Breaking Silos Between Marketing and Finance, with Elaine Benfield

TRANSCRIPT

Wassia Kamon: Welcome back to the Diary of the CFO. Today, I'm delighted to have with me Elaine Benfield. She's a seasoned software leader with over 20 years of expertise in marketing. She is a founder of HerStories. com, a podcast and community focused on sharing the inspiring stories of remarkable women. Through her work, Elaine aims to craft narratives that empower and motivate others.

Based in Atlanta, Georgia, like me, she actively participates in pride and human rights campaign initiatives and regularly volunteers with dog charities. In her spare time, Elaine enjoys traveling with family and friends. Welcome Elaine.

Elaine Benfield: Thank you so much for having me. What an honor.

Wassia Kamon: Thank you so much.

You're my very first guest and it's so good to have you on. So happy to be here. Especially as a marketing leader, because one of the things I realized in my accounting career, sales and marketing team were always a team where we're just, uh, it wasn't always working. So can you tell me, tell us about your experience working with finance teams?

Elaine Benfield: Yeah. You know, it's interesting. I just always looked at it. I have a consumer economics background, I have a bachelor of science. I never saw the division quite as much as other marketers to some degree, because I think economics and finance, and especially for my target audience, what I've really was my education was really consumers.

I really felt that there has to be a bridge between all the different divisions. I think a lot of marketers don't I don't think a lot of finance people do. Everyone feels, you know, the CFO and the finance team is like holding all the money, but then the marketers have metrics that the CFOs don't understand and the finance team.

So, I very often worked, and especially I have a background also in procurement, procurement, you have to bridge between, you know, the finance division and then also the marketers. So, somehow I always just broke down the silos. And then I've had these conversations. I never understood why some companies don't target CFOs as being part of the buying decision.

And, you know, you hear a lot of software companies and especially B2B, they target the CIOs and they target, you know, others, but they most often do not target the CFO. And I'm like, but they're the ones where the money comes from. They need to be buying decision. So I kind of different, a little bit of a different perspective potentially than I think some other marketers.

Wassia Kamon: Yes. And I like what you said, because sometimes when a software comes, if it's not like a CFO and accounting based software that will be used by us, they usually just pass. And then we find it after the fact. And I like the, the point you made about bridging. So what are some actual things you did to bridge with not just financing, but also other department in your marketing initiatives?

Elaine Benfield: I always found that to me, I want to know what everyone's KPIs are. I, I am very driven on what are the metrics, what are we running toward? I always had a relationship, like great example of I've helped so many companies over the years get bought and acquired, but who's the first person I would talk to?

Or maybe the second person, it'd be the president and then the CFO. What are you trying to do? Are we trying to sell a company for X, Y, and Z folds? What are we trying to do without the knowledge and insight of kind of that strategy? It was always hard for me, especially earlier in my career to know what my, what are my marketing KPIs?

What am I going after? And to me, I'll say marketing, but in my mind, it also revolves around communications and illustrations and influencer marketing. To me, it's the whole marketing kind of channel and without knowing where the CFO is running and how healthy is the company? What are you looking for?

What are you trying to drive for? Because then you align your marketing to what the business health is driving. I just really feel that that's just has to be aligned. It's you're trying to understand each other and that's just critical for success of both, both divisions really.

Wassia Kamon: Wow. You're like the marketing leader of people's dreams right now.

Elaine Benfield: Yes,

Wassia Kamon: because a lot don't understand the impact. Of what you just said, I'm trying to be bought. What should I look into? Can you please tell us more about how was it for you being in marketing driving really the force between behind, okay, we're going to get bought. This is, this is how we're going to tell the story.

This is how it's going to happen. How is it going to align with finances?

Elaine Benfield: So it's interesting. I always sat down. I had a seat at the table. I always say over the years. It's shifted being in the past been in a large software company, right? My seat kind of got a little more farther away from the table, but for many years, it was sitting down with the C level executives.

