Episode 022
Cathy Kemnitz
Do you view your accountant as a gatekeeper or a growth partner? In this episode of Women’s Million Dollar Conversations, Alice Tang sits down with Cathy Kemnitz, founder of Cathy Kemnitz Consulting. Cathy shares her journey of breaking through the “role bias” that often keeps financial professionals from having a true seat at the leadership table.
Cathy reveals her signature 60/40 rule for making big decisions and explains why “analysis paralysis” is the enemy of business growth. From navigating the 2008 financial crisis to scaling her firm past the million-dollar mark, Cathy’s insights on self-advocacy and the “Oh No” fund are essential for every entrepreneur.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
How to “swim in uncharted waters” by turning raw operations into actionable data.
The “Punch Bowl” Bias: Why accountants are more than just fiscal gatekeepers.
The 60/40 Decision Framework: How to assess risk when you don’t have 100% of the facts.
Why the “only way through is through”—Cathy’s mindset for surviving the toughest days.
"You'll never have 100% of the data to make a big decision, so sometimes you must take a leap of fatih."
[00:00:20] Alice Tang: Good morning, Cathy.
How are you?
[00:00:23] Cathy Kemnitz: So good, Alice. Good to see you.
[00:00:26] Alice Tang: Thank you for joining our Women’s Million Dollar Conversation today. To be our guest, the woman, the Power Woman, has already made, accumulated, or earned a million dollars. We wanted to make sure that the wisdom we share to have the 90% of the population to cross that threshold. Today I’m very happy sitting with my wonderful friend Cathy Kemnitz. And Cathy, tell us a little bit about you and your business.
[00:00:57] Cathy Kemnitz: Perfect. First of all, I wanna say thank you, Alice. [00:01:00] I’m beyond honored that you asked me to do this, and I’m also honored to be part of your Wolf pack because it’s very important to me.
So I’m super excited, but I will tell you a bit about my business. I started Cathy Kemnitz Consulting in 2019. I just saw there was a portion of the, of businesses, small businesses that were being a bit underserved. Businesses getting to the point where they know they need to make big decisions. They don’t have anyone to sit at the table with them from a financial perspective, especially small businesses, they don’t have the money for a full-time C F O. They don’t need a full-time C F O, they just need somebody there when they need them there. And I love growth. I love startup companies.
So to me this was that natural fit to step into that role and help my clients. I don’t know if I’ve chosen or they’ve chosen me some, the universe has chosen great clients for me. They’re all at some inflection point, so I really help them, take their operations, interpret that operations, turn it into data. Tell that story back to them with that [00:02:00] data. And then we make decisions together based on what the numbers tell us and what the operations tell us. And so I always say I like to, swim with them in uncharted water, so I can be that, that right hand person and sit at the table with them.
So that was really the reason I started the company. So
[00:02:18] Alice Tang: Beautiful. Thank you Cathy for sharing. She was humble and said her clients might have chosen her and maybe you have chosen them, but I think because they have the need and you show up with the biggest gift to them is helping to share and know their story then they can make decision for future growth. So thank you so much.
So it takes four years, right? To get to that million dollars of sells. So let’s talk a little bit about the journey getting there, Cathy.
[00:02:47] Cathy Kemnitz: Absolutely.
[00:02:47] Alice Tang: What is the biggest bias. That you haven’t, it’s funny, past four years.
[00:02:53] Cathy Kemnitz: I was thinking about bias the other day and, I’m sure we’ve all experienced bias to a certain extent. I had really [00:03:00] strong parents and my mom owned her own business and my dad was a C P A and I just think, I grew up thinking if I felt biased, maybe that was my problem. Maybe I wasn’t really feeling it and maybe I just wasn’t showing up appropriately. And so my answer to experiencing bias was to not give it any the oxygen and just figuring, you keep working harder and they’re gonna notice, and that bias will disappear.
I think that obviously is not true. I, as I’ve gotten older and through my career, I actually did start really recognizing bias and kind trying to figure out what to do with it. I think outside of just gender bias, I think one of the biggest biases I have felt being an accountant is actually role bias.
