Outside the Grind is our occasional feature that spotlights the unique passion projects, side hustles, and hobbies of finance professionals outside of the office. Let us know if you know, or you are, a CFO or finance pro with an interesting, weird, or unusual side gig.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Vic Russo, CFO of insurance technology company Sure, did that thing most of us probably do: He took a look around his life as he was turning 30 and decided that what he really wanted to be was a rock star.
Here’s the part of Vic’s story the rest of us only dream of: He actually became a rock star.
In his early 30s, with a successful finance career well underway, Vic joined heavy metal band Diesel America as its lead singer, recorded an album, and started playing live. And we’re not just talking about your dad’s garage band either: The band’s songs got radio airplay, and it’s played on the same bill as The Allman Brothers, Tedeschi Trucks Band, and Scott Weiland. As it did for many musicians, the Covid-19 pandemic slowed the band’s trajectory, but Russo says there are plans to record another album.
CFO Brew talked to Russo about finding the time to rock out, how being a CFO helps his band, and what his board thinks of his headbanging ways.
You joined the band in your early 30s while you were starting to move up the corporate ladder. Where is the time to launch a rock career coming from?
We actually have a lot more time than we all realize. So when I started this, the biggest drain on my schedule was being a professional. I actually had the wherewithal to say, “There’s a couple of things I want to do before I have children,” and that was [to] spend some extended time in Italy and give this music thing a shot.
I purposefully found some time to do this before I saw that drain on my schedule coming from expanding the family. By the time my kids were born, the band had already established itself.
So while working, if you have things to plan for, like a recording session or show, you can plan your schedule accordingly. And it’s music, right? That’s something you can do on a Friday or Saturday night with a bunch of friends. It’s not really conflicting with the day job.
News built for finance pros
CFO Brew helps finance pros navigate their roles with insights into risk management, compliance, and strategy through our newsletter, virtual events, and digital guides.
The one benefit I did have was I’ve had the good fortune of having two material exits that allowed me to take a little time off from work around the time that we were recording the album and trying to establish the band. I took five months off, and I dedicated myself to it.
How was having this creative outlet informing your professional trajectory?
They’re complementary in a couple of ways. In the sense of work-life balance, it’s really been great for me to have this other thing I like to do.
They’re also very complementary as the skill sets that I bring to my day job are the skill sets I really had to bring to the band…when we were most active and getting a lot of radio play and playing a lot more shows on a regular cadence.
The things that I do for work, I had to bring to the band, both thinking strategically and thinking operationally: setting up recording sessions; setting up band rehearsal schedules for shows and for recording sessions. There’s a little R&D in the music too, thinking about song structure and coming up with the set list and why the set lists work. And on to marketing and promotion: How do we get people to listen to us? How do we distribute our music? How do we find people on social media? How do we get this radio airplay, to finance, legal, and all those other things?
That skill set needed to come into the band in order to accomplish the things that we needed to do. I’m a rock star that got bitten by the accounting bug and both those things have really helped each other.
You’re in a meeting with your board. What do they know about rockstar Vic?
I don't know how many [members] of my current board knows. I think they do, because when I interviewed, I told them. Whenever it comes up in an interview…when I tell them about the band and give the executive summary of why I got into it and how it started, the response all the time is always like a little bit of the formality facade drops and everybody goes, “That’s so cool” or “I wish I had done that.”
If anything, it’s been a positive for the CFO trajectory, not a headwind or negative.—DA