And going, okay, well, what are we running toward? What do we need to have and having honestly the brand narrative of what's the company trying to do? What is it from the CEO's vision? And then aligns to the CFO, the chief marketing officer and everyone trying to figure out what those programs are.

Majority of time, companies that are trying to get acquired do not have the amplification, the awareness, so that's where I kind of joke. My superpower is to come in and say, okay, if you're running toward this to 2 to 5 year, well, let's make sure you're getting the visibility of who your target acquires acquire is, you know, what are we trying to do?

How are we going to increase revenue to meet these numbers to get the highest value? You can and a lot of it's kind of that relationship of it's just it's really a strategic. Plan very often an exit plan, like, do you want to be acquired to be part of a big company? Do you want to be bought for just the technology and less the people and staff?

There's so many different combinations. I also, for many years helped companies go IPO. Let's get the market to understand what our value is and what do we want to bring to the market? You know, some companies went to NASDAQ and some stayed private, but it was to get that. Round of funding, and it's to have that open dialogue between all these divisions.

So that everyone knows their part, but how do you also integrate and work together because that's critical to all these divisions cannot be siloed. You will not be successful. And I know larger companies have teams. But in the end, you need to make sure it's not only the top executives, you need the few layers below because they're the ones who do a lot of the work in the end.

Wassia Kamon: Yes. And what you brought up is great because something that I feel like we're lacking within finance and accounting is that storytelling piece. How do you tell the story? We're good. We have the data. We have the numbers. We can show trends and all that stuff. But how do we craft? Narratives and stories that are compelling with that data.

Can you tell us a bit, some tips to help, to help us out?

Elaine Benfield: I think it's the most critical part of any organization is what are you trying to do? What's that narrative to me? I always joke that I'm a storyteller, storyteller, because I listen to executives talk and I'm like, wait, wait, wait, what you're trying to say is this.

Your customer isn't buying a product. They're buying something to help their business. To me, I always look at it as. You know, yeah, there's products. They're so gorpy and they can be this, but what's the business benefit? And then that brings down to the human connection of, oh, well, this software is helping do this or this and that the storytelling piece tied to brand.

And once you get a good story, you can do the amplification around it. You can do the communication around it. You can help tell your narrative, help increase your brand awareness, but fundamentally without the storytelling, because, you know, you and I both know and everyone listening, there's so many brands out there that, that don't have a good story that you're like, well, what exactly do they do or sometimes their messaging keeps changing.

You're like, well, didn't they do that? And now they do this. And I'm actually referring to B2B more than, you know, Patagonia is Patagonia. You know what they sell, but from the B2B side, it's the market shifts people right now. I think storytelling is challenging with AI, everyone's putting AI in their stories and what are the customers trying to buy?

And I think there is confusion in the market kind of from that storytelling of everyone's saying AI, well, really, does everyone really have it and what are the capabilities within it?

Wassia Kamon: Yes. I think that AI is like bacon or salt on different things. I love bacon. You know it. So

Elaine Benfield: I love that companies are being so bold and I love that marketers are really leveraging AI, but I think it's super important.

So companies, prospects and customers know, well, what are the capabilities? What does that really mean? I'm slowly starting to see those leader companies that are going out and have a really good narrative. That makes sense. And it's easy to understand, easy to digest going. Oh, you and I've talked about AI and finance.

You can make processes more efficient with AI, more checks and balances. You can have, there's a lot more ways that it can be leveraged. Same with marketing, knowing how to do that, that story behind all of it.

Wassia Kamon: Yes. Yes. Good point. Good point. And I think that's one of the areas where marketing and sales and marketing can come in and help finance and then the budgets.

Okay. Can we talk about the budgets? There's always a thing about, especially from a finance standpoint. Marketing is spending too much money by default. You guys do things and we cannot calculate the ROI or do not understand the ROI. What do you think marketing leaders can do or finance leaders can do to work better together on those type of things?