The accountants aren’t like the most loved person in a company, right? I had an old boss tell me the accountants are the ones who take the punch bowl away when the party’s getting a little too rowdy. And I it’s not the, probably the most revered position because we are kind of gatekeepers.
And I think one [00:04:00] of the biggest times I felt that role by us was in a company that was really driven and the people at the top of the company, all, all of us on leadership team, quite a few of them came from a sales role. So accounting and accountants, that’s, not necessarily the people that they’re not bringing any revenue in. And I was in a meeting with a couple of my leadership team members and they asked me a direct question. I was asked a direct question, by my COO and I gave him a very direct answer speaking to him in a, this is a trusting leadership relationship, and he didn’t like the answer and he blew up. And so I, I did a little debrief with my C E O after the meeting. I’m like, gosh, how could I have handled that differently? How, what could I have said differently? And his response was you just don’t have that same familiarity. You don’t travel with us, you don’t, these, you don’t go to customers with us. So maybe next time you approach it by starting the conversation, asking me, permission to speak freely. And I sat there. I didn’t know what to do with that information. I probably, for the first [00:05:00] time, felt like maybe I’m not thought of as an equal.
And that was a tough, that was a tough bias to, to work through, because working harder doesn’t get you through that bias. So that was a tough one. And it, a little bit different than maybe a gender bias or, but it was definitely it hit hard.
[00:05:16] Alice Tang: Wow. So it’s a real bias. I was just flowing and listening to your story, Cathy, and have you really resolved to any penetrative or permanent solution to that bias?
Obviously, asking for permission is not the right thing to do because if you are having a seat at the table, you have the power and the responsibility and the right to have that candid, honest conversation.
[00:05:46] Cathy Kemnitz: Correct? Correct.
[00:05:47] Alice Tang: And if it seem like an attack, it’s not. I’m telling you the truth because we all, if we all have the same thought, we want the company to be better.
[00:05:57] Cathy Kemnitz: Correct. Exactly. I think, my response [00:06:00] to that was, you hired me to be in this role to make sure that we’re doing the right thing fiscally, and I’m not gonna be bullied out of doing the right thing fiscally and saying the thing that I think is the best thing for this company.
And so I learned how to deal with that in a very healthy way. It definitely took me some time to get past it, but I feel like I’m better for it and I feel like it made me more confident because I think we always question ourself first, but I think when I really dug into it, it was a learning moment, but I know it made me stronger.
[00:06:31] Alice Tang: That’s wonderful. That’s wonderful. Next question for you since we have a lot of audience who might be aspiring to be Cathy. What is the one thing that you want to give to the woman who are watching and say, Hey, I really want to be Cathy when I grow up, what’s the one thing?
[00:06:53] Cathy Kemnitz: I guess if I thought about advice or just that one piece of just… this is something [00:07:00] I can give to other women, is advocate for yourself and don’t apologize for it. Maybe that sounds tough and harsh, but I think as women we tend to not advocate for ourselves and our teams. And we feel bad when we do, because we feel like we’re being selfish.
But I think if you go out there and ask for what you need, it makes you a better employee. It makes you more confident. And it’s still a working process for me. I’m learning every day how to be at, addressing what my needs are personally and professionally. But I think that’s the one piece of advice. If I had 30 years ago, it would’ve done me a lot of good.
[00:07:37] Alice Tang: So advocating for me and advocating for my team.
[00:07:42] Cathy Kemnitz: Yeah.
[00:07:42] Alice Tang: Like to add that is probably easier in general to advocate for others than for ourselves. I’m not sure if this is a woman thing, but sometimes it’s easier to speak for somebody else.
[00:07:54] Cathy Kemnitz: Yes.
[00:07:55] Alice Tang: And do you see the similar thing in your world?
[00:07:58] Cathy Kemnitz: Yeah, I think so too. I think so too. [00:08:00] I think of like my past position when I’m asking things for my team at a team of 13 and we just really needed technology. We really needed help. And again, back to being the accounting group and not being revenue producing. We were always kinda last in line to get the tech work and, and so my team was just a bunch of great people who were, they’re just willing to pull it together and do whatever they needed to do. So it was really easy for me to go ask for what they needed to make their lives easier, which, ultimately made my job a little easier.
