How AI Agents will Streamline and Eliminate Manual Work for FP&A Professionals with Albert Ramos
In this episode of FP&A Tomorrow, host Paul Barnhurst (The FP&A Guy) welcomes Albert Ramos. He shares his thoughts about financial planning and analysis (FP&A), the role of AI in finance, and how businesses can leverage predictive analytics to make better strategic decisions. They also discuss pricing strategy, AI adoption, and the growing importance of financial professionals transitioning into advisory roles.
Albert Ramos is a fractional CFO, AI strategist, and the founder of Stratego Intel Consulting, an AI-powered fractional CFO and virtual Chief AI Officer firm. With 15 years of executive leadership across finance, operations, sales, and technology, Albert has worked with publicly traded, private equity-backed, and employee-owned companies. He is a strong advocate for mental health awareness in high-pressure industries, emphasizing how AI can help reduce stress and improve efficiency.
Expect to Learn:
How AI and predictive analytics are shaping the future of finance.
Why businesses often get pricing wrong and how FP&A can help fix it.
How AI and agent-based automation are streamlining financial processes.
Transitioning into a strategic business partner and the key skills required.
How AI tools can help reduce anxiety, stress, and improve work-life balance.
Here are a few relevant quotes from the episode:
“AI won’t replace finance professionals, but those who use AI will replace those who don’t.”
“AI can enhance financial modeling, but the human element of strategic thinking is irreplaceable.”
“Companies that ignore AI today will be struggling to catch up in the next two years.”
Albert explains how AI is revolutionizing finance, why pricing strategy is critical for business success, and how finance professionals can future-proof their careers by evolving into strategic advisors. He also shared an important perspective on mental health, emphasizing how AI can help reduce stress by automating repetitive tasks, allowing finance professionals to focus on higher-value work.
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Company - https://www.strategointel.com/
Email - albertramosjr@strategointel.com
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In Today’s Episode
[01:38] - Meet Albert Ramos
[04:16] - What Makes Great FP&A?
[06:56] - Pricing Strategy Mistakes & Best Practices
[15:20] - Albert’s Experience in Fitness Industry
[19:08] - Going Full-Time as a Fractional CFO
[23:19] - AI tools and agentic workflows
[28:06] - The Future of AI in FP&A
[41:43] - AI’s Impact on Mental Health & Work-Life Balance
[48:08] - How to Get Started with AI in Finance
[51:46] - FP&A Quickfire Questions
[01:00:10] - Where to Find Albert Ramos
Full Show Transcript
[00:01:07] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Hello everyone! Welcome to FP&A tomorrow, where we delve into the world of financial planning and analysis, examining its current state and future prospects. I'm your host, Paul Barnhurst, aka the FP&A Guy, and I'll be guiding you through the evolving landscape of FP&A. Each week we are joined by thought leaders, industry experts, and practitioners who share their insights and experiences, helping us navigate today's complexities and tomorrow's uncertainties. This week, I'm thrilled to be joined by Albert Ramos. Albert, welcome to the show.
[00:01:44] Guest: Albert Ramos: Thanks, Paul. Such a huge fan. And I'm so grateful that you allowed me to come on just to share my insights and have a good conversation. So thanks. Thanks so much.
[00:01:53] Host: Paul Barnhurst: I'm super excited. Of course, I'm looking forward to the conversation. You know, I'm glad you're able to come on. And we were able to make it work so our audience knows. Funny enough, commented on a LinkedIn post from Jack Sweeney about the show, and Jack said, yeah, I only have CFOs or whatever. And I jokingly said, hey, I don't have any requirements like that. I'll take different guests, you can talk to me. And Jack kind of laughed. That's how this started, right?
[00:02:16] Guest: Albert Ramos: That's right. I'm a huge fan of Jack's as well. I listened to both of your podcasts, so the fact that we were engaging and chatting back and forth on LinkedIn was was a big mind blow blown for me. So I was super excited to spend some time with you and get to chat about what we were thinking about, and that was too funny. But Jack does listen to this. I'm sure he will. Jack, I'm a fractional CFO. I've. I meet your guidelines.
[00:02:39] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah, I've got to know Jack a little bit. Great guy, great show CFO, thought leader. All right, so a little bit about Albert. Then we'll jump into some questions and have some fun here. But Jack, if you're listening, I'm not a CFO, so you can't have me on your show. All right. Albert Ramos is the founder of Stratego Intel Consulting. If you like that game, there you go. An AI powered fractional CFO and virtual chief AI officer firm powered by white glove AI. Stratego specializes in wellness and fitness franchise SMBs, as well as corporate and private equity owned companies. Albert helps organizations leverage AI driven financial strategy. If you're not getting a trend here, we might talk a little AI today. Cash flow management, KPI dashboards and bank investor relations to drive efficiency, execution and sustainable growth. With 15 years of executive leadership spanning finance, operations, sales and technology. Albert has led teams over 300 members large a combined location count of 70 locations and a portfolio of over 200 million plus in annual revenue. His expertise extends across publicly traded, private equity backed and employee owned organizations where he has led AI automation for financial modeling, M&A strategy and large scale business operations. How does it sound listening to it? Does it make. Does it make you sound good? You're like, wow, have I done all that?
[00:04:04] Guest: Albert Ramos: It's a mouthful. I'm going to go edit some things to shorten it up. I was like, what? What is that what I've been up to?
[00:04:12] Host: Paul Barnhurst: All right. Well it sounds impressive nonetheless.
[00:04:15] Guest: Albert Ramos: I appreciate it. It's a lot of fun.
[00:04:16] Host: Paul Barnhurst: All right, we're going to start here. Great. FP&A. What does that look like to you? What is that?
[00:04:21] Guest: Albert Ramos: You know, I think it's evolved. It's a great question because I'm seeing a lot of chatter around the accounting side, as well as the FP&A side and and where I think FP&A is going or is currently adding going. And what would make great FP&A is predictive analytics, right? We obviously all know and spend a lot of time in modeling and forecasting the future. I think that's still really important, but where I think great FP&A really helps bring some value is the insights like, okay, great, now what? Now what do I do? And I think a lot of people in our space that are finding some success are climbing up the ladder of finding a way to be an advisor and a consultant. Now, I'll bring that up quite, quite often, probably today, because I think that's where it's going. A lot of what I'm seeing with the tools. Speaking of AI, I'm finding that a lot of our leaders really need to step out away from the computer and the model and tell the C-suite executive, here's what you need to go do. Here's what's next. Here's why it's important.
[00:05:18] Host: Paul Barnhurst: I agree, I think, you know, great FP and A you're serving as a strategic business partner for senior leaders, whether that be a business unit leader, the company as a whole, the head of it, whatever it might be, depending on who you're supporting. But that's really especially as you get more senior, that's what you're doing. You're helping the business, as one person put it. And I love this. I share this many times. It comes from Stu West of Grammarly Finance. I think it applies to FP&A is about helping the business make better, faster decisions. Three words better faster decisions. And I'm like, okay, that boils it down really well. We're a strategic partner at the end of the day. Or we should be. If not, we're selling ourselves short.
