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08 Dec 2021
The Last Time You Professionally Reinvent Yourself - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #006
00:09:45
Many people try again and again to reinvent themselves or their careers whenever there may seem to be some clouds on the horizon or when they are faced with a little bit of failure. Casey Stanton is here to help you stop the endless cycle of wasted time and energy every time you reinvent yourself. Casey is offering you the roadmap to reinventing yourself for the very last time.
Takeaways:
If you keep reinventing yourself or your career, you’re going to find that it’s tough to get any traction.
The traditional CMO role is the shortest-lived of any role in the C-Suite, but as a Fractional CMO, you won’t be entirely dependent on just one company.
Consider what you want to be the last reinvention of yourself and try to get there so you can then have as much time as possible to become great at that one thing.
There are three steps to long-term success as a Fractional CMO: 1. Elevating to the top role in marketing (the CMO); 2. Serve multiple clients; 3. Focus on solving bigger problems.
Solving bigger problems is how you make the biggest impact!
Regardless of where the future of business goes, whether it be Mars or Uranus, there will always be a need for CMO’s and the best way to maintain your job security as a CMO is by becoming the Fractional CMO of several companies.
As a Fractional CMO, you have so much room and freedom to move and explore different industries, non-profits, etc., even if your interests or priorities change.
Quote of the Show:
“Solving bigger problems is how you make the biggest impact” - Casey Stanton
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fractional-cmo-show/id1592740671
Spotify: https://fractionalcmo.libsyn.com/spotify
Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJhY3Rpb25hbGNtb3Nob3cuY29tL2ZlZWQueG1s
Stitcher
YouTube: https://youtu.be/J3x1gURS7kQ
02 Feb 2022
What is Your Marketing Pedigree - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #014
00:11:25
Everyone has a marketing lineage and pedigree which shapes the way they view problems and the solutions to them. Casey Stanton reveals the importance of identifying your marketing lineage and pedigree and how to define them. You’ll learn how lineages and pedigrees play into client relationships and what happens when people from drastically opposing business backgrounds have issues working together if unmanaged.
Takeaways:
Your marketing lineage refers to who you learned from and where they learned from going back generations of marketers.
Your marketing pedigree deals with where you studied, be that at a university, on the job, etc.
Your lineage and pedigree work in tandem to influence the way you see things. For example, someone from a sales background won’t look at things the same way as someone who came up focusing on branding.
Identify the one thing that got you into marketing and what you like to get out of doing marketing. Once you have identified this, focus on doing more that is related to that reason.
Identify what your marketing lineage and pedigree are.
It’s important to find what your client’s pedigree and lineage are. This is how they will look to solve problems so it’s important to know how will approach things and be familiar with their go-to solutions.
Friction can arise when you and your client have radically different lineages and pedigree and you must be mindful of this and constantly manage it.
Quote of the Show:
“What was that moment where you were like, wow, this marketing stuff is really fun” - Casey Stanton
Casey shares a mindset shift crucial for long-term success, emphasizing commitment over quick pivots. Learn how to establish yourself as a leader, navigate challenges, and build a sustainable, high-paying fractional CMO career. If you're ready to go all in, embrace the highs and lows, and unlock your true potential, this episode is packed with advice to help you succeed.
Here’s what we talked about:
- AI’s impact on marketing
- Rising value of fractional CMOs
- Commitment as the key to success
- Choose a niche that excites you
- Resilience through challenges
- Longevity lessons from industry leaders
- The “I’m here for it” mindset
🌟 Take the First Step Toward Growth with CMOx 🌟
Booking a call with our team is super easy, stress-free, and all about YOU. Whether you're exploring options or ready to scale, this no-pressure consultation is designed to understand your needs and guide you in the right direction.
Casey discusses the shift from marketer to fractional Chief Marketing Officer. He unpacks the 'why' behind the transition, explores the freedom and opportunities this career path offers, and provides steps to help you elevate your career. Learn how to define your value, land high-paying clients, and solve bigger problems—all while creating the lifestyle you deserve. If you're ready to embrace leadership, sharpen your focus, and unlock your potential, this episode is packed with insights to help you succeed as a fractional CMO.
Here’s what we talked about:
- The importance of understanding your "why"
- Selling marketing strategy and leadership, not implementation
- Ideal client profiles as a fractional CMO
- The power of making offers and overcoming fear of rejection
- Delegation and focusing on big problems as a leader
- Practicing future prediction as a fractional CMO
- Essential mindset shifts for fractional success
🌟 Take the First Step Toward Growth with CMOx 🌟
Booking a call with our team is super easy, stress-free, and all about YOU. Whether you're exploring options or ready to scale, this no-pressure consultation is designed to understand your needs and guide you in the right direction.
Punching Up To The Next Level- Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #023
00:10:11
It doesn’t matter what role you’re currently in, if you want your career to grow, you need to punch up. Casey Stanton is giving you the gloves and showing you the techniques to find and take advantage of your next opportunity to solve bigger problems. You’ll hear about the benefits and challenges of bigger clients, what to look for when selecting a client, and why you can’t wait to punch up.
Takeaways:
If you want to grow in your career, you need to look for bigger clients that are able to satisfy your needs. If you are good with clients in a specific industry look for larger scale clients in that industry.
At its base, punching up is all about finding a new client that is ten times the size of your current client.
With these bigger companies, you will be solving bigger problems, which in turn means that you can charge higher rates because you will deserve them.
If you’re not a Fractional CMO right now, what opportunities are there for you to punch up within your own organization and take on more responsibilities in marketing?
With taking on bigger clients, the problems get bigger which makes the pressure on you increase. However, when you can make successful decisions at this level this is where you can really make a good name for yourself.
If you are serving companies that are under $10 million per year, you need to punch up to the larger clients. If you don’t, someone else will and you will miss out on those mid-market opportunities.
Quote of the Show:
“Really, punching up is going to a company that's 10 times the size of the one that you're serving right now” -Casey Stanton
What Skills does a Fractional CMO Need? - Casey Stanton - The Fractional CMO Show - Episode #042
00:16:39
Do you have what it takes to be a Fractional CMO? In this episode, Casey Stanton goes through what experience and skills you really need to understand to build your foundation. You’ll learn about what marketing knowledge you need, why you need to enjoy seeing others find success, and what discipline you should look into a little deeper.
Takeaways:
You should have experience in marketing, whether you’ve been in an agency or you’ve been helping a single company grow. While there’s no time requirement, you should have a deep understanding of how marketing impacts a business.
You need to understand what marketing tools and tactics are available, but you don’t need to have specific expertise in any one discipline.
Fractional CMOs need to be able to identify the biggest problem and then solve it. Rarely is the solution to those big problems having you do the work. Often, the solution is hiring someone or delegating a project effectively
You have to enjoy seeing other people succeed! You need to experience the pleasure that comes from delighting in other people’s well-being. Fractional CMOs need to build up their teams and help them grow and succeed.
One hard skill that you need is a solid understanding of copywriting. What matters in copywriting is that you can understand the problem the prospect has, what level of awareness they have of it, and write something pithy and attention-grabbing.
You should understand media buying and a great way to get started is getting into the ad platforms and getting it right. If you’re hiring someone to do it, you should learn by watching what they are doing.
Understanding funnel building is crucial for Fractional CMOs. There are lots of different offers that work in different markets and you should understand how they work and the psychology behind them.
Quote of the Show:
“Our fractional CMOs can't be experts at every permutation of marketing. They have to be the leader and not the doer” -Casey Stanton
Retail Therapy vs. Replacement Therapy - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #027
00:06:59
Learn how to get yourself to a point where you are financially secure, you love the work that you do, and you love the people you work with. Casey Stanton opens the door to Replacement Therapy to help you get rid of your least favorite clients and be energized by your work. You’ll hear about how to tell if you actually like a client, when it’s safe to move on from them, and how to give yourself the power to decide who to work with.
Takeaways:
Replacement therapy is the idea that you can replace the clients that you don’t love with more of the clients that you do love.
What would it be like for you to replace your least favorite client? You can replace them and you can replace them with clients you like better and who pay you more.
A good test of whether you like a client is if you would go out and have a drink with them if they were in town. If that doesn’t sound appealing, you should probably replace them.
Before you can safely move on from a client, you need to build up a pipeline of qualified businesses and people that you want to work with.
Creating this pipeline allows you to have a real choice in who you work with without facing large financial risks.
When you enjoy the work, you are more energized to do it and you can be more creative and have a more effective capacity.
Quote of the Show:
“Companies want to hire you as a fractional chief marketing officer… They want that they want to be served by you” -Casey Stanton
Reduce Noise, Increase Value - Casey Stanton - The Fractional CMO Show - Episode #041
00:13:29
There’s a lot going on and in order to focus on what’s important to your work, you need to filter out the static. Casey Stanton is dropping in to give some quick tips for Fractional CMOs, VPs of Marketing, agency owners, and everyone in between, on how you can declutter your work and solve bigger problems. Casey outlines some easy steps to reorganize your bookmarks, tidy up your desktop, and minimize the risk of a cyberattack.
Takeaways:
As a Fractional CMO, your job is to be able to understand the signal from the noise or to put it another way, separate the wheat from the chaff.
When you focus on things with the biggest leverage, you can solve bigger problems which then results in bigger rewards both for you and your client.
You need to delta the noise, and that means doing some cleaning! Start with your bookmark bar by leaving only the favicons or using folders.
When you look at your desktop, you should feel at ease. Don’t save things to your desktop, instead, use a folder. Set up a junk folder and set a 30-day reminder to check it. If you’re not using anything in that folder after 30 days, delete the whole folder!
Identify where the junk in your work is and block off half a day to just get rid of it. If getting rid of it saves time in your every day or offers you a more calm experience while you work, it’s worth putting in the time to remove it.
Mapping Google Drive as a local drive on your computer provides you with a folder that you can drag files into and have them saved to Google Drive. This lets you access those files from anywhere and it’s also a great way to backup your files.
Do not use the same password across websites! Use a password manager to avoid the complications of remembering all of those passwords and to increase your security.
Quote of the Show:
“You want to focus on the thing that has the biggest leverage” -Casey Stanton
What does it mean to Solve Bigger Problems? - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode # 066
00:20:20
Sharing insights from his own marketing journey is Casey Stanton, the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller, The Fractional CMO Method. Casey explores what you need to do in your day-to-day in order to solve bigger problems and get paid for the amazing work you do.
Takeaways:
The bigger and more impactful the problem that you’re solving is for a client, the more you’ll be able to charge for your services. Your compensation is tied to the size and severity of the problems you solve.
When companies like Deloitte are brought in to consult on how to fix a big problem, they’re brought in because they are known for solving big problems. How do you position yourself to become known for solving big problems?
One way to gain notoriety for fixing large issues is to stop solving small problems. To do this you can hire someone or outsource the labor. For Fractional CMOs, you really need to have a marketing technician as a direct report to tackle the issues thrown at you.
You should be able to give your direct report marketing technician 15 minutes of instruction and let that inform their next 40 hours of work. For example, you would ask them to set up an email tool and then they would choose the right one and implement it.
As a Fractional CMO, you need to make decisions that maintain a certain balance of speed and cost. While you never want to overpay, there are times when getting something done faster is worth paying extra for.
When you think about solving bigger problems, try to globalize the problem and think about how you can remove it completely so that it never rears its head again. Even if there are small exceptions that need to be made down the line, get a process in place.
When focused on the biggest problems, you provide the most value if you identify the critical KPIs to track, identify who owns those KPIs, and drive those people to deliver on those KPIs, every week, every month, and every quarter, that business will grow faster, with more predictability and less frustration.
