Fractional CMO for Founder-Led & Audience-Driven Brands

A Fractional CMO is a senior marketing leader who steps into your business to provide executive-level direction across your marketing strategy, team, and priorities without joining your company as a full-time executive.

They look at marketing through the lens of your overall business goals, determine what needs to happen next, and make sure your team has the direction to execute it.

Fractional simply means I step into your business for a fraction of the time rather than as a full-time executive. How much support you need depends on your company size, goals, budget, existing team, and what you're trying to accomplish.

Some businesses need a lighter level of strategic guidance, while others need deeper leadership across the marketing function. We build the engagement around what your business actually needs, while making sure you still have the resources to execute the strategy.

You get experienced, executive-level marketing leadership without the cost or commitment of adding another full-time executive to your team. A Fractional CMO brings an outside perspective, helps you make smarter marketing decisions, and keeps your team focused on the strategies and priorities most likely to move the business forward.

It also allows you to invest strategically: paying for senior leadership where you need it while keeping more of your marketing budget available for the right specialists, team members, technology, and software needed to execute the strategy effectively.

I work best with established businesses generating $2M+ in revenue that have proven demand and are ready for their next stage of growth. My clients typically include health and wellness businesses, consumer brands, educators, coaches, experts, personal brands, and businesses selling services, programs, courses, memberships, subscriptions, or other scalable offers.

You may have built the marketing yourself and aren't sure what will take you to the next level. You may know exactly what needs to happen, but marketing is taking up far too much of your time. Or you may have a team, contractors, and agencies doing great work, but no one bringing all the pieces together.

The common thread is that the business is already working. You don't need someone to come in and rescue it. You need experienced marketing leadership to figure out what's next, create the strategy to get there, and make sure the right people and resources are in place to execute it.

You’re likely ready for a Fractional CMO when your business is established and growing, but marketing needs more leadership than you can or want to provide yourself.

Maybe you’ve gotten the business this far but aren’t sure what will take you to the next level. Maybe you have plenty of ideas but need someone to determine what should actually be prioritized. Or maybe you have a capable team doing the work, but too many decisions, questions, and approvals still come back to you.

A Fractional CMO makes sense when you’re ready to invest in a clear growth strategy, give someone senior-level ownership of the marketing direction, and have the resources to execute what that strategy requires.

A Fractional CMO sits at the leadership level of your marketing function. Rather than owning one channel or managing the day-to-day execution, I look across the entire business to determine the marketing strategy, set priorities, connect marketing decisions to your business goals, and lead the strategy and the people responsible for bringing that strategy to life.

A marketing manager typically manages day-to-day marketing activities and execution, while agencies and specialists are usually hired to deliver specific services such as advertising, social media, email, copywriting, or web development. A Fractional CMO makes sure all of those moving pieces are working together toward the same goals.

Think of it this way: your Fractional CMO determines where marketing needs to go and provides the strategic direction to get you there. Your marketing manager, agencies, contractors, and specialists help execute the plan.

And if you need additional implementation support, I also have an experienced team through Clients Come Knocking that can help bring the strategy to life. Those services are available separately, so you're never required to replace your existing team or use mine.

Great. A Fractional CMO doesn’t replace the people already doing good work. I step in as the senior marketing leader who brings everyone together around a clear strategy, priorities, and goals.

I’ll work with your existing team, contractors, and agency partners to make sure the strategy and priorities are clear and their work fits into the bigger picture. I’ll also identify any gaps in your team or capabilities that may be holding the strategy back.

The goal isn’t to change people or partners simply for the sake of change. It’s to make sure you have the right people doing the right work, with the leadership and direction they need to execute well.

Absolutely. You don’t need to have a full marketing team in place before bringing me in. Part of my role is identifying what your strategy actually requires, where the gaps are, and which roles or resources you need to execute it.

I can help define the roles you need, clarify responsibilities, develop job descriptions, and participate in evaluating final candidates. I can also recommend trusted specialists or resources when appropriate.

What I don’t do is function as your HR department or recruiter. I’ll help you build the right marketing structure and make confident hiring decisions, while your team handles the recruiting and administrative process.

My role as your Fractional CMO is to lead the strategy, not to personally execute every tactic. I determine what needs to happen, why it matters, what should be prioritized, and make sure the right people are in place to carry it out.

If you already have a team, contractors, or agencies, I can lead and work alongside them. If you need additional execution support, my team can provide many of the services needed to bring the strategy to life, including paid advertising, copywriting, websites, funnels, automation, scripting for videos, webinars, challenges, launches, and more.

There are also areas I personally love getting hands-on with, particularly messaging and scripting. For specialized roles outside our scope, I can help identify what you need and lead the people you bring in.

