CEO, Highland & Haskill Creek • Founder of Classy (acq. by GoFundMe) • Founder of nonprofit, Save Farmland

Every week I tackle management, operations & startup topics that are helping 250,000+ people. Sign up free: www.scotchisholm.com

I also run a leadership accelerator that helps founders develop into top CEOs. Apply here: https://joinhighland.com/apply/

My backstory: 

🚀 Founder of Classy, SaaS for nonprofits raising billions per year

🎗️ Acquired by GoFundMe in ‘22 to create largest giving platform in the world

🌲 Investor in dozens of startups out of family fund, Tall Timbers Holding Co, (Ripple, FanDuel, Hubble, Casetext, etc.)

🏔️ Founder of Highland, leadership accelerator & community for founders

🏡 Co-founder of Haskill Creek, modernized & healthier version of a Walgreens or CVS 

⚽️ Co-owner of Albion Soccer Club, top youth soccer club in country

🧑🏼‍🌾 Founder of Save Farmland, a nonprofit protecting local farmland & food 

⚙️ Industrial engineer & lean six sigma nerd, UMass Amherst grad 

❤️ Board experience: Nature Conservancy, Abundant Montana, Team Rubicon, Street Soccer USA, Montana Pediatric Cancer Foundation

It's been a wild ride. If you're interested in any of the above, please visit my website and reach out to me there. 

www.scotchisholm.com

Scot Chisholm

Are you a financial professional who wants more from your career?  
Are you tired of feeling undervalued, unseen, or overlooked?  

Maybe you’re facing: 
→ A corporate culture that no longer works for you. 
→ Challenges navigating complex workplace relationships, politics, and dynamics 
→ A lack of clear direction or growth opportunities.

Or maybe, all is well, but you want to proactively and deliberately position yourself as critical talent worth investing in.  

Either way, you don't have to navigate this alone. 

Hi, I’m Sara Knapp-  Career Coach for Financial Professionals. I understand the challenges you face and how to overcome them. As a financial professional myself (CPA, CA, CFA), I’ve been there.  With almost 10 years as a corporate executive leader and 15+ years as a career coach to finance professionals, I know how to help you unlock your potential and advance your career.

I’ve helped professionals like you:
→ Land promotions and higher-paying roles.
→ Overcome feelings of stagnation and frustration.
→ Create a career they truly love.

What we can achieve together:
→ Develop a clear career vision and plan 
→ Master essential skills like influence, communication, and networking.
→ Build confidence and overcome limiting beliefs.
→ Navigate workplace challenges and advance your career.

Clients come to me when:
→ They feel stuck and don't know how to move forward.
→ They're ready to take control of their career.
→They want to achieve their full potential.

Why Clients Work With Me
With over 10 years as a senior executive in banking and 15+ years as a coach, I’ve helped Partners, VPs, Directors and Senior Managers from Canada’s largest banks and professional services firms to: 
→ Land promotions and high-trust opportunities they were previously passed over for
→ Build visibility, influence, and sponsor relationships, even as introverts
→ Find and land new roles with confidence
 → Design careers that feel authentic, aligned, and fully expressed

Ways to work together:
→ 1:1 Career Coaching: Personalized coaching to help you achieve your career goals.
→ Group Coaching Programs: Group coaching programs for financial professionals.
→ Customized Workshops and Keynotes on Influence, Executive Presence, Personal Branding and Building Visibility. 
→ Lightning Lesson: Networking for Professionals, join my free 45-minute masterclass on building visibility and relationships without faking, bragging, or begging.



Don’t let your career stagnate any longer. 
Let’s unlock your potential and transform your career.

Dm me "Good fit call"

Sara CPA

Use one of these 3 ways to introduce yourself (without sounding salesy)

If you’re a finance professional, you’ve probably introduced yourself like this:
“I’m in FP&A.”
“I work in accounting.”
“I’m in audit.”

That’s not an introduction.
That’s a job category.

And it contributes to you staying invisible.

Because in corporate, people don’t promote titles.
They promote impact + trust + clarity.

Here are 3 intros I teach clients to use (instant credibility, zero cringe):

1/ Role + Impact
“I’m a [role] in [area], and I help [who] achieve [impact].”