Elaine Benfield: I think it's collaboration. Like I always felt in years ago, I worked for a division of the company I worked for previously and a smaller company, but I used to sit down with the CFO and go, okay, well, these are our metrics. And then they would say, well, here's what I'm what what our metrics are and you might correct me on this.

My real interpretation was CFOs or more. I don't want to say they're more short term. Marketing sometimes takes longer in marketing. You're not going to get results in 30 days. Very often. It could be nine months. It could be a year to see the real uptick of marketing programs. Very often. I've worked with CFOs in the past and and and other financial levels and they'd be like, where are the results for the results?

Where's the KPI? What's the growth? And it's like, well, this is a longer project. This is the lead time. You need to get the results. What I always liked was coming up with what are the metrics that are important to finance? What are the metrics that are important to marketing? And how do you come together?

What are the guys that blend? Having that sitting in a planning meeting right now, I think a lot of companies. When you're getting in fall, those companies are in the calendar fiscal year are in planning mode. We'll be almost at the end of planning mode to some degree. They're already knowing what they're doing in 2025.

You have to have these divisions go, I won't be mad knowing it's going to take 12 months for you to have marketing KPIs, but this is what I need your help on to reach my numbers, which a CFO or someone in finance is really like, every quarter. We need to know how we're doing every month, every week, you know, and at the pipeline.

And so I think coming together to sit down and be part of both of your planning processes really helps. Because sometimes there's confusion what KPIs are, that's critical to me. I think that's always been the most success I've seen is working together.

Wassia Kamon: Yes. Work for real. And I realized too on the finance, if we don't involve marketing and sales before we get to budget season.

Then we get into those bottlenecks, right? Because we're like, you're trying to achieve this. And it feels like it's a war that it's us versus you finance versus the rest of the world. And we're trying to cut things and go, yes, we did it. Or what are these guys do?

Elaine Benfield: You would agree that I've worked for a bunch of companies and bunch of divisions that they're like, they don't give your budget to May or June of a calendar year.

And you're like. So then you just lost momentum from the end of the year, which then becomes very, you know, budget driven. And you're like, oh, you have all this extra money. I've always found it fascinating that my job is to make sure I'm laser focused with budget. I don't want to be over and I don't want to be under.

Because that means I'm doing my planning correctly, and I'm aligned with what the CFO told me to do, or the finance division. I can't handle when a company is like, oh, really, from January to May, we don't know. And it's like, you only have a little bit of budget that carried over from last year. And it's like, well, what are you supposed to do?

And then all of a sudden, it's like, you're not running fast enough. But it's like, we just had a gap, stop gap. That is a challenge.

Wassia Kamon: Yeah, and that's a good feedback to me and to us here in finance and accounting because sometimes we go through it, but we don't realize that once the exercise is done, we're like, Oh, we're done with the budget and we communicate, but it doesn't always get down to the people using the budget.

So I think that's something we definitely need to improve

Elaine Benfield: a thousand percent. And then on the flip side, I think here's another flip for you. You start setting expectations that July, you know, whatever that is, just making it up. July and August, active budget by it's locked in. Here's the timeline. I think over the years we have seen teams do this really well.

Here, here's our original budget request. Here's the dates. Here's the milestones. And then it has to be locked in by this date. And part of the challenge is always, you also need to know what the CEO slash the branding, what does the company want you to run toward? Sometimes it's hard because you're like, I'm fighting for budget, but I don't know what I'm focusing on.

And it's like, just grab the money so you can hold it. So then you can come up with what the programs are. But I also think when a leader in finance can say, hey, here's our timeline. And marketers can drive to it saying, I'm not 100 percent sure in messaging, but I know I want to do X, Y, and Z. And that really does help the collaboration because then you'll know, oh, we need to know this by this date to start driving the programs.

Wassia Kamon: And you bring up again another good point, which is a timeliness of how we and the timelines we have for the budget, right? We often start in mid year and we're planning for something by the time we get to December and the budget is issued, a lot of things changed, a lot of things change, especially when we remember how things were in COVID.

