CX

There's a room filling up on May 28th in Salt Lake City. And if you're a woman building, leading, or investing, you should be in it. "Women at the Helm" | ACG Utah Women's Professional Network 📅 Thursday, May 28 | 1:00–4:00 PM | Salt Lake City, UT This isn't your average women's event. The kind of event you leave with a contact in your phone and an idea in your head. Just Utah's most accomplished women in business: dealmakers, executives, investors, in one room having the conversations that actually matter. ⚪ Leadership, boards, and capital ⚪ Networking with women who lead AND women who invest ⚪ Practical insight you won't find anywhere else Featured speaker Julie Castro Abrams of How Women Lead and How Women Invest is bringing her expertise at the intersection of venture capital, board governance, and women's economic power. This woman is the real deal. Don't miss her. 🙌 Open to members AND non-members. Special pricing available for ACG members. If your ambition is serious, your network should match it. Save your seat 👇 Use the WPN registration link below in comments and tag someone who belongs in this room. #WomenAtTheHelm #Utah #WomenInBusiness #ACGUtah #Capital #Deals #Leadership

The crisis du jour always has a different name. COVID. Supply chains. Inflation. Tariffs. But it always exposes the same thing. Whether your finance function was built to see around corners... or just report on what already happened. Over half of CFOs right now say they can't respond to tariff shifts fast enough because their data is fragmented and their strategy is scattered. Tariffs didn't create that problem. They just made it impossible to hide. The CFOs navigating this well aren't smarter. They're not luckier. They just built differently. 🔲 Real-time visibility into costs before the headlines hit 🔲 Scenario planning as a habit, not a fire drill 🔲 Cross-functional relationships with ops, legal, and compliance already in place 🔲 Financial infrastructure treated as a competitive weapon, not a back-office burden The CFOs scrambling right now were already scrambling. Your finance function is either a strategic early warning system. Or it's a very expensive history book. And when the next big headline hits, and it will, which one will you be running? 💬 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵'𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘢 𝘨𝘢𝘱 𝘪𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘨𝘺?

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗙𝗢𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗮𝘁 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗼𝗻. 👇 They optimized for control instead of curiosity. They approved the AI budget. ✅ They sent the company-wide email. ✅ They checked the box. ✅ And then nothing changed because their team was still waiting for permission to think differently. The ones pulling ahead? They made **"I found a better way"** the most celebrated sentence in the building. 🏆 📌 Formulas explained to clients in seconds. Not hours. 📌 Month-end close that doesn't ruin anyone's weekend. 📌 Processes nobody had touched in years, rewritten in an afternoon by someone who just got curious. None of that is about AI. It's about what happens when people feel **safe enough to stop doing things the way they've always been done.** 🔑 The tool is the easy part. The culture is the hard part. And it's the only part that actually **compounds.** 💬 When's the last time someone on your team said "I found a better way"?

𝘚𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘢𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘵? You’re not behind. But you’re also not early. A lot of private companies are heading into summer audits with: • Tight timelines • Stretched teams • And very tired auditors This is where things either get controlled… or get chaotic. If you’re feeling the pressure, don’t just push harder. Reset. Here’s where to focus right now: 1️⃣ 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗣𝗕𝗖 𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹 Not just complete, but clean, reviewed, and easy to follow. Disorganized support is the fastest way to stall an audit. 2️⃣ 𝗖𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝘂𝗽 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵-𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗸 𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀 Cash. Revenue. Debt. If it’s messy, it will surface. 3️⃣ 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 Waiting for comments = losing time. Get ahead of issues before they get flagged. 4️⃣ 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 Not everything needs to be perfect. Focus on highest risk areas. 5️⃣ 𝗕𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆 If your team is maxed, pushing harder won’t fix it. This is where audits start to slip. Audit doesn’t fail because of one big issue. It drifts off track because of a hundred small ones. If you’re in it right now, you’re not alone. 👉If you need help getting this across the finish line, I’m always happy to connect.

This International Women’s Day, we celebrate the remarkable women across CX and throughout our client partnerships. CX is proud to work alongside women who help organizations scale with clarity and confidence while bringing elite finance and accounting expertise, sharp problem-solving, and strong communication to every engagement. We celebrate their impact and the example they set for the next generation of leaders in finance and accounting.

Honored to be included in an award submission that celebrates women leaders. Thank you to The KNOW Women for naming me one of the "50 Women to KNOW in Texas", and congratulations to all the inspiring honorees. My work sits at the intersection of finance and transformation, helping teams accelerate the close, strengthen controllership, and build shared services models that scale. I love partnering with CEOs, CFOs, and operators who want finance to be a growth lever, not just a back-office function. If your organization is navigating change (growth, integration, process gaps, a leadership transition), my team at CX can help—whether you need interim finance leadership, a targeted project, managed back-office support, or staff augmentation. If any of that resonates, I’d love to connect. Send me a note or comment and I’ll reach out.

🎖️𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗦𝗲𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴🎖️ Everyone watches the Olympics. ⛷️⛸️ No one watches the 4:30am training sessions. ⏰ 𝗦𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴. The world sees: • The IPO • The earnings call • The clean audit opinion They don’t see: • The midnight close • The control testing • The 17th tie-out • The team holding it together under pressure Olympians train for years for one moment. Finance teams do the same. The podium moment is public. The grind is private. 👉 𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 “𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯” 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘸 — 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥 𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦, 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘦𝘥.