Welcome to The 6 a.m. CFO, where finance chiefs share how they jump-start their days and engage with the tasks that are in front of them.
Today, Fresh FP&A’s CFO Chris Ortega shares his favorite leadership lesson, the most inspirational person in his life, and his fur baby, Ernie.
Be sure to check out the entire 6 a.m. CFO series, and if you’d like to be featured in a future post, please email us here.
Fresh FP&A
- Offers fractional CFO and advisory services for SMBs
- Founded: 2022
- Triple Digit CAGR in revenue and in 2023
- Doubled global client list in 2023
MORNING ROUTINE
Weekday wake-up time: Depending on the day, I wake up between 8 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. I try to keep this time but changes happen throughout the week.
Morning beverage choice: Green tea with two bags of green tea then I have my protein shake and a scoop of creatine for muscle recovery. I like to stay hydrated throughout the day.
Non-work-related morning activities: I don’t have any kids, but my fur baby Ernie gets his morning cuddles, water, and food. He is my son and I love him so much!
How I usually spend the first hour of my day: I spend the first hour of my day always connecting with my team. We utilize Microsoft Teams, so I check with them globally to see any areas of help, points, challenges, or situations to tackle proactively throughout the day. This is important to realize if I need to make any adjustments throughout my day.
Time I send out my first email: Between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. This [delay] is important because I like to focus on understanding and seeking clarity before reacting to things. This has been one thing I have learned about myself — unless it’s a critical emergency, I like to spend time in thought and thinking. This has been something I have changed to make me less reactive.
Best advice for writing an effective email: Clear, concise, easy to understand, and direct. Also, another element I would like to add is confirmation that I have delivered on this.
Also, I found if my email is not clear, then instead of explaining it back and forth via email, I like to jump on a quick five-minute call which is more efficient and effective.
First dashboard I review: Client cash burn, cash runway, and balances. Since we work with small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), cash across our team is the most important metric — so we review this daily. Cash is everything for growing SMBs, so this is where we want to make sure we are focusing our time around ROI. I love supporting SMBs and it's the core focus of my team!
Mid-morning snack of choice: I do intermittent fasting, so I don’t have breakfast or mid-morning snacks. I usually keep a 16/8 fasting schedule, which means I’m fasting for 16 hours and have an 8-hour eating window so I don’t eat anything or break my fast until I’m getting ready to work out. Then, it is usually a lemon ginger shot, some carbs, or a nice little sandwich.
What was a recent morning that didn’t go as planned, and how did you adjust? Leading a global business, my mornings adjust all the time and as much as I try to keep a consistent routine, as we all know running a business, there are always changes and things that [redirect] us, whether it is my team, clients, partners, or family.
My biggest way to adjust is to make sure to communicate as early as possible, but also give myself grace when it does change. Being adaptable and flexible is critical.
How I structure my day: A great mentor of mine told me about spacing out my time into different blocks throughout the day. So, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. I have this time blocked out for client, prospect, networking, team, and other meetings.
Also, a superpower that I implemented that got me focused during these meetings is moving the scheduling from 30 minutes to 20 minutes — that way, meetings are hyper-focused, and I can do more during that time. This has helped get me focused and dialed in.
From 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. is when I’m focused the most, but also allows time to be creative. Then, ending the day between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. allows time for any later meetings from the West Coast, and if I need to catch up with my team in Australia to work through any issues, it is morning their time.
7 p.m. to 9 p.m. is my workout time; I call it job number three. Working out, whether it is boxing or going to the gym, balances out my crazy schedule and I love having some time to work on my mind and body.
Family, eating healthy, fitness, and business are essential pillars of my life.
INSPIRATION AND LEADERSHIP
Favorite quote or mantra: “Keep pushing, never settle, and the best is yet to come.”
This is what I tell myself and my team. I always push myself in all aspects of my life professionally, emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually. This is so important to me and my team.
Favorite leadership lesson: “Patience, and trust the process. Trust, don’t rush the process.” This is so important and a challenge for me because I’m an impatient person, so I must make sure I’m falling in love with the journey and process.
Often, many tend to focus on results as rewards, but throughout my life, I have realized the biggest reward you will get from any situation is the journey itself.