We all had plans and then in March is like, okay, forget the plans. And so. For you as a marketing leader, how do you think marketing leaders can better align themselves with finance and vice versa? Because you, with your background, a lot of things that you're saying, how you track your KPI, how you collaborate, I do not take it for granted, right?

So how do you think we can do better there?

Elaine Benfield: I always overshare, you know, me, I love to overshare and be like, if I'm going to do a marketing program, this is how long I need to the minute you give me budget to actually do an execution to actually track the metrics. Very often, let's just be honest, the procurement process in some companies is a nightmare.

It could take months to get someone paid, to get the budget, get the CFO to sign off. And you're like, I just lost that time. Here's how long, like you want me to execute this program and it's just minimum three months. Don't try to give me two months, you give me the money. And then sometimes money's taken if you don't spend it by the time this, you know, the clock strikes.

Very often, it would be pulled to another new project and so being very honest and transparent about, hey, here's long how long it takes to do something. CFO and the finance department goes. Oh, I get it. Getting all the paperwork, all legal, all the. It's a lot behind the scenes that I think, you know, just because, you know, someone says, oh, here's your budget.

It's like, oh, well, then you have to do all the, you know. Getting through all the contracts, getting through a lot of work just to get a program up and running. I think that the transparency on both sides, like, hey, this is what it is. So, you know, and then if they're honestly, on the flip side, if you're having a hard quarter.

I very much respect some someone's coming to me saying, you know, we don't have enough money. What can you cut to help us? I can be nimble and go, okay, well, let's not do this. Let's do this. The flip side, I very often, I always laugh my Q4 people loved me in the market because I'd be like, I got 10, 000 want to do a project.

I could do that all day long. I very, I had one year, like an insane amount and they're like, we didn't realize we underspent quickly. And I came up with great programs and basically locked them and started them, but then the deliver deliverable would be like, you want, and it was legal, but it was the, hey, we were able to start the projects and.

You know, to use that money, so it's like, hey, when finance is struggling. Be honest with that. You know, it's not like I'm going to tell anyone. It's not. It's very need to know basis because I, a lot of this stuff's confidential, especially for company. But it can help someone in marketing who is strategic that can go.

Oh, you're about to get money. Then let me come up with some stuff to help use the funds before you lose it. And then if you're having a challenge, how do you help us curve? Because most times we're cost cutting, like, what program isn't worth it? What will take too long? You know, and then the result is really higher market value.

You're trying to earn more money for the company. And you're trying to get more brand awareness and customer. So it's, they're all very closely aligned.

Wassia Kamon: Yes. And you brought up something too, again, that reminds me of my days of when I was heavy into budgeting and I was assigned to the sales and marketing team divisions, working closely with them, and it will always strike me that.

When they're under spend, they feel like they have to rush to spend. And I'm like, well, if you didn't spend it, maybe you don't really need it. So we should cut. And they're like, no, I was afraid of spending it. Now you're telling me so I can't spend.

Elaine Benfield: No. And I think it's what I said, like, I rather be spot on to the scent.

That's the way that I, you know, was trained in my, in just, you know, kind of my background that it was like, don't go over, don't go under, just prove that everything you're doing is valid. And then if you're trying to fight for the next year, you fight why it exponentially needs to increase because you have the KPIs to show the value.

That's kind of my mindset. I don't think everyone thinks that way, but it helps finance know she's always going to hit her number. Not going to become going because, you know, the worst thing to do is be like, excuse me, I need another, I overspent. And then you're like, and so many teams, I've worked with a lot of marketers that couldn't keep a budget.

And I just, to me, it's, it's important for the health of the business.

Wassia Kamon: Again, the marketing leader, like of the dreams, because like you said, a lot of marketing teams struggle to maintain, you know, their budget and things like that. What do you think from a finance standpoint, we can do as a team to help marketing teams get better with tracking their budget?

Cause I feel like there is a disconnect sometimes on how things work. Like what have you experienced? Cause I know you, you, you're on another level, but.

