James Kennedy sits down with Carolina Aponte – fractional CFO, founder, and co-host of the Breaking Even Better podcast – to trace her journey from teen tour guide in Venezuela to award-winning North Carolina business owner. Carolina shares how she arrived in the U.S. at 20 without a high school diploma, juggled three jobs to survive, and used night classes plus on-the-job learning to climb from receptionist to controller and ultimately firm owner.
They unpack what a great controller actually does, how finance leaders can influence (but not control!) CEOs, and why relationships, resilience, and “improv” are just as important as debits and credits. Carolina also talks about helping more than 10 clients break the $1M revenue barrier and how her team-based model delivers 90%+ client retention.
About Carolina Aponte
Carolina Aponte is the founder of a fractional CFO and accounting firm based in North Carolina and co-host of the Breaking Even Better podcast. A Venezuelan immigrant who arrived in the U.S. without a high school degree, she earned her GED, studied accounting at night, and worked her way up from accounts payable clerk to controller at a software company before launching her own firm.
Carolina has been inducted into the North Carolina Women Business Owners Hall of Fame, serves on multiple boards, and mentors early-stage founders through City of Charlotte programs. Her firm specializes in helping women- and minority-owned businesses build solid financial foundations, strengthen controls, and scale past seven figures.
What You’ll Learn
- From Tour Guide to Controller: How Carolina turned language skills and hustle into a finance career without a traditional education.
- What Controllers Really Do: The difference between data entry and true financial leadership – and why controllers are the “unsung heroes” of profitability.
- Hard Conversations, Done Well: How a strong controller builds relationships so they can talk honestly about cash, hiring, firing, and collections.
- Turning Chaos into Discipline: Practical ideas for using budgets, aging reports, and approval rules to keep CEOs (a little more) honest.
- Building Million-Dollar Businesses: The mindset and habits Carolina sees in clients who successfully grow past $1M in revenue.
- Designing a Sticky Firm: Why her team-based client model drives 90%+ retention and protects relationships when staff go on vacation or move roles.
Episode Highlights
“I arrived in the United States at 20 with no high school degree… but I knew I had internal tools I could use to build myself up.”
“Delivering yellow pages up and down stairs, running paper routes at 5 a.m. -that’s where I learned resilience. After that, most business problems feel easy.”
“A controller can’t make the CEO follow the budget, but with a strong relationship you can say, ‘Here’s the real deal – and here’s what I need you to do.’”
“My favorite moment is telling a client, ‘You’re a millionaire now. Just let that sit in.’ For many of them, that changes how they see themselves forever.”
“Our clients don’t just get a bookkeeper – they get the whole team. That’s how we’ve kept some clients for over 12 years.”
More About Carolina’s Role
Through her firm, Carolina and her team provide controller and fractional CFO services, bookkeeping, and advisory support for growing small businesses – especially women- and minority-owned companies ready to professionalize their finances. Her controller background means clients get robust AP/AR processes, cash-flow discipline, and practical KPI tracking, not just clean books.
Carolina is also a co-host of the weekly Breaking Even Better podcast, where three women business owners share unfiltered stories about hiring missteps, messy growth, and the real trade-offs behind “success” – not just the highlight reel.