Quote of the Show:
“The bigger the problem that you solve, the bigger the impact and the bigger the paycheck” - Casey Stanton
How to Shrink a Full Time Marketing Role into a Fractional CMO Size Engagement
00:38:44
Struggling with time management as a fractional CMO? Casey tackles the essential mindset shift to streamline your work, increase efficiency, and maximize your impact. Learn how to set clear boundaries, structure your clients into manageable frameworks, and build a scalable, high-value fractional CMO career. If you're ready to work smarter, not harder, this episode is packed with insights to help you take control and thrive.
Here’s what we talked about:
- Overcoming time drain with clients
- Setting boundaries and structure
- Quarterly planning for leadership
- Using scorecards to track key metrics
- Evaluating vendors effectively
- The power of SOPs for scaling
- Managing CEO expectations
- Enforcing personal boundaries
🌟 Take the First Step Toward Growth with CMOx 🌟
Booking a call with our team is super easy, stress-free, and all about YOU. Whether you're exploring options or ready to scale, this no-pressure consultation is designed to understand your needs and guide you in the right direction.
We’ll make sure this is the most productive (and effortless) decision you’ve made for your business. Let's talk about strategy and success!
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Want to continue the conversation and get access to exclusive resources? Join our free Facebook group for fractional CMOs and marketing leaders! Inside, you'll find discussions, insights, and tools to help you grow your business and maximize your impact.
How To Send An Email To A Big List - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #064
00:42:32
Let’s face it, successful email marketing is hard and there are a lot of nuances that go into doing it right. Here to demystify email marketing and guide you to peak conversion rates is Casey Stanton, the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller, The Fractional CMO Method. Casey shares great advice for anyone using email marketing as a channel including why they need a separate domain for emailing “Yellow Light contacts, what’s required for a successful multi-part email campaign, and how marketers can improve their email delivery rates with one simple question.
Takeaways:
It’s vital to protect the primary domain of your rational clients if you ever want to have any measure of success with using email as a channel. Spammy practices can get your domain blocklisted by your own email tool and by the recipient’s email provider.
The two biggest email and spam-related regulations that senders need to be aware of are CAN-SPAM and GDPR. CAN-SPAM applies to emails sent from or to email addresses in the US. GDPR applies to those in the European Union.
For “Yellow Light” contacts with a higher risk of unsubscribing or reporting your email as spam, it’s safer to send emails to them from a separate domain and email. This protects the reputation of your fractional client’s company website and emails.
To set up a separate email for “Yellow Light” contacts, you’ll want another domain that is at least a week old. For example adding company.co if you have company.com. Set up a 301 redirect so any traffic to that website is sent to your actual website and add UTMs.
The first email you send to a list is crucial. Know what outcome you want and build a multi-part email series to accomplish that. Multi-part email series should range from 3-5 emails with each successive email filtering out those that have taken the action.
Write emails as if it’s to your mom. People are more likely to engage with casual emails that are entertaining and enjoyable to read, rather than boring and dry corporate emails loaded with logos, links, and images.
Consider timing and frequency when sending emails, ideally sending between 10am-3pm ET on Tuesdays-Thursdays for most businesses. This impacts email open rates, so it's important to choose the right time to send your emails for your niche.
By asking recipients to reply to your emails, you can improve inbox deliverability and avoid being marked as spam.
Quote of the Show:
“You never want to email someone multiple times to ask them to perform an action that they've already taken” - Casey Stanton
What Should You Be Focusing On? - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode # 077
00:18:31
Next quarter is getting closer by the second, so what should you be thinking about now to set up your future success? Casey Stanton is the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller, The Fractional CMO Method. This week, Casey looks ahead to next quarter and shares the questions you should be asking as a marketing leader today to ensure your success in the future.
Takeaways:
Do your clients sell a product? A savvy CMO should be aware of supply chain issues, especially those related to manufacturing and shipping, as these can impact your clients’ businesses.
With Q4 looming, Fractional CMOs should proactively ask clients about their Q4 targets and what success looks like for them. This helps in preparing marketing strategies accordingly.
If your Fractional client’s business regularly experiences seasonal fluctuations, make sure that you are well-prepared to face them. What can you do now to make the most of the seasonal high when it hits to also help cover the impact of seasonal lows?
If you know that a seasonal boom will require everyone on your team to go above and beyond and work late consistently, what can you do now to foster your relationship with them? For example, you could give them time off before or after the rush.
Develop a “Die-on-the-Hill” marketing strategy that you can have full confidence in. This should be based on extensive research, planning, and conviction. Consider the growth goals of the CEO and determine the best path to accomplish them. If new information surfaces, you should examine it and then reassess your position.
Build a future for your employees that can accommodate the achievement of their dreams and aspirations. If the future you paint for employees is too small, they will begin to feel stuck and boxed in by the ceiling of this future which will prompt them to look for other work. Your vision should be grand enough that employees can attain their goals within it.
As a Fractional CMO, your job is to keep creating bigger outcomes. This means identifying what the executives want, distilling that into the marketing outcomes required, and then driving towards that. In essence, your job is to be challenged by the executive team to do X, figure out how to do X, and then execute your plan to achieve X.
Quote of the Show:
“How do you get to be a strong leader? Ask big questions from the executive team.” - Casey Stanton
What Metrics Matter To A CMO - Casey Stanton - The Fractional CMO Show - Episode #044
00:15:08
The metrics that matter the most are entirely dependent on the business and every business is different. Casey Stanton is the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and the author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller,The Fractional CMO Method.Casey highlights some of the most important KPIs in many popular industries, how to visualize them and what to do with them.
Takeaways:
At the base, a lead looks like a form submission that has a first and last name, an email address, and maybe a phone number. Whereas, a Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) is that lead then saying or doing something that makes them more qualified.
Many different attributes can be used to further qualify a lead, such as checking a box to identify their problem, their income range, demographic data, etc. Often this is done by the lead self-selecting into a group but it can also be done by filtering through big data.
Once an MQL is passed from the marketing team to the sales team, the MQLs that fit additional criteria from the sales team will then become Sales Qualified Leads (SQL).
Among the many questions used to determine if an MQL is an SQL, the sales team will also try to identify the urgency of the lead, which is a big factor in becoming an SQL.
Whatever the business that you’re in is, you need to know the relevant KPIs, track them, and eventually hand them off to other people that own them and marginally improve each metric every single month.
Bottoms Up Sales Improvement is a process of continually optimizing funnels by making small changes over time at every step of the way to produce dramatic results very quickly.
Using scorecards and dashboards helps you become more effective at solving bigger problems. These tools allow you to constantly monitor and make sense of the KPIs that matter the most to you.
Quote of the Show:
“If instead, you build a strategy and then find the right tactics, you'll be successful” -Casey Stanton
The Golden Ratio - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #013
00:05:53
When you’re driving new business to your Fractional CMO practice it’s important to not rely too heavily on referrals. Casey Stanton is filling everyone in on why it’s more important to focus on filling up your pipeline than looking for more referrals and attain the Golden Ratio.
Takeaways:
The Golden Ratio is the idea that referrals are coming in more frequently than customers churn.
You can not build your Fractional CMO practice solely on referrals. If you try to rely entirely on referrals, you’re never in control of your pipeline and without a full pipeline, you won’t be able to predict your income for months at a time.
Referrals come from word of mouth through people who trust you. When you talk to a prospect who has been referred to you, they are likely prequalified and more likely to say yes to you based on some degree of trust built on who referred them.
It’s relatively easy to get to the Golden Ratio as a Fractional CMO. If you are serving 3-6 clients for 3-24 months you only really need to get 1 referral per quarter to maintain your pipeline.
Quote of the Show:
“You want to get to that position where your pipeline's full, but what's better than a full pipeline is the referrals on top of it. It's kind of like the sprinkles. It's the magic.” - Casey Stanton
You're too old/young/inexperienced to be a Fractional CMO
00:26:35
Not sure if you're experienced enough to be a successful fractional CMO? In this episode, Casey Stanton breaks down what it really takes to step into the role. He tackles common doubts about age, experience, and industry background—proving that success isn't about years in the game but about solving bigger problems. Casey shares insights on why marketing teams are shrinking, how AI is reshaping the landscape, and why confidence rooted in intention is the key to landing high-paying clients.
Here’s what we talked about:
- Experience vs. perception and why problem-solving matters more than years in the field. - How AI is reshaping marketing teams and creating more opportunities for strategic leadership. - Debunking the idea that you need decades of experience to be effective as a fractional CMO. - Why confidence should come from intention rather than past experience. - How to succeed as a fractional CMO even without direct experience in a particular industry. - Why taking time off for personal reasons doesn’t disqualify you from leadership roles.
🌟 Take the First Step Toward Growth with CMOx 🌟
Booking a call with our team is super easy, stress-free, and all about YOU. Whether you're exploring options or ready to scale, this no-pressure consultation is designed to understand your needs and guide you in the right direction.
Casey Stanton is the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller, The Fractional CMO Method. Casey shares how you can create space for your creativity to flow, how to clear your head, and the potential business benefits that can come from simply washing the dishes.
Takeaways:
Work doesn’t need to be defined as doing something that is all-engrossing and that requires 100% of your focus. For example, listening to a podcast about copywriting while walking your dog can still count as work.
Solving a problem or creating an idea isn’t always possible if you’re just trying to grind out the answer. In many cases, great ideas come when you step back from the problem and let your subconscious take a crack at it while you do something else.
Some tasks, such as washing dishes, can be a chance for you to calm down and allow your mind to wander and explore creative ideas without constraints. Find what tasks you can accomplish that also let you meditate and make time for them.
While in this meditative state, bring about an idea of something that you would like to improve. Think about that idea and let your mind wander a bit, but then bring yourself back to that idea or question and continue examining it.
Come up with a great question and allow it to sit with you for a while so you can really contemplate it.
Try using the “Morning Pages” exercise to clear your mind. To do this, grab a pen and paper when you wake up and write up to three pages of whatever is in your head, whether it be half-baked ideas, frustrations, to-dos, etc. Don’t stress about the format.
Quote of the Show:
“I’m the Chief Dish Washing Officer in my home” - Casey Stanton
Being a Selective CMO - Wyatt Chambers - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #003
00:43:42
Nowadays, everyone thinks that to be successful their business has to have the best SERP and highest SEO score, but that’s only part of the equation. Fractional CMO and owner of CS Design Studios, Wyatt Chambers, joins Casey to compare the benefits and drawbacks of being a Fractional CMO versus owning a marketing agency. Wyatt gives some great advice about running a business, developing talent from within, and how to pitch companies on becoming their Fractional CMO.
Takeaways:
For many business owners, their SEO rank is not as important to them as whether or not their phone is ringing.
By becoming a Fractional CMO, you can help a business much more than if you were just their outside marketing agency. Allows closer connection to that business’ problems and their successes.
In approaching a company to hire you as a Fractional CMO, emphasize how you want to help the company and be a part of it. One example of this would be explaining the role you want to play in the company and ease the workload of the owner, CEO, etc.
When pitching a company on hiring you as Fractional CMO, ask, “If I took all of the marketing stuff off of your plate, how much easier would your life be?” This is a great way to frame the proposition in their mind.
The CMOx Asset Audit questionnaire is a great tool to use when considering working with a company as their Fractional CMO. It allows you to get a fuller picture of the business and by being interested in the whole company, it shows you actually care about the business.
Many corporations are “asleep” when it comes to understanding their brand and reputation. An easy way to get a snapshot of a company’s reputation is by checking reviews on Google, LinkedIn, Glass Door, etc.
Some companies are moving towards using AI for repetitive marketing tasks, such as copywriting. In the future, marketing prices will likely be driven down by the emergence of AI and offshore labor both becoming cheaper and more viable options.