Elaine Benfield: No, I think it's really important to, I am a flow chart person. I think you know this about me. I have done more of like, do you like, I've actually walked through with finance divisions going, do you know what a marketing process is to do a campaign or a program I've sat down to go, it starts here and it goes, and then you go through all like, you know, all the different levels.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I remember sitting with this someone in procurement who said, Oh, my God, never, no one ever explained it to me. You're in charge of getting my contracts done for procurement to get the, you're one of the most critical people. And I actually, I adore this person. I'm still friends with her and I'm like, help me for 10 years.

But, you know, it happened because I sat down and said, this is what it is. Like, let me negotiate. A lot of companies have, you know, procurement divisions that help negotiate. I love negotiating. Sometimes I can't, like, I joke, like, I can't be beat. Go ahead procurement, but I know what I'm asking for. I know the rules, but having that close relationship to be like, hey, this is the process and, you know, on the flip side, same with finance fascinating with what's the process with finance.

How do you get the budget? How do you know? How do you forecast? Once again, it's collaboration, all of business collaboration, but these two are some of the most important divisions that need to work together.

Wassia Kamon: I really love the idea of a flowchart. I mean, I'm a picture person, so it always helps, right, to see how you move from point A to point Z, and all the steps in between, because I think that's sometimes what we missed and very close to what you said at the beginning, which is, we don't realize how long some of that stuff takes.

And if we do. focus we may miss out when it comes to the business in general.

Elaine Benfield: And I also think having that visibility and being so transparent with a flow chart, you also go through, I've very often, someone would say, Hey, do you ever think of doing this step? Well, if you do that, you remove three. So to me, I'm like, Ooh, I'm going to learn you.

And I've had this conversation before of, you know, the payment process can be really hard for small vendors. We work with the big software companies very hard, you know, sometimes it's net 30. Sometimes it's net 45. These are small one offs and small independent companies. We changed our entire payment process.

We had to, because it wasn't fair in our opinion. It wasn't fair. It took 45, 60 days. You're a small, you're counting on the money that we profit you. So we ended up creating a whole new process for net eight. And that's where, as you know, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. To me, that was super important that I'm valuing my external partners.

That was something we did work on with multiple divisions going, how do we get contracts involved? How do we get procurement? How do we get finance? We had to change everything. I wasn't responsible for it. I helped identify some of the challenges. I have a fabulous team member who, who was like, Nope, this is the way it needs to be.

I helped them in and simplify it a little because it shouldn't be 70 steps, but it's How do we make it better for everyone and the experience better?

Wassia Kamon: Yes, and I'm glad you thought about the external stakeholders, right? Because sometimes we so focused on what's going on inside the organization, and we tend to forget that a lot of our business is with people outside the organization.

And we should make sure that the policies, what we're making work for us here has to work for them as well. You mentioned vendors, how you make life easier for vendors in the context of marketing and sales and marketing or vendors in general, what are the benefits of having great relationships with your vendors, your critical ones?

Elaine Benfield: I mean, you can tell by my voice and just who I am. Relationships are everything. In a business, you're only as good as the people that support you, recommend you, and amplify you. And to me, all those vendor relationships, whether it's a customer, a prospect, a partner, an influencer, an analyst, these are people that are helping tell your story, and having a good, positive relationship with them and giving them a good experience literally can change their perception of a company.

And you know, all of us have had one person that then you go, that company's not that good, and this. To me, it's one of the most important things to change someone's perception after a negative experience is super hard, but it's easy just for someone to walk away and go. Wow. You gave me a great experience.

It was a great event. You did white glove treatment. You did, you know, high touch. That is super important. And I feel that that's just all that the vendors to me are just as important. They're my stakeholders, but I also look at. The people in procurement are my stakeholders. I look at everyone is. That's just part of the relationship to have a good kind of healthy, positive business experience.

Wassia Kamon: That's great. This is great. This is like how business partnering should be, right? Reminding that we all in this together.

Elaine Benfield: All in this together. And it's, it also makes work. I joke that, like, we've joked about this before. I'm at the top of my game. I feel that all these years is the culmination of the relationships.

And how do I make You know, business fun and work fun and just a good experience across the board because we all have to do this. It's not like, you know, where you people have to and it's finding that the relationship piece is just having that and having good experience is just, you know, everything. And it helps you in the end.

I don't look at as often as, oh, it's helping the brand and it's not, but it's the authentic once again, part of storytelling and having that good experience.

Wassia Kamon: Awesome. Awesome. So with, as you said, you are at the top of your game right now. Now you have a lot, a lot of good project coming up. So from your experience now, as you have now, as you look at the bigger picture, what are some trends of shift that you think a lot of leaders are not paying enough attention to?

Elaine Benfield: I think we're underestimating, I think you've probably seen this too, analytics. Data and analytics is the number one market shift. To my humble opinion and research I'm reading is for marketing and for finance and all divisions. Years ago, you couldn't track the customer journey. You really struggled knowing how successful your programs were.

KPIs were hard to measure. I would say the last three, four years, maybe a little longer, you really can laser focus how successful you are. And I think across all of the business, but I think we can't just spread it. You have, you're only as smart as the data is providing for you for any division, right?

And I feel that that's where I think analytics. Tied to AI is critical. That is the way the market's going. You have to know what, how much is, you know, of course, how much is the customer retention? How is it, you know, all the different KPIs you would have for marketing. It is critical that you can get to that level of granularity and customer experience and personalization.

That's what analytic and data will do. And AI is going to make it exponentially faster. So that's where I really think don't underestimate the power of knowledge and data. I can analyze that for you and talk through, hey, we're seeing this uptick here and you know, this is not doing well. This is doing well.

And I think that's super important.

Wassia Kamon: Yes. And I think too, in finance, we having the same thing because people come to us and saying, you guys are tracking all the stuff. You should be helping us making those decisions. And then we realize, uh, either we're not really tracking it or we don't have the right systems.

So can you speak a little more about, okay, you have bad data or not the right, the right data available to you, like as a, as a business leader, not just marketing or finance. How do you handle this type of situation?

Elaine Benfield: I think it's really hard. I think there's a lot of vendors out there. I don't, I don't want to mention or throw anyone into the bus.

I think some vendors are really hard to work with. I think there's a lot of vendors that are providing great. Tools to help with analytics. There's a lot of companies out there and I think some of the challenges you can have great technology. It might not be implemented, right? You might also have people that have been trained on it, you and I both

I also think one of the most important roles, and I leveraged someone at SAP, it was a previous company that used to do this all the time. She was a data analyst. She was one of my closest colleagues because she would read the data and I would go on a phone with her after campaigns and say, Hey, talk to me.

Why does this number, this and that? But she could interpret, you know, the, all the Google analytics, analytics or any of these other tools, and she was able to consolidate it going, Hey, this was what worked. This didn't work. But having someone read the data, I'm good, but I'm not, I need someone who's a hardcore expert on the numbers and like, what's.

What was the campaign codes that tie to it that to me is just having, you know, tools that are great, but you also need to make data clean, cleanse data, and then you need to make sure someone can help interpret it because odds are you're going to present that data, giving them credit, but being like, this is how we saw this project go and those metrics.

I love charts. I love graphs and all that data. So important. Don't discredit that as well. That's a really important role. Someone who can interpret it and speak marketing.

Wassia Kamon: Yes. Oh my God. That's also a gap we see in finance is even when we, we have internal IT teams, they will have the numbers, right? But to speak marketing or to speak finance is.

It's not always easy, right? Because sometimes the kind of insight we want from them is that the kind of insight they give you or the report is like, no, that's not really what I wanted to do. So I feel like there we are. We have common pain point when it comes to analytics.

Elaine Benfield: A hundred percent. And one of the things I always did is I sat down with my colleague that was great with analytics.

