Cook's PlayBooks Thematic Index
I’m finally publishing an easy index of ALL Cook’s PlayBooks posts. Come back here if you think I’ve written about your topic previously or you simply want to know where to get started.
Since launching Cook’s PlayBooks a little over 1 year ago in June 2024, I’ve published over 50 newsletters - each one built to help Founders, CFOs, COOs, and Operators scale based on my own personal “best of” lessons learned.
Cook’s PlayBooks is proud to partner with Brex, the modern finance platform built for high-performing CFOs. Brex unifies global cards, expenses, travel, procurement, banking, and bill pay into one AI-powered solution, giving finance teams the visibility, control, and speed to scale. Get started today and see how your peers are getting more leverage from finance with Brex.
I write from the operator’s seat bringing 30 years of scaling at Intuit, Netflix, and Mozilla as my personal pay it forward service. This newsletter is where I share the frameworks, playbooks, and hard lessons personally learned. These are the posts I wish I had as I learned about strategy, structure, and execution.
I like to try to write from the reader’s seat… having been there and done that. As a reader, I would want a thematic categorization of every post on a Substack. A place to come back to find that one article I’ve read before… or simply a place to start or dive deeper on a topic/theme.
So, I’ve categorized all my posts into my Top 6 Themes or Pillars with a plan of updating this post regularly to always keep it current.
6 Key Themes / Pillars
TOP LEVEL
Vision-setting, best-of frameworks, and launch milestones.
Launching Cook’s PlayBooks - Jun 18 2024
Cook’s Top Level Leadership Framework 🔒 - Jun 25 2024
Leadership Culture - Top 20 Frameworks - Aug 1 2024
2024 Year in Review - Jan 16 2025
CFO Series Complete + Exclusive Resources 🔒 - Mar 24 and Mar 26 2025
Forced IPOs and Compound Ratchets - Jan 23 2025
CJ Gustafson - Run the Numbers Podcast - Apr 7 2025
Sasha Orloff - Podcast - The CFO Whisperer - Jun 13 2024
That Will Never Work - Our Netfix Startup Story - Aug 28 2025
The Best of Mozilla 🔒 - June 30 2018
Cosmos - Influencing My 13 Year Old Brain - Sept 1 2025
Netflix vs the World; Our Award Winning - Documentary - Mar 2019
Your Network Is Your Net Worth - July 14 2025
Business Barometer Survey - Q2 2025 - July 15 2025
Business Is a Sport - July 24 2025
Strategic Partner
How CFOs help design structure, scale, and long-term strategy.
Cook’s Coaching Corner: Strategy - Jul 2 2024
North Star Thinking - Jun 12 2025
Reverse Design Thinking for the Future CFO Architect - June 5 2025
First Principles Thinking for CFOs 🔒 - May 22 2025
Your Network Is Your Net Worth - July 14 2025
The CFO Roadmap Series 🔒 - Feb 28 2025; Mar 26 2025
Part 1: From Scorekeeper to Operator to Architect 🔒 - Mar 4 2025
Part 2: Financial Maturity By Stage - Mar 11 2025
Part 3: CFO Scorecard 🔒 - Mar 19 2025
Decision Making Systems
Smart systems, fewer surprises, and more confident execution.
Decision Making - a 3 Part Series - Part 1 - How To Create a Decision System - Jul 9 2024
Decision Making Series - Part 2 - Structuring the Decision - Jul 16 2024
Decision Making Series - Part 3 - Communicating the Decision(s) - Jul 23 2024
It’s Agile Planning Time - Oct 29 2024
Fire! Aim - Ready? - May 15 2025
CFO Sidebar: Fire! Aim! Ready? 🔒- May 20 2025
Map the People - Nov 12 2024
Constraint Driven Innovation - May 29 2025
CFO Guide to Setting Constraints 🔒 - Jun 3 2025
Communication and Influence
How great leaders shape build trust, shape the narrative, and lead at all levels.