But really it was, they were working like dogs and I was like, this is, we need to do something smarter to help the group because we’re growing like crazy and so we really need to give them the tools to continue to scale. So it made it a lot easier because it really was the best thing for the company.
[00:08:45] Alice Tang: Great, great. In your journey in the last four years, looking back, there may be places and points, maybe a slow short period where you say, you know what, this is difficult. I’m hanging in [00:09:00] there, I’m contemplating quitting if there is a moment like that. What kept you going?
[00:09:07] Cathy Kemnitz: Again, back to the strong parents I just think I was taught the only way through it is through it. Every time I think about something that’s difficult or scary or, again, uncharted waters. You know, you’re gonna get to the other side. You know, you’re going to make it, you just have to, buckle down and do the work, get the work done. I think about there’s those things we don’t wanna do in a day or, and I don’t wanna do, but it’s not our favorite thing to do. So I’ll get up and that’ll be the first thing I do. I wanna get that behind me. It’s not the work I love to do, but it’s work that needs to be done. First thing, get it done. You look behind you, and then the rest of the day is fantastic. So I think just approaching it from that standpoint.
The other thing I think of is, hey, we’ve all lived through our worst day. We’ve all made it. Right? So you can do it again. And then you think about how difficult is this thing really? And most of the times it’s not, it’s just a matter of being brave and [00:10:00] just doing it.
[00:10:02] Alice Tang: Very good. So I learned just now the only way to get out is to get through. So either case you had to get through it. So just do it and then do the most maybe it may not be difficult, but difficult in our head, task or work first or eat that frog. Just like Brian Tracy’s has a book about, a whole book about eating that frog so that everything seems so easy.
[00:10:26] Cathy Kemnitz: Exactly.
[00:10:27] Alice Tang: It’s so hard to swallow a live frog. I’ve never tried it, have you?
[00:10:31] Cathy Kemnitz: I am not gonna put that on my list of things to do.
[00:10:34] Alice Tang: It’s not in your bucket list. Done with it.
[00:10:38] Cathy Kemnitz: So many things ahead of that.
[00:10:40] Alice Tang: When you are making a very significant. Impactful decision? Large, huge decision. What’s the process?
[00:10:51] Cathy Kemnitz: I think just because of what I do, there’s just tasks that seem so large, right? And you have to break those things down into bite size pieces and then you have to know, [00:11:00] when is enough. I think a lot of us get involved in, I hate to the phrase, but analysis paralysis, right? And as an accountant, it’s very easy to go down that path and I need a hundred percent of the data, and then I’m gonna make my decision and that doesn’t work, right?
There’s many times that we can’t get all the data or giving all the data makes the decision way too far past the time that decision needs to be made. So really my process is to, can I get 60% of the data? Maybe 80, but 60 is a lot of times what you end up with. And then can I assess the risk that remains in that 40% and what bogie could be in that 40% that would derail my decision? And then you make your decision from there. And honestly, sometimes you have to take a leap of faith because at some point you’ve just got to, you’ve gotta make the jump, you’ve gotta make the decision. I’m actually going through that right now and I have to remind myself I’m never going to have a hundred percent of the data. Cause this is a personal decision and it’s even harder when it’s personal and a business because [00:12:00] now it’s going to have a real impact. Outside, for the rest of my life. So it’s it’s one of those things you just have to decide at what point you’re like, okay, this is as much as I’m going to have, and am I willing to make that decision now?
Kinda my approach.
[00:12:14] Alice Tang: Great. So 60% come from the data. So the data is important.
[00:12:19] Cathy Kemnitz: Yes.
[00:12:19] Alice Tang: But repeating what you said, we, most of the time, at the time of making decision, we might not get a hundred percent of the data. We just need to somewhat make a leap of faith based on the educated part…
[00:12:32] Cathy Kemnitz: Exactly
[00:12:33] Alice Tang: … of what we know. And then think about what could go wrong in the 40% that might really derail this decision. Thank you for that.