[00:05:55] Guest: Albert Ramos: Yeah, it's a good point. And I think to add to that the choice of whether you choose to be that timeline is starting to shrink. The tools that I'm seeing right now, and I'm and I'm talking not over the last six months. I mean, today, the last couple of days, there are tools that can reposition a accounting team members in FP&A team members right now, and even potentially replace a lot of the things that we're used to doing and taking a lot of time doing right. We love doing it. We love our models, our budgets, our forecasting, etc. But I'm seeing tools right now from not just AI and what we most mainstream knows of it or your agentic workflows, but there's agents that are being created, are created right now that can do a lot of the things that we're used to doing, which is exciting because again, that allows us to be more creative and be a thought leader, be an advisor and consultant to those decision makers in our organization.
[00:06:55] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yep. Agree. So share with me an example of when you have seen great FP&A in action. So can you share an actual example? You kind of described what it means to you. Now I want to see an actual case.
[00:07:06] Guest: Albert Ramos: Yeah. For me. So when I go into organizations, one of the big things that I look at is not just cash flow, but all the different variables within it. And so when I've seen great FP&A, well, specific to modeling, it's always around pricing in the space that I work in. Quite often in the wellness and fitness space, I find that the pricing strategy is kind of the look over the fence competitor analysis, and sometimes that works. But I think when you get mathematically precise and actually create a model, a scenario based model showing when a price point is X or a price point is Y, here's what your volume or mix will be. That's where I see a lot of value in what we do specifically in this space, but in other industries as well, is lifting up the hood, taking a look at the pricing strategy, what you'll find in most cases, we have a lot of passionate leaders and owners, franchise owners out there that are really excited about their product or impacting their community. But when it comes to the financial arm and specifically in this topic pricing, sometimes it's just whipped, pencil whipped, I guess you could say, and it's not really mathematically thought out. And so that's where I've seen a lot of great work that leads to, as I mentioned, cash flow growth and business growth overall into the bottom line.
[00:08:25] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah. You know, funny enough, you mentioned pricing because, oh, probably almost five years ago now, I did a poll on LinkedIn saying who should own pricing? And one of the options was finance. And most people responded with, yes, finance should own it. But almost all the comments were against finance owning. It's kind of funny. I think it's an area that's often under utilized strategically in companies, and it's an area where FP&A can have a role. Right. I mean, it's a multidisciplinary thing, but I've seen so many areas where pricing is just a mess and you're leaving money on the table. Absolutely. And so it's a great area for FP&A to help make sure the conversations are happening. Like there's a study done. And this is in SAS, where they found the average SaaS company spent more time on their janitorial services in a year than they did on their pricing strategy.
[00:09:20] Guest: Albert Ramos: Yeah. Big, big opportunity. And, you know, in the space that I work in, when we're looking at it's a subscription based model. So it's applicable to other industries. But you're looking at acquisition or retention attrition specific to functions of pricing.It's important to be mathematically sound there and scenario based it out, right? Again, it can't be a look over the fence and let's just match what my competitor is doing. That's not the right approach. That's a approach. And that could potentially be a variable but not the right approach. If you're really trying to scale and create a sound business and pricing strategy. Well, I.
[00:09:57] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Mean, it's the holy grail, holy grail of pricing. It's where we really all want to be. And you need to think strategic is value based pricing, right. You want to base your price on the value you're providing the customer and trying to maximize the price you get for the value you're giving, whether that's low cost, whatever that may be, that can go across the entire spectrum. And if you're just matching your competitors, there's no thought for value. You don't know what exercise they did you you hopefully consider yourself providing more value than your customer. Maybe you're not. Maybe you're strictly a volume play and that's why you're matching. But in general, there's no strategy to that. It's just, well, I hope they did a good job because I'm going to go with what they did.
[00:10:39] Guest: Albert Ramos: That's a really good point. And I think the consumer, the member, the customer right there were far more savvy nowadays. Right. And if you take a look at an organization and you've had a bad experience, maybe with their competitor, the organization that you're planning on, you know, having them earn your trust in business, you notice that the pricing is similar. It just it can lead to actually devaluing your organization. Right? So if there's some sort of similarity there, well, they must be the same in what they offer. And I would actually not spend that type of money, but maybe it's something at a premium. And you notice the services are far more valuable and much different than the bad situation that I just encountered. Now we're feeling different, right? So yeah, I think there needs to be far more strategy around pricing specifically to this topic. And I think the FP&A leaders and finance leaders should definitely have their arms around that. And so now I'm looking forward to all the hate, the hate mail, the DMs coming through. But yes, I agree, finance should own this. Yeah.
[00:11:47] Host: Paul Barnhurst: See? See, in my view is I don't care if finance owns it or not. I've kind of softened on that. They need to be involved. Everybody needs to be involved. I think it depends on the organization and all that. The key is the conversations are happening and finance is there to make sure the numbers make sense and to provide input. And sometimes that goes beyond just the numbers. I mean, if we know the business well, like you spent a long time in industry, we can provide real insights if we're really that strategic partner. But the key is that it's happening. One of the most popular articles I did is I wrote an article for CFO University about pricing and kind of how finance should think about it and how there should be a pricing committee. And it's been, I think, 2 or 3 years in a row, one of their top ten most read articles, which just shows people are realizing how important it is, especially in an inflationary environment, because everybody's scared about raising costs. But as long as you can show value, most customers aren't going to leave. They understand. They may not like it. I mean, nobody likes having their money squeezed and being worthless at the same time. Most people get that. Okay. Yeah. If I just had to pay 20% more for everything, odds are this place is going to cost me more too.
[00:12:59] Guest: Albert Ramos: You know, you made me. It's funny, because switching gears a little bit, you know, over the last year or so, most of us have road that we've, we've rode the inflationary wave. Right. So as we think about volume, right. I'm thinking subscription based model. But volume price and mix price was a favorable one. We all saw it right. We saw the 1,015% lift like shoot we're doing great on top line revenue and flow through down that that we're on the top end of the marginal curve now. Right. To squeeze out a little bit more is going to be difficult this year and next. And so it's interesting as we speak about pricing strategy, right. It's even more important because you don't have a lot of room to go. So you really need to know, I mean, every cent and every little point every little dollar is so important. So having it be mathematically sound is is important. But, you know, so that's, that's a that's an interesting topic I've been chatting a lot about that is you're not going to have too much wiggle room on the price. So how do you go drive more volume. And especially in the retail side I'm hearing this a lot. So interesting.
[00:14:06] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Especially retail I totally agree. It's a really hard area. If other areas where you can do add on services or add more value for that price increase because right, if you just increase prices like you saw this a lot in retail or some of them, they increase price and shrunk the size, right? Okay. Consumers don't really like that. We're not stupid I can tell. You know, some may not notice, but I know it was six ounces last year. Now it's 5.6 and it's a dollar more. So that leads to 40%. But inflation was 20%. Something tells me you're you're winning on this right.