Strategy and implementation are separate scopes, allowing us to build the right combination of leadership and execution for your business.

Absolutely. There’s a saying: “You can’t read the label from inside the bottle.” When you’re this close to your business, it can be hard to see objectively what’s working, what isn’t, and what you may be missing.

I’m not coming in to tear down everything that got you here, but I’m also not here to rubber-stamp what you’re already doing just because. If something is working, I’ll tell you. If I think an offer should be retired, a strategy needs to shift, or resources are being spent in the wrong place, I’ll tell you that too.

And if you’re ready to abandon something that I believe is working and simply needs more time, traffic, or optimization, I’ll challenge that decision as well.

My job is to bring an experienced outside perspective, explain the thinking behind my recommendations, and help you make the best decisions for the business.

Not at all. If your business is already successful, there are clearly things that are working. Before I recommend changing anything, I take the time to deeply understand your business, your customers, your offers, your marketing, your team, and the data behind your results.

From there, we determine what’s working, what could be working better, what’s missing, and where the biggest opportunities are. If the right data isn’t being tracked yet, we’ll fix that too, because I want our decisions driven by real information and results, not assumptions.

And we’re not only looking backward. We’ll look at where the business is going next. That might mean refining an existing offer, developing or testing a new one, simplifying an offer suite that has become confusing, planning an upcoming launch or seasonal campaign, improving the customer journey, or deciding that one great idea needs our attention before the other ten.

Sometimes the right move is a significant strategic shift. Other times, what you already have is working and our job is to optimize it, get more of the right people into it, and scale it.

The goal isn’t to start over. It’s to understand what got you here, use the data to make smarter decisions, and build the strategy for where you’re going next.

That depends on your business and the team you already have in place. If you have an established marketing team or marketing lead, I can work directly with them and bring you in when a decision truly requires your insight or approval. If marketing still lives primarily with you, I’ll need more of your involvement in the beginning as I get to know the business and transition that leadership off your plate.

You don’t hire me and disappear, but you also don’t hire me and continue acting as your own CMO while second-guessing every strategic decision. I’ll need you to answer questions, provide information and access when I ask for it, meet agreed-upon deadlines, and participate in the key conversations that require you. Depending on our engagement, much of our communication may happen asynchronously, so this doesn’t mean filling your calendar with meetings.

And trust is essential. I’ll explain the strategy, the data behind our decisions, and why I’m recommending a particular direction. I absolutely want your insight and expect us to have productive discussions, but we can’t make progress if every recommendation becomes a battle or the resources needed to execute the strategy never get approved.

The goal is to take marketing leadership off your plate, not add another person for you to manage. I need what I need from you to do my job well, and then I need the trust and room to lead.

It starts with a short application so I can learn a little about your business, where you are now, and where you want to go. If it looks like we may be a good fit, we’ll have an initial conversation where I can dig deeper into your goals, challenges, team, and what you need. From there, I’ll recommend the level of strategic support that makes the most sense for your business.

Once we begin, I go deep. I take the time to understand your business inside and out, including your offers, customers, positioning, marketing, customer journey, team, systems, performance, and data. I look at what’s working, what isn’t, what’s missing, and where the biggest opportunities are. If the right data isn’t being tracked, we’ll establish what we need to measure so our decisions are based on results rather than assumptions.

From there, I develop the big-picture strategy for the next 6–12 months and prioritize what should happen first, so you’re not trying to tackle everything at once.

The level of support after that depends on what your business needs. For some clients, I serve as a strategic advisor, helping guide decisions, review performance, and keep the team moving in the right direction. Others need deeper strategic support and ongoing marketing plans. And for businesses that need full CMO leadership, I can step in to lead the marketing function, align the team, oversee priorities and performance, and continually evolve the strategy as we learn from the results.

It depends on the level of support your business needs. Some clients need a focused strategy engagement, while others need ongoing advisory, strategic support, or full Fractional CMO leadership.

For ongoing engagements, I typically recommend giving us enough time to implement the strategy, gather meaningful data, and make informed decisions based on the results. Marketing takes time to test, optimize, and gain momentum, so this isn’t designed to be a quick-fix relationship.

As your business, team, and marketing function evolve, the level of support you need may evolve too. A more hands-on engagement can eventually step down into a lighter advisory role, or we may continue working together longer term if that continues to make sense for the business.

Every engagement is customized based on your business, goals, team, and the level of strategic support and leadership you need.

A focused marketing strategy is a one-time investment, while ongoing Fractional CMO support is structured as a monthly retainer. The investment increases based on the level of involvement, from strategic advisory to more comprehensive leadership of your marketing function.

If it looks like we’re a good fit, I’ll recommend the level of support that makes the most sense for your business and walk you through the investment before we move forward.