[00:12:42] Cathy Kemnitz: You’re welcome.
[00:12:43] Alice Tang: Curious question, what is the best advice or the worst advice that made the biggest impact to your life?
[00:12:51] Cathy Kemnitz: I’ll go positive, I’ll go. Best advice. I I had a C E O. It was my first, it was my first controller position at a publicly traded [00:13:00] company. And we had just, it had been massive growth again, I loved this, right? Massive growth and he had just been a really good mentor to me my entire time there. There was a little bit of handwriting on the wall, which direction the company was going to go. But we, I could tell we were starting to go backwards. There was some technology that came into play that was going to make like half of our business disappear.
So I took another position and the C E O took me out to dinner one night and we’re at a really nice restaurant here in Portland, El Gaucho, and we’re having a nice meal. And he’s can you do me one favor? And I’m, what’s that? And he is don’t leave to just be somebody’s accountant. You’re more than that, you have more to offer. Mm-hmm. So that’s stuck with me. And I think about that a lot when I have a really great day with my client. I’m like, that’s right. That this is really the value I bring to my client.
So I, for example, last week I did all sorts of things that really [00:14:00] weren’t typically the work I do with my clients. I helped one of my clients hire a new accountant. I helped another one come up with a bonus plan for her employees. And it was all things that were outside the box, but they weren’t necessarily something you’d come to your accountant for. So to me, it just came full circle what he said to me that day.
[00:14:18] Alice Tang: What I have heard, his advice from my angle, was cuz everybody can receive that advice differently. If I were sitting at a table next to you hearing his advice, I’m thinking he is asking to honor your purpose and your value, you only get once. You don’t want to change for the sake of change, and perhaps, there is more dollars. Put it this way. Put it this way. And most of the time, highly skill professional like yourself, if you jump from one job to another, of course, the compensation is rich, but then what do you need to give up your life for?
[00:14:56] Cathy Kemnitz: Yep. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. [00:15:00] So that’s a good way to put it.
[00:15:02] Alice Tang: Awesome. So I have two other curious questions at the end. The first one is we’re in women’s million dollar conversation. I would like to know your value of money, Cathy.
[00:15:15] Cathy Kemnitz: Oh yeah, that’s a good one. I think value of money to me, I’ve learned is really security. I think security from my family. I don’t know how many of you remember 2007 and 2008 and those were some rough years.
[00:15:29] Alice Tang: Yes. And for many people.
[00:15:31] Cathy Kemnitz: For a lot of people. And I think it really hit home to me. My husband had his painting business that he had started, I wanna say five years before that, or three years before that, and, one year prior to to 2007, we had gotten ourselves into a pretty expensive shop and showroom. And so we had really just been really reinvesting into his company. And of course, when you reinvest, you’re not building a savings account, you’re really reinvesting in something that you think is a viable growing [00:16:00] company. 2007 hits 2008, and the phone stops ringing for him, just stops ringing.
We have a huge, now fixed overhead. And, one week of the phone not ringing, turns into two weeks, which turns into two months and pretty soon. We’re putting a house payments on a credit card and I was so afraid that we were going to lose our house. And again, that’s that security, right? And we ended up coming out the other side, but it forever changed the way I think about money, I think especially for the family. So to me it’s, I learned a lesson that, that it’s just that security.
[00:16:38] Alice Tang: Yeah. A backup plan or plan B, just in case even all the indicators, the analysis, 90% of it is giving you the goal.
[00:16:47] Cathy Kemnitz: Yes.
[00:16:48] Alice Tang: But what if it didn’t turn out? Do we have a backup plan?
[00:16:52] Cathy Kemnitz: Yes.
[00:16:52] Alice Tang: Just to survive. You can’t survive for a hundred years, but how about for six months or a year.
[00:16:56] Cathy Kemnitz: Exactly.
[00:16:57] Alice Tang: So that you can make some good decision to [00:17:00] banks instead of. Now?