[00:14:39] Guest: Albert Ramos: Knowing the audience and and look I know I come from the wellness and fitness space but you know, I, I enjoy a couple potato chips here and there. And I'm sure we're all especially last year, I was counting those chips for the money I was spending and the increase in price. I'm like, wait a second here. There's about a dozen chips missing in this bag.
[00:14:59] Host: Paul Barnhurst: We I think we all were. So let's talk. Let's get back a little bit to fitness here. We'll move on from pricing, but I think we could probably spend the whole hour here on pricing. It's it is something that's underutilized in companies. Finance should clearly be playing a role with marketing, with sales, with everybody. We're in a position to help strategically lead that. And I think there's a lot that can be done. I think we're both on the same page there. But you've spent most of your career in the fitness industry. Why? Why what is it you like about fitness other than maybe being healthy? I mean. But why the fitness industry? Yeah, I.
[00:15:31] Guest: Albert Ramos: Come from a pretty athletic family background.
[00:15:33] Host: Paul Barnhurst: You're one of those.
[00:15:34] Guest: Albert Ramos: Are you like, oh, you know it. I'll tell you and I'll explain a little bit more. I played basketball, baseball and football. I played a ton of sports. Now, pickleball. For any pickleball fanatics out there, I challenge you. And, yeah, I played college football at a small little private school called Occidental College out in Los Angeles, Eagle Rock, California. And I just I've always enjoyed athletics. And, actually, I don't think we've chatted about this. I worked prior to getting in the fitness space. I worked for Extreme Makeover Home Edition, and so that was a blast to be in the entertainment space. Previous to that, my family and I were on Family Feud and I did a couple things on MTV and all of that, but I was driving by fitness studio, and I just remembered the feeling of that athletic experience, and the rest is history over the next 15 years, I spent a lot of time on the finance and operations side in the fitness industry and helping people out, and so it's the lifestyle. It's that feeling of being around people that are looking to improve their lifestyle. I'm a big nerd when it comes to biomarkers as well. So it's fitness as far as movement. But then there's also the different parts of the ecosystem like nutrition, mindfulness and in my nerding out case blood, blood work and longevity. And so, yeah, I really enjoy it. And my family does too. We've we've made it a lifestyle. And it doesn't mean just going to a gym. It means being outside, riding your bike, hiking. You can't do too much of that in Houston because it's so moist and humid and hot. But we try as much as possible.
[00:17:13] Host: Paul Barnhurst: I hear you, and it's definitely a lifestyle. And as far as the Extreme Makeover Home Edition, you're welcome to come to my house and do one anytime.
[00:17:21] Guest: Albert Ramos: I'm not Thai. It was a great experience.
[00:17:25] Host: Paul Barnhurst: I bet. Well, it makes sense. You grew up in a very athletic family. You did a lot of sports. I could see you wanting to be around fitness. It's the lifestyle. And so naturally it's an area you gravitate toward. Do you have an interest in. So combining kind of that lifestyle and the work you do, if you enjoy both of them, it's a great way to go.
[00:17:42] Guest: Albert Ramos: Yeah, absolutely. You know what I found in why I actually started Stratego was there's a lot of passionate people out there that have opened up their own fitness studio, boutique studio, or their executive leaders in the fitness, wellness and longevity space. However, they just lack that financial literacy. Mhm. So, you know, my style has always been to serve and help others. And I just found a void there and I thought, wow, I could really use some natural mathematical capabilities that I have. And obviously my passion for finance and help companies out there with, with Stratego and my consulting and it's been a blast because I get to be in that environment of wellness and be next to some very passionate, well-known fitness gurus and leaders, but also help them on an area that's their, you know, their blind spot, their Achilles heel. So I've really enjoyed doing that. It's been a lot of fun. With that.
[00:18:43] Host: Paul Barnhurst: I said, I'm picturing you. Let's see Jillian Michaels, Gene Simmons doing some kind of.
[00:18:47] Guest: Albert Ramos: Yeah, a little. Yeah. Watch out. We're we're doing something live next week. I'm just kidding.
[00:18:53] Host: Paul Barnhurst: I can't wait I want to see it on LinkedIn. Linkedin live. Come watch Albert work out.
[00:18:59] Guest: Albert Ramos: There you go.
[00:19:00] Host: Paul Barnhurst: And get your finance questions answered at the same time. What's wrong.
[00:19:03] Guest: Albert Ramos: Time? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:19:05] Host: Paul Barnhurst: As an episode. So, you know, you talked a little bit about why you started your business. You started you went full time in December of 2023. For that, you were working for others. I know you're doing some stuff part time. What led to the decision to go full time? Like, how did you know it was the right time and this was the thing for you? Yeah.
[00:19:24] Guest: Albert Ramos: So this fractional work actually goes back to 2015. It's so funny. It started, you know post that and not that he's he's irrelevant. He's still very relevant. But that garyvee wave of being a virtual coach and my wife hated it. At the time I had my GoPro, I was filming everything. I wish I was still doing that. And so it really started there, but, right around. Yeah, the end of 20, 23, I decided to take a risk and things just got quite busy, and I wanted to make sure that I put my focus into my existing client base and those that I was serving and those that were going to need help, especially with this huge unknown or what has been causing angst, this artificial intelligence wave and and really get through the hype, right? Get through the noise and talk about what's practical, what's applicable, what can we execute on. And I decided to go full all in and dive right in.
[00:20:27] Host: Paul Barnhurst: So others who are considering that right, the fractional CFO advisory services, whatever you want to call it, there's all different terms. That area has grown a ton in the last few years because like we hear about it all the time now in the finance space. And so I'm sure we have some people listening that are thinking, hey, I would love to go out on my own at some point. Any advice you'd offer them?
[00:20:47] Guest: Albert Ramos: Yeah, I get a lot of those conversations and actually people DM me. I'm very open about let's have a virtual coffee chat. I send out my booking link. I love having conversations. There's no, you know, obligation or there's nothing being pitched or anything like that. I just enjoy having conversations like we have Paul and so no, what I'd recommend is do your homework right and really find in the feedback I've always gotten is have a good niche. Right. There's a great book by Peter Thiel called 0 to 1, and I've had some great mentors along the way that have reminded me. As much as I want to broaden out and go to the masses, it's go an inch wide, mile deep. And so what I'd recommend to people is first, do your homework. What is that niche for you. Right. And is there an opportunity to do both for now. So they have a steady stream of income and cash flow to support your business? Because there are a lot there's a lot of noise out there that you should just go all in and you can. And people have been very successful in doing that. And there's been a lot of people that haven't. It's very stressful. There's a lot of hard work, and when you're starting something from scratch, you know, many people that are listening know it's it's it's not the rainbows and butterflies sometimes that you see on LinkedIn. There's there's a lot of messiness behind the scenes.
[00:22:02] Host: Paul Barnhurst: It's not.
