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People ask me what a fractional CFO actually does. The honest answer is: it depends. I used to hate that answer. Now it’s the whole point.

This week I walk through what the first thirty days at a new client look like. I do have a first pass: tax returns next to the books, the balance sheet (where the big issues tend to hide), and cash, including what’s due in the next thirty days... but that’s a physical exam, not a template. The checks are the same and the answers never are.

Then the part I didn’t plan on. The same thing is true at home. Sharing is a lot tougher to teach the second kid, I tracked everything about the first one down to the decimal point, and the second one is “they’ll live.” Plus, what a kid who just wasn’t tired at eight o’clock was really telling me, and why I’m literally recording an episode about this and it still got me.

If you’ve ever been handed a framework and a feeling that it wasn’t quite for you, this one’s for you.

New episodes every Tuesday.

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Email: Jason@TantlingerABS.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-tantlinger-mba

This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or tax advice. Views expressed are my own and do not reflect the opinions of any organization I'm affiliated with.

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My kid asked me why a muffin costs $4. I started to answer... and then I realized I was about to explain something most business owners get wrong too.

This week we break down what a muffin actually costs once you count the labor, the rent, the oven, and the card fee. Then the harder question: how do you split one rent payment across a muffin, a latte, and a breakfast sandwich? There's no single right answer, and that one choice can turn your best seller into your worst product on paper.

Plus, what a write-off really is. It's not the day the problem happened. It's the day you finally counted. And yes, there's a banana example, and yes, the raccoons get involved.

In the middle, our very first guest. Alec Borlin is a Cleveland east side guy, Solon grad, and fellow OU Bobcat Alum. He's a CPA who left public accounting for executive search, spent years watching which finance careers took off and which ones quietly stalled, then bet on himself and started his own firm. Today he works with fractional CFOs and Financial Leaders including building a presence on LinkedIn. We talk about the jumps, what recruiting taught him, and what a long bet on yourself actually looks like.

New episodes every Tuesday.

Find Alec on LinkedIn: Alec Borlin, CPA | LinkedIn

Email Alec: aborlin@bgcsearch.com

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Connect with me:

Email: Jason@TantlingerABS.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-tantlinger-mba

This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or tax advice. Views expressed are my own and do not reflect the opinions of any organization I'm affiliated with.

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A Hall of Fame hitter fails two out of every three times he walks to the plate. Two out of three. And we put him in a museum for it.

This one is about patience, and the argument that it's really three different problems wearing the same word.

Patience with clients, where you can see what's broken in two weeks and it still takes eight months, because the people who've run that process for years need to trust you before you flip it on its head.

Patience with the grind of finding new work, which is where the baseball comes in. You can do everything right and line out to the shortstop. Five conversations is not a sample size. And nobody rebuilds their swing in the middle of a slump, though I've absolutely done the business version of that after four bad calls.

And patience with your kids, which is the hardest one on the list and it isn't close. I think I finally figured out why: work gives you a scoreboard. Parenting gives you nothing except the fact that Tuesday ended.

Plus a no that turned into a yes, a week that ended with a toy in a basket, and an action figure jammed into a garbage truck that I should have let them get out themselves.

New episodes every Tuesday.

Drop a comment or see the contact info below to connect.

TFD Disclaimer

Support the show

Connect with me:

Email: Jason@TantlingerABS.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-tantlinger-mba

This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or tax advice. Views expressed are my own and do not reflect the opinions of any organization I'm affiliated with.

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Your January numbers showed up on February 20th. By then they're not information. They're history.

This is the most common thing I get hired to fix. Monthly financials that show up late, and are often wrong when they finally do. I walk through the five reasons closes run late, the five reasons the numbers come out wrong, and a five-step fix that gets you from day twenty to day ten in about a quarter. None of it is heroic.

Then the uncomfortable part. Every one of those five problems turns out to be happening in my house too. A daycare sheet that told me my kid had a rough day, after pickup had already convinced me it was a great one. And the car ride questions I ask now because of it.

Plus: why my kids treat our furniture like gym equipment, and why I still don't know where the line is.

New episodes every Tuesday.

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Support the show

Connect with me:

Email: Jason@TantlingerABS.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-tantlinger-mba

This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or tax advice. Views expressed are my own and do not reflect the opinions of any organization I'm affiliated with.

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A recruiter asked for my GPA. I told her: two. She slid my resume back across the table and said they only take 3.0 and above. Twenty-four hours later I had an internship.

This one is how I actually got here. I wanted to be a firefighter first, then a surgeon like my grandfather. Then I did some math on myself in high school and figured out I didn't want it badly enough to do what it actually required. So, I defaulted to business, which is what you pick when you know what you're not, and then an accounting class clicked in a way nothing in school ever had.

Also, in here: why I got denied from the accounting honor society and went to their events anyway, what happened when I ran into that same recruiter a year later, and the pattern in my family I didn't notice until I sat down to record this.

If you're sitting in a pile of rejections right now, this one's for you.

New episodes every Tuesday.

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Support the show

Connect with me:

Email: Jason@TantlingerABS.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-tantlinger-mba

This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or tax advice. Views expressed are my own and do not reflect the opinions of any organization I'm affiliated with.

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Being a dad is the best thing in the world. Building a successful business? That's just the bonus that keeps the lights on.

Welcome to The Fractional Dad: From the Land to the Lowcountry. This show sits at the intersection of two worlds that don't usually get talked about together: running a business and raising kids, in real time. No struggle story, no grind culture. Just real life, real work, real stress, and real happiness.

In episode one, I lay out the thesis behind the show, who it's for (professionals and parents alike), and a look at what's coming this season, so you've got a reason to come back every Tuesday.

Real life. Real work. Real stress. Real happiness. Let's get into it

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Support the show

Connect with me:

Email: Jason@TantlingerABS.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-tantlinger-mba

This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or tax advice. Views expressed are my own and do not reflect the opinions of any organization I'm affiliated with.

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Business podcasts act like nobody has a toddler. Parenting podcasts act like nobody has a P&L. This one is both, on purpose.

I'm Jason Tantlinger. I run a finance consulting firm, Father & Husband 7 days a week and home solo with two kids under four, two days a week.

Real life, real work, real stress, but real happiness. The financial stuff that actually matters if you own a business, the honest version of the parts nobody warns you about, and a segment every week where I tell you what I got wrong.

First episodes drop Friday, September 4th.

TFD Disclaimer

Support the show

Connect with me:

Email: Jason@TantlingerABS.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-tantlinger-mba

This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or tax advice. Views expressed are my own and do not reflect the opinions of any organization I'm affiliated with.