We are very excited to have you join us on CFO THOUGHT LEADER, an award-winning Apple podcast designed to inspire and empower finance executives as they advance their leadership across the enterprise.
CFO Thought Leader was developed as a storytelling platform where finance leaders share their real-life professional experiences with others. It’s no secret that the best way to engage listening audiences is with stories. For this reason, we provide the question flow below to allow guests more time to reflect on those experiences that they feel shaped their careers. Thank you again for being our guest.
PART I: Your Finance Career journey– Insight into your professional path.
Tell us about those career experiences that you feel best prepared you for a finance leadership role?
As you prepare for your interview, we encourage you to reflect on key experiences that shaped your path to becoming a CFO. Consider:
Mentors & Learning: Highlight any mentorships or personal development moments that played a significant role.
Pivotal Moments: Think about challenges, decisions, or roles that accelerated your development as a finance leader.
Skills & Insights: Share how specific experiences—especially those outside traditional finance—helped you grow.
PART II: The Business – Discussion on current company challenges and opportunities.
Tell us what your company does and what sets it apart from its competition?
As you prepare to discuss your company, we encourage you to think about how best to showcase your company’s Value Proposition and what excites you about its future. Consider these alternatives:
- What is the most important problem your company is solving for its customers?
- How is your company driving innovation in its industry?
- What makes you most proud to represent your company today?
PART III: Lines of Sight and AI – Focus on how your company is leveraging data visibility and AI in decision-making.
What are some of the business dynamics that you are seeking to better expose and measure?
Tell us what, if any, new sources of data (financial or nonfinancial) you may be tracking?
As you prepare for the Lines of Sight portion of the interview, we invite you to think about the key metrics that provide visibility into your business’s performance. We’re particularly interested in any new or evolving metrics you’ve adopted recently to educate stakeholders or better understand business dynamics.
Even if there’s no new metric, insights on how you use data to drive decision-making are highly valuable.
How is the company leveraging AI to enhance competitive advantage?
As we explore AI during the interview, we encourage you to reflect on your company’s strategy for adopting and integrating AI technologies. You’ll have the flexibility to discuss this broadly or dive deeper based on your comfort level.
Additionally, we may ask how AI is impacting your finance team, particularly around forecasting. Sharing practical examples, if applicable, would be of great interest to our audience.
PART IV: Finance Strategic Moment – Share a key strategic finance-driven decision.
Share a story of a time in your finance career when you experienced a “finance strategic moment”—a moment of strategic insight that later empowered you as a finance Leader to drive change within your organization.
As you prepare for the Finance Strategic Moment portion of the interview, we recommend selecting a story that is compelling and easy to relate to our audience. This should be a strategic decision or moment of insight that had a lasting impact on your leadership or your company’s direction.
Please know that the host won’t interrupt during this segment, giving you the floor to deliver the story as a standalone moment—beginning, middle, and end. It often serves as a featured excerpt in our newsletters, so the more structured and memorable the story, the better.
PART V: The Mentoring Round – Offering career advice for aspiring leaders.
What do you wish someone had told you at the start of your CFO career?
Share something about yourself that most people don’t know.
What book would you recommend to aspiring finance leaders?
One Last Question:
What are your priorities as a finance leader over the next 12 months?
Your Promo Trailer
Help Us to Promote Your Episode into the Future:
Let’s Record a Promo Trailer
“Hello this is {YOUR NAME}, CFO of {YOUR COMPANY’S NAME}, and you are listening to the CFO Thought Leader Podcast.”
CFO THOUGHT LEADER is made possible by