[00:22:03] Guest: Albert Ramos: Yeah. Exactly. Right. And so, you know, just make sure that you do your homework and you really know what you're signing up for. And if there is a support system, a spouse, a what, that partner, whoever. I'd have that conversation too, because it can create some tension, and it definitely pulls on the relationship a bit because of the the time allocation. Right? So I'd say do it. Take the risk. It's such a great opportunity to do it today because of the tools that we have available. Right. Ai and GPT and eventually agents, you're able to do a lot more with a lot less people and on your own. So it's a great opportunity to do it. And if you're thinking about it and it's pulling at your heart string, look into it. Lean in there.
[00:22:43] Host: Paul Barnhurst: No thank you I appreciate that. Great, great advice there. And you know, it's kind of funny. I get asked a lot about fractional CFO and that kind of stuff. And I tell people I'm like, it's less than 5% of my revenue. And they're always kind of shocked, like, well, then what do you do? And then I have to, you know, kind of walk through it like.
[00:22:58] Host: Paul Barnhurst: I do plenty. Trust me. You should do much of the because it just didn't for me. It didn't feel like I where I wanted to be long term, but I think it's a great area. I do sometimes miss. I still try to do a little bit here and there to keep my hands, you know, doing the real work versus just talking to people, because there's a difference when you get your hands dirty, for sure.
[00:23:18] Guest: Albert Ramos: Absolutely.
[00:23:19] Host: Paul Barnhurst: All right. So now we're going to talk about one of your passions you like to talk about. I don't know like I don't know. If you're a robot or what it is, but I'm.
[00:23:26] Guest: Albert Ramos: Not a it's not an avatar. There should be like a little a little disclaimer. This is not Albert's avatar. It's me. Yeah.
[00:23:33] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Funny enough, there's a guy, Geoff Robinson. We interviewed him on Future Finance, and he has had his voice cloned. He spent hours and hours doing that. He spent hours and hours building an avatar. He does a podcast where he just loads the transcript. And it does both sides of the conversation, and it's his conversation just to test the technology. He has a live chat. That's his voice trained on all his content on his website. So, you know, you talk that avatar and he's invested in two of the big companies in that area and is combining the avatar and the voice cloning. And he's like, pretty soon here, it's going to be good enough that people won't really be able to tell the difference. It's kind of like, you know the images, right? Unless you really know what to look like. Look for. It can be really hard to tell if an image is fake or not.
[00:24:15] Guest: Albert Ramos: You know, it's so interesting. I think the first wave, like anything that changes but in this tech revolution is the it's the unknown, right? It's the, the anxiety that comes from just not knowing what the heck this thing is or how to use it. Now that many and not a lot, but many are using it right now, it's like, okay, what do I trust? What's real, what's secure? And so there's a big there's there's definitely a big void when it comes to trusting what you're seeing. I'm noticing that a lot of thought leaders are now going live to showcase the. Hey, it's really it's really us. It's really me. And let's keep it raw and authentic. I'd imagine there's going to be an opportunity for those out there that want to. And I'm sure there's tools out there that, again, offer disclaimers show that, hey, this is this is AI generated versus it's not this is human generated. It's so crazy to think about. But it's definitely a need for sure.
[00:25:11] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah, no, I definitely think there's kind of, you know, AI is not going anywhere. There's plenty of places we can use it, but there's also you can never replace that human connection. And there's something to be said of, hey, this is live. I'm really talking to somebody, right? Right. And there can be value both ways. And there is value. And they both have their place. And so it'll be interesting to watch of how we find that happy medium, because sometimes it feels like there's way too much AI generated content. And some of it is good and some of it is like, spare me. Right. But that's the thing with human content, there's people's content. You read and you're just like, even before I came out. So it's how do we find that happy medium where we can embrace the change and maximize the utilization of the technology while still being having those authentic, real relationships and being involved in things? I think we're all trying to figure out what that means for our industries and our jobs.
[00:26:07] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Tired of sitting through sales pitches disguised as professional development? Same here. That's why I'm heading to the AFP FP&A Forum, March 17th to 19th in Austin, where it's all about real, actionable insights. We're talking AI process efficiency, strategic planning, finance, communication. Practical takeaways. No fluff, just ideas you can actually use to drive results. I'll be there too leading the session. Amp up your scenario planning with Gen AI. If that's a topic you're excited about, let's connect. Head to AFPonline.org and use code FPAGuy2025 for $200 off. See you in Austin.
[00:27:12] Guest: Albert Ramos: It's so funny with the AI tools that I'm using now, and I'm able to do things a lot faster than I used to do, be far more efficient and productive, and that goes for my team and those that I serve. But you're right, there's something about a face to face, whether it's virtual or in person, human to human interaction and just having a chat. You know, as much joy in the, the, as much fun, it is to have higher utilization or efficiencies with AI and even talking to some of my GPTs and my bots and all of that throughout the day. There's nothing like having a good time with, it's so weird to say a human colleague or a human friend.
[00:28:00] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah, right. I can't replace that human interaction. It's always going to have a place. But let's talk. I maybe, you know, you've recently partnered with White Glove. I let's start there. Why? Why did you work with them? What's the kind of story there?
[00:28:15] Guest: Albert Ramos: As we've chatted about, I focus a lot of my time serving others in the fractional CFO space more often than not in the wellness and fitness space or longevity. Along the way, I've picked up some skills on how to integrate and implement GPTs right AI and GPT or Agentic workflows. But I realized there's some great people out there that have far better, better technical experience than I and the big guns. And I met a gentleman by the name of Nick James, who we just related speaking of the human connection related on so many levels, including our faith. And that was really important to me and my family. And typically when I'm scrubbing through just relationships, I'm looking at some of these things that connect with our family values. And Nick checked all the boxes and he runs a great organization called White Glove. I and I say it's the big guns. If you've met if you had an opportunity to meet the team there at White Glove, you'd be amazed at what they've been doing over the last couple of years or so. Specific to cybersecurity, chatbot, audio texts tools like lucidus and their AI executive podcast, which maybe we can touch a little bit on at the end here. But really the building side of it and I know there's a lot of noise in the buzzword in 2025 is agents. But I've seen these things. I've seen them in action. And Nick and the White Glove team are supporting others throughout the country and making these things come to life and doing it securely. And then on the Stratego side, they're obviously helping me integrate these things into the financial arm, and it's great to see these things come to life and upskilling and developing financial leaders and financial team members to do their jobs faster, more effectively and more precisely is what I'm looking for.
[00:30:09] Host: Paul Barnhurst: I'd love to get your thoughts. I've kind of made the argument. You know, we've been talking about AI and agents and and they're coming. They're here. People are using them. But but I've said, you know, a lot of people are like, hey, 25 is going to be the year of the agent. Some people thought it would be 24. I've kind of argued it's almost more 26. And I'm going to get your thoughts on this. My view is most companies, especially at scale for for really to use agents throughout workflows and outside of limited cases, you need good data. Most companies don't have the data they need, right? Anyone who's worked in FP&A. How much of your time do you spend cleaning up data? As I like to joke, I saw a joke and it's, you know, how do you describe a FP&A professional's job? It's 80% cleaning data and 20% complaining about the data. You clean.
[00:31:01] Guest: Albert Ramos: Right.
