I train Finance Teams at Soft Skills | Corporate Training Facilitator | Course Instructor | Keynote Speaker

You can build the best reports…
and still struggle to make people care.

(I know because I used to do that, even as FP&A Manager)

I could spend weeks preparing the reports and the deck
only to see eyes glaze over when I presented them.

My “storytelling” looked like this:
- 40 slides
- 200 KPIs
- 0 engagement

Then… silence
No decisions. No alignment. No impact.

The reality check hit me when the CFO told me
"Soufyan, bring me the story. People I will present to need more than tables and graphs"

And he was right: If leaders don’t understand the story,
they can’t act on it, no matter how accurate the numbers are.

That moment changed everything.

I stopped trying to impress, and started trying to connect.

→ I simplified the narrative
→ I turned variance bridges into business stories
→ I built frameworks to help others do the same

A few years later, I was training entire finance pros.
Then entire teams.
Then CFOs started calling.

Today, I run The Finance Circle,
where I help FP&A teams, controllers, and CFOs
turn reports into stories that drive decisions.

Here’s how it works:

• The Finance Stage  for teams
• Financial Storytelling Program — our flagship training for professionals
• Coaching programs — for CFOs and Leaders
• Workshops on AI, Copilot & Storytelling

I’ve trained teams at Holcim, Deloitte, Bauer Media, Ansell, and Proximus.
Different industries, same goal: make Finance heard.

Because the best insight in the world means nothing
if no one remembers it after the meeting.

Ready to make your next presentation land?
Send me a message — let’s make your story stick.

A great slide does 3 things:
1️⃣ It’s quick to read
2️⃣ It’s easy to trust
3️⃣ And it stays in your mind

But when I look at the first draft of the finance teams who follow my program, most miss all 3

Too many look like dashboards: typical information overload to make sure we don't miss anything

The result is that it IS exhausting for most people

But did you know that part of this is not even due to the quantity of information that is shared?

Design matters in slides as much as the way you prepare your meal on a plate

So, no matter how good your insights are, if you want to get the attention of your audience, here's how:

✅ Consistency
Keep the same layouts, fonts, and titles
Your audience shouldn’t have to solve a puzzle at every slide

✅ Balance
Distribute text, visuals, and white space evenly
A slide has a center, so start from it

✅ Contrast
Guide the eye
Use color, bold text, or shape to highlight what matters

✅ White space
The human eyes need space to digest
If everything is important, nothing is important

✅ Pattern
Follow a simple layout logic
It helps people navigate faster and remember more

✅ Hierarchy
Start with the message
Then show the data that proves it

✅ Simplicity
It's not only a question of style, but of acceptance
If it takes 30 seconds to understand, it’s too slow

✅ Alignment
Even one misaligned box changes perception
And trust me, perception is everything

✅ Variety
Choose visuals that serve your point
Sometimes a simple table has more effect than a chart

Remember: your slide isn’t there to contain everything you know

This part is the backend

But making sure the message is heard, understood and acted upon is the ultimate goal

If you had to choose, which of these principles is the one you struggle the most with?

Soufyan Hamid

I trained 1.235 Finance Pros in Storytelling | EMBA Lecturer | Keynote Speaker

Most people expect answers from FP&A

What if leadership was more about the questions

If you want Monday to feel different, cross the gap:

•  Shape the question before it’s asked. Don’t wait for a request and frame the discussion
• Model to support a decision (so think of it first)
• Explain variance by what happens next
• Design every slide to play with consequences
• Set the agenda early and bring scenarios
• Create ownership in others
• Get alignment in advance
• Challenge the business model
• Be the thought partner they call first
• Earn your seat in strategic conversations by being relevant

The truth is simple: technical skill is the base

What moves you forward is mixing business with finance, helping the company choose, and challenging the status quo

Useful > Accurate

Read this today but what I want from you on Monday: 

Pick one shift, one meeting, one decision

...and work on it 

Because your career depends more on the steps you take than on the choices that are made for you

𝗕𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗴𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗮𝗽 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀

As the leader of The Finance Circle, I am passionate about transforming the role of finance professionals into strategic business partners. 

With over a decade of experience in corporate finance, I specialize in bridging the gap between technical expertise and essential soft skills. 

My mission is to empower finance teams with advanced financial modeling, FP&A tools, and statistical forecasting techniques, while also emphasizing business acumen, communication, storytelling, and leadership.