It doesn’t take rocket science to revolutionize a business, you just have to really execute on the basics
Quote of the Show:
“At the end of the day, I don't think business owners care about rank as much as they do about their phone ringing” - Wyatt Chambers
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fractional-cmo-show/id1592740671
Spotify: https://fractionalcmo.libsyn.com/spotify
Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJhY3Rpb25hbGNtb3Nob3cuY29tL2ZlZWQueG1s
Stitcher
YouTube: https://youtu.be/QMc9nfyTA4Y
15 Dec 2021
The Most Valuable Asset in Your Business - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #007
00:09:40
Many business owners and upper-level managers would say the most valuable asset to their business is something like their contacts, software, etc., but they’re way off. Casey Stanton is setting the record straight and explaining the best ways to protect, support, and nurture your business’ most valuable asset.
Takeaways:
The most valuable asset in your business is YOU! You have to think about what you can do to protect yourself and make yourself more successful both at work and at home.
Consider hiring people to help support you. For some this may mean an executive assistant, some may need more than just one person.
It’s important to have times when you are “on and off” when it comes to your business. For example, only check your inbox during your work hours and stick to this.
Think about what you are uniquely good at and interested in and set yourself up to work on those things that you find easy and interesting.
Be very aware of your personal health and diet. Make sure you are hitting your health goals and eating well. What you eat is your fuel and try to only put the best fuel in, this will help you perform better in every aspect of life.
Ask yourself, what is the one thing stopping your business from growing. What is one SMART decision that you can make to change that one thing and get your business growing?
What are tasks that waste your time that you could just pay someone to do? For some this is laundry, for others, this is cleaning their car; what is it for you?
Quote of the Show:
“What's one decision I can make today or this week, that's going to free me up; that's going to show me that I think I'm the most valuable asset in my business; that pulls you out of the day-to-day; that allows you to stay elevated so that you can go solve bigger problems so that you can go identify the clients that you want to work with and then go win them and work with them and serve them and deliver high impact marketing strategy and campaigns for them that other people execute through your leadership.” - Casey Stanton
Links
Twitter: @CaseyStanton
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/caseystanton
Website: cmox.co
Ways to Tune In
Amazon Music
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fractional-cmo-show/id1592740671
Spotify: https://fractionalcmo.libsyn.com/spotify
Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJhY3Rpb25hbGNtb3Nob3cuY29tL2ZlZWQueG1s
Stitcher
YouTube: https://youtu.be/SRfa5Ziwyh4
16 Mar 2022
Marketing Your Business is Different - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #020
00:11:22
It can be hard to do a great job marketing yourself, even if you’re a great marketer. Where do you start? How many examples do you need? What tone should you use? These are the questions that Casey Stanton is answering. You’ll learn about when to take credit, what to include, and how to craft a powerful narrative about you and your capabilities.
Takeaways:
Great marketers usually are great at marketing a company, client, etc. but struggle when it comes to marketing themselves.
Think of a few things you’ve done recently and try to put that into a pithy, attention grabbing headline that will convert. If you’re struggling with doing this, don’t worry, it’s normal.
Make a list of all of the great things you’ve done in your work and then narrow it down to the five most powerful examples.
When making a claim about what you can do, you need to have overwhelming proof to support it.
Write a throughline of your life and work and the great things that you’ve done. Apply your experiences to a story about you which explains, “I’ve done this before, I can do it for you.”
Quote of the Show:
“Your ability to market another company is not the same as your ability to market yourself.” -Casey Stanton
Leverage this Marketing Campaign for your Fractional CMO Clients
00:24:57
In this episode, we explore one of the most powerful and underutilized marketing strategies for fractional CMOs: the Short-Term Nurture Sequence (STN). This email campaign builds structure within marketing departments, reduces overwhelm, and converts long-tail leads into loyal customers over time. Learn how to craft a repeatable nurture system using four essential email types—without relying on fancy templates. Whether you’re launching your first STN or refining an existing one, this episode gives you a practical roadmap to build trust, educate leads, and drive action.
🔑 Key Topics Discussed:
Why STN is a foundational campaign for fractional CMOs
Breaking down the STN: Education, Objection Handling, Social Proof, and Hard Pushes
The power of long-tail leads and how to convert them over time
Structuring your nurture emails to reduce overwhelm and increase conversions
Building 30, 90, 180, and 365-day sequences for maximum ROI
The value of plain-text emails over designed templates
How to track and improve each email’s performance with clear metrics
Real-world examples from marketing, radios, cars, and watches to explain buyer behavior
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How to become a CMO - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #048
00:13:03
The journey to becoming a Chief Marketing Officer can be long and arduous, but the less-traveled road to becoming a Fractional CMO can catapult your career and provide much more financial security. Casey Stanton is the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller,The Fractional CMO Method.In this episode, Casey shares some of his own journey in the marketing world, how to make yourself stand out, and whether becoming a Fractional CMO might be the better path forward.
Takeaways:
Becoming a CMO through the traditional route takes a long time. You often get stuck at certain levels in the organization for various reasons or your try to hop from company to company every few years, getting a higher title each time you start somewhere new.
The traditional path to becoming a CMO requires you to put in a lot of effort to make yourself look better on paper. Common examples include leadership courses from a university, getting certifications, etc.
If your objective is to become a CMO, you’re going to have more success pursuing younger, more entrepreneurial companies. This way you can speak directly to the growth-minded entrepreneur at the helm and explain how you can help.
Getting the job of a full-time CMO for a company is great, but if they let you go, you’re right back into the job hunt. It’s much better for your financial stability to serve multiple clients in that high-level marketing role.
Many companies need the value that a CMO provides but they can’t pay for a full-time CMO. A Fractional CMO is perfect for companies of this size.
As a Fractional CMO, you can provide high-value insights for multiple clients which decreases the risks posed by one client leaving. This approach also increases your earning potential while allowing you to, potentially, decrease how much you work.
Quote of the Show:
“It's better for you and your financial stability to have multiple clients” -Casey Stanton
Get The List - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #010
00:04:58
Don’t get caught up in how you’re going to message your prospects before you get them, the real priority is getting a comprehensive list of everyone that fits the description of your customer! Casey Stanton is back again to hammer home how imperative it is to obtain the list of potential clients through whatever ways get the job done, regardless of industry.
Takeaways:
There are many ways to go about getting the list which include: purchasing databases, web scraping, joint ventures, public records, etc. Whatever the way, find how to get that list of your potential clients.
Worry about how you will message your potential clients after you have gotten the list, this should be the priority.
There are ways to get the list of your potential customers regardless of what industry you may be in, it just relies on your ingenuity.
Quote of the Show:
“When you think of the clients that you're currently working with or the ones that you're thinking about closing, I want you to ask, is there a definitive list that exists online?” - Casey Stanton
The Hedonic Treadmill and the Will to Grow - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #049
00:19:27
Your own human nature is complex and it doesn’t get easier to understand when you become a Fractional CMO. Casey Stanton is the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller,The Fractional CMO Method.In this episode, Casey outlines the key lessons to help Factional CMOs overcome the Hedonic Treadmill, avoid Pyrrhic Victories, discover how to get to their goals, and build a community that they can rely on.
Takeaways:
The Hedonic Treadmill is the concept that people return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major life changes. This is relevant for Fractional CMOs because once you reach your desired outcome, you’ll still be hungry for more.
People are very bad at predicting what their emotional state will be when they reach a certain goal. This is especially applicable when it comes to thinking about future income and what level you would need to reach to then make a lifestyle change.
Income levels for Fractional CMOs don’t have an upper limit. This is one of the reasons that the outcome you have in mind when beginning as a Fractional CMO needs to be about more than just the money, or else you won’t find satisfaction.
As we head towards the end of the year, it’s a great time to self-reflect. Ask yourself what you really want in all facets of your life.
As a counter to the Hedonic Treadmill, you need to have a plan for your money. If you don’t have a plan for it, you’ll just get sucked right back into the cycle of just wanting more.
A Pyrrhic victory is a win that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it is tantamount to defeat. For example, your victory comes at the cost of your health, your relationships, etc.
What got you here won’t get you there. Spend the time to figure out where you want to go and then discover how you’re going to get there.
Having a community around you makes achieving your goals quicker and more fun. A community of energetic people will help get you energized to reach your goals.
Quote of the Show:
“There is nothing quite like a person who is on a mission to make something happen” -Casey Stanton
Serving You Serves Me - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #056
00:21:37
Which clients feel the most effortless to provide value to? Once you figure that out, your work won’t feel like work. Casey Stanton is the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller,The Fractional CMO Method.Casey discusses building on your strengths, how to effortlessly provide value as a Fractional CMO, and discovering your unique ability.
Takeaways:
Reflect on the mantra, “Serving you serves me.”
The reason that you may feel that when you are providing the most value, it often feels like the least effort, is that you are in a state of flow. In a flow state, the activities you are doing seem effortless and unbound by time.
Many people say that you should work on your weaknesses to become a more well-rounded person. However, if you work on your strengths, then you can become deadly at a few things and hire out or automate your weaknesses.
The Confucianist concept of “wu wei” means effortless action. When you are in the flow of the work you are doing, that work won’t feel like work, it will feel effortless.
Regardless of what your strength and expertise are if you further build upon those strengths, you’ll probably enjoy the learning and training you do to strengthen them.
When you work with clients as a Fractional CMO building your team and identifying objectives, your approach will come from who you are and what brings you energy.
There is no limit to how finite your unique ability or area of expertise is. For example, your strength could be solving high-level marketing strategy problems or it could be making picture frames for paintings.
Quote of the Show:
“When you provide the most value, it often feels like the least effort” -Casey Stanton
War Time vs Peace Time Leader - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #028
00:17:37
Your team won’t always have good times so it’s imperative to build strong foundations during that peacetime to survive when wartime strikes. Casey Stanton is providing you with a mental model to mold those foundations you need to help your team. You’ll learn why you must build up systems during the good times, the keys to cultivating an effective and committed team, and how to make it through the toughest of times.
Takeaways:
Use the “War Time/Peace Time” mental model to adapt to the situation you’re facing as a leader. There are things you must do depending on the situation and if you don’t do them, you’re team will face burnout, won’t be able to execute, and miss outcome goals.
Times of peace are when times are good and the company is doing well and is profitable. Use this time to build repeatable systems! Look long-term at what kind of support and education the team needs.
Is your team committed to their own education? A small step to foster this could be buying everyone a book and having a monthly book report. You want your team to take on the “solve bigger problems” mentality just as you are.
In times of peace, encourage teamwork, both interdepartmental and cross-departmental. You need to see how well they can work together in peacetime. Also, lay the foundation of good communication cadences during times of peace.
When things are good, you should be proactively depositing into the bank account of relationships that you have with every single person on your team. By being this kind of leader during peace, you will have the respect you need during war.
If you are a good peacetime leader, in times of war, you are able to ask people to work longer hours, load up their plates, and stress your systems.
You need to have your team in the foxhole with you so you can collectively push and fight together every day. This level of commitment is built on respect and sense of purpose.
Quote of the Show:
“You won’t hit your outcome goals in these times of war if you don’t do the right things in times of peace” -Casey Stanton
I'm Back! Why Now is the BEST TIME to be a Fractional CMO
00:33:15
Casey Stanton kicks off Season 2 of the Fractional CMO Show with an exciting update on his journey since the last episode in 2023. From personal milestones like buying a historic home to professional advancements such as launching CTOx, Casey shares why now is the perfect time to embrace the role of a fractional CMO. Discover how AI is reshaping marketing departments, why leadership remains critical, and how fractional CMOs can secure high-paying, fulfilling roles while solving bigger problems. Get ready to learn, grow, and thrive in the evolving marketing landscape.
Here’s what we talked about:
- Life! What I've been up to...
- My latest book "Find Your CMO"
- Launch of CTOx and the dynamic opportunities in fractional CTO roles
- Shrinking marketing departments and the rise of AI-driven tasks
- Why leadership and strategic vision will always require human oversight
- Predictions for the role of AI in the future of marketing
- Focusing on leadership and strategy rather than execution
- Building lasting client relationships and pricing services appropriately
- Avoiding the “agency trap” and maintaining high profit margins
- Subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss an episode!