Leadership Influence and Communications - Top Level - Aug 8 2024
CFO As Storyteller 🔒 - Oct 3 2024
Islands of Safety - Oct 15 2024
It’s Time for a SECS Talk - Oct 22 2024
Leading Your Board: Part 1-Creating Your Board Team - Dec 5 2024
Leading Your Board: Part 2-Board Alignment - Dec 12 2024
Leading Your Board: Part 3-Board Communications & Best of Board Links 🔒 - Dec 19 2024
The Myth of Fake It Until You Make It - Sep 26 2024
Leading with Powerful Questions: Part 1 - Feb 4 2025
Leading with Powerful Questions: Part 2 - Start a Listening Tour - Feb 11 2025
Leading with Powerful Questions: Part 3 - Leading With Why? - Feb 18 2025
T-Chart Framework - June 20 2025
Expand Your Leadership & Influence? Expand Your Delegation! - July 10 2025
The Language of Business - Aug 7 2025
The Language of Business - Part 2: The Influence Equation - Aug 14 2025
Social Media Influencer vs Leadership Human Influencer - Aug 21 2025
Leadership and Culture
Building high-trust teams, decision ownership, and resilient organizations.
Leadership Culture - Top 20 Frameworks - Aug 1 2024
“Cookie: It’s 1:15 Not 15:1 - Lessons from Bill Campbell - Aug 15 2024
Founders Mode: Setting the Record Straight - Sep 10 2024
Crisis Leadership: Top 12 Best Of - Apr 27 2020
Crisis Leadership - More Best Ofs - Apr 8 2025
Crisis Leadership: Part 2 - Why 70% Confidence Is Your Superpower - Apr 15 2025
Crisis Leadership – Dealing with the Press🔒 - Apr 22 2025
Connection Is the New Currency 🔒 - March 30 2018
Building Trust and Transparency - Sep 19 2024
Great CFO’s = Cultural Architects; Bad CFO’s = Cultural Cops - May 7 2025
Great Leadership Is Presence Not Absence - Nov 5 2024
7 Olympic Lessons Learned - Aug 15 2024
Expand Your Leadership & Influence? Expand Your Delegation! - July 10 2025
Business Is a Sport - July 24 2025
How to Lead Like Bill Campbell: The Coach of Silicon Valley’s Greatest Teams 🔒 - July 31 2025
Future CFO AI Intelligence Platform
What happens when AI rewrites the operating manual for Finance.
The ERP Era is Over; The New Era = CFO Intelligence Platform - Apr 4 2025
2025: Enter the “AI-First” Era - Nov 21 2024
AI + CFO Field Report 🔒 - Mar 27 2024
The Future of the Web & Web Browsers in the New Era of Ai Agents - Jan 26 2025
Your Curiousity is Your Ai Superpower - Apr 29 2025
Missed My Live AMA on Ai? 🔒 - Apr 3; Apr 9; Apr 16 2025
Let’s Open The Books and Re-Imagine the Close - June 26 2025
From Horses to Hallucinations - July 17 2025
Software in the Era of Ai - June 19, 2025
🔒 For Paid Subscribers:
Every theme section includes exclusive CFO Sidebars accessible only to Paid Subscribers with a goal of building a mini-operating community here on Substack. Examples include posts on Forecast Maturity, Decision Architecture, Scorecards, and AI tooling readiness. Look for the 🔒 icon.
COMING SOON…
The 7 Stages of Startups - Sept 11thMind the Gap! - Sept 18thTime Audit: Sept 25thLead Time: A 2 Part Series - Oct 2nd and Oct 9thThe 7 Critical Coaching Moments for C-Level Execs - Oct 16thFrom OODA to ODDA - Oct 23rdWhere CFOs Really Miss the Forecast! - Oct 30thMaybe I’ll start working on the equivalent of “Trailers” in the movie theater for each of these “Shows”?
All the Best Ofs,
Jim C