At The Finance Circle, we offer tailored training programs that cater to both large teams and individuals. 

Our initiatives, including the Financial Storytelling Program, are designed to enhance your team's ability to influence and drive business success. 

Our approach has been trusted by leading organizations, and we continue to make a significant impact through workshops, speeches, and personalized coaching sessions.


Key Trainings:

- Financial Storytelling Program / The Finance Stage: Learn Storytelling for Finance
- The Finance Copilot: Make your Finance Team a real Business Partner
- The Finance Window: Finance for Non-Finance Teams
- Slides and Visuals Design: Learn how to use Excel and PowerPoint to build your slides

I’ve trained 1.254 Finance Pros in Storytelling | EMBA Lecturer | Keynote Speaker

Fahad Alam

Do you prefer to be respected or liked?

I want to be LOVED, and I'm telling you why 👇

Because until proven otherwise, we work with humans (not sure it will last long, but in the meantime, let's keep that hypothesis)

And people still prefer to be nice with people they love

Attention: I'm not pretending that by being "lovable", you can neglect to be competent ⚠️

In a workplace context, a "competent jerk" will more likely get more "task" collaboration than a "lovable fool"

But when it comes to influence situations (let's say, randomly, a budget nego), being likable will help you more because:
- you ask a lot of efforts
- you often bring bad news
- you have to challenge pushbacks

So, besides your mastery of models, also bring that to your toolkit
1️⃣ You make people feel heard
2️⃣ You challenge by asking questions
3️⃣ You stay calm
4️⃣ You're accountable and share credit
5️⃣ You have solid principles
6️⃣ You're fair in how you treat people
7️⃣ You deliver what you promise (always)
8️⃣ You bring solutions
9️⃣ You absorb stress
🔟 You equally support and challenge

I remember having had that discussion some time ago with some fellow finance leaders

Often the answer was that "respect" was more important

But what if you're both "respected" and "liked"?

When you see these 10 points, that doesn't seem the end of the world

Right?

Only 17%* of FP&A teams say their data is truly “best in class”

Meaning 83% still struggle to reach that level.

And it’s not hard to see why:
• Endless time spent on reconciliations and manual files
• Insights arriving too late to influence anything
• CFOs running after reports instead of steering the discussion

That’s when finance starts spinning its wheels

Effort is higher than progress, and strategy fades into the background

The shift from the daily activities to strategic ones doesn’t happen overnight

It’s a gradual clim

You begin with standardization
→ One consistent process that removes the chaos

Then move to automation
→ Eliminate the repetitive busy work

Next comes measurement
→ Track what truly matters and make it visible

After that, continuous improvement
→ Weekly tweaks that quietly build long-term strength

And finally, innovation
→ When finance starts shaping the business

I’ve seen this path in every transformation I’ve worked on and in all the CFO roundtables I participated to

It would be great to be able to jump to the nitty gritty at once 

But a steady path works much better

📎 Share it with your CFO.
💾 Save it for when your team needs a boost.
⚙️ Use it as a roadmap to build a future-ready finance function.

* Source: 2025 FP&A Trends Survey

Want to dig deeper? Here are a few ways to start:

📘 Grab the free Financial Storytelling Starter Pack → https://lnkd.in/eadSXhKp
 🎥 Subscribe to my Youtube channel → https://lnkd.in/eDkW4xxC 
🤝 Or book a chat if you’d like to explore options for your team → https://lnkd.in/eKTff5s2

Control is an illusion in Finance

Focus where it actually counts 🎯

There are tons of things you can't change as a CFO 
- Market changes (who could have guessed today)
- Political decisions (we know about that in 2025)
- The mood of a board member (I hope you can't)

Of course, that doesn't mean you have to see things coming

I plan for it, then I put my energy here:
• How I simplify complex stuff
• My confidence and consistency
• The tools I choose to make ideas land
• The link to purpose, priorities, and next steps
• The story that is tailored to who you have in front
• Human insight leaders can act on (with info they get)
• My integrity in presenting facts and context (no cheating)
• My understanding of what the audience actually cares about

This is the work

Even if you predict, you can't control all reactions

Building a story that travels well enough to survive them

Whatever it is: month-end, QBRs or Earnings prep

Discipline and integrity are what you control

Let the uncontrollables be uncontrollable

What are you putting in your circle of control this week?

