Where Business Owners Get Better at Decisions
Ask the CFO
Join Fractional CFO Lowell Mora and experienced operators for live, practical conversations on the financial and operational decisions that actually move your business forward.
Live on Zoom | 1st & 3rd Tuesdays | Open Q&A included
Where Business Owners Get Better at Decisions
I'm Lowell Mora, a fractional CFO. Over the past 30-plus years I have worked inside privately held and family-owned businesses, advising companies ranging from $5 million to over $100 million in revenue across manufacturing, construction, and industrial services.
Ask the CFO is a live, twice-monthly conversation where owners, operators, and finance leaders work through the financial and operational decisions that actually move a business forward. Not more theory. Not more information. Better decisions.
How Each Session Works
Each session runs about an hour and follows the same simple structure, so you always know what you are walking into.
Focused topic (about 15 minutes). I open with a practical breakdown of one real issue. No slides full of jargon. Just a clear look at what matters and why.
Guest conversation. I bring in an experienced operator or advisor to talk through what is actually working, what is not, and what they have learned doing the work. These are unscripted conversations, not presentations.
Open Q&A. This is the part that makes it worth showing up live. Bring your situation. We will talk through it together.
When: 1st and 3rd Tuesdays Time: 10 AM CT / 11 AM ET Where: Live on Zoom. The link is sent after you register.
Can't make it live? Register anyway. I send replays to everyone on the list, so you can catch the conversations you miss.
This is the room you want to be in
Most business leaders I talk to are not short on information. They are short on clarity. There is no shortage of dashboards, advice, or opinions. What is missing is a clear way to think through the decision in front of them, and the confidence to act on it.
That is what these sessions are for.
Better businesses are built through better decisions, not more information. Every session is grounded in real situations, real numbers, and the way experienced operators actually think. We talk about cash flow, margin, pricing, team structure, growth, and risk in plain language, and we talk about how to make the call. Clarity creates confidence.
This is the room for you if:
You are making decisions that carry real weight, and you want a clearer way to approach them.
You value how other operators think, not just what they did.
You would rather have practical perspective than another framework.
You want access to experienced voices you can actually ask questions to, live.
These conversations are for operators, not observers.
Register for Upcoming Sessions:
Most business owners think about exit planning only when a deal is already in motion.
But by the time a letter of intent is signed, the majority of your tax position is already locked in. The strategies that protect the most wealth at exit require years of lead time. Not months. Not weeks. And most founders don't realize that until it's too late to act.
In this session of Ask the CFO, Lowell Mora will be joined by Chris Clepp, ChFC, Wealth Management Advisor at Building Towards Wealth, to walk through the seven most common exit tax mistakes founders make before they sell, and what business owners can do now to protect what they've built.
The conversation will explore:
- Why your after-tax proceeds may look very different from your sale price
- What deal structure means for your tax outcome, and why most founders don't understand it until they're already negotiating
- How Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS) treatment works, and why missing it could cost you six figures or more
- Why your CPA's annual tax strategy and your exit tax plan are probably not as connected as you think
- Why waiting until you have an offer to think about taxes is one of the most expensive assumptions a founder can make
- What prepared owners do differently, and when they start doing it
This will be a practical, numbers-grounded conversation for business owners who are thinking about a future exit, even one that's still a few years away. The decisions that matter most can't be made at the closing table.
As always, Ask the CFO is interactive and conversational, with plenty of room for questions and discussion.
About Chris Clepp
Christopher Clepp, ChFC, is a Wealth Management Advisor at Building Towards Wealth, where he works with business owners and founders to protect and grow what they've built. With 24 years of experience in financial services and firsthand experience as a business owner himself, Chris brings a perspective most advisors don't have: he's been on both sides of the table. His focus is on long-term relationships, clear thinking, and planning that connects a client's financial goals to the life they're building.
Most businesses aren't struggling because of a bad product or weak service.
They're struggling because the people who need them most can't tell what they do, who it's for, or why it matters. The gap between expertise and buyer isn't a sales problem. It's a clarity problem. And it's costing businesses more than they realize.
In this session of Ask the CFO, Lowell Mora will be joined by Dolores Hirschmann, founder of Masters in Clarity, to talk about what's actually working in marketing right now and what most businesses are getting wrong.