I sat down and would help her define what were the KPIs? What are the metrics I need to see? How is it tied to a campaign? And we used to spend hours going through just to make sure that once she had the data that I needed. I have to tell you, I've been in so many meetings that what the data they got wasn't what we wanted.

And finance, I'm sure says the same thing. It's like. Okay, that's a great report. Made no sense. Didn't help us find out our metrics. It's like, well, why? So I very often, that's 1 of the 1st things I do with the program is say, hey, where's the analytics going? What are the metrics you can get for me? And what do I need?

And let's meet in the middle. It seems so simple. I can't tell you how many teams I'm like, did you ever talk to analytics and change the, you know, the metrics. Oh, my God. You never thought of that. And then it just, it helps.

Wassia Kamon: Yes, it's those steps that, you know, you see so simple, you know, uh, once you get all the experience, but we're in the middle, like if you don't have the right kickoff meetings or kickoff communication where you can say, okay, for this program, like you said, this is what we're going to track.

This is what we're going to need so that you don't run through and realize, oh, I didn't track this particular metric throughout.

Elaine Benfield: And it can't. Be redone, then you have to have the perimeters right from the start, because if you don't, it's not like you can go back and be like, where were they from? What's the geometry?

Like, what's their geography? And it's like, you don't think of all those things in the beginning. How do you track all of it and make it consistent? And I'm very much that the mindset that when I come up with the metrics, I'm going to hold metrics that can last for a few years. Because very often, obviously, as we know, data changes, but if you keep those perimeters.

Really good from the start parameters, then you can match every quarter, every month, whatever year that's super important to me that I want to know in 2 years. How successful what have I done exponentially to be better or not? Like, where am I struggling or the program's struggling and I'm very much about consistency and planning for that.

Wassia Kamon: Again, you're the marketing of the dream because, again, I guess it's your background in technology and, oh, I'm like, oh, yes, where have you been in all my life?

Elaine Benfield: You know, as I said, I joke that I'm at the top of my game. But, you know, I'm seeing, of course, as you know, like, I'm so excited about the young talent coming up.

I'm so excited. But what we don't have is those mentors like myself. I very often mentor to be like, hey, do you ever think of this? Ask me questions. I'm always like the phone call away. But I feel bad for some of the young talent that isn't getting this background. I've had years of experience and years of great mentors, great leaders that have helped me go.

Oh, I do know all these things. It's a culmination of all my years. And I do feel bad for those who have started and again, these roles and it's like, no one's saying, Hey, do you ever think of this? No one's helping mentor them and that's a fear of mine of younger talent that they're being thrown out to like, oh, go ahead and, you know, solve the problem.

It's like, they don't know where to begin and then they're to blame when something doesn't happen. Right?

Wassia Kamon: Yes, yes, very little training. I think I had a meme, I posted a meme a couple of years ago on LinkedIn about it, how you think that you're going to get this training and the training you get is like this much, but a lot of it too comes from people being able to pour into you, those great things that they learn.

So if you had a. In any, a lot of it actually, piece of wisdom to the next generation of leaders, whether it's those that should mentor people, how they can go about connecting with the younger generation or also the younger talent coming through. What are some things that they can do to pick up on those things faster?

Elaine Benfield: I always joked that I was the person that someone would come to to be like, I've got this problem. I had a manager once who said, you spend too much time answering questions for people and like, why I'm trying to dot the line or dot the T going. Oh, so this person's trying to solve this, but I know this person can that person solve it or someone they know can solve it.

I just want, I never turn that down. I, for years, like, the go to of like, hey, we've got this project. Who would you and I'm like, oh, I know this person in London. That to me is never be afraid to reach out to someone when you don't know, go to someone that has the experience, go to someone that has the knowledge of the company.

Don't be afraid to ask. My father had a great rule. He always said, you know, just continuously learn, continuously help people can never be afraid to ask a question. That's how you learn. And I hope, you know, for me, young talent, you know, don't be afraid to ask. You're not going to know everything, but go to someone who's lived, lived it and in the flip side, be the mentor.