You open Excel

There are hundreds of chart options

And somehow… none of them look right

We’ve all been there: you try one, then another, then tweak the colors…

...and twenty minutes later, you still have a chart that no one understands

I know it hurts, but you need to hear this:

You don't need 100 charts in Finance
You only need 7

7 charts that, when used and designed properly, can explain 95% of what we do in FP&A

And the problem is that most people don’t use them right

They let Excel decide the colors, keep the gridlines, and end up with visuals that confuse instead of clarify

In my new video, I’ll show you:
👉 The 7 charts every finance professional should master
👉 When to use each one (and when not to)
👉 And how to design them beautifully in Excel

🎥 Watch it here → https://lnkd.in/edyBbmqZ

Because charts are like jokes

If you need to explain them, they're probably not so good

Analysis <> Storytelling, Ying and Yang of Finance

And you can learn to do it with AI, if you have 2 specialists together

That's what Nicolas Boucher and I did yesterday for Forge Connect even in Antwerpen organised by the wonderful team of Rydoo 

Together with 60 Finance pros, we explored how we can use AI to help us do our job

From data analysis to storytelling in 8 steps
1️⃣ Gather all data from different emails thanks to Copilot
2️⃣ Consolidate them into one single file
3️⃣ Run the analysis and create a report
4️⃣ Outline the presentation in a story
5️⃣ Create the slides to use during the presentation
6️⃣ Challenge the content and brainstorm for backup
7️⃣ Rehearse and get feedback on it
8️⃣ Have it delivered by an AI avatar (if you don't believe it can be done, look at Klarna's latest earnings 😉)

We don't do one or the other, we must do them all

That's why it was so great to collaborate with Nicolas on this

Like Melle Eijckelhoff said, we're the ying and the yang of what finance pros must do and we're complementary

Except when Nico stresses me by adding a totally new functionality in the presentation...

 ... 20 minutes before we start 😄 (look at the last photo, but don't worry, it eventually went great)

Jokes aside, this is the perfect workshop if you want your teams to get the best of AI in Finance

From to A to Z, they'll learn how to be efficient and do what's expected of them

Bring more human in finance 😉

You are 1.000.000s to master Excel

You are unique at being YOU

That's why your soft skills are your competitive edge

Because at some point, everyone learns the formulas, the models, the systems

There are, of course, signatures but all these have to follow a set of rules to be applied correctly

But not everyone learns how to 
- influence a decision
- deal with adversary situations
- communicate a tough message

And since organisations are like pyramids, there are very few spots at the top

If you want to reach it, you need to differentiate

That differentiation won't come for skills you share with 1.000.000s of people

That will come from how you make them matter

Work on your soft skills

Future you will thank you for that

Story first then charts

But most experts will give "exploratory" tips

While I want you to also think "design"

Because most “default” Excel charts are...

...how can I put this delicately: UGLY

They mix weird colors
They hide the message
They feel designs from the 90s

The problem is that it costs attention, credibility and time

But no, I won't tell you that you need a new tool for that

You just need a better way to use the one we all open every day

Here’s the bar I set when I build finance charts in Excel:
• Use the company palette so people recognize the story as ours
• Remove decoration that doesn’t inform: borders, gridlines, clutter
• Put the message on the chart, an idea, a headline
• One idea per visual

A few small moves change everything:

📈 Line charts
• Smooth the line (it's more pleasant)
• Adjust the y-axis bounds if it helps the point land clearly

📊 Bar charts
• Set gap width to roughly three quarters so the bars breathe and read fast.
• Add data labels and simplify the axis so the eye doesn’t work twice.

🥧 Pie charts
• Keep it simple, use “inside” labels, and let the colors carry the logic
• Don't listen to the haters: they're great too

🫗Waterfalls
• Build them clean so drivers read in order and the labels come from your story
• Avoid the famous "connectors" 😣

Most finance teams still live in Excel and that’s fine

What matters is how intentional you are with the design

🎥 Yesterday I published a new video where I walk through, step by step, the best practices for seven charts every finance team needs

Go have a look, then share it with someone who needs help

 Steps to Creating the Perfect Finance Chart

I still remember the day my CFO said I sucked at presenting

Not exactly formulated like that but I took it personally

Not because he was wrong...
...but because he was right

My slides were good (and so was the design) 

And the analysis behind was impeccable 

But there was no story, no structure, no point

Which made it so that no one understood and remembered it

That day, I decided to prove him wrong

I studied how people listen

I learned how to build tension, simplify insights, and land a message that sticks

I practiced. A lot.

