Scott Lindquist | What Your CFO Wants To Tell You, But Won't

Sep 2, 2025

Scott Lindquist, CFO of CNA Financial and former CFO of Farmers Insurance, shares insights on marketing and finance. He explains the four CFO archetypes and how strategic partnerships with CEOs drive growth. Scott delves into why insurers have become marketing powerhouses and the importance of demonstrating 'marketing math' to skeptical CFOs. He provides practical tips for onboarding a new CFO, avoiding boardroom pitfalls, and highlights the need for a dedicated Marketing CFO to bridge the gap between finance and marketing.

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ADVICE

Use Present Value To Justify Spend

When evaluating marketing spend, require marketing math showing present value of future cash flows versus cost of capital.
Use realistic assumptions on share, retention, bundling, and customer lifetime value to prove returns exceed cost of capital.

ADVICE

Onboard New CFOs With Alliances

Build alliances with peers and ask how finance can help them accomplish their job to create trust.
Use frequent questions and curiosity to learn the business and deepen the CFO-CMO relationship quickly.

ADVICE

Embed A Marketing CFO

Give marketing its own embedded finance partner (a Marketing CFO) to own marketing math and performance metrics.
Let that role run sponsorships and agency contracts while aligning with corporate finance as a dotted-line relationship.

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CMO Confidential — “What Your CFO Wants to Tell You (But Won’t)” with CNA CFO Scott Lindquist

What does a great CFO really think about marketing? Mike Linton sits down with Scott Lindquist—CFO of CNA Financial and former long-time CFO of Farmers—to decode the finance side of brand building, performance spend, and the politics of the boardroom. They cover how CMOs should onboard a new CFO, why “marketing math” wins over skeptics, mistakes to avoid in board presentations, and how insurers used bold brand bets to become category killers.

What you’ll learn

• The four archetypes of CFOs—and how to work with each

• Why CFOs who are “joined at the hip” with the CEO think differently about growth

• How to explain cost of capital and present value like a marketer (and win budget)

• The insurance playbook: brand investment, DTC distribution, and lifetime value

• Why every large marketing org needs a Marketing CFO (and how to set it up)

• Boardroom pitfalls: jargon, 100-slide decks for 20 minutes, and “draining the slide”

• Practical tips for building trust: bring the data, surface bad news early, and speak in outcomes

Guest

Scott Lindquist — Chief Financial Officer, CNA Financial. Former CFO, Farmers Insurance. Started at PwC and has led finance through growth, turnarounds, and public-company scrutiny.

Host

Mike Linton — Former CMO of Best Buy, eBay, and Farmers; former CRO of Ancestry. Host of CMO Confidential, the #1 CMO show on YouTube.

Who should watch

CMOs, CEOs, CFOs, board members, founders, and marketing leaders who need tighter finance alignment and clearer ROI storytelling.

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CMO Confidential, Mike Linton, Scott Lindquist, CNA Financial, Farmers Insurance, CFO, CMO, marketing CFO, finance and marketing alignment, cost of capital, present value, marketing math, LTV, lifetime value, CAC, board presentations, brand valuation, insurance marketing, DTC insurance, Geico, Progressive, performance marketing, media spend, marketing ROI, budgeting, enterprise marketing, MarTech, agentic AI, Typeface AI, ASICS, Microsoft, PwC, executive leadership, C-suite, category strategy, growth strategy, B2B marketing, B2C marketing, onboarding a CFO, sponsorships, vendor management, marketing governance, data-driven marketing, brand building, boardroom communication, enterprise security, AI marketing platform

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