.
Soyeah, I figured asmuch.
As yousaid,agent, I'm thinking of Gary McGuire forsaying,yes, I'm a little calmer thanhim.
I would hopeso. So I know you've been very active as a volunteer in the Los Angeles chapter for women and sports and eventsfor, youknow, severalyears.
Can you talk about how that experience has helped yourcareer, kind of what you've learned from being involved inthat?
Yeah, it was a really cool opportunity that came tome.
Actually, the president of Fox Sports has assistant managed our Fox Sports relationship with theorganization.
So shesaid, she called me one day andsaid, youknow, are one of these organizations we work with is looking for a woman who works in sports and does fightagainst.
And you were the only person I can think of rightnow.
Are youinterested? And Isaid,sure, youknow, I'll take the lunch and have the conversation with theboard.
So I went and met with the president of the board and a coupleothers.
And basically they convincedme, youknow, that this would be a really coolopportunity.
Imean, a lot of mycareer, I think I'vesaid,okay,sure, I'llsay,yes, whynot?
And it was a really good opportunity to learn of different kind of business and nonprofitorganization.
Forsure,again, I'm touching taxes and that things that I have not done in mycareer.
The other thing I think that was really interesting was like learning about event planning because that was our main way to raise money and fundraise and think about our sponsorship opportunities and how we price those things in order to raise moneyagain.
And at thetime, it was a good way to connect with other people just in the industry in LA aswell.
It's a nationalorganization.
So it was Los Angeles was just achapter.
So you're connecting with other people around the country as well at different teams and leagues and really learning alot.
Soyeah, it was a coolopportunity.
And then two yearsago, I handed over my treasure responsibilities to someone else and that's beenfun.
She was not a finance person when she came intoit, but she signed up andsaid, I want totry.
So I still talked to her regularly and helped kind of coach her through on how to do thefinance, dobudgeting.
Imean, there was no budget when I got there and then help people think aboutthat.
That's beenawesome. That sounds like you've learned a lot and it's really helped you in your career just making thosenetworks, getting those opportunities to learn new things and just expand yourhorizons, so tospeak.
Yes, it's definitely given me a big appreciation foragain, what everyone else does in abusiness.
Gotit. Next questionhere, and this is another one we like to ask pretty much all our guestsis, can you tell me about a time in your career when you experience what we'll call a strategic moment kind of a strategic insight that it later empowered you to drive change within theorganization.
So when I was at WarnerBrothers, about six weeks into thejob, theysaid, we're putting on a plane to Prague and you're going to go work with the teamthere.
The outstourist team was in the office doingtransition, knowledge transfer of the activitiesthere.
So Isaid,sure, I was veryyoung, 25 years old andsaid,okay, I will go and I got there and realized very quickly that the project had gone verysideways.
They were way behind on the transitionplan.
The controller who was working with the outstourist team was very upset and she had pretty much shut down working withthem.
And I'm on the other side of the world in a job six weeks in andsaying, what do Ido?
So I hadluckily, youknow, I was inEurope, so I had a few hours before the West Coast got up and Isaid,formerly, did aplan.
Imean, part of me waslike, maybe I just don't do anythingor, youknow,what, I didn't know what todo.
And so Iformerly, I was sat down andsaid, youknow, you need to saysomething, you need aformerly, to plan and you need to tell them what's going on and how they can fixit.
So I call by theafternoon, I called our head of the project as well as the head of the outstourist center and then our VP of finance andsaid, I need to have a call with you and I need to tell you what's going on withyou.
And that's where I grew clearly laidout.
Here's theproblem. Here's what I think we can do to fixit.
And here's how I think we implemented goingforward.
And that was like a big moment just for me personally aswell, like really see they acted on it right away within 48hours.
We had more resources on the ground and prompt to help get the project back ontrack.
And ended up delivering ontime.
But it was really a moment where forme, evensaying,okay, if you clearly organize your thoughts and make a recommendation and think be thoughtful about what youdo, people will hear you and act onit.
And that was really exciting becauseagain, we delivered ontime, which was concerning that we wouldnot.
So sounds like kind of one of those aha moments for you earliercareer, we're realizing if I really think through this logically and come up with aplan, people are going tolisten.
And I can make adifference.
It allowed you to see that you could really influence versus just doing what you'retold, so tosay,right.
Thank you for sharingthat.
Yeah, that'd be that'd be a tough one fly half right across the world and realize everything's amess.
Yes. And it waslike, Imean, six weeks into a new job where you're stilllike, I don't even know what's goingon.
Yeah, you barely know which ways up at thatpoint, letalone, how do you fix a bigproblem?
And it sounds like it was a really good learning opportunity forsure.
Itis. I actually keep a pen on my desk still to this day that I had that I used to like write my plan out in the office and I've carried it with me just kind of as areminder.
That'scool. That's a great little momentum reminder tohave.
Youknow, kind of speaking of pens and things that remindus, this next section is what we call the get to know yousection.
So you get no more than 30 seconds to answer each of thesequestions.
So youknow, relativelybrief, but we have four of them that we're going to askyou.
And the first one is what is something interesting about you that not many peopleknow.
Something that makes youunique.
So notathletic, butwell, I guess during thepandemic,really, I got into golf and took golflessons.