[00:31:02] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Right. And so I'm just kind of curious. Your take. I feel like this year is really the year you'll see a lot more focus on data. And really those agents really making the bigger deal in 26 for most most companies. Yeah.
[00:31:15] Guest: Albert Ramos: And I think it comes down to less of size or even budget at this point. I think you have your classic first movers and then 2025. I don't know what happened in December, but people said, okay, we got to go. We need to jump in here. And then you have some that are still trailing and still scratching their head on whether they should be using this or not. What I think you'll see in 2025, it's not just a buzzword. They are here and I've seen it. You'll have more micro agents, right? Doing specific jobs and working with other micro agents. I think what you'll eventually see in 2026, it will become more mainstream is some of these enterprises, like a Microsoft, which is already releasing their version, but you'll start to see something that can work across the enterprise fairly easily. But what you'll see this year are these little micro agents that you can plug in to, you know, AR apps. I've seen this already happening. One recent one. I'm so glad this is happening. And for those that are listening, I'm sure you're like, I spent hours building that building, that cash flow forecast. It can now be done, you know, within minutes with some of these agents that are pulling things from your ERP, etc.. So they are here, but at a micro level, we'll, we'll experience the the larger enterprise wide agents. I think you're right. Next, next year there's a tool and I'm sure everyone uses a ton of tools, or we have a huge menu of tools that we can choose from.
[00:32:40] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Lots of options when it comes to tools.
[00:32:42] Guest: Albert Ramos: Oh my goodness.
[00:32:42] Guest: Albert Ramos: And they just keep coming out. I'm telling you, every single day there's a new one coming out, but one that I would highly recommend that people start learning. It's N-8-N and hopefully.
[00:32:53] Host: Paul Barnhurst: That I've heard really good things. It's a great tool right now.
[00:32:56] Guest: Albert Ramos: Again, for someone like me who's not doesn't have the technical background specific to it. And building it's it's fairly easy. I'll say fairly easy. It's not easy. It's fairly easy. But once you get the hang of it and you really start to see what you can do with these things, and as you start placing your digital species out there, agents, you're going to be mind blown. It's amazing. So n810, I highly recommend.
[00:33:18] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Well, you know what? And since we're talking here, kind of a little off topic on topic I guess. But you know, there's a there's a guy who he trained his on all his data, right, for his website and put his own agent out there. And I've been considering with over, you know, 100 podcasts that I have is should I train it all that and put something on my website where they can ask questions and get answers and just got to sit down and do it because, right, there's plenty of tools to do that. There's so many different use cases for AI. We talk about the agents, we talk about finance but you know copilot and hey, how do I write this formula? How do I do this analysis? That to me, if you're not at least experimenting with it and finding ways to use it today, you're just setting yourself up for trouble.
[00:34:06] Guest: Albert Ramos: For sure, you have to learn it, right? I mean, the whole idea that these agents and now even currently GPTs will replace is very real. And I know I, I get in a lot of trouble sometimes on this topic because I'm not one to say, well, no, we'll upskill and everything's going to be fine. And rainbows and butterflies. I'm actually on the other end, not to the extreme, but on the other end, because I'm seeing these things. And as I lift up to the hood, the organizations, you know, sometimes a conversation with a C-suite executive or CEO or owner is, well, do we need that position anymore? And when you look at these tools and see what it can do, the answer is no. So I think it's really important for everyone listening to this and to your other episodes that I've gotten the opportunity to watch is Step in, lean in, start learning, start, start getting that development. And if it's not through your organization, because maybe they're a little bit closed minded to this tech revolution, then go and spend time on Paul's episodes and others and doing courses and really learning these things, because you want to think about how are you going to be repositioned kind of circles back to what we were originally saying on great, great FP&A. But I'll throw in accounting and all finance leaders is you need to start thinking as a business owner, as an advisor, as a business partner, the way we've done things in the past, especially in finance, which is historically very conservative and likes to stay in its lane and do the same thing the way it's always been done.
[00:35:28] Guest: Albert Ramos: It's not the case anymore. It's it's it's being shocked. And so and it's at a small level right now as this thing becomes far more mainstream, things are going to significantly change faster. So you have to be prepared and and lean in. You mentioned something right now and people are going to I'm driving my colleagues and friends and even clients. Crazy. I keep saying data repository. Data repository. Everything that we do now because of AI, because of transcribers, because I can talk to my AI, GPT and bots is the data point everything that you're doing. I even use it in my personal life during my workouts. But the data repository that you can query, right. And then you can ask questions to Paul, you have a ton of data, and I would love to be in your brain, but to still that amount of time of yours is impossible. You're way too busy. However, if I can go to something and pick your brain through a GPT or a chat bot, how valuable. I mean, I would we could talk pricing, by the way, pricing strategy, but that would be amazing.
[00:36:34] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah. No, I know what you're saying, and I'm on I'm not on the scale of, hey, the jobs are going away. I'm more a little bit on the other side. Tasks are going away. Great. And if your job is mostly process oriented, it's at risk. Because if it's truly task driven, process driven, we're going to figure out ways to continue to automate it. I think most jobs are more than that, but there are definitely some. So I think more than jobs going away is what you're seeing is every organization and expecting an efficiency for having AI, which means we're not going to hire that next role. When somebody goes, we're not going to hire them. Yes, well, some people get laid off, no question. We'd all be lying if I told you nobody's going to get laid off from AI. People already have. And our jobs at risk. Of course, the market's going to change. Things are going to change, right? When the internet came, jobs went away and new jobs came when you know other things. Every revolution that we've had, the computer, it changes things. But, you know, so far we haven't seen any that have been a net negative and have shrunk the jobs needed. It's going to increase productivity, no question. So it'll be interesting to watch how it plays out. I'm a little a little more optimistic on the the job impact, but we'll all see, right? We all have kind of our different takes and it's crazy to watch regardless of how you how you think about it.
[00:38:04] Guest: Albert Ramos: Yeah, we'll we'll see I think the the best hedge right. And I loved listening to motivational speaker back in the day by the name of Jim Roan. And I just remember his voice and he would go value like how how are you creating value in your profession and skill set in the marketplace? And so that's my that's just my suggestion, right. Wherever this thing lands and it's probably going to land right, right in the middle as it typically does is how are you preparing for some of this change? And are you leaning in and creating more value for yourself in the marketplace.
[00:38:40] Host: Paul Barnhurst: FP&A guy here and I want to tell you about the Planning and BI showcase. Gone are the days of juggling multiple platforms. Now with business intelligence tools, you can integrate planning directly into your BI system, the same system your entire company already uses. Join me on March 20th for the Planning and BI showcase, where industry leaders will demonstrate how top BI tools are reshaping strategic planning. See firsthand how modern FP&A solutions can drive real value across your enterprise. The event features live demos from leading BI solutions. Whether you're a CFO or an FP&A professional, you'll discover the tools that can help you deliver more value across your enterprise. Don't miss out! Register today at www.accelevents.com/e/Planning-in-BI-Showcase and take the first step towards smarter, data driven decision making.
[00:39:52] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, it's like when we talk about pricing, everybody wants a value based pricing. The more value you can give for the salary you're getting.