Something that you wouldn’t know from your business bio: I’m a huge Dragonball, Dragonball Z, Dragonball GT, and Dragonball Super nerd. I fell in love with the character Vegeta growing up. I felt like so much of his life, his journey, his mindset, and his thirst for greatness mirrored mine. So, I love watching this and consider myself a Saiyan.
I often get asked if I’m into other anime and the answer is, not so much. But for anything Dragonball Z-related, I’m 100% on board.
Also, I love traveling, public speaking, and supporting my community as well it is very important for me to give back.
Favorite number: 4 was the first time I understood powers, and 2 is the first number you can have a power. I fell in love with power and since is the first number you can power that equals 4, I was like, this is my number for all time!
Most noteworthy items in my workspace: A picture of my father, who I lost at five years old. I have it right on my wall in my office and he is constantly looking at me, which I love.
When the day is challenging, hard, and difficult, I just look and I see my father looking at me and it fuels me to keep pushing to make him, my family, and everyone proud of me. Although he is not here, I want him to know I’m representing his legacy. Also, he is the reason my initials “CEO” match exactly my road and journey.
Bonus to Vegeta — he lost his father at a young age too. So that is another correlation.
Do you have a pet, and are they with you right now? Ernie my Chiweenie; I love him so much. I grew up very poor, with a single parent background and we could never afford a pet, so Ernie is the only pet I have ever had in my life.
Normally, he is in my living room on the couch chilling and guarding the house from his LoveSack. He is seriously the best little buddy ever and I am so thankful for him. Plus, during the day when we go on walks, it allows me to get outside to break up my days. Also, sometimes Ernie joins me in meetings, and he just sits on my lap and lives his best life.
Ernie loves being a CFO too, a chief fur officer, so we complement each other!
Favorite app on my phone that is not related to business: The Polar Beat app keeps track of all my workout data and gives me so many insights and information about my heart rate, O2, and intensity zones when I work out.
Being a CFO, I’m crazy about data, and having one place to record all my workouts and being able to look at trends and adjust is awesome. Plus, having this data helps me understand if I need to adjust to make sure I’m hitting my weekly fitness goals and it holds me accountable for this. Plus, I love actionable data!
The year, make, and model of your first car: 1988 Buick LeSabre. This car was special because the summer before my senior year of high school, I didn’t want to be a senior and ride the school bus. So, from May to August that summer, I worked my butt off saving all the money I made from working at Target and living on just $10 for an entire week for food, riding the public bus, and anything else.
I saved up $1575 that entire summer and the weekend before school started, I was able to purchase this car, and this was such an important part of my life. I realized if I wanted something bad enough I wouldn’t let anything stop me and if I worked hard and stayed focused I could achieve anything. Plus, no more riding the school bus for me!
A go-to learning resource for questions in corporate finance: Many different places, but I like Harvard Business and all their documents in finance. It’s applicable and they do a really good job of making it clear, concise, and direct. Plus, I don’t have time to read 120 pages on certain things, so Harvard Business is quick and to the point.
Strong contenders are GenAI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and other tools to get quickly to the information that I want to know without going through countless pages or text. Sourced GenAI is a game changer.
Most influential person you’ve ever met: The most influential person I have ever met was my third-grade teacher, Mrs. White. Some people might know this, but I have a learning disability, dyslexia, and after getting held back from third grade, she spent an entire summer helping me relearn.
She would give me number word problems, which helped me read, but also had a quantitative element to them, which helped me connect numbers to stories. Also, she would give me multiplication timed challenges that if I completed so many worksheets in a set time, I could get a treat or extra time outside. As a result, this helped my calculation abilities improve. So, by far she is the most influential person in my life because she helped me turn a disability into one of my many superpowers and I’m forever thankful for her.
Most inspirational person in your life: My mother for sure. What my mother was able to do with me and my twin sister growing up was truly doing miracles. The Christmases she was able to make happen while working two jobs was a miracle.
My mother is an amazing person and the way she was able to budget and plan for us is what made me such a great CFO and business professional. She made the sacrifices so we could have better in life and I’m always truly grateful for her and my twin sister!
Watch Chris share his best piece of advice he would give to CFOs or aspiring CFOs.