If you'd like me to answer your question on an upcoming episode, share your question at:
How does a Marketing Dashboard Help a CMO? - Casey Stanton Fractional CMO Show - Episode # 046
00:11:32
The key to a successful future as a Fractional CMO lies in the regular use of scorecards and dashboards that provide you with actionable insights and indicators that you can use to solve bigger problems. Casey Stanton is the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller,The Fractional CMO Method.In this episode, Casey explains how those scorecards and dashboards need to be used, the best ways to set them up, and why they make such an impact on achieving each company’s outcomes.
Takeaways:
You can become a successful Fractional CMO by reviewing every week, dashboards and scorecards that show you the health of a business, to the point that by looking at a graph or numbers, you can tell if the business is going in the right direction or not.
If you notice that the business is going in the wrong direction based on the dashboard or scorecard, you can then ask for more details, figure out why it’s happening, and resolve the problem.
When you are growing a company, you need to be focused on the timeframe that you want to grow the company by and know what success looks like.
Without clarifying your goal, you will be taking actions that don’t actually impact the outcome that you need. Once you identify the outcome you need to achieve, you can take intentional actions to reach it.
With your goal and timeframe defined, you can track your progress and measure whether you are on or off track to hit your goal. You’ll know when you’re behind schedule because it’s been tracked which allows you to a proactive decision to right the ship.
Scorecards help you focus on exactly what the problem is so you can go solve it by providing great insights into the situation.
A properly set up dashboard will show you data that is actionable and that will help you solve the biggest problems.
Quote of the Show:
“A scorecard and a dashboard will change everything for you” -Casey Stanton
What To Do As A Marketer When There's A Recession - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #036
00:16:56
As a marketer, there are things you can do right now to position yourself for success regardless of whatever economic conditions may come. Host Casey Stanton looks at the fallout of recent economic downturns and how marketers from every industry have been impacted. By the end of this episode, you will know the right way to invest in yourself, the importance of multiple streams of income, and what it takes to become irreplaceable as a marketer.
Takeaways:
Consider what happened in the last recession as you think about the future of your career. In 2008, the recession drove overqualified people to fight for mediocre jobs because they could not find anything in their field.
The traditional way of investing in yourself during an economic downturn doesn’t actually help you because there are so many others following the exact same path. The playing field stays the same, but your debt rises astronomically.
Despite the backward logic, when a recession hits, companies almost immediately stop spending money on marketing and scale back their marketing teams.
When you start to see the signs, you need to put yourself in the best position to succeed. You can continue to do what you are good at doing, but adapt slightly to allow for multiple streams of income.
By staying focused on improving as a marketer, you can ascend to the irreplaceable level within marketing, which primarily revolves around strategy. The role of the strategic leader cannot be commoditized, unlike so much of everything else in marketing.
Whether a recession is looming or not, you need to have a plan in place so that if the sky begins to fall, you won’t be following in everyone else’s footsteps on the trail to reinvent yourself.
Quote of the Show:
“The one role that is not going to be commoditized is the role of the CMO, the strategic leader is the person who can assess where the business is, understand where the CEO wants to take the business, and then make that come true with marketing” -Casey Stanton
What are the Core Responsibilities of a Fractional CMO? - Casey Stanton - Episode #045
00:11:05
Your job as a Fractional CMO is so much more than just a copywriter or SEO consultant. Casey Stanton is the founder of CMOx a Fractional CMO, and the author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller,The Fractional CMO Method.Casey explains the two most important aspects of your role as a fractional CMO, what companies are actually looking for, and how to make a bigger impact.
Takeaways:
The first core responsibility for Fractional CMOs is to solve bigger problems. It is your job to identify the biggest problem, solve it and then move on to the next biggest problem and solve that.
An example of a small problem is “what should the content marketer be doing today?” Whereas, a big problem would be something like, “where are generating customers from in the next 90 days” or whether to “hire a copywriter or an affiliate manager?”
When you are solving big problems every day, you become invaluable to the organization and its future. The larger the impact you create will lead to larger paychecks for you.
The second core responsibility of a Fractional CMO is to delegate everything except leadership. Companies want Fractional CMOs to come in and be a leader that can build a marketing strategy, lead a team, and drive them towards the needed outcome.
It can be easy, and fun, to get pulled down into the small tasks, but to be successful, you need to stay elevated and stay out of the day-to-day tasks.
The second that you take your focus off of where you are going, things will start to fall apart and you will lose momentum. Keep your focus on the bigger picture and delegate anything problems that you can.
From 20,000 feet, your job is to come up with the strategy and get the right people to deploy the strategy. Breaking down a quarterly strategy into sprints ensures that the team can stay focused and work on things that push them towards outcome goals daily.
Quote of the Show:
“When you solve bigger problems, you make a bigger impact” -Casey Stanton
Anyone Can Be A Millionaire, Divorced, and Unhealthy - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #031
00:20:07
It’s really not that hard to become a millionaire, but if that’s your only goal, you’re going to have to give up a lot to get there. Casey Stanton is sharing a better way that will allow you to cultivate every part of your life while also creating value and being paid for it. Discover how you can create value as a Fractional CMO, how diving into a niche can increase your effectiveness, and why creating a great team will help you reach your goals with a smile on your face.
Takeaways:
Consider how you can create value in the world. Become a builder who builds value. You can create value as a Fractional CMO and you can also create value as a business owner, but the business owner has to risk a lot more.
To get paid for your value creation, you can get rid of any middlemen that stand between you and the client or problem. By removing that party, you receive the whole value that you create.
You need to get deep into a niche to get paid for your value creation. Your ability to create outsized benefits in a niche increases the longer you spend in that niche. Your success in that niche will also aid in making a name for yourself.
Take pride in all of your work, regardless of what it is for. Remember that what you do in anything, you do in everything. You can put systems in place that will help you grow in all aspects of your life.
You need to set boundaries for areas of your life. As a Fractional CMO, you need to set boundaries with your clients, such as when they can contact you and expect a response. Setting boundaries allows you to have time for your family, hobbies, etc. as well as work.
Figure out what gives you energy as a Fractional CMO and then commit yourself to be there as much as possible for the rest of your life. Let yourself do what you know you can be phenomenally effective at and let others do what you dislike or aren’t good at.
When you create a team that you enjoy working with, that has your back, and that can accomplish amazing things, the byproducts for you will be financial success and happiness.
Quote of the Show:
“When you have systems and processes and you're not overloaded, you can be more predictable, drive more value, build a name for yourself, create more value, capture more value, become financially successful” -Casey Stanton
From Novel to Timeless - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #022
00:05:36
As a CMO, can you provide more value to a company by always trying to be on the cutting edge of every new marketing advancement or by mastering the slow to change principles of marketing? Casey Stanton sets out to answer that question to get you the most value from your limited time.
Takeaways:
If you are always chasing the newest marketing techniques, you may find temporary success but in order to stay caught up on the bleeding edge tactics, you will have to constantly reinvent yourself.
Rather than constantly trying out the latest marketing fad, invest your time and effort into becoming great at those foundational principles of marketing that are slow to change.
There is a great value in mastering these principles. These will transcend your niche and even your industry and allow you to provide value to businesses for a long time.
The CMO’s role is not to be the person who does every little thing, rather it is to build an amazing marketing team. Each member of which is then able to specialize on the finer aspects of the solution.
Quote of the Show:
“The solution as a CMO is rarely to roll up your sleeves and do it yourself, more often than not the solution as a CMO is to delegate it to someone else” -Casey Stanton
The Streisand Effect - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #053
00:14:04
Making heavy decisions with large downstream impacts requires you to understand the possible consequences, which is tough to do without the right tools. Casey Stanton is the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller,The Fractional CMO Method.Casey expounds upon using the Streisand Effect as a mental model for Fractional CMOs to crack the tough questions that companies need them to solve.
Takeaways:
The Streisand Effect refers to the phenomenon that occurs when an attempt to hide, remove, or censor information had the unintended consequence of increasing awareness of that information. This frequently happens through the internet.
As marketing leaders, when you are faced with certain situations, you need to ask if it is better to address the situation or stay quiet and let the situation pass by.
Scenario #1: The wrong link is sent in a webinar email invite. Now, you need to decide whether it’s better to reply with “CORRECTION - UPDATED LINK” or a lookalike email that will nest over the mistake because people will read the newest email.
Scenario #2: Your client receives a negative Google review. If you get exposed for trying to bury it under fake reviews, your client is now known for lying on top of the bad review. In this case, you have to weigh the risks of ignoring it or finding a different solution.
Scenario #3: Your client is hit with bad press and it’s high in SERP. You could fight to get it taken down, but lawyers are expensive. Rather, if you can’t politely get it removed, you could flood the search engine with positive content.
These are the highly consequential decisions you have to make as a CMO. Being a CMO means solving bigger problems by taking accountability and owning the outcomes of their decisions.
The Streisand is a powerful mental model that allows you to see the possible outcomes of a solution to a problem so that you can weigh whether or not it’s worth the risk.
Quote of the Show:
“That's what it means to be a CMO. It means to solve bigger problems and be able to take accountability and own the outcomes of them” -Casey Stanton
Should You Follow Weak Leaders? - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #032
00:09:18
What should you do if you are the Fractional CMO of a company that has a weak CEO who lacks vision? This can be a frustrating position to find yourself in, but Casey Stanton has some advice to help lessen the stress. You’ll learn when the right time to speak up is, how to mince your words properly, and how to introduce new systems.
Takeaways:
Even when you are very selective with the clients you serve, sometimes the CEO’s behavior is hidden until you have started working with them for a few weeks or months.
Short of coaching the CEO yourself, encourage them to adopt a system such as EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) and hire a certified EOS implementor. This forces the CEO to have a measurable vision.
When the leader approaches you with a new project, explain to them the opportunity cost that moving the team to this plan from their current project. They can decide if it’s worth it to them to abandon the project to adopt a new idea.
If you think what the CEO is suggesting is wrong, you need to speak up. You are there to help grow the company, not to be an order taker. You are being compensated to have a voice.
Quote of the Show:
“It really isn’t your responsibility to coach the CEO” -Casey Stanton
When to build a Data Warehouse as a CMO - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode # 067
00:25:19
Casey Stanton is the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller, The Fractional CMO Method. This week, Casey is focused on discussing what CMOs need from their CRMs, the relationship between a company and technology, and how to build a strong marketing foundation in a company.
Takeaways:
When evaluating whether you should work with a client, it’s important to examine their openness to using technology to help them improve what they do. It’s much easier to work with a company that is open to adapting and using technology.
The baseline for any company’s tech stack is a quality CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool. While some companies will try to force a tool like Mailchimp into the role of a CRM, it’s better to use purpose-made software.
At its core, data warehousing refers to storing all of the data that could matter to your client in an organized, searchable way. Examples of data to store include lead origination date, lead source, contact information, purchase history, etc.
The main criterion for a data warehousing solution that you need to consider as a CMO is whether you can easily access that data through queries. If you can’t extract trends in the data or filter it, that solution has little practical value.
The right data storage tool for you depends on your company but at the very least you should be able to track a lead’s journey through the funnel.
As the CMO, you don’t have to be the one that handles every technical aspect of implementing a new MarTech tool. Delegate out the details so you can solve bigger problems.
Quote of the Show:
“I would much rather work with a company that was open to using middleware like Zapier to get stuff to happen than one who wasn't” - Casey Stanton
Immediate vs Delayed Results - Casey Stanton - The Fractional CMO Show - Episode #040
00:08:23
Imagine a client has just hired you as a Fractional CMO. Is your first move to invest fully into immediate results or set things up for delayed results down the line? It’s a tough question, but Casey Stanton set out in this episode to answer it! Casey provides some amazing examples of tactics that yield both immediate and delayed results and outlines how you should approach using both mind frames.
