At CFO Selections, we spend our days inside the financial realities of growing businesses… close enough to see what keeps owners up at night, what they're building toward, and what gets in the way. This series brings those conversations forward: the questions CEOs are wrestling with right now and the decisions that carry real weight. We write from the CFO's seat, but that viewpoint is created with the person sitting across from us.

Daniel Kahneman’s famous book wasn’t about speed. It was about which mode of thinking is running the show: reactive and instinctive, or deliberate and strategic. Business owners, whatever their industry, are running hard: next quarter, next crisis, next decision. The conditions that allow for deliberate, strategic thinking don’t create themselves. That’s the CFO’s real job: building the environment where strategy can take root, innovation can follow, and growth becomes possible. Gary Christianson and Larry Breitbarth do this for companies with very different needs. The way they get there might look different, but what they’re building looks the same.

At CFO Selections, we may work in numbers... but we're in the business of people. Because behind every financial report is a person making hard decisions, and behind every engagement is a human-to-human connection. In this series, we're shining a light on those stories — introducing the consultants who guide our clients forward and the leaders who bring those numbers to life.

Before the first note

I'll tell you the lead has the easiest job in a barbershop quartet. Sing the right notes. Remember the words.

What I don't always start with is everything that happens before the first note.

When you're the lead, you have to come up with a plan for the song. Who are we singing to? Is this first person, second person, third person? Is it a sad song or a happy song? What's the story?

Someone wrote the lyrics. Someone had something in mind. But the interpretation, the emotional truth the audience will feel, is the lead's to decide. And once you decide, the other three singers follow. The bass adjusts. The baritone and tenor bend their pitches around yours. The entire sound builds from the note you hold.

The lead figures that out and tells the other guys: here's the story, here's what you have to have in your mind as we're singing this.

It changes everything. The same four voices. The same four notes. Completely different depending on the story you're telling.

At CFO Selections, we may work in numbers… but we’re in the business of people. Because behind every financial report is a person making hard decisions, and behind every engagement is a human-to-human connection. In this series, we’re shining a light on those stories — introducing the consultants who guide our clients forward and the leaders who bring those numbers to life.

Raphael Irving was deep in a collective bargaining agreement with no easy answers. He was at a Portland-based Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) that was facing a budget deficit, and every decision carried weight.

“When you’re in those rooms,” he says, “you know what you decide is going to affect other people’s lives.”

Payroll made up most of the budget. There wasn’t much room to maneuver.

“Most nonprofits are 65% to 80% payroll,” he explains. “So, when cuts happen, it’s people who feel it first.”

Some nights, the work followed him home.

“There were times I couldn’t sleep,” he says. “Because I knew if I could figure this out, it meant somebody got to stay.”

The work led to a strategic plan that allowed the organization to move forward. For Raphael, that’s always been the point.

“Money is the oil that makes the engine run,” he says. “If you understand the finances, you can keep the mission moving.”

The Long View: Our 17-Year Partnership with Holmberg Mechanical

Walk into Holmberg Mechanical’s Bellevue headquarters and you immediately sense momentum. The building is only a few years old — all glass, steel, and possibility — but what really animates the space is the feeling that this is a business looking ahead, not backward.

Jeff White bought Holmberg Mechanical in 2006, when it was a small, family-owned plumbing company with just 12 employees and a primarily public-sector footprint. He stepped into his new role with a bold vision for the future — but also, by his own admission, some significant gaps in financial leadership. “I was the everything man,” he recalls. “I was the tip of the spear on sales, I was operations, and I was newly part of the back-of-house work. A lot of it was new to me.”

Jeff knew the business needed more sophisticated financial guidance than he could provide alone. On the recommendation of his Vistage chair, he met with CFO Selections’ Kevin Briscoe — a meeting that would mark the beginning of a 17-year partnership.

Capital gains planning is more than a conversation about taxes. It’s about identity, family, legacy, tradeoffs and non-negotiables. It’s about guarding your pocketbook, but also protecting your heart.

The state of Washington’s decision to increase the capital gains tax in 2025 could force many business owners contemplating a sale to confront the deeply emotional, human questions tied up with their financial decisions. With a 9.9% state capital gains tax layered on top of federal taxes, a business owner’s total tax burden can exceed 30%. That’s often when owners realize navigating this alone could be a costly mistake. Your best bet at making the right decision is to surround yourself with the right experts. The ones who know it’s not just about the numbers, but what matters most to you.

We talked with four seasoned advisors, three tax attorneys and a CPA, who understand that behind every transaction is a person making a critical, once-in-a-lifetime, decision. They see their role as not simply technical but relational. They are guides, leading clients through the thickets, around the quicksand, and on to safer ground.

At CFO Selections, we may work in numbers… but we’re in the business of people. Because behind every financial report is a person making hard decisions, and behind every engagement is a human-to-human connection. In this series, we’re shining a light on those stories — introducing the consultants who guide our clients forward and the leaders who bring those numbers to life.

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Pat Monaghan will tell you that the highlight of his accounting and finance career isn’t where he’s worked, but who he’s worked with along the way.

Getting to know the people behind the operation

On a typical day at Lighthouse for the Blind in Fort Worth, Patrick Monaghan could walk through the manufacturing floor and find himself in conversations that had nothing to do with accounting. “I’d talk with the workers, get to know them and their personalities,” he says. “And enjoy the great sense of humor they brought to their work.” Patrick wasn’t just a finance leader moving through a cost center. He was part of a community. This moment says more about Patrick’s career than any job title could.

For more than three decades, finance has been his way of showing up for people: students, parents, faculty, adoptive families, volunteers, blind workers, attorneys, and nonprofit boards. He manages budgets, sure. But his real work lives in the relationships he builds.

At CFO Selections, we may work in numbers… but we’re in the business of people. Because behind every financial report is a person making hard decisions, and behind every engagement is a human-to-human connection. In this series, we’re shining a light on those stories — introducing the consultants who guide our clients forward and the leaders who bring those numbers to life.

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Connecting the Dots

After more than 35 years in finance, Carrie Mygatt knows how to see the whole picture. “I’ve worked across finance, procurement, IT, HR, and operations,” she says. “The key is to connect the dots between what’s happening in the business and the financial impact.”

At CFO Selections, we may work in numbers… but we’re in the business of people. Because behind every financial report is a person making hard decisions, and behind every engagement is a human-to-human connection. In this series, we’re shining a light on those stories — introducing the consultants who guide our clients forward and the leaders who bring those numbers to life.

When Connection Is the Strategy

Ask Rebecca Alderfer what she loves most about her role, and she doesn’t mention policy (even after two decades working at the intersection of strategy, social impact, and public policy). What lights her up is connection, forging new partnerships, linking strategies across silos, and aligning people around shared goals.

“It’s really that chessboard,” Rebecca says. “How can we all support each other? Where can we leverage resources and opportunities that already exist? How do we grow the platform together, so that everyone benefits?”

That mindset has defined her career from the White House to the frontlines of maternal health in Colorado. As CEO of the Colorado Perinatal Care Quality Collaborative (CPCQC), she’s no longer advising from the sidelines. She’s leading the charge, helping the organization grow from a startup into a statewide force for improving maternal and infant health.