Examples:
“I’m a Senior Manager in FP&A. I work directly with line management to provide detailed forecasts and analysis to help them make pricing decisions”

“I’m a Controller. I’m focused on integrating the finance backoffices of our acquired companies so we can get at those synergies we’re after”

2/ Problem You Solve
“I’m the person you call when [problem] happens and the stakes are [risk].”

Examples:
“I’m the person you call when performance is drifting and you need to know why before you deciding on action”

“I’m the person you call when losses are rising and we need to address the control issues without slowing the business down.”

3/ Credibility Anchor
“I do [what], and recently I [metric / project/stake].”

Examples:
“I lead treasury initiatives, and recently completed that working capital project that freed up $8M”

“I’m in compliance. I’ve been part of the team working to get relief from the regulators on some of the crazy timelines they expect us to meet.”


If you’re introverted, this is your advantage:
You don’t need to talk more.
You need to say something worth repeating when you’re not in the room.

If you’re a high-performing finance pro who’s stalled and you want to become more visible, valued, and in-demand (without being fake or loud), my January cohort is open.

Dm “InDemand” and I’ll send you the info.

Sara Knapp CPA, CA, CFA

You’ve Mastered the Technical. Now Let’s Build the Influence That Gets You Promoted | Executive Career Coach and Advisor | X-BMO executive | Helping others have career success on their own terms since 2010.

I don’t plan around goals anymore.
I plan around principles.

Goals expire.
Principles compound.

So as I look ahead to 2026, this is the plan I’m actually committing to:

Level up without burning out
Stay curious instead of chasing certainty
Keep writing even when it’s uncomfortable
Declutter my calendar, my space, my thinking
Choose novelty on purpose, not by accident
Do yoga like it’s non-negotiable, not optional
Age well by investing early, not reacting late
Lean into intuition after doing the work
Close loops instead of carrying mental debt
Avoid drama that pretends to be important
Fix sleep because nothing works without it
Finish strong rather than perfect

None of this will look impressive on a vision board.
But all of it will make my days better.

And that’s the metric I care about now.
If you’re planning 2026, here’s the question worth asking:

Are you designing a year that looks good on paper
or one that actually supports the life you want to live?

I’m choosing the second. 
What are you choosing? 
Comment below

Repost it to help your network ♻️

If your boss says, “I couldn’t do this without you”…
you should worry.

Because that sentence often means one thing in corporate:

You’ve become indispensable… not promotable.
You’re a high-performing finance professional.

Accurate. Reliable.

The person who fixes the mess quietly.

Here’s the career rule no one told introverts:

Being useful isn’t the same as being promotable.
Useful = you execute.
Promotable = leaders trust you with bigger decisions, greater visibility, and 
broader scope.

And if your work “speaks for itself”…
it usually speaks to your boss, not to the people who decide promotions.

I’ve coached finance pros for years, and this pattern is common:
The more competent you are → the more gets handed to you → the less time you have to be seen as leadership-ready.

Do these two things for the next 2 weeks:
1) Send a weekly “Value Translation” note (3 lines).
What moved forward
What risk you reduced / decision you enabled
What decision you need / what’s next
No bragging. Just clarity.

2) Pre-sell at least one stakeholder before any important meeting.
“Hey I’m recommending X on Thursday. I’d value your take. Anything I’m missing?”

That’s not networking.
That’s decision insurance.

If you want the exact templates + the full 90-day plan I teach, DM INDEMAND and I’ll DM you the syllabus + fit criteria.

Ignore this, and you’ll keep being praised… and passed over.

Use it, and you start getting what you actually want: visibility, trust, and opportunities.

Link to register: 
https://lnkd.in/gYnvfEGG

Free webinar: 
https://lnkd.in/gdnNCmJ2

Follow Sara Knapp CPA, CA, CFA

I’ve spent 15 years failing one very basic productivity rule.

And it isn’t a discipline problem.

I’m a serial over-committer.

I am curious about too many things.

I see ideas everywhere.

I start more projects than I can realistically finish.

In corporate, that worked.

I was paid for my creativity and my ability to move fast.

I had teams who could execute almost as quickly as I could think.

Then I went out on my own.

For 15 years, I’ve started more things than I could ever fully build.

Even outside work.