Takeaways:
There are reasons to pursue both immediate results and delayed results for your clients as a Fractional CMO.
Immediate results for your client are great to justify your fee by producing in the first month or quarter. But remember, you can only ride that wave for so long.
Start laying the groundwork for tactics that produce delayed results right away as they take more time to ripen. During this time, you should also pursue some immediate results so that the client sees at least some value right away.
As a marketer, when you hear “discounts” you should think “yuck”. However, they can be effective at pushing well-qualified customers that are waiting for the right time over the edge. Overtime discounts provide diminishing returns.
Using ads, email, and social media can provide immediate results along with remarketing and new or repackaged product offerings. These too have limited wells to draw from.
Examples of tactics that offer delayed results include partnerships, SEO, CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization), ads, and data insights.
Quote of the Show:
“There's this mental model that you have to hold onto, which is what can I do that provides an immediate result? And what can I do that can provide a lasting result?” -Casey Stanton
Step back and use this episode as a chance to reflect on your career, where you came from, where you are, and where you are going. Casey Stanton is the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller,The Fractional CMO Method.In this episode, Casey outlines the 7 Stages of Commitment for Fractional CMOs, how to use the 7 Stages to view your own career, and how to make it through the Challenging phases to reach what is on the other side.
Takeaways:
There are 7 stages of commitment to being a Fractional CMO. They are directly related to the 7 stages of long-term partnership developed by Jayson Gaddis.
The 7 stages are Courtship, Infatuation, Challenge, Collaboration, Security, Expansion, and Ending.
In the Courtship phase, marketers are thinking about what it would be like to leave the noise and responsibility of an agency. They’re thinking about an easier route where they don’t have to deal with things they dislike, such as finance or legal departments.
New Fractional CMOs often face the Challenge phase when they realize they need to go out and win business. While they identify as Fractional CMOs, if they are only serving one client, their perception and reality are misaligned.
The way through the Challenge phase for Fractional CMOs is to build a pipeline, have a confident sales process, and regularly go out and win new business to fill out your desired roster of Fractional CMO clients. For most, serving 2-5 clients works best.
While your Fractional CMO engagement with a client may start as a 90-day arrangement, your intent should be to build a long-term commitment. The effort involved with constantly rotating in new clients will crush you, so make sure you thrill your clients.
Establishing financial security for yourself and your family comes after you have made it through the Challenge phase. Your financial security as a Fractional CMO comes from your pipeline and your predictability in being able to serve clients
Quote of the Show:
“You are exactly where you're supposed to be right now. It's a fact. Everything that's in front of you is an opportunity for you if you choose to jump on it” -Casey Stanton
The Biggest Shift You Make as a Fractional CMO - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #008
00:08:41
Whether you’re a full-time CMO for a company or a Fractional CMO for several companies, this truth remains the same, you can’t do everything yourself. In this episode, Casey Stanton discusses the importance of shifting your mentality from “I need to do this” to “this needs to get done.” Learn how having a team around you that you can delegate tasks to can help in your journey to solve bigger problems.
Takeaways:
Both CMO’s and Fractional CMO’s must make the shift from “I need to do this” to “this needs to get done.” It is imperative to shift from task focus to outcome focus!
The CMO can’t do everything by themselves, it’s impossible! The CMO has to hire a team of hardworking, intelligent, and committed people that they like working with.
Once the CMO has created their team, they can delegate tasks to the team members. Avoid thinking that delegating is inefficient and is a waste of time because both the CMO and the team learn from each other through it.
Don’t micromanage your team, people like to be assigned a task and then given the authority to accomplish that task. Each team member learns and develops from the tasks they are assigned and allowed to take some ownership of.
Make sure to give your team enough to work with for a task, but don’t do the work for them.
By delegating tasks to the team, the CMO can become free to solve bigger problems!
If you are a marketing department of one, you can either accept the work and move on, hire a team to delegate to, and or find a different client who can afford to hire a team for you.
Quote of the Show:
“The CMO should never let the day pass where the work isn’t getting done.” - Casey Stanton
Casey Stanton is the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller, The Fractional CMO Method. Casey explains why core values are important for Fractional CMOs and shares a few core values that you should instill in the teams you build and lead.
Takeaways:
Core values matter. They aren’t just another form of weightless corporate speech. In practical terms, you should use core values to make hiring and firing decisions. Core values help put a name to the intangible behaviors and attitudes we believe in.
If a team member is falling short on a core value, make it known to them and coach them up. If they ultimately don’t improve and don’t exhibit that core value, you need to let them go.
When you let someone go, you give them an opportunity to find somewhere else that fits their core values better. This is better for them than trying to force themselves to fit your team’s core values.
Suggested Core Value 1: Solve Bigger Problems. This focuses your team on thinking about the outcomes of their actions and solving for “the big stuff”. When given an important outcome, they’ll think big picture and find solutions that will work long term.
Suggested Core Value 2: Get In The Foxhole. When a team member falls off track with an objective, the whole team surrounds them and helps them in any way they can and this should happen without having to ask.
Getting in the foxhole also means that you as the leader are willing to the scrum of solving the problem when necessary to make sure that your team is able to put everything into achieving the set objective.
Suggested Core Value 3: Always Enthusiastic, Always Positive. Your team should believe they are going to succeed, but have plans in place in case of failure. Your team should be enthusiastic about doing the work and the outcome.
Quote of the Show:
“I only want to work with people that are enthusiastic and positive” - Casey Stanton
Becoming a Fractional CMO While Being Full Time - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #021
00:15:37
You don’t have to worry about going all in to start out as a Fractional CMO! Casey Stanton is walking you through his own journey of taking steps toward becoming a Fractional CMO and overcoming the hurdles. You’ll learn how to mentally approach the jumping off point, how to provide great values to clients, and understand what you can offer.
Takeaways:
When starting off as a Fractional CMO, you don’t have to go headlong into it with an all or nothing attitude. You can take steps and start off by just getting your first client.
What would you think about becoming a Fractional CMO if you were able to charge a client $5,000 per month while only working a few hours each week.
You can service clients from other timezones in order to work with them during hours that won’t conflict with your full time job.
Being a Fractional CMO is about providing value to a company that you alone are able to give them.
Companies know they need to embrace marketing and to do that they need a marketing leader who can lead their team.
Quote of the Show:
“This is about you offering super high value outcomes for the organization” -Casey Stanton
Block Your Calendar - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode # 034
00:05:15
Although it’s critical to their success, prospecting can seem like a never-ending chore for Fractional CMOs, but it doesn’t have to be! Casey Stanton discusses how Fractional CMOs should approach prospecting to find new business opportunities, how to make sure prospecting remains a priority, and what you can do to honor your time commitments.
Takeaways:
To avoid prospecting feeling like a chore that you know you have to do, block out time on your calendar. Create times that are specifically just for prospecting.
Beyond simply scheduling the time to prospect in your calendar, you need to approach it strategically and, more importantly, you need to actually do the work during that timeframe.
You need to honor your own time with the same reverence you have for other people’s time. When you start engaging with a project and someone else has their own problem, it can be hard to avoid dropping everything to plunge into helping them.
Right now, create a recurring time in your calendar for two hours, twice a week to prioritize prospecting.
Your calendar reflects your priorities in life and if you are not scheduling in time expressly so you can prospect, prospecting is not a priority to you.
Be mindful of your “self-commitment muscle” and remind yourself to show up and honor the times on your calendar.
Quote of the Show:
“If you’re not blocking your calendar, it’s not a priority to you” -Casey Stanton
Shout Outs:
Jesse Stoddard - Fractional CMO in the CMOx Accelerator
Copy(writing) and Paste - Russ Reynolds - The Fractional CMO Show - Episode #001
00:50:13
The world of copywriting can seem daunting, but who better to guide you through than someone who’s been there and done that throughout a long career in the business. Russ Reynolds is a Fractional CMO and a longtime copywriter who now runs several successful companies. Russ tells all on the do’s and don'ts of both being a copywriter and hiring copywriters for your business. Russ also discusses some of the finer points of digital marketing best practices and better ways to approach finding and targeting customers more effectively.
Takeaways
It’s good to be upfront with the price in your advertising if the price is seen as a benefit. This keeps the amount of “tire-kickers” down and helps save money when using CPC advertising
The focus when creating a customer list should not be the size of the list, but rather the quality of the customers. Russ and Casey discuss the benefits of using a paid funnel instead of a free funnel or scrubbing a database to create an effective customer list.
Within the financial world, the advent of apps like Robinhood have created a lot of interest for people who are new to investing. For those trying to reach people interested in finance, there is a greater chance to reach many of these people and veterans of finance by casting a wide net.
Decentralized finance (DeFi) and crypto currencies are helping more people become a part of the global online economy. This is also leading to greater economic freedom for many.
There is a lack of people trying to make products that actually help people and there is an overabundance of copy that serves as hype and nothing more, providing no added value to the customer and not helping the brand in any real way.
For marketers to grow their authority in the company, they must be able to delegate tasks or be forever relegated to those tasks. One great way to do this is to hire a “Marketing Technician” who can serve as a jack-of-all-trades and who you can delegate tasks to.
To become a great CMO, you must have experience leading people and should be comfortable taking ownership of projects and their results.
How much Money does a Fractional CMO Make? - Casey Stanton Fractional CMO Show - Episode #047
00:15:16
So many marketers are overtitled and expect to be compensated according to their inflated titles which makes it hard to know what you should expect to make for your role. Casey Stanton is the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller,The Fractional CMO Method.In this episode, Casey explores the hierarchy of the marketing world, how to scale that hierarchy, and what you can expect to make along to way to becoming a CMO or even a Fractional CMO.
Takeaways:
When people are overtitled, they believe they have more power than they do or should and they will try to command a higher wage than they deserve for the problems they are solving. This is especially important for smaller businesses.
At the bottom is the Marketing Technician. They have the opportunity to grow into a bigger role but at this point, they need to be a jack of all trades that can do all of the work you ask them to do. The typical hourly rate is between $15-$30.
The next level up is where you get into specialized names for marketers in specialized roles, such as CRM Specialist or Conversion Rate Optimization Specialist. If you put “lead” in their title, they will be looking for a competitive salary.
Moving up the hierarchy, Marketing Manager and Marketing Coordinator, with the Manager being slightly ahead of the Coordinator. Above those is the Marketing Director and then the VP of Marketing or the CMO
Marketing Directors usually make $60,000-$150,000 per year, but they don’t bring much to the marketing strategy. They need the strategy from the CMO, who should be making a minimum of $150,000 with great CMOs bringing in $250,000-$500,000.
It can take about 10-20 years to work your way up to becoming a traditional CMO but many people get stuck at the manager level.
Great Fractional CMOs can expect to make $500,000 per year and they don’t need to rely entirely on one client to provide them with their livelihood. Working for multiple companies significantly lowers the impact of being laid off or fired by a client.
Quote of the Show:
“If you have one company that pays you and that's all your livelihood, you run a significant risk” -Casey Stanton
The Duality of Control and No Control - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #051
00:21:17
There are things that you do and do not have control over in all aspects of your life and business. Thankfully, there is someone to light the path for you and your clients. Casey Stanton is the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller,The Fractional CMO Method.Get ready to learn about what Fractional CMO have control over and what they don’t, how to get ahead of future problems, and why using a timeline can make both you and your team more effective.
Takeaways:
Dualism is the idea that you can hold two competing worldviews at the same time. Because of how interconnected all things are, you can perceive the duality of something as opposed to only wanting one thing to be one way.
A Fractional CMO has control over what they choose to focus on and the energy of the team they build around them. However, Fractional CMOs don’t have control over things like CPM changes or platform errors.
