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It\u2019s perhaps no secret that this podcast can be rather rigid when it comes to our policy for welcoming guests: Invitations are reserved for CFOs and CFOs alone. In fact, we regularly turn away book authors, consultants, and even CEOs. Such was the case for David Pennino, CEO of LogicSource, who recently was \u201cpitched\u201d to us as a potential guest. As always, we issued a templated email reply specially crafted to politely inform a dutiful communication professional of our \u201cCFOs-only\u201d mantra.

This being said, LogicSource\u2019s CEO has arguably nabbed a plus-size supporting role on our latest episode without having recorded a single word. Although unexpected, this was perhaps an eminently understandable development, given the central role that Pennino has played in the career of Niki Heim, LogicSource\u2019s CFO, who easily met our necessary criteria and subsequently accepted our invitation.

Still, when it comes to Pennino, CFO Heim does not serve up the familiar cadence of CEO kudos, any more than she attempts to tell us that Pennino is some kind of all-knowing C-suite Yoda forever imparting career wisdom.

Instead, she swings open the door to a conference room of the past. The year is 2014, and Heim, a newly hired controller, is fielding questions from LogicSource\u2019s private equity investors.

Pennino is confident that she has the makings to be the company\u2019s next CFO, but not all those gathered feel as certain\u2014including Heim, who now tells us that at the time, she felt that she was not yet ready.

\u201cI\u2019m very grateful that I had Dave Pennino, who was honest and open with me\u2014he\u2019d say, \u2018Listen, here\u2019s what I\u2019m hearing\u2014I believe in you, but you have to believe in yourself and you have to keep going,\u2019\u201d explains Heim, who adds that the company\u2019s CFO had exited the company only days before her arrival, prompting the company\u2019s investors to scrutinize the firm\u2019s recent finance hire all the more.

\u201cDuring every single presentation that I gave to the board and to investor meetings, I was on edge\u2014I needed to prove myself but always make sure that I was doing what Dave believed that I could do,\u201d remarks Heim, who would shortly begin serving in an interim CFO role despite having her own misgivings about her CFO readiness.

\u201cAlong the way, I would hear people say, \u2018The work is going to come before the belief in yourself,\u2019 and that was me\u2014it was almost like my self-confidence wasn\u2019t fully there yet,\u201d comments Heim, who besides receiving confidence-boosting support from her CEO also began to extract feelings of self-worth from each new board encounter.

\u201cThe board would be asking me to do something, and I would need to just go and figure out how to do it\u2014I always found a way, and there were a lot of times early on when I was in the office at [6:00] in the morning and left at midnight,\u201d recalls Heim, who tells us that once the work came, her confidence began to arrive soon thereafter.

Says Heim: \u201cMore and more people and investors would call me up personally, and I\u2019d be able to answer their questions.\u201d \u2013Jack Sweeney