And now I regularly go to thegolf.
Cool. And how you enjoyingit?
I loveit. It's like great to getoutside.
It's a good way tosocialize, catch up with friends while we're still doingsomething.
So.Okay. That's a fun one to pickup.
Nextquestion. If you could meet one person in theworld, get heralive.
Who would you meet andwhy?
So maybe it's two or one or theother.
Brane Brown or AdamGrant.
They do a lot of stufftogether.
So maybe it could be themtogether.
But the interest there isreally, I'm always trying to find way to be a better leader for my team to help developthem.
And I guess also like be a bettercolleague.
And I think they have a lot ofadvice.
I just love to pick their brain on how to workeffectively.
Yeah. Adam Grant has a lot of greatadvice.
I've listened to some of his podcastepisodes.
I've read his thinkagain.
And lastyear, not thisyear, but lastyear, he was the keynote speaker atAFP.
Oh,welcome. I got the opportunity to watch himpresent.
And he's a greatpresenter.
It was really fun to be there in the conference room and watch himwork.
Yeah. His new book is really good about coaching forsure.
I'll definitely have to check thatout.
Butyeah, he'sgreat. I really like hisstuff.
And if you ever get thechance, I don't know if you've heard hisstory.
Tell me one of the podcasts where his mom basically outed him for playing video games too much as a kid to like thenewspaper.
He'slike, I've done studies onit.
There's really no data that shows it's bad for kids as long as you manage itappropriately.
Yeah.Yeah. I thought of that when you mentioned AdamGrant.
I remember him telling thatstory.
Soright. So the nextquestion, what is the last thing you googled or looked up on YouTube related to finance FPNAExcel?
So I was recently trying to reconcile three different datasources.
So I was deep in Google on if some product and seeing how many ways I could layer things together trying to dothat.
It was I was really deep into Google and YouTube watching different reading different formulas and statements forsure.
I have definitely beenthere.
I think we all have when trying to reconcile a data source and you're tryingto,okay, what formula do I usehere?
How do I dothis? So I can you can relate to thatone.
So this last one here is what's your favorite thing aboutExcel?
Function orfeature? My favorite one is waterfallcharts.
I remember when you had to do the waterfall charts byhand.
So the and I do a lot of waterfallcharts.
My executives lovethat.
So I lovethat. It's soeasy.
I just click of a buttonnow.
Yes. It is so nice compared to what it used tobe.
I had a boss who most people do the bar chart where he adjusteverything.
He had found some website that said this is a loteasier.
It was harder to set up and understand but it was actually using scatter plots to build your waterfallchart.
And it was quite challenging to be a wild understand what in the world it wasdoing.
Once I learnedit, I lovedit.
But I was so glad when they added the waterfall feature because it's so mucheasier.
My boss at Fox Sports during our budgetseason, like Imentioned, was duringMarch.
And so there'd be company wide likeMarch, badness bracketchallenge.
And depending on who had the lower ranking would have to do the waterfall charts like the oldone.
Every time we would come up and belike,oh,sorry, you're a little ranking withsweet.
You'reout. You're doing all the other waterfall charts for everyone because we hated it somuch.
That'sfunny. The only thing I wish they would fix about it is you can paste a format of any otherchart.
Like if you build a chart and paste a formatover, doesn't work with a waterfallchart.
No. So I spent a lot of time changing the colors forsure.
Yeah, I found a few little tips and tricks here andthere, but I exactly know what you're talkingabout.
Allright. So we're coming up to the end of ourtime, which have two questions left foryou.
The first is if someone was starting a career today inFPNA, what advice would you offer and what would you tellthem?
I think two biggest things I look for in candidates or anyone starting out iscuriosity.
Just asking a lot ofquestions, learnlike, and I guess maybe going along with that is the courage to ask for help to along theway.
People love to talk aboutthemselves.
Solike, go to your businesspartner.
Ask a lot of questions about what theydo.
Like, I find that everyone's willing to talk and it makes you so much better and effective at yourjob.
But beingcurious, willing to not only with your businesspartners, but digging to data and try to findtrends, I think is reallykey.
And then asking forhelp.
There are a lot of people with ideas out there that can helpyou.
Greatadvice. Imean, curiosity and asking questions is alwaysimportant.
And being willing to ask for help is not assigned aweakness.
It's a sign ofstrength.
It shows that you're willing to learn and that you don't think you knoweverything.
Right.Exactly. Great advicethere.
Lastquestion. If someone wanted to get a hold of you or reach out to maybe connect withyou, what's the best way for them to dothat?
LinkedIn. Find me onLinkedIn.
Messageme.Connect.Stock.
That's what Ifigured. I'm almost going to just startgoing, youknow, what's your name on LinkedIn instead of asking how to connect because that's99% of the time the way we all do ittoday.
Although I did have one guest give his phonenumber, which did surprise me a littlebit.
Okay. That I'm a lot of respect forthem.
Yeah, it's good tosay.Yeah, good forthem, Iguess.
Alrighty.Well, thank you so much for your timetoday.
I really enjoyed chatting withyou, Kayla and talking a little bit about the sports industry and yourbackground.
And thanks again for being on theshow.
Yeah, thankyou. Thanks for theopportunity.