The job of a Fractional CMO is complex because of the downstream impacts of your decisions. This is why it’s vital to take a deep breath and determine the most important problem that you can focus on. Which problem, if solved, has the biggest outcome?
For example, the most important problem could be the thing that generates cash the fastest, stops the bleeding the fastest, or it might be the thing that is the long-term fix, like SEO, but it's going to take a long time.
Use a timeline based on months and quarters. Assign major outcomes that are tied to specific dates on this timeline to your team and let them do the work. This allows you to oversee an outcome rather than manage individual tasks.
Make you know, as a Fractional CMO, which outcomes have some wiggle room for their completion date. For example, a product launch will probably have a firmer deadline whereas for other projects you can extend the deadline.
Try using the stoic practice of Negative Visualization to think about all of the things that are in your control and what would happen if they stopped working. Then, you can pre-emptively solve those potential problems or at least have a plan in place.
Work on strengthening your prediction muscle by predicting how long things will take you. Even predicting the completion time small things like grocery shopping will help you hone your skills.
Quote of the Show:
“People ask, is it hard to be a CMO? And the answer is, it's not that it's hard, it's just that the downstream outcomes of the decisions I make or you make impact more things.” -Casey Stanton
The Fractional CMO Virtue - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode # 076
00:20:14
Success as a Fractional CMO is rooted in having a healthy and balanced mindset throughout the ups and downs of life and business. Casey Stanton is the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller, The Fractional CMO Method. This week, Casey discusses how to cultivate a balanced and mindful approach in your Fractional CMO practice, why you celebrate your success in moderation, and the importance of practicing empathetic joy.
Takeaways:
Embrace the Buddhist concept of equanimity – maintaining emotional balance in the face of highs and lows. This mindset can help you navigate the uncertainties of the marketing world.
Cultivate a sense of calm and levelheadedness during both successful and challenging times. This will enable you to make more rational decisions and manage stress effectively.
Prepare for the highs and lows inherent in business. Recognize that being a Fractional CMO for multiple clients comes with highs and lows. Prepare yourself mentally and emotionally to handle both success and setbacks.
Shift your focus from outcome-based success to the intention and effort you put into your work. This can help you stay motivated and resilient regardless of the immediate results.
Celebrate your wins, both small and large, but don’t rest on your laurels. Celebrating your efforts will boost your confidence and motivation to continue pushing forward.
Embrace the learning process by remaining open to feedback and refining your strategies. This willingness to adapt and learn will set you apart as a dynamic marketing leader.
Practice empathetic joy by genuinely celebrating the successes of your team members and colleagues. This fosters a positive environment and strengthens team relationships.
Aim to find a balance between your professional and personal life. Prioritize self-care, family time, and hobbies, which will enhance your overall well-being and effectiveness as a leader.
Quote of the Show:
“Keep going and don't think that you will arrive. You're never going to be there. The moment doesn't last for long.” - Casey Stanton
Why Become a Fractional CMO? - Hannah Sturgill - Fractional CMO Show - Episode # 054
00:24:11
When you’re committed to taking control of your life and solving bigger problems, you might be ready to become a Fractional CMO. Hannah Sturgill is the Client Engagement Specialist at CMOx. Hannah explains the impact that hiring a Fractional CMO can have on a business, why commitment is crucial to success, and how to join the CMOx Accelerator.
Takeaways
The first step to becoming part of the CMOx Accelerator is a call with Hannah to make sure that you’ll be able to get the most out of the Accelerator. The call is very low-stakes and Hannah asks basic questions mostly about your goals and marketing background.
Becoming a Fractional CMO provides you with a great opportunity to make a real impact on companies and the people that depend on them. There are so many businesses that have reached a ceiling of complexity and need someone to help them move beyond it.
Many of the marketers that have been impacted by the recent increase in big tech layoffs are looking to become Fractional CMOs because they see the need to become their own boss and diversify their income streams.
Before taking on clients as a Fractional CMO or even pitching potential clients your services, make sure that you have the right frameworks to be successful as a Fractional CMO.
One of the major draws to becoming a Fractional CMO is the ability to control your own schedule and choose to work whenever you want to. This is very appealing for parents who want to be around as much as possible during their children’s formative years.
If you’re only looking for leads without also looking for a framework, you’re not actually committed to the idea of becoming a Fractional CMO. You need to be willing to invest in yourself and your own business, not just in leads.
Great opportunities come to those that are committed and willing to take risks. If you are committed, you can take control of your life and stop letting other people dictate your future.
Quote of the Show:
“If you're not super hungry, then it's a lot harder to put in the effort that it takes to be successful, so you’ve got to come into this with a full appetite” - Hannah Sturgill
Get Deeper with Your Clients - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #015
00:14:11
So much importance is placed on simply increasing the size of a company’s customer pool but this can’t be sustained forever. Casey is illuminating how you need to position the company for growth through gaining a deeper understanding of your customers’ problems beyond those you have already solved. You’ll learn the dangers of stagnation and how to avoid it, how to increase the lifetime value of a customer, and the core of the CMO’s role.
Takeaways:
Your first step as a CMO should be to establish an efficient funnel that regularly converts people into customers. Once you do that, it’s not always clear what to do next. The next step is to innovate.
You must always be looking for ways to keep moving and innovating to stay ahead of the relentlessly encroaching competition. Other companies will be able to overtake your market share faster than it took you to carve it out.
The deeper you’re in, the more the customer matters. Gaining a better understanding of the customer and their wants and motivations is what inspires innovation. Find all the problems that exist, even if you can’t solve them.
Work with the product team to either develop or find a product that satisfies those other needs. Look for ways to increase the lifetime value of a customer.
The cost of selling an existing customer another product is very low, there’s virtually no acquisition cost and they already have a relationship with the company or brand. You just need to find a way to leverage that relationship.
The role of the CMO is to think through how to solve problems so that the business grows.
Ask yourself, “how do you get deeper with the customer to find additional products or services to extend the customer lifetime value?”
Quote of the Show:
“The lack of innovation is the death of the company” -Casey Stanton
Starting Your Own Fractional CMO Practice - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode # 073
00:23:05
What does it take to go from full-time employment to becoming a Fractional CMO? Casey Stanton is the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller, The Fractional CMO Method. This week, Casey discusses the risks associated with becoming a Fractional CMO and the amazing opportunities that make those risks worth taking.
Takeaways:
The first thing to think about when becoming self-employed is your healthcare insurance. In the United States, an adequate plan to cover yourself and your family, not to mention potential employees is expensive. Top policies can start at $600 per person, per month.
As a Fractional CMO, you can choose what contract lengths to sell to your clients. You’ll start out with 3-month contracts, but as you gain notoriety and recognition, these can increase to 6 or 12-month contracts. This lessens how often you need new clients.
Being a Fractional CMO is about more than just achieving the same level of income as your current job or even exceeding that. By building out your Fractional CMO practice, which is really a service-based business, you can build a company with equity.
Understand that being an entrepreneur comes with struggles, however, you have control over how everything is done. While there are ups and downs, the ups greatly outweigh the downs.
Decide if you need autonomy in your career more than the safety of working for the same company for your career. Owning your own business as a Fractional CMO offers a limitless upside in terms of income, happiness, satisfaction, free time, and impact.
Instead of pursuing low-profit, high-volume deals, you can prioritize landing a few high-value clients as a Fractional CMO. A small number of clients can generate a significant income. Aim to build long-term relationships with clients, renewing contracts and extending their contract duration over time.
Consider specializing in a niche industry as a Fractional CMO. Look for industries where you can become the go-to expert. The early stages of these niches offer great opportunities for growth and establishing yourself as a marketing leader.
Quote of the Show:
“There are so many niches in industries that are available for someone to step in and become the defacto number one Fractional CMO. If you're listening to this, you're still early.” - Casey Stanton
A Deadly Serious CMO - Rob Heppell - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #012
00:42:03
It can be hard to figure out what to do to actually help smaller local service companies, but it doesn’t have to be! Marketing agency owner and Fractional CMO, Robin Heppell, tells of the wonder and success that can be derived from working with specialized local companies, in particular, funeral homes. Learn about differentiating in a local area, managing your reputation with both long-standing customers and new prospects, and some ingenious ways to drive traffic to your website.
Takeaways:
It is crucial for businesses to be able to adapt to ever-evolving consumer demands. One good example of this is with fewer people going to church not, they are less likely to hold the funeral reception at a church, opening the door to funeral homes.
As people have begun to move around more, there is less brand loyalty to long-established companies in many areas because many of the people living there are not originally from there.
When differentiating among local service companies, some of the biggest factors include the quality of service, the physical location of the business, and the price.
It’s difficult to convey the quality and value your company provides through a price list on your website. For some companies, like funeral homes, a lot of the sales come from the emotional decisions of the customers which must be handled more tactfully.
Being a Fractional CMO provides and structure and process that you don’t have as a consultant. As a Consultant, you have to work on whatever the client thinks the problem is. Whereas, as a Fractional CMO, you become the leader of their marketing efforts.
Sometimes, it’s just as, if not more, important not to tell your client about certain tools than it is to introduce them to something new. As a Fractional CMO, you should tell them about things that will help them and keep them ignorant of things that won’t.
At the outset of planning your marketing efforts, you must have a goal in mind such as increasing conversions, before you start thinking about channels and strategies. Find the strategies that best support the goal, once the goal is set.
Quote of the Show:
“I tell my clients, I'm going to tell you the latest things that you could be doing, but I'm also not going to tell you a ton of latest things that aren't going to apply, which could be a real time-waste on your end” - Robin Heppell
What to Charge as a Fractional CMO - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #016
00:14:47
When it’s time to talk price, finding the right answer to get you the right compensation for the work that you do is not a clear-cut path. But that’s in the past because Casey Stanton is giving you the right mindset to approach this topic and the formula to help you find the rate you deserve to be paid. You’ll discover your effective hourly rate and what that says about the work you do and what you should aim for that rate to be.
Takeaways:
If someone thinks their problem is very big and you offer to only charge them a small amount to fix it, they won’t believe that you are the solution to that giant problem because to them, what you are charging doesn’t match the immensity of the issue.
As a very general rule, good SMBs to target for Fractional CMO services are those with over $1 million in revenue but under $100 million in revenue. Generally, they have under 100 employees, but that is not exact.
What you charge a company should be based on the size of the company.
Work out your effective hourly rate, which is how much YOU take home. This includes any prep hours, sales, follow-up, client hours, prospecting etc. Divide how much you bring in per month by the actual number of hours that you spend working.
To be called a Fractional CMO, your effective hourly rate should be at least $250 per hour to be properly compensated. You should look at a target rate of $400 per hour.
You should be able to do a lot in a small amount of time, so the net price to the company may be lower than you would initially expect.
Quote of the Show:
“You have to charge the price at which the person believes the problem will cost to fix.” -Casey Stanton
Offers VS Enterprise - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #059
00:14:08
Casey Stanton is the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller, The Fractional CMO Method. Casey shares what to consider when selecting clients as a Fractional CMO to determine if they could be a potential long-term client for you.
Takeaways:
When you are evaluating prospects, it’s important to see if they have the potential to be a long-term client for you. The distinction to look for is whether they have a collection of offers or a business with more enterprise value.
One example of an offer is a company that sells an individual product, such as car seats for dogs, where the success outcome is simply selling the product rather than a business with enterprise value.
Business owners that provide an offer are usually very open to testing. They usually employ copywriters, funnel builders, and media buyers.
The downside of offers is that they generally have a shelf life. Sometimes the shelf life can be a decade, while other times an offer’s shelf life is a season.
The two main reasons Fractional CMOs should avoid working with clients that provide offers are the chaotic energy that is inherent in offers and there is nothing of enterprise value being built. Without enterprise value, the business tends to be unsellable.
One sign that a company has enterprise value is that it has a sales team. Two additional signals are that the company is making strategic relationships with other companies and that the company is investing in itself. An example of the latter is investing in a CRM.
