The Three Worlds of Financial Clarity — Money Stories, the Numbers, and What's Behind Them
Before I became a Fractional CFO, I spent years in the world of academia — researching, analyzing, and learning how to examine the frames through which we interpret things. That way of thinking never left me.
One of the interpretive frameworks that shaped me is Terence Fretheim’s Three Worlds Approach to reading texts. When we read a text, three worlds collide: the world of the text, the world behind the text, and the world in front of the text.
Surprisingly, this framework turns out to be just as helpful when working with business owners and financial decision-making.
Because when it comes to business finance, we’re never just dealing with numbers.
We’re also dealing with...
hopes
assumptions
operating realities
strategic possibilities
habits and
fears
So I view Fractional CFO work through the prism of three worlds, all equally real and equally powerful.
Fractional CFO support isn’t just about spreadsheets. It’s about the stories we bring to the numbers, the clarity we find inside them, and the strategic decisions they inform on the other side.
1. The World In Front of the Numbers
The emotional and psychological lens we bring to money.
Every business owner carries stories about money. Some helpful, some inherited, some outdated.
These sound like:
“Finance is complicated. I’ll never really get it.”
“It’s okay to just break even.”
“If revenue is up, things must be fine.”
“Talking about money makes me uncomfortable.”
“We’ve always done it this way.”
“Growth solves everything.”
These beliefs shape decisions before any spreadsheet is opened.
This world is about:
mindset
lived experience
how we feel when we look at our numbers
If we ignore this layer, we try to solve emotional patterns with technical tools — and it never works.
2. The World Of the Numbers
The financial reality.
This is the world most people think a CFO lives in:
financial statements
cash flow modeling
margin analyses
pricing strategy
dashboards and KPIs
forecasting
capital planning
Yes — this work matters. It is the map.
But a map only helps when we understand the terrain and the journey we’re trying to take.
The numbers tell a story, but only if we know what to listen for.
3. The World Behind the Numbers
What creates the numbers in the first place.
This is where numbers become meaning:
operations
staffing and capacity
sales structure
customer mix
seasonal rhythms
vendor relationships
market pressures
industry trends
growth vs. stability vs. exit planning
This is the world of day-to-day operations and broad strategy.
It is the lived, practical environment where decisions actually occur.
And it’s the world that determines whether financial clarity leads to meaningful action — or stops at a dashboard screenshot.
Why This Matters
Most financial advisors, accountants, and coaches operate in one of these worlds.
A business owner, however, is living in all three every day.
My role as a Fractional CFO is to hold the three worlds together — to translate between them — so decisions are grounded, confident, and aligned with what the business is actually trying to become.
When we understand:
the beliefs driving decisions,
the financial reality those decisions create,
and the operational strategy shaping the future,
Clarity emerges.
Not louder. Not faster. Just clearer.
That clarity is what changes everything.
The Real Goal
The goal of finance is not complexity.
It’s peace of mind.
Financial clarity is not about drowning in dashboards — it’s about freeing the owner to think, decide, and lead without anxiety or guesswork.
That’s the work I love.
If you’re operating in all three worlds at once and want someone who knows how to navigate them with you — that’s where I come in.