Until one day, people stopped seeing me as “the finance guy with slides”

They started asking me to teach what I was doing differently

That moment changed everything

Today, I help finance teams across Singapore, the US, Europe, and Africa tell stories that move business forward

And I speak in front of hundreds of finance professionals who share the same challenge I once had

And the same determination to overcome it

Because here’s what I’ve learned along the way:
- Being susceptible is not a weakness. It can be your fuel
- There’s nothing in the world that can’t be trained
- Sometimes, one harsh comment is all it takes to start your whole journey

You just need to listen, and decide what you’ll do with it

The best strategy is one your team can actually execute

It’s easy to hear that and think:

“So… let’s aim low”

But that’s not what I mean with that

There is a difference between "easy" and "achievable"

Looking for "achievable" is what I recommend because I know that, little by little, the results are more sustainable and move people in the same direction

The proof is that I’ve seen it often when discussing budgets with teams

When a target is difficult, people sigh, maybe whisper a bit… but they get to work

When it’s impossible, that spark disappears

Because people we work with can tell the difference between hard and hopeless

I'm certainly not the one who will allow sandbagging (my ex-colleagues will confirm that) in a budget/forecast process

But if you have to choose, go for the high but realistic path

One that searches for your team's performance without breaking them

Ambition is giving people the belief (and the means) to make progress

The biggest performance killer in FP&A isn’t in the tools

It’s the myths we keep believing about planning

These myths quietly shape how teams work.

They create stress, confusion, and unrealistic expectations long before the numbers are even discussed

If you’ve ever wondered why planning cycles feel heavier than they should, it usually comes back to one thing:

Teams start from beliefs that were never true in the first place

Here are some of the myths holding finance teams back (and the facts that actually move planning forward):

———

1/ The plan must be 100% accurate
I’ve watched teams obsess for hours over a decimal point.
Accuracy matters, of course, but planning is a process of direction, not perfection.
Great teams focus on directional guidance.

———

2/ More detail means a better plan
Granularity feels safe but in practice, it slows you down and clouds judgment.
What leaders need is decision-level visibility, not transactional noise.

———

3/ Planning happens once a year
Every FP&A leader knows that the world doesn’t wait for your calendar.
Everything moves, shifts and evolves.
Continuous planning is the only way to stay aligned with reality.

———

4/ FP&A owns the plan
It took me years to understand this one: we don’t own the plan. The business does.
Our real job is to facilitate the thinking, challenge the assumptions, and orchestrate the alignment...and play with Excel

———

5/ Forecasts should mirror the org chart
This myth creates silos, political debates, and disconnected plans. 
The business doesn’t operate in perfect boxes.
Neither should your model.

———

6/ Variance analysis is a blame game
In high-performing teams, it becomes a learning loop.
A space to understand what really happened and how to adjust.

———

7/ Tools will fix your planning problems
No matter which new fancy tool you choose, technology helps, but it won’t solve weak processes.
Discipline comes first.
Then tools amplify it.

———

Every planning cycle exposes the same truth: the real challenge is in the mindset

When you let go of the old myths, planning becomes lighter, sharper, and far more aligned with how the business actually works

Stop trying to plan harder and start planning smarter

♻️ Repost if your team needs that for next planning season

Would you rather spend $50k on:

A - licenses and bots to automate a month-end process nobody fully understands

B - a workshop with the process owners, a wall of brown paper, and a pizza stack

Serious question, there is no right or wrong

Except if you answer A then you are definitely not right

OK, I admit, I joke

Automation is tempting, I know

Vendors promise 75% saved time
Your backlog is long
Headcount is limited 

The idea of “it's done by itself” sounds great

Before you do, here is my advice:

DO NOT AUTOMATE BROKEN PROCESSES.

ONLY automate what you would proudly run manually once, start to finish

If you automate a messy workflow, guess what?

You just pay to make the mess move faster

That is a really expensive way to hide problems.

Here is what we do instead in FP&A and finance partnering:
1️⃣ Map the steps and the owners: everything included in the process
2️⃣ Remove duplicates and rework: in a manual process, there sure are
3️⃣ Define the single source of truth
4️⃣ Pilot the clean process for one full cycle: measure time & errors
5️⃣ Then, automate, and only then

A quick example from my past (way before AI):

I was in a company where Finance was in love with cubes (I will not say the name of tool, just to be fair)

Whenever an idea came to mind, the first reflex was to call the [tool] team and start building the process with the cube in mind

Long story short, almost every "new" cube had a lifetime of less than a year

Because it could easily be tested, iterated or brainstormed in Excel and with that, we would have noticed what wouldn't work correctly

When I had the opportunity (and power), I started to ask for a POC before anything could be set in a cube

It changed everything.