Quote of the Show:
“If you are working with a company that does a couple million a year at a minimum and doesn't have a CRM, you're probably going to struggle” - Casey Stanton
How to Position Yourself as the Most Valuable Executive to your Entrepreneur
00:35:15
In this episode of The Fractional CMO Show, Casey Stanton dives into the key strategies for building long-term relationships with visionary entrepreneurs as a fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Casey shares actionable insights on how to support your clients beyond their business success, helping them achieve personal growth and create a bigger vision for their company. Learn how to foster loyalty, drive profitability, and inspire your clients to dream bigger while positioning yourself as an indispensable partner in their journey.
Here’s what we talked about:
- How to become indispensable to visionary entrepreneurs. - Strategies for ensuring clients bring you along to their next ventures. - Differentiating between business success and personal success. - Creating a compelling vision that motivates teams and drives company growth. - Using bonus structures to align team goals with company outcomes. - Importance of EBITDA and profitability in sustaining business success. - Positioning the company as the number one in its niche or industry. - Rallying teams around a shared mission to outperform competitors.
🌟 Take the First Step Toward Growth with CMOx 🌟
Booking a call with our team is super easy, stress-free, and all about YOU. Whether you're exploring options or ready to scale, this no-pressure consultation is designed to understand your needs and guide you in the right direction.
It’s not always clear whose responsibility it is to track deals, forecast for the future, and take action to grow the company. Casey Stanton explains my marketing finds itself in the position to do so and why it’s so critical that they do! You’ll learn what you need to track, how to keep track of the right data, and where you can go for the resources you need.
Takeaways:
Sales teams need to have a forward pipeline in order to have proper sales forecasting. It is also critical for B2B marketers to understand.
To build a forward pipeline, start by thinking about how long a sales gestation is for a client. Look forward to if there are enough new sales in the pipeline to replenish the company or if it is drying up.
Marketing is in the unique position to be able to look at the forward pipeline and start taking action to fill it with new leads.
You need to create a dashboard to view and track the forward pipeline. While parts of this process may seem like the job of sales, if they aren’t taking care of it, it will reflect poorly on you.
Quote of the Show:
“You also need to make sure that you're not blind to, what's going to happen 2, 3, 6 months down the road” -Casey Stanton
Who to Hire and How - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode # 072
00:20:31
In order to execute your strategy for your fractional clients, you need to build a strong marketing team within their company to execute that strategy. Casey Stanton is the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller, The Fractional CMO Method. This week, Casey outlines why Fractional CMOs need to have a Marketing Technician on their team, how to mentally approach building your team, and when to hire full-time versus a contractor.
Takeaways:
As a Fractional CMO, a Marketing Technician is the minimum viable you need in order to get impactful work done. The job of the Marketing Technician is to execute the strategies you develop within a fractional client, which helps you focus on solving bigger problems.
One of the most important decisions to make when hiring a Marketing Technician is whether they need to be local or if they can be remote. Hiring locally limits the available talent and often costs more. Marketing Technicians also have little prior experience.
When looking for the right person to add to your marketing team, make sure they fit the culture of your fractional client and can be self-directed. If you find the right person, they can grow into a mature role, such as the Director of Marketing, and manage teams.
Mentally, you should always be open to hiring someone if they would be a great fit, even if they currently have a job they enjoy.
Expect the hiring process to take at least 45 days at a minimum. This encompasses every stage a candidate must work through from the interview process, giving their two-week notice, and finally starting work.
For tactics such as SEO, PPC, and CRO, look to hire Tacticians that have specialized experience with their specific marketing tactic. While there is value in having full-time Marketing Technicians, it can be advantageous to hire specialized vendors as contractors.
On the technical side of marketing, you would ideally have the budget to employ someone full-time. When looking for a developer, don’t constrain yourself to only hiring people from one country or who are native speakers of your language. Offshore freelancers can provide cost-effective labor that is also extremely high quality.
Quote of the Show:
“The people that are available to be hired are oftentimes not the people you want to hire.” - Casey Stanton
Reinvent Your Mindset to Lead and Succeed as a Fractional CMO
00:35:24
Casey goes into the powerful role belief systems play in success as a fractional CMO. He explores how limiting beliefs—whether self-imposed or adopted from others—can hold you back. Learn why taking risks is essential, how to align your mindset with your goals, and how to build a thriving fractional CMO practice. If you're ready to tackle bigger problems, deliver greater impact, and unlock your full potential as a marketing leader, this episode is packed with insights to help you get there.
Here’s what we talked about:
- Beliefs shape actions and outcomes.
- Challenging limiting, imposed beliefs.
- Taking risks to achieve growth and rewards.
- Persistently following up with potential clients.
- Building a supportive and aligned community.
- Resolving conflicts between competing beliefs.
- Trusting your current skills while improving.
- Actively pursuing opportunities and challenging doubts.
🌟 Take the First Step Toward Growth with CMOx 🌟
Booking a call with our team is super easy, stress-free, and all about YOU. Whether you're exploring options or ready to scale, this no-pressure consultation is designed to understand your needs and guide you in the right direction.
Being a Leader When Things Go Wrong - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode # 069
00:17:22
Casey Stanton is the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller, The Fractional CMO Method. This week, Casey dives into a component of executive coaching that you should use to develop both yourself and your team.
Takeaways:
When you come across a mistake, the employee who made it likely already feels bad about it, so it’s not helpful to shame them for the mistake.
Once the issue has been discovered, your first step should be to “take a photograph of it”. It’s better to show your team what you saw than try to tell them a story about the problem.
The next step is to ask your team what happened that led to this issue. You don’t need an immediate answer to this, so give people a few minutes to think. The response you want to get is how this mistake happened rather than excuses for why it happened.
Even when you know what the right answer is for fixing the problem, it will make a greater impact on your team if you ask them and give them the space to share the correct answer.
Every member of your team is not always going to be perfect and they will make mistakes. The people you want on your team are those that will own their mistakes and fix them.
When something breaks down, you have the opportunity to show up as the kind of leader that builds up their team and uses this mistake as a learning moment. During weekly team meetings, encourage team members to share how they fixed a problem.
Quote of the Show:
“I don't tell someone what needs to change, I ask them what needs to change.” - Casey Stanton
New and Different vs Routine - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #025
00:07:10
When delegating tasks to your team, are you aware of the difference between routine tasks and new and different tasks? There’s a big difference in fact, and Casey Stanton is helping you understand it and how it impacts your team’s productivity. Get ready to learn about how to determine what kind of tasks each person gets, what to look for when hiring for a certain type of task, and how to optimize your workforce
Takeaways:
As a CMO, some things may be old hat for you, but when you assign them to your team, it may be new for them and you will face some natural friction.
New and different things take longer than you think they will because there are so many roadblocks that you won’t think about during the planning phase.
When you hire a new employee, every task, process, etc that you give them is new and different to them.
There are two types of tasks that you can assign your team, routine tasks and new and different tasks. You want the new and different tasks to become routine tasks for your team.
Try to delegate tasks to the right people based on the type of task. Some people work best when solving new and different tasks, while others thrive with routine tasks.
If you need help with routine tasks, look for traits like consistency when interviewing new candidates. The same goes for looking for help with new and different tasks.
Quote of the Show:
“New and different things take more time than we tend to anticipate” -Casey Stanton
How to Improve Your Thinking as a Fractional CMO - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode # 071
00:20:05
You don’t get ahead in business by copying what successful people do, you get ahead by copying how they think. Casey Stanton is the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller, The Fractional CMO Method. This week, Casey discusses how to develop a better way of thinking by using three specific mental models: The Map is Not The Territory, The Circle of Competence, and First Principles Thinking.
Takeaways:
If you want to achieve the same success that someone else has, don’t copy what they’ve done or what they’re doing, copy how they think. For example, a company could copy a great ad from a competitor, but without innovating, they’re always going to follow, never lead.
Becoming a more innovative company at the forefront of the market requires a better way of thinking, rather than simply copying what already exists in the market.
The first mental model is “The Map is not the Territory”. A map does not perfectly reflect every detail of a landscape, nor does your best strategy account for every nuance with your client. The simple ideas you want to deploy are not simple.
The second mental model is the “Circle of Competence”. You need to know where your knowledge of a particular topic ends and higher experts in that field to do the work. It’s good to have a base-level understanding of many topics so you know what to look for.
The third mental model is “First Principles Thinking”. While new ideas are extremely exciting, before engaging with them, you need to check if they align with the basic ways to grow a business. Does this new idea help you gain new customers, grow the transaction value, or increase the frequency of repeat purchases? If not, you need to focus on other ideas that will fulfill one of those outcomes.
Add these models to your mindset alongside solving bigger problems and delegating everything but leadership.
Quote of the Show:
“Improving your thinking will improve all areas of your life.” - Casey Stanton
Casey Stanton is the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller, The Fractional CMO Method. Casey dives into the importance of putting constraints on your work hours and how hobbies can help you become a deadlier Fractional CMO.
Takeaways:
No matter what constraints you may have in your life you still need to get the same done. According to Parkinson’s Law, work takes the time allotted. What constraints are you adding to your life so that you can work more efficiently?
By adding artificial constraints to your work day, it forces you to have to get your work done in that time. However you have to fill that freed up time with something else, whether that be meditation, marathon training, or spending more time with your family.
Ask yourself what you would do with your time if you worked half as much as you do now?
Even if you never want to retire, imagine what you would do if you were retired. What would fill your time? Now think about what if you could do those things starting next month.
When you add constraints on your time by scheduling time for yourself to delve into hobbies, you make yourself have to work more effectively and efficiently which will make you deadlier as a Fractional CMO.
Quote of the Show:
“The less time you have, the more pressure you'll have on yourself to get it right, be focused, and generate a great outcome.” - Casey Stanton
In this episode, Casey unpacks what it means to be a fractional CMO, the responsibilities of this pivotal role, and why it's the ideal path for marketing leaders ready to tackle bigger problems and deliver impactful results. Whether you're curious about strategy versus execution, building a marketing team, or creating a thriving fractional CMO practice, this episode offers actionable insights to help you lead confidently and succeed in this exciting career path.
Here’s what we talked about:
-The key responsibilities of a fractional CMO
- Focusing on high-impact activities instead of day-to-day execution
- Building in-house marketing expertise to increase client value
- Choosing ideal clients who can afford and benefit from fractional CMOs
- Managing 3-5 clients for sustainable workload and income
- Leveraging AI tools for efficiency in strategy and operations
- The increasing demand for fractional CMOs
- Pathways to grow income and scale impact
🌟 Take the First Step Toward Growth with CMOx 🌟
Booking a call with our team is super easy, stress-free, and all about YOU. Whether you're exploring options or ready to scale, this no-pressure consultation is designed to understand your needs and guide you in the right direction.
The Difference between a Fractional CMO and a Marketing Strategy Consultant - Casey Stanton - The Fractional CMO Show - Ep #037
00:12:36
Marketing Strategy Consultants and Fractional CMOs work in very different ways and provide their clients with very different results. Casey Stanton takes a closer look at the differences between them and which is the better option for both the business and the marketing professional. You’ll hear about why consultants are always selling, what happens when the consultant’s playbook doesn’t fit, and who actually creates meaningful change in the business.
Takeaways:
Many times consultants come in, do their thing, and leave. This leaves employees with more work to do and only a vague sense of the plan. Consultants that come in, prescribe a solution, and leave with the money aren’t doing that change work that’s needed.
While consultants that come in for a specific problem can be helpful, consultants brought in for global-level marketing strategy are usually a desperate move by executives.
Marketing strategies that aren’t implemented are a waste of everyone’s time. When consultants come in with their playbook and it doesn’t fit with the company, the consultant can leave with their paycheck without making any real impact.
