Sign up now to join a community of 80,000+ people who receive my curated selection of the most exciting and thought-provoking content straight to your inbox every week!
Share
📁 Less is more
Published 3 months ago • 6 min read
It was the most prestigious talk I had ever given.
Fifty-five CEOs, all of them doing over $3M in revenue.
The community? One of the most elite masterminds, SaaS Academy, founded by the impressive Dan Martell. (If you haven’t read Buy Back Your Time, you absolutely need to.)
This talk had to go right. It was my one shot, and I didn’t want to blow it.
So I prepared for weeks and weeks with the plan of giving them everything that I had, and more.
Teaching Finance & Accounting to 50+ SaaS CEOs at SaaS Academy
And just when I thought it was going well…one CEO shouted: “Slow down Josh, you’re going too fast!”
I totally froze. I was so embarassed.
Now to be fair…he wasn’t wrong.
That same week, I delivered an Excel training at a company and the feedback came back unanimous: overwhelming, hard to follow.
I was even getting comments on Youtube saying the same about that week's video 😂
It’s been one of my biggest lessons of the year: more doesn’t always mean better.
Often, the greatest value comes from doing less—and doing it really really well.
I've built more than 100 financial models for founders across every stage.
Each one takes me 48+ hours to build from scratch.
Traditional forecasts show revenue growth but miss the real story of your SaaS business.
This template tracks your ARR month by month, breaks down new customers vs. churn vs. expansion revenue, and connects directly to your P&L for automatic adjustments.
Created in partnership with Maxio, it gives you the complete customer behavior insights that help founders raise capital and make better decisions.
More wealth – building a $10M net worth so I can invest it and live off the passive returns.
More health – no disease, no aches, mental health as strong as physical health
More connection – with friends, family, and people in my network
If you haven’t noticed the pattern:
MORE = GOOD 👍
Until it’s not.
Let me explain.
Every week I go out alone for all-you-can-eat sushi. It’s my special me time 😌
I order pieces…rolls…soups…I really give them a good run for my money.
And for about 30 minutes, it’s heaven.
But 4 rolls and 20 pieces later…my stomach starts to hurt.
And if I keep eating past that point, it’s no longer pleasure—it’s pain. In fact, it feels like torture.
Think about that: one second I’m craving my favorite food, the next second I’m begging to stop.
That’s because everything in life has a capacity.
Once you cross it, more doesn’t help—it harms.
Economists call this marginal utility: every additional unit brings less benefit than the one before.
But this goes way beyond economics.
In today’s world, more doesn’t just lose its value—
It becomes overwhelming.
More metrics. More items on your to-do list,
More meetings.
More opinions.
We’re in the AI era, and our problem is no longer scarcity. It’s overload.
The challenge isn’t getting more.
It’s curating.
It’s focusing.
It’s learning to do less—so it actually matters more.
Here are 3 ways that you can start getting more by doing less:
1. Financial storytelling
Don’t send someone a spreadsheet that looks like this 👇
It overwhelms.
Instead, talk about the key metrics. Zoom in only where necessary
Clarity > Volume.
2. Constructive feedback
Being a good manager isn’t easy. It’s not about dumping 10 things you want someone to improve.
Pick 2–3 big ones for the quarter. Stick with them. Go deep.
That’s how people grow—by focusing on a few things that really move the needle, not juggling a laundry list.
3. Schedule breaks
So far we’ve talked about ways to avoid overwhelming those around you.
Even more important is to prevent you from overwhelming yourself.
Last year, one of my biggest lessons was this: manage your energy before you manage your calendar.
If you sleep 8 hours, you’re awake for 16. But you can’t be “on” for 16 hours straight.
Most professionals can only stay sharp for about 90 minutes at a time. So build in 30-minute breaks for light, non-demanding tasks.
It’s the pause that gives you the power for the next block of focused work.
I still cringe when I think back to that talk. It was painful to fall short of what I hoped for.
But I shouldn’t be too hard on myself. I still landed two clients, built credibility, and learned a lesson I’ll carry for the rest of my career: less is more.
And my hope is that you don’t have to learn that lesson the hard way.
Build a future-proof career in Finance & Accounting with The Board Room
Join a community of finance & accounting professionals solving real problems together.
Get access to monthly workshop sessions where we tackle everything from Excel to FP&A secrets - all pulled directly from my experience as a fractional CFO.
Perfect for accountants and finance pros who want to level up their careers and learn from peers who've been there.
Josh (Your CFO Guy) Fractional CFO for Startups | Founder & CEO at Mighty Digits
This email is part of my weekly newsletter, The CFO Files. If you no longer want to receive emails on this topic, or if you want to subscribe to other Finance & Accounting topics, you can do so over here.
Looking to change the frequency of emails, or unsubscribe?
Sign up now to join a community of 80,000+ people who receive my curated selection of the most exciting and thought-provoking content straight to your inbox every week!
Hey Reader, I used to check my bank account way too often. We'd finish client work, send the invoice, and then... I'd just wait. Checking QuickBooks every couple days to see if payment came through. Wondering if I needed to send another reminder. It wasn't just the waiting. It was the mental space it took up. I'm trying to work on forecasts for clients but I'm thinking about who still owes us money. I see the same thing with so many of the firm owners and consultants I talk to. Accountants,...
The client reached out and said, "Josh, our customer wants a discount. Can I still record the revenue on this deal?" Honestly? I wasn't really sure. My team didn't know either. And the client needed an answer fast. So I opened ChatGPT and explained the situation. Within two minutes, I had an answer. But I wasn't about to just copy and paste it... I mean, let's be real, ChatGPT probably hallucinated half of it. So I asked for the source. Then I actually read it. And there it was. The...
Hey Reader,Back in college I joined the fencing club. I'd never fenced before, but I loved reading books like The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo. I thought... how cool would it be to learn how to handle a sword? A few weeks in, I was getting the hang of it. Moving faster. Feeling confident. Then the instructor told me to stop. "Take off your mask," he said. "You're going way too fast. You still need to learn the fundamentals." Then he said something that completely changed how...