My lesson here is: automate your best version of the process

Your best version that drives the results you want:
- Shorter close
- Less manual inputs
- More understandable reports
- Happier teams
- More time for scenarios and storytelling

Bill Gates said it well. “The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency”

I just saved you a budget line and a few weekends

You are welcome 🙂

They keep saying every story needs a hero

But have you ever tried to use that in a finance presentation?

It’s… ridiculous

I’ve heard dozens of “storytelling experts” tell CFOs and FP&A teams to follow the Hero’s Journey

Problem: our world doesn’t work like that

No one in the boardroom is waiting for a hero

They’re waiting for clarity, impact, and decisions

So I tested it

In this week’s video, I actually built a “hero-style” finance presentation and presented it to an imaginary exec team

Let’s just say it didn’t go well

You imagine the result?

Awkward silence, confused faces, and one imaginary exec asking me to go to the point

Financial storytelling doesn’t need heroes

In the new video, I break down:
👉 What the Hero’s Journey really is
👉 Why it fails for CFOs and FP&A professionals
👉 The storytelling structure that actually works in executive presentations

🎥 Watch it here → https://lnkd.in/eBv-SGpD

Ever been told to “make your CFO the hero”?

Tell me below: did it help your story… or kill it?

I built a CFO clone to present in my place

Should you?

Quarterly town halls are where momentum is made… and lost

People drop off after 30 seconds of "underlying result", "EBITDA" and other "Guidance" stuff

Sometimes, it's due to education, others to simple language differences (try motivating people in Madrid when you speak in English)

Yes, I could learn the 12 languages of my group, but that would take some time. 

So I tried something different: a HeyGen avatar of me delivering the same message in multiple languages and a consistent tone

It's a new way of thinking your all-hands presentations if your group is split into different regions and time zones

But if this is feasible, it’s also a risk

Deepfakes, impersonation, “urgent transfer” scams

I couldn't simply show you the trick without warning of the risks...and exploring solutions

In the new video, I show:
👉 When an avatar helps for quarterly results (and when it shouldn’t)
👉 Step-by-step build: avatar, voice, script, scenes, languages
👉 The guardrails every finance team needs

🎥 Watch it → https://lnkd.in/gnDnnVzs

Tried avatars already? Powerful, weird… both?

Tell me how it felt (and what you’d want me to test next)

Most burnouts happen between budget and year-end

But that window is just the moment to work on recovery

Why does it happen now?

Simply because you know what you lived and you fear the next round 😫

We're not going to lie, despite all the progress made regarding automation, simplification and rolling forecasts, budgets are still an intense period in FP&A

Out of the hundreds of companies I have contacts in, maybe 2-3 go through it like a walk in the park

And the problem is: teams go out of it exhausted

But the worst is not even there yet

Right after the budget, many FP&A pros are already thinking about the next big thing

With year-end comes the stress of
- the continuous risks and opps
- the quick wins to reach the targets
- the annual closing and the reports that go with it

It's sad to admit but it's often in that period that people break

This is both due to mental AND physical breakdown

But just like a car, you must refuel if you want to keep the journey

So here are some techniques to recover mental and physical health
1️⃣ Practice breathing exercises
2️⃣ Focus on your concrete sense
3️⃣ Reset your body posture
4️⃣ Differentiate danger from discomfort

I wish I had known that back then

If for you, it's not yet too late, now is the time to do them

And if you want your teams to be fully operational in 2026, share that with them

Micro-Recoveries for Macro-Performance

I’ve always had a hard time delegating

Not because I didn’t trust my team

But because I felt responsible for the outcome

Until the moment I almost touched burnout

That’s when I realized something simple:

To trust your team, your first have to let go, no matter how they prove themselves

But even then, a tougher question came up:

👉 What should I delegate… and what should I keep?

In Finance, it’s not obvious

Some tasks look easy but require context

Others look strategic but can be shared safely

So I’m curious:

What’s hardest to delegate in Finance?
- Forecasting
- Presentations
- Stakeholder management
- Decision support

👇 Vote and share your rule for what stays on your plate vs what you let go

The author can see how you vote. Learn more

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