Two years in a row, I over-planted pumpkin seeds in my backyard.

They grew fast.

They crowded each other.

And every single one died.

Twice.

It felt like a metaphor screaming at me:

“Prune harder. Choose better. Focus.”

And I’ve had that internal lecture on repeat:

You have skills.

You have resources.

You tolerate hard things.

Why won’t you just *commit* to one thing?

The easy answer is fear.

Or self-sabotage.

But that explanation never fully fit.

Here’s what finally clicked for me:

We don’t fail to focus because we’re broken.

We fail to focus when **focus isn’t our highest value**.

When I stripped everything back, my values were clear:

Freedom.

Family.

Novelty.

Impact.

Curiosity.

And suddenly, my life made sense.

The “problem” I was trying to fix

was actually the outcome of what I value most.

The variety.

The flexibility.

The ability to follow curiosity.

The impact I get through deep 1:1 and small group work.

It doesn’t look impressive from the outside.

It doesn’t scale neatly.

But to the people I work with, it matters.

And for this season of my life, that’s enough.

So as the New Year begins, here’s the question I’m asking myself

(and the one I’d invite you to sit with):

Are you trying to optimize your life…
or are you trying to live someone else’s definition of success?

Because sometimes the work isn’t pruning harder.

It’s being honest about what you actually want.

Happy New Year.

I didn’t plan to run this webinar again.
But after the last one, my inbox made the decision for me.

Messages like:
“I finally get why networking never worked for me.”
“I wish I’d learned this years ago.”
“I missed it. Are you running it again?”

So yes. I’m redoing it.
Same session.
Same frameworks.
Same practical, no-cringe approach.

📌 Networking Made Easy: Micro-Strategies that Work
🗓 Saturday, Jan 10, 2026 @10am-11am EST
📍 Live on Zoom
💰 Free

This is for professionals who:
• do solid work but stay overlooked
• hate performative networking
• keep thinking “I’ll build my network later”
• are introverted but ambitious

Inside the session, I’ll show you:
• how to build visibility without self-promotion
• the 4 steps good networkers actually follow (most people do only one)
• how mentors really work and how to get one
• simple scripts so you never wonder “what do I say?”

If your career feels stuck not because of performance, but because of visibility, this is for you.

And yes,
I’ll also outline how I help professionals become known, trusted, and sought-after and how, in my Invisible to In-Demand cohort, we build a 90-day plan to move you from invisible to in demand.

If you missed it last time, this is your second chance.
If you attended before, feel free to pass it on.

Because the best opportunities don’t come from strangers.
They come from being known, trusted, and remembered.

See you on Jan 10.
Here is the link to sign up: https://lnkd.in/gKpX5rAj

Repost it to help your network 📌
Follow Sara Knapp CPA, CA, CFA

Executive presence isn’t confidence. 
It’s a system.

I see this misconception derail brilliant professionals all the time.

They think executive presence means:
being louder
being smoother
being more “polished”
being someone they’re not

So they try to manufacture confidence.
That’s not what works.

Real executive presence is built on three things and none of them require a personality transplant.

1. Clarity
People trust leaders who are clear.
Clear on their point.
Clear on their ask.
Clear on what matters and what doesn’t.

One behavior to build it:
Before meetings, write one sentence:
“The one thing I want people to leave with is ___.”

Then speak to that. Stop there.

2. Calm
The people who rise fastest are rarely the most reactive.
They’re the ones who can slow the room down.

One behavior to build it:
Pause before responding.
Count to three before you speak, especially under pressure.

3. Credibility
Credibility isn’t about knowing everything.
It’s about being trusted.

Trusted to follow through.
Trusted to be consistent.
Trusted to say “I don’t know” and then figure it out.

One behavior to build it:
Say less. Do what you said you’d do.
Close the loop every time.

Here’s the reframe most professionals need:
Executive presence isn’t about how confident you feel.
It’s about how clearly, calmly, and consistently you show up.

That’s exactly what I build inside Invisible to In-Demand.
If you’re ready to stop guessing and start being seen as a leader,
Only 12 spots I opened this time.

Here is the link- 
https://lnkd.in/gYnvfEGG

Repost it to help your network 
Follow Sara Knapp CPA, CA, CFA for more strategies like this.

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