The conversation will explore:
- Why so many businesses struggle to clearly communicate their value, and what to do about it
- The connection between clarity, trust, and consistent revenue growth
- What's actually working in marketing right now for small to mid-sized businesses
- How fractional professionals and advisors can stand out in a crowded market
- Positioning and messaging strategies that support real revenue, not just visibility
- What business owners are getting wrong about marketing right now
- How to bridge the gap between deep expertise and the buyers who need it
This will be a practical, business-focused conversation for owners, operators, and fractional professionals who want their marketing to work harder without adding complexity.
As always, Ask the CFO is interactive and conversational, with plenty of room for questions and discussion.
About Dolores Hirschmann
Dolores Hirschmann is an investor, strategist, speaker, and founder of Masters in Clarity, a strategy and business coaching firm that helps service professionals grow their businesses, establish thought leadership, and consistently attract clients by closing the gap between their expertise and their buyers.
A former TEDx organizer, Dolores specializes in positioning experts, authors, consultants, and coaches for success. She recently sold a company to Pete Vargas and Grant Cardone, supporting its growth to multiple eight figures in four years, and built a software platform to help speakers get placed on stages. Masters in Clarity also provides fractional CMO services to help companies design and execute marketing initiatives and implement automated systems. As an investor, Dolores acquires and scales small businesses with an eye toward long-term legacy and growth.
mastersinclarity.comIf Your Marketing Isn't Generating Revenue, Here's Why
Most high-achieving business leaders have hit a moment where they stop and ask: "Is this it?"
Not because something is wrong. But because success, on its own, does not always feel like enough. The revenue is there. The team is growing. The milestones are getting checked off. And yet something feels unresolved.
That feeling has a name. And understanding it changes how you lead, how you decide, and how you show up for the people depending on you.
In this session of Ask the CFO, Lowell Mora will be joined by Diana B. Patel, Founder and President of Resonant LLC, to explore what fulfillment actually means in the context of business leadership -- and why it is the foundation that makes success and happiness worthwhile, not the reward that comes after.
The conversation will explore:
- Why fulfillment is not an if-then equation and what that means for how you lead
- How a lack of fulfillment shows up in decision-making, team dynamics, and business performance
- What it looks like to build a business that aligns with your core values, not just your goals
- How senior leaders and CFOs can cultivate fulfillment even in high-pressure, high-stakes environments
- The connection between purpose, executive presence, and long-term impact
- Practical ways to reconnect with meaning when the day-to-day pulls you away from it
This will be a candid, grounded conversation for business owners, senior leaders, and finance professionals who want to lead at a higher level -- not just perform at one.
As always, Ask the CFO is interactive and conversational, with plenty of room for questions and discussion.
About Diana B. Patel
Diana B. Patel, MBA, is the Founder and President of Resonant LLC, where she designs immersive learning and coaching experiences that help leaders expand their perspective, reconnect with purpose, and sharpen executive intuition.
With over 20 years of experience in leadership development, Diana partners with senior leaders through one-on-one coaching, keynote speaking, and workshops focused on translating insight into practice and performance. Earlier in her career, she co-founded a biotechnology company, working across disciplines with physicians, engineers, lawyers, biologists, and investors -- an experience that continues to shape her systems-oriented approach to leadership and decision-making.
Diana writes about business, leadership, and meaningful work and serves on the board of a nonprofit organization in the Chicago area. Her mantra for business and life: "We are better together."
Want to Join as a Guest?
I invite experienced operators and advisors to be part of these conversations.
Great guests are typically:
Business owners or executives
Advisors working closely with companies
People with practical experience—not just theory
Why join:
Share your perspective with an engaged audience
Be part of thoughtful, unscripted conversations
Build relationships with other operators
Previous Conversations With Industry Experts
A collection of trusted experts who join me to share practical insights and real-world guidance on the issues that matter most to business owners.
Managing Personal Risk Featuring Amanda Martinez, VCU Risk Advisors
When HR Headaches Slow Down Growth (and What to Do About It) with Rob Stepen
Why Founders Feel Trapped in Their Own Business and How to Step Out of the Center with Dr John Fulwider
Get Caught Up On What You Missed...
Copyright © 2026 www.impactcfo.net