[00:40:01] Guest: Albert Ramos: Exactly.
[00:40:02] Host: Paul Barnhurst: The more likely somebody is to keep you, the less value you give. Regardless of AI, regardless of an AI, any technology, anything that allows you to be more efficient allows you to give more value. Ai is a productivity and efficiency tool. So why wouldn't you use it? Excel is an efficiency tool, right? If I went into any job and I started, I pulled out green paper and did my model. I'm probably not going to be there long because they're not getting value. It's taking me five times as long and you're like, you want me to read your green spreadsheet paper?
[00:40:35] Guest: Albert Ramos: Please close.
[00:40:36] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Then come talk to me.
[00:40:38] Guest: Albert Ramos: I miss those. There was just something about the touch of those.
[00:40:42] Host: Paul Barnhurst: There is something about paper. I miss sometimes. I don't remember the last time I picked up a newspaper.
[00:40:47] Guest: Albert Ramos: But I write. I write my love letters to my wife in those. Those spreadsheet papers. I'm just kidding. Okay.
[00:40:54] Host: Paul Barnhurst: No, you'll you'll laugh at this.
[00:40:56] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Then we'll go back to another question I have here, but, on Financial Modelers Corner. So one of my other shows, I interviewed a guy by the name of Tim Vipond. He was the founder, co-founder of Corporate Finance Institute. And a question I ask is, what what's like the most unique case in your personal life that you've used a spreadsheet for? And he built a marriage tracker like this dashboard had all these questions how their relationship was doing and wow, values and things. And I'm like, and how did that work? Like, well, let's just say my spouse didn't appreciate it as much as I did and like.
[00:41:30] Guest: Albert Ramos: Something worked. They're still married. So is it worth the effort?
[00:41:34] Host: Paul Barnhurst: And they were getting they were engaged, I think he said when what?
[00:41:36] Host: Paul Barnhurst: He got you. It was pretty funny. That's risky.
[00:41:40] Host: Paul Barnhurst: So there you go. I mean, you can do anything in a spreadsheet. So I want to talk about when you and I chatted, you had mentioned, hey, my heart wants to talk about AI, and you talked about you believe it can really help people manage anxiety and stress, right? We live in a world that just continues to go faster and faster and can be overwhelming at times. So why do you believe I can help us in those areas? I mean, maybe what have you seen? How has it helped you there?
[00:42:06] Guest: Albert Ramos: Yeah, I'm glad you brought this up. We we chatted a good amount about this, and actually, I, I actually prefer when speaking about AI. I actually lean in here to this topic of mental health a little bit more than actually speaking about business and productivity and hacks and all of that. So back around 25, 20, 2015, 2016, you know, I woke up in the middle of the night and I thought I was having a heart attack at a, at a young age. I'll just put it that way. And, you know, over the next couple of weeks or so, after having this experience day after day, I realized that I was having panic attacks and didn't really feel like there was a lot of stress going on in my day to day building a consulting business and having a corporate job. But I guess there was and my body was, was firing an alarm off that I just, I guess I wasn't paying attention to. So later found out it was definitely battling anxiety as, as I found many do. And I've been very vocal about this in in my corporate and consulting job. I just there's something relatable I think I can share with others that are are emotionally available to chat about. And I later found after some of these experiences with panic attacks and all of that, I had a tumor in my pituitary gland. And I share that because sometimes I. Well, I always recommend if you're having any types of issues with anxiety or panic or any type of body or mental issues.
[00:43:40] Guest: Albert Ramos: Seek help. Right. And so I got to, I got to doing a scan, actually, as I mentioned earlier, I've nerded out on blood and I love scans to maybe I'm a hypochondriac, I don't know. So I ended up finding it. And, you know, the rest is history there. But it's my little story to share. Number one, just normalize it in corporate America or just in our professions, especially in the finance space, as you're grinding out. And and it can be stressful, especially with deadlines coming up in an executive leadership team or board or private equity firm that needs it yesterday. So I share that. But also too in relationship with I what I'm really excited about what it's doing today and what it will do in the future is offload a lot of that storage. Right. That memory that we're we're always downloading financial data points, numbers and it can be a lot. I mean, sometimes my mind is just or has been has just spun and spun because you have a lot of what I call quote unquote bullets flying at you. Numbers flying at you. And so what I is going to be able to do is just offload some of those things that you just don't need a store, you don't need to memorize. It can take care of it for you. So you can have some free space to be far more creative or and this gets me in trouble sometimes too, is just have more leisure with your family and friends and not go so hard.
[00:44:58] Guest: Albert Ramos: What is leisure? Are we in America? Yeah. More leisure or just more free time to do things that you're more passionate about instead of having to store all these things. And so I truly believe and I know we didn't touch on this, but I tell people, I really do believe that technology and the inputs that are going at our kiddos as well as us, has just completely outpaced the evolution of our brain of what we use today. And so in a lot of ways, our brains are just going haywire. It's just so many data inputs. So I think AI is going to allow us to offload. And I'm really excited to continue talking about how AI actually helps mental health. And for those that are, you know, for those that struggle with that, reach out to me. I'd love to. You know, sometimes it can be isolating, especially when you have others around you that just don't understand what you're going through. And I don't blame them. It's if they are not experiencing some of those struggles, why would they understand? They could try. But I remember reading a book called Rewire the Anxious Brain changed my life because I really got to understand the science behind the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. And what you do to reset your body when you're experiencing some of these anxious bodily sensations or panic attacks. But and now using tools to again offload some of the pressures and some of the things that you just don't need to to accumulate over time.
[00:46:29] Host: Paul Barnhurst: I get it. So, you know, I appreciate you sharing. I'm very open about mental health. I've talked about it a lot. I've lost family members to mental health issues. And, you know, I share it on LinkedIn.
[00:46:40] Guest: Albert Ramos: Sorry about that.
[00:46:40] Host: Paul Barnhurst: I think it's very important what I, what I think is interesting, there is kind of that connection of saying, look, use AI as a way to offload some of the information to hopefully reduce the anxiety, reduce the stress, reduce the trying to remember everything, but really using it to reduce stress, basically, and anxiety. And I never really thought of AI that way, but I think it's a it's a good point and it's something we can all do because at the end of the day, we have one body. We got to take care of it.
[00:47:12] Host: Paul Barnhurst: You know, mental health is real. It's something everybody deals with. And any way we can find to help us be able to relax, reduce anxiety, stress, whatever it may be, is always a good thing. So I appreciate you being open and, you know, sharing that. That's something I'm like I said, I'm always passionate to talk about. Thank you
[00:47:31] Guest: Albert Ramos: Thank You. Thanks for giving me the space to be able to to share this. And I'm hoping there's those that are listening to what you've chatted about on this topic and then what I just shared. If anyone needs any help, reach out. Right. You're not alone. Don't isolate.
[00:47:44] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah, that's the biggest thing is we just need to end the stigma. It's okay.
[00:47:47] Host: Paul Barnhurst: We all. We're all messed up. None of us are really.
[00:47:51] Guest: Albert Ramos: I love it.
[00:47:52] Guest: Albert Ramos: That's true.
[00:47:52] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Things you never thought you'd hear on an FP&A podcast.
[00:47:55] Host: Paul Barnhurst: You're all messed up.
[00:47:56] Guest: Albert Ramos: We're all broken. We're all. We're all. Yeah.
[00:47:58] Host: Paul Barnhurst: I love the averages and all that stuff you learn about, right? We're here to tell you. Well, I'll leave it at that. Yeah, right. In trouble. So, you.
[00:48:08] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Know, kind of coming back to AI and bringing this back around a little bit. You know, I think most people are starting to experiment with AI, but what would advice would you give them if they're really trying to get to that next level. And they're struggling to see the benefits and really figuring out how do I layer this into my processes and offload more to AI? Any advice you'd offer?
[00:48:28] Guest: Albert Ramos: Yeah, that's a good question. I get that one a lot. So I'll share three things. Number one, I highly recommend before you start anything is document everything that you do. Some will call it like reverse engineer it or chunk it up right. Take a look at your workflows currently. Or maybe if you're in a position to do that for your organization, do that right. But manually do it manually, do it manually, time it and document the resources that go into doing all of those. The next step or next piece of advice that I would give others is try one thing right? If that means signing up for and I don't even know if you need to sign up anymore, but for OpenAI, ChatGPT or many of us use copilot, right? Because it can live within the documents that we use like Excel. Sure. But just try it out, right? Experiment with it. Disclaimer don't give it any sensitive, confidential information. I was about to throw that out there, but play with it. Then from there, once you get really good at the prompting, or how to find what you're looking for, or create or generate and get some amazing output from it, then start taking a look back at that workflow that you did and find ways where strategically you can now use AI.
[00:49:39] Guest: Albert Ramos: And next step is learning how to build GPTs right? Which all a GPT is taking, what ChatGPT is or Copilot or some others and narrowing the focus. If I want an expert at FP&A while I'm building a GPT for just that, not finance in general, as we all know, there's different layers of the ecosystem there, but I just want an assistant that is FP&A or an assistant that Albert 2.0. I have one of those two. Right. So I call him K for some reason. He keeps wanting me to call him Caleb and I'm like, Caleb, it's K, I need it to be quicker. So I've created a GPT for that. So I would, I would map out your workflows. And this could be your personal life too, by the way, which, you know, you now have the ability. There's a great tool out there and there's so many great tools. Speaking of tools again, but plot I it's 24 hours that it's powered up, and you can literally transcribe and record everything that's going on in your life and you're obviously chatting through it, but it's a it's like a real life diary for those that don't want to write anymore.
[00:50:39] Guest: Albert Ramos: You can speak to it. There's a power. There's power in voice and what you're doing every day. But then you go back to that data repository of your life and you can start to see some inefficiencies or where you can be more effective or spend better time. So I do the same thing in your personal professional life. Then lean in one one little thing, one step at a time, and then get to learning how to build GPTs that's not an agent. It's still more of a human intervention. If I tell you this or prompt you, then you give me. It's very different. Whereas an agent is more of an autonomous, it can it has a little bit of human human intervention, but eventually goes off on its own on how you've built it. So I would start in those little, little phases. But the real big thing is understanding. A lot of people don't stop to reflect and map out. What do I do all day? What am I doing all week? What am I doing all month? And then circling back with where you can strategically use and place these tools.
[00:51:34] Host: Paul Barnhurst: You're telling me I should document my processes? Thanks a lot.
[00:51:37] Guest: Albert Ramos: The good news is you already are.
[00:51:40] Host: Paul Barnhurst: And maybe not as much as you think, but I definitely.
[00:51:43] Guest: Albert Ramos: Will get there.
[00:51:43] Host: Paul Barnhurst: All right. No great advice. I'm totally teasing you. We're going to move into our FP&A section. This is where I ask a couple questions. You know, kind of quick, relatively short answers, but we ask every guest similar questions. Number one, technical skill FP&A professionals need to master. What is it?
[00:51:59] Guest: Albert Ramos: If you're not already there and I know a lot are already, so this might just be a refresher. But for sure predictive analytics forward thinking you have to be all over that. And that doesn't mean modeling, but it also means data visualization. Get all over that. Learn the ins and outs. What's behind the scenes that's creating your dashboards or your rows, you should be all over that.
[00:52:17] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Predictive analytics I like it. I think that's the first time we've had that particular answer. I've had analytics. Usually we get Excel modeling, so I like it. That's a that's a new one for us. What about that softer human skill.
[00:52:28] Guest: Albert Ramos: Yeah. And I know you chat about this a lot and you're great at this is the storytelling right. So as we talk about being that consultant, that advisor and that true finance business partner, you have, we not you, we have to work on our communication skills. So that means getting into a boardroom or in front of private equity or your leadership team being able to communicate, what the heck does this all mean? And what I should do next is key. So there's great videos out there. I used to do that. I used to just watch public speakers and listen to their tone, their cadence, their tempo, and how they use pauses. You know, things like that. So there's a lot of material, including your podcast pod. I would watch Paul's episodes and just watch the communication style and how to storytell.
[00:53:14] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Thank you. I appreciate that. And I think, you know, great, great one to listen to is politicians in general. Politicians usually are very good speakers, regardless of where you are politically. I could care less right.
[00:53:24] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Left, whatever middle, whoever you like, just go out and listen to a few politicians. They usually have very good command of their hands. That's right. Pausing like one of the best ever. At the pause for emphasis is Barack Obama.
[00:53:38] Guest: Albert Ramos: Excellent communicator.
[00:53:39] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Master of making a point and just being able to pause and hold it. And you'll learn the more you speak. Don't be afraid to silence. It's a good thing. Studies have shown, like so many people like, well, I speak really, really fast. People hardly notice. If you'll just pause even though you speak fast. And so that that's my advice there. I think that's a great one. Last one, I'm giving you a magic wand for one day. You can change one thing about FAA. What are you changing?
[00:54:09] Guest: Albert Ramos: I might get some DMs about this, but any type of modeling that means people.
[00:54:14] Guest: Albert Ramos: I mean, not the nice ones, the not so nice ones. And I'm like, wait, that wasn't me. That was Paul.
[00:54:19] Guest: Albert Ramos: All the all the administrative, like the hours and hours. And I know we all love this stuff. We love it. We can go line by line and we can build, build, build and create models. Right. But I really do think, well, one I've seen it, but two, I do think we need to get away from that and be more of those strategic business partners. I know we've mentioned that a couple of times, but if I could wave a wand agents and I would completely take all that over and we'd spend far more time on human to human interaction, on insights and what you should go do next to drive better cash flow, to drive top line revenue and grow bottom line and margins. So I think that's where it's going. It may not be overnight, but I highly recommend people prepare for that and start developing their skill sets to be more of that, that business partner.
[00:55:05] Host: Paul Barnhurst: All right.
[00:55:06] Host: Paul Barnhurst: So Albert's magic wand is going to say we can't be the spreadsheet jockey nerd anymore.