[00:17:02] Cathy Kemnitz: Yes. Yeah. And I’ve carried that kind of, not, fears not the right word, but that kind of thought process around many kind of carried over with my clients and a lot of times now, a lot of my clients, I’ll build in a little kind of a cash projection or a cash budget. And we always set a line in there, I won’t use the word, but it’s the, oh no fund, right? And they’re like, I wanna know, anytime the projection shows that my account balance is gonna go below this, oh, no fund. And so it’s just something that I get it. I absolutely get it. And we instituted and they all love it. They’re all like, ugh. Yeah. I wanna know, cuz that’s, I don’t wanna wait until it’s, down to a number that I’m uncomfortable with. I wanna know when that’s coming up. So.
[00:17:43] Alice Tang: Great, great. In my simple world for small business owners and a household client we call it emergency fund, from three to six months of operating expenses if for businesses, if there is zero business I mean, it will not be zero business, it will not. But assuming zero [00:18:00] business, you still have the money to take care of payroll.
[00:18:02] Cathy Kemnitz: Yeah. Yep, exactly.
[00:18:04] Alice Tang: How about taxes that is due, assuming last year’s same revenue.
[00:18:09] Cathy Kemnitz: Exactly. Exactly. It’s definitely, it’s a, it’s a safety valve. Right. So,
[00:18:14] Alice Tang: Great. Last question. What are you grateful for?
[00:18:18] Cathy Kemnitz: Oh boy, that list is long. Maybe this is a weird exercise and I don’t know really what spurred it on. Maybe it was you, Alice.
[00:18:26] Alice Tang: Oh, really?
[00:18:27] Cathy Kemnitz: But no, my son and my husband and I, over probably the last probably six months, just randomly we’ll be standing in the kitchen and one of ’em will throw out. It’s what are you grateful for right now? What are you grateful for today? And so it’s just, it’s random. It’s not like we get up every day and do this, but and so it’s been nice because it might just be a moment in time, like something that just happened. But I think, for me I’ve gotta say I’m just grateful for our health.
I’m grateful for the fact that we have a home, we have a warm meal. Every, we have warm food. We at any point in time, at any point in our [00:19:00] lives, a different, we could have taken a different turn and been in a different situation. I think everything you do leads to this moment. And what could have happened in the past that would’ve changed where we are today? So I think we’re just really fortunate that we are where we are. I have a career that fills my cup. I love coming home and being home with my family. This is my oasis is I don’t need to escape from this. And I just, I don’t know, I could not be more fulfilled. I think this, at this point in my life.
[00:19:26] Alice Tang: Thank you. Very well said. I’m grateful for Cathy willing to be our guest this morning in her very packed, busy schedule. Thank you for the friendship and more importantly, thank you for choosing to be a role model for the women’s who’s watching Women’s Million Dollar Conversation?
How do people find you? Last question. Email?
[00:19:47] Cathy Kemnitz: You can email me. It’s Cathy@ckemnitzconsulting.com. And or you can between by cell phone. And that is all on my website, which is www.CKemnitzConsulting.com. So that’s a [00:20:00] mouthful, but you can find me.
[00:20:01] Alice Tang: Great. Thank you so much for taking time once again, I’m grateful for you.
[00:20:05] Cathy Kemnitz: Thank you, Alice. I’m so grateful for you.
Cathy Kemnitz is an energetic financial leader with over 25 years of extensive experience in all aspects of finance and accounting, including budgeting and forecasting, strategic planning, profitability analysis, and process improvement.
Her career began in public accounting and quickly progressed to leadership roles in start-up, hyper-growth, and mature companies, both publicly traded and privately held. Cathy has served as an integral member of executive management teams, implementing strategies and creating the robust financial scale necessary to support complex business models and future growth. She has operated as the key financial leader alongside CEOs to effectively communicate strategy and performance with highly sophisticated Boards and investors.
Cathy is the Founder and Principal of Cathy Kemnitz Consulting, LLC. Her passion is dedicated to assisting small and medium-sized companies in all phases of transition, ensuring their accounting systems and teams are fully prepared for accelerated growth. Through her consulting firm, she specializes in helping organizations, who often have limited resources, to implement the necessary GAAP, forecasting, and reporting structures required for confidence and stability.