I have so many young colleagues that are like. You know, reach out and I just say open door policy text me the question. I still have people that text me and are like, I don't know what what to do for this. I'm like, oh, what about that? And that's I love doing that. But it's also be opened. You know, if you're a leader, you have experience.

Make your make yourself available to ask those questions and sometimes I just had regular calls with, you know, I have a lot of colleagues international and throughout the United States. I very often just had touch base calls. I just want to hear how you're doing. How's your project? I'm not involved, but what can I do just to, you know, bounce ideas off?

That to me is part of that. Once again, circle back to the relationship piece. Like, how can I help someone? And you know what? They all would help me in the minute I'd be like, you know, Hey, I have a question. Everyone will respond because I was always willing to do that for them. Andrew, that was like, you shouldn't do that.

I'm like, that's not the way I want to do business. But it is, it's both sides helping each other.

Wassia Kamon: It is. It's absolutely both. And that's what I'm trying to do through this podcast too, is allowing people to hear from different perspectives and grow, because we don't always have the formal training. We don't always have the mentors.

Things being so digital is hard to connect, right? So I feel like it's something that we need to do more of. And please tell us now, where can we find you? What are you up to? Because we need to stay connected.

Elaine Benfield: You and I will 100 percent stay connected. That's like a given, but I'm right now. It's kind of interesting.

I've transitioned out of a company. I mentioned that I worked at for 16 years and now I'm kind of debating on like, Hey, do I go back corporate? Do I start my own business? You mentioned earlier, I have my labor of love, her stories, which I need to be interviewed. That's such a passion project to interview inspiring women.

I joke then too, but it's really helping to tell the story of. Women have so many stories and so much to share and very often don't think they're inspiring. And so I love that kind of part of it. You know, I'm getting more involved in some nonprofit. I'm excited for there's so much opportunity in technology, you know, with AI and kind of the growth.

I'm excited. No, it's a hard job market, but I'm also like, want to take advantage of, you know, what's my next step. This is a great. Everyone, you know, new beginnings across the board, and I'm kind of excited for next things. So you'll see me, I'm posting, you've seen on LinkedIn, anyone that wants to reach out, you'll see, I'm starting to go to a lot more like e sport, e gaming events, content creator events.

I'm very curious what Atlanta is doing, and I'm fascinated with really e sports and gaming. It's like a billion dollars plus business, and I'm just fascinated with, you know, companies aren't thinking of that as a big. Revenue stream and partnership and or not to. So it's it's kind of a fun, exciting time of kind of what's next.

Wassia Kamon: Yes, you'll be a great chief marketing officer at any, like, rather fractional at any company. I have no doubt. Cause like I said, from a finance perspective, you're like the finance leader of our dream who understand what we need, right? In finance and accounting, it can really help bridge. You know, between what we're doing now and what also supporting what marketing is doing to grow the business.

Elaine Benfield: yeah, thank you. And I appreciate that. And I feel the same with you, with your role being a CFO is really, as you said, you're doing this podcast to help bridge between all these different divisions. How do we make all of our jobs better, more successful? And that's what, that's how we met. It's the collaboration of.

Being in each other's world to help. And I think this podcast will really help people understand and hopefully people understand how marketing and finance can really align more. Just even this little bit. Um, and if you have any questions, feel free to reach out. I'm always happy as I joke, always happy to take a call to be like, as you're in planning, whatever you're thinking, you know, I'm always happy to do that as well.

Wassia Kamon: That's it for the Diary of the CFO for today. I'm glad you are here and you're listening. Elaine is such a great leader and I'm so grateful she could come and share her amazing knowledge and insight about finance marketing and really business in general. If you like this episode, don't forget to subscribe, share it with family and friends and leave a review.

Also, if you have any topics you'd like me to go over or any guests you think I should bring on the show, go to Ask at the diary of the CFO. com. Again, the email address is asked at the diary of the CFO. com or just send me a DM through LinkedIn or at my email address. All right. Can't wait to see you soon.