[00:55:10] Guest: Albert Ramos: I'm sorry.
[00:55:11] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Thanks a lot. I get it for sure.
[00:55:14] Host: Paul Barnhurst: I totally understand what you're saying. It makes a lot of sense. All right, here's the get to know you section. What's your favorite hobby or passion? If you have a free night, you can go do something you wanted to do. What are you doing?
[00:55:26] Guest: Albert Ramos: You know, my wife and I are pretty much homebodies. I mean, we watch every single show. Oh, I could throw some great ones out there, but we also like going to the movies. That's one of our favorite things to do. But I was making her sad the other day because we got one of those meta quests. And my wife's name is Danielle. I think our movie experience going to the theaters is going to change here quickly, where you can be immersed in the experience and even be in the movie with what's going on in the VR space, which, by the way, is flying very low under the radar. With all this AI stuff. You don't hear too much about VR like we were a couple years ago or so. But I think there's going to be some organizations like meta that are going to make a killing there. Just think about what we're doing today in the podcast, and I'm working on some testing some things out. But imagine if while we're so far away, we can be in the same living room and those those in your audience can actually purchase seats or just, you know, first come, first serve, actually be in the experience in the virtual living room with us, in the podcast studio, with us. So it's coming.
[00:56:34] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Really interesting. Maybe, maybe I need to start buying some VR headsets for my guests and we'll, you know, send them out and we'll both be VR for our show.
[00:56:43] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Who knows?
[00:56:44] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Try something new. That could be interesting.
[00:56:46] Guest: Albert Ramos: That'd be a lot of fun.
[00:56:47] Host: Paul Barnhurst: All right. What's the book you could recommend to our audience that they should read a book you like?
[00:56:53] Guest: Albert Ramos: Yeah. So it's not a finance book, although I have plenty of those.
[00:56:58] Guest: Albert Ramos: Yeah. So I'll give you one. That just brings a lot of nostalgia. And I've read it over and over and over again because it just pulls out the emotional strings. This creativity Inc. but I believe by Ed Catmull, or at least about or coauthor. But it's about Pixar and their creative process. And so for those that grew up during some of those movies, yeah it's great.
[00:57:22] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah, I remember when they came out with the first Toy Story. That's right. Look at look at the animation for that. And then look at the.
[00:57:28] Guest: Albert Ramos: The ones that came out. I know.
[00:57:30] Guest: Albert Ramos: It's nuts.
[00:57:32] Host: Paul Barnhurst: So that's a great one. Appreciate it. All right. As a child what did you want to be when you grew up?
[00:57:38] Guest: Albert Ramos: I would have these vivid dreams of flying a helicopters. So, yeah, that that wasn't a fan favorite to the parents, so it didn't end up working out. And I don't have those dreams anymore. But maybe in another life I'll be on some choppers for sure.
[00:57:56] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Yeah, well, let me know how that other life goes.
[00:57:58] Host: Paul Barnhurst: I will.
[00:57:59] Host: Paul Barnhurst: College football. So we know you're a little bit of an athlete, but what's your favorite football team?
[00:58:04] Guest: Albert Ramos: So I don't know if I should say this, and I'm sure they're going to throw me out of the house if I say this over in Texas, but I'm a big USC Trojan fan. Fight on my both my sisters went there and another went to UCLA. But I'm a big USC Trojan fan.
[00:58:19] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Now where's the hang up button?
[00:58:21] Guest: Albert Ramos: Yeah, exactly.
[00:58:22] Guest: Albert Ramos: Exactly.
[00:58:23] Host: Paul Barnhurst: All right, so you're a Trojan. So you had a rough year?
[00:58:26] Guest: Albert Ramos: We've had a rough couple of years. Ever since Vince Young ran that football into the end zone ever since.
[00:58:32] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Pete Carroll left.
[00:58:33] Guest: Albert Ramos: That's right. Yeah, he he strategically left.
[00:58:38] Host: Paul Barnhurst: You mean the fact he was going to get a show? Cause and a bunch of penalties were coming down the pipe was a good time to go to the NFL.
[00:58:45] Guest: Albert Ramos: Isn't it crazy that and all things come full circle. Reggie gets his Heisman Trophy back, and it's just so interesting. The world is. It's ever changing. You just never know. Especially nowadays. You never know what to expect.
[00:58:57] Host: Paul Barnhurst: You definitely don't know what to expect. We all spend too much time there, so I don't bore our international audience. We do have a few of those.
[00:59:05] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Last question, because this Sunday. So this will air after. So people will be able to decide if your prediction was right or not. Who's winning the Super Bowl? What's the score?
[00:59:15] Guest: Albert Ramos: Oh, wow. Yeah.
[00:59:17] Guest: Albert Ramos: I have to go with Mahomes is what I call them I they're just on a run and.
[00:59:23] Host: Paul Barnhurst: I wouldn't bet against him either.
[00:59:25] Guest: Albert Ramos: Just he's just number one. You can't dislike the guy. It's just you know you learn more about his family and when you see him on interviews and then just how he plays the game him and Kelce it's just it's really fun to watch. So they're on a run. They're a championship team. They know what it takes. So but I still think it will be a close. One 2114 Kansas City chiefs.
[00:59:46] Host: Paul Barnhurst: 21-14. I I'm a big Andy Reid fan. I'm a BYU guy. He played at BYU. He started his coaching under Lavell Edwards. So I'm I'm with the I'm going Chiefs as well. 2721 is my guess. So there you go.
[01:00:01] Host: Paul Barnhurst: You guys can DM us on that.
[01:00:04] Host: Paul Barnhurst: But we'll go ahead and wrap up here. I think this is a great place to finish up. But thank you so much for joining me, Albert. If people want to learn more about you, you know your services, get in touch with you. What's the best way for them to do that?
[01:00:17] Guest: Albert Ramos: Yeah, just come on LinkedIn. I'm on one platform I love LinkedIn. Feel free to comment on posts to get my attention, or just DM me or connect with me there it's Albert Ramos Jr and it's Stratego Intel Consulting.
[01:00:30] Host: Paul Barnhurst: And we'll put that in the show notes so people can reach out to you. Thanks for carving out some time today.
[01:00:35] Guest: Albert Ramos: My pleasure. Thank you so much. This was actually, believe it or not, a dream come true.
[01:00:39] Guest: Albert Ramos: Thank you.
[01:00:40] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Well, what do you say I make dreams come true?
[01:00:42] Host: Paul Barnhurst: You know I shouldn't say that.
[01:00:45] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Thanks for being on the show, Albert.
[01:00:47] Guest: Albert Ramos: Thank you.
[01:00:49] Host: Paul Barnhurst: Thanks. Thanks for listening to FP&A tomorrow. If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a five star rating and a review on your podcast platform of choice. This allows us to continue to bring you great guests from around the globe. As a reminder, you can earn CPE credit by going to earmarkcpe.com, downloading the app, taking a short quiz, and getting your CPE certificate to earn continuing education credits for the FPAC certification. Take the quiz on earmark and contact me, the show host for further details.