Because consultants have to give their best ideas in the 90-day period they have with the client, the client never renews with them. This forces consultants to constantly prospect, sell, and service a revolving door of clients.
A Marketing Strategy Consultant comes up with a strategy and hopes it gets deployed. A Fractional CMO comes up with a strategy and gets it deployed by hiring, firing, training, and evaluating vendors, employees, contractors, and agencies.
A Fractional CMO is part of the organization. They build the team that can execute the strategy. They understand the entire business and the employees within.
While consultants may be able to charge marginally more than a Fractional CMO, they end up spending a lot more of their time and money on getting sales. Being a Fractional CMO is much more profitable because their contracts are long-term.
Quote of the Show:
“To see results, you want to bend a client to their own will” -Casey Stanton
Net New vs. Debt - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode # 068
00:17:00
Casey Stanton is the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller, The Fractional CMO Method. This week, Casey shares a helpful mental model to use when joining a new fractional client and needing to clean up their mismanaged data.
Takeaways:
There is a vast number of businesses that are trying to run all of their marketing through very basic tools. For example, some companies attempt to use Mailchimp, an effective email tool as their CRM. This results in poor reporting and missing crucial data.
Fractional CMOs entering such a company often create a new way to organize the company’s data to make it usable. As soon as they create the new structure, they incur a “debt”; the “debt” being all of the pre-existing data that does not follow the new structure.
When implementing a new data structure, “net new” refers to the records created under the new format. For example, net new customer records could have tags related to their purchases, but if those tags are brand new then none of the older contacts have them.
While there is no one solution for paying off the debt in the prior example, it is still something that you as a marketing leader need to tackle. It’s imperative that you spend time thinking about how to balance the net new and debt.
When you deploy something too early without considering the potential long-term implications that can come from the half-baked rollout.
For example, if you wanted to use OAuth credentialling for customers across both Shopify and the company forum, but only rolled out the OAuth for the forum, customers would have to create a separate login for Shopify which creates friction.
Quote of the Show:
“You're the Fractional CMO, but the whole organization always looks at you as the CMO.” - Casey Stanton
How To Innovate - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode # 075
00:25:06
How do you innovate as the Chief Marketing Officer of a company that you are just stepping into? Casey Stanton is the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller, The Fractional CMO Method. This week, Casey discusses when CMOs should start to innovate, how not to innovate, and two approaches to finding novel solutions that enable your to solve bigger problems.
Takeaways:
There are few opportunities for a new CMO to innovate within the first quarter of their tenure. The focus of this period should be on aligning their team and ensuring person and role fit. A certain amount of triaging is also a necessary part of this stage.
You don’t innovate by copying others. It’s impossible to copy what another company is doing and expect to be seen as the leader. By relying on copying them, you are always behind them.
Rather than copying another company’s actions, instead try to emulate how they think and approach problems. What do they hold to be true? What constraints have they put in place? By recreating their process of thinking, you can produce much greater results.
A few ways to understand someone else’s thought process include listening to their podcast appearance, watching their TED Talks, reading their blogs, or even examining their career.
An important way to drive innovation is to have a process to follow. The first step of the process is to identify the problem. Next, define what success looks like. Then figure out how to innovate a solution to solve the problem and meet the success criteria.
When innovating, try to look at the problem from every considerable angle to find multiple possible solutions. Also, consider the Kaizen approach that focuses on constantly making minor improvements, these will build to a great impact over time.
Quote of the Show:
“How do you innovate? It's not by copying what they've done, but trying to emulate how they think.” - Casey Stanton
The Sunday Scaries - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #055
00:14:03
If you’ve ever shuddered at the thought of having to go in to work the next day to work with a certain client, then you’ve felt the Sunday Scaries. Casey Stanton is the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller,The Fractional CMO Method.Casey discusses how the Sunday Scaries impact your work and your life, why you need to live life as your true self, and how to be compensated for the outcome of your work.
Takeaways:
The Sunday Scaries is that feeling of dread that comes over you when you realize that you have to go back to working for someone that you really don’t click with. Although you know you’ll do the work for them, it’s just a slog to get through.
When you feel the Sunday Scaries, it’s a sign that things are off. For example, if a client is paying you well, but you really dread working with them, then you need to be prospecting for new potential clients so you can phase out this bad one.
You need to have the courage to live a life where you are true to yourself. Don’t let the expectations of others control your actions.
If compensation is the main thing keeping you at your job, seriously consider if that is worth the cost of time spent personally, with your family, and enjoying life. There are other ways to attain the same financial freedom without sacrificing the rest of your life.
As a Fractional CMO, you have the ability to choose the clients you work with. If you start working with someone and they give you the Sunday Scaries, you can move on from them and solve bigger problems with clients that you align with.
If you do have the Sunday Scaries with your current work, put up better boundaries to separate your work and your personal life.
Quote of the Show:
“People on their deathbed would say that they didn't have the courage in their life to live a life that was true to themselves. They lived under the expectations of others.” -Casey Stanton
Is Your Future Ever-Increasing? - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #024
00:12:54
You are at a crossroads and you need to make the conscious decision between the path to an incredible future or the path to just a standard future. Casey Stanton is here to help guide through the decision as you mull over what you really want for your future. You’ll learn about creating a future that’s bigger than your past, how to choose clients as a Fractional CMO, and what you need to do to have an ever increasing future.
Takeaways:
Consider whether your idea of your future is ever expanding or if your future is just continually chasing a high you no longer feel.
Do you look at new challenges as a great way to experience new things and grow or do you think of them as a way to measure up against your past self, desperately trying to be as successful as you once were.
Focusing on the things which you actually have control over, are you making your future bigger than your past?
An ever increasing future means that people are coming to you based on a level of notoriety or prestige that you have built. People look to you as a leader and you have made efforts to set yourself up as a leader.
In an ever increasing future, you position yourself to showcase your strengths and you hire someone to take care of your weaknesses.
As a Fractional CMO, there are ways that you can harm your future, such as choosing clients from wildly different industries that you have no experience in or trying to constantly reinvent yourself.
You need to make the decision that you want to have an ever expanding future and stick by this goal everyday. You need to judge the opportunities you receive by whether or not they help you get closer to that future and when they don’t you have to say no.
Quote of the Show:
“When you decide that you want an ever expanding future, you must say no to opportunities that limit the expanse of your future” -Casey Stanton
Strategic Marketing in Professional Services - Jeff McKay - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #011
00:37:05
Some companies are all too willing to take money from anyone who will give it to them, regardless of how this impacts their brand. Jeff McKay, CEO of Prudent Pedal and a Fractional CMO, joins the show to correct the narrative. Jeff discusses how to proactively manage your brand, why you have to balance your core profit engine with the solutions you provide, and the importance of having strategic marketing leadership. Don’t get caught up in the antiquated ‘productivity’ school of thinking, learn how to jump into the ‘growth’ school of thought.
Takeaways:
Most progressive professional services firms that are really driving growth have moved away from the billable hour as their metric and have adopted value-based pricing.
When growing a company from $1 million to $10 million, the entrepreneurs need to switch their mindsets from “I am the expert at this” to “How do I scale this.”
The Performance Envelope is a phenomenon in professional services where firms that are built on scaling and profitability of a single solution begin to grow and start to spin off new solutions into new markets, thus eroding the brand and slowing their growth.
There is an incentive in professional services firms to generate a set amount of revenue so you can become a partner in the firm. However, in the pursuit of becoming partners, people try to generate revenue by any means necessary without regard for the brand.
Professional services firms lack strategic marketing leadership which gives way to a culture of optionality and self-directedness which kill growth. While decentralized growth can work, it’s not optimal or scalable, meaning it’s inefficient and causes redundancies.
To actually grow, firms must abandon the ‘productivity’ mindset and adopt the ‘growth’ mindset, and set higher expectations for their marketing so it delivers strategic impact.
To manage the performance envelope, first, think through who is your ideal client. Second, identify what particular issues you want to be known for solving. Finally, use those two steps as a construct for campaigns that allow you to manage the brand.
Quote of the Show:
“You cannot develop a world-class marketer unless you are a world-class marketer developing them” - Jeff McKay
Shout Outs:
Exponential Organizations: Why New Organizations are Ten Times Better, Faster, and Cheaper Than Yours (and what to Do about It)by Michael S. Malone, Salim Ismail, and Yuri van Geest
Create a Grow@ Email Address - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #030
00:04:50
Casey Stanton is giving CMOs everywhere a quick tip to improve collaboration amongst their team, share client data safely, and save you time and money.
Takeaways:
Using a “grow@” or “account@” email allows your entire team to log in to a client’s tool while only paying for one account. Your client only has to share access to one account, however, you can still assign the right work to the right team member.
For the shared account, you should use some type of secure password-sharing software. The password should also be alphanumeric and you should consider changing it every 60 days.
Quote of the Show:
“ Easy thing to do, pretty inexpensive, and just saves a ton of time” -Casey Stanton
How can the Entrepreneurial Operating System work with a Fractional CMO? - Casey Stanton - Ep #039
00:10:28
Many companies are implementing operating systems but what does that mean for you as a Fractional CMO? In this episode, Casey talks about which business operating systems are best for Fractional CMOs to work with. You’ll hear about many different kinds of operating systems that businesses use, what they do for businesses that use them, and why those businesses make such great clients for Fractional CMOs.
Takeaways:
Businesses either run on an operating system or they don’t. The leading operating systems for businesses are the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) based on the bookTraction. Operating systems provide structure for businesses to function.
Other common business operating systems include Ryan Deiss’s ScalableOS, Scaling Up, and Objectives and Key Results (OKRs).
Operating systems outline the cadence for meetings, topics of discussion, the attendees for certain meetings, how reporting is done, how data is shown, and their strategic planning.
When starting EOS, it’s great to hire a certified EOS Implementor so that everyone can be on the same page every single quarter. They have a great quarterly process that brings together all of the leaders in the business.
ScalableOS is very marketing-centric and works better in cases where the company is focused on e-commerce. However, Scaling up and OKRs are largely applicable to most businesses.
Companies using an operating system are great targets for Fractional CMOs if they fit the rest of your criteria. This is a sign the company has focus which results in predictable success.
When you step into a business that’s using an operating system, you’ll be able to get so much more done because everyone is already focused on the outcome.
Quote of the Show:
“These different operating systems that a company can run, first of all, are a great sign for you as a Fractional CMO” -Casey Stanton
Setting Outcome Goals and Celebrating - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode # 065
00:25:09
Taking care of your mental health, along with your team’s mental health, is critical to growing as a marketer, let alone a Fractional CMO. Sharing insights from his own marketing journey is Casey Stanton, the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller, The Fractional CMO Method. Casey dives into that ways to measure your own success, which type of goals will be most fulfilling for you once achieved, and why celebrating the micro-wins within your team is so important.
Takeaways:
Measuring yourself from where you are to how far you have to go to be successful will never get you there. Instead, create clear, tangible, and attainable goals and write them down. For example, instead of saying you want a half-million-dollar year Fractional CMO practice, write down specific income targets for hours worked.
When you try to measure your success by working toward getting something like a watch, once you get the watch, it feels like a hollow victory because your eyes will now be fixated on getting some greater prize which will be equally as hollow.
Don’t think that because you don't have a case study as a Fractional CMO, you don't deserve a $10,000/month deal. If you're solving a problem that needs the focus of a $ 10,000-a-month Fractional CMO, you have to charge appropriately for your work.
Your team should be looking to be responsible for more outcomes and increasingly challenging work. If you hire right and build a good culture, your team won’t be reaming about taking a break after finishing a task, they’ll be looking for what’s next.
It’s important to celebrate your wins and create an environment where your team can do the same. Celebrate micro-wins and call out team members who contribute. Create a culture of support, respect, trust, and camaraderie within your team.
For example, create a Slack channel called “Wins” and use it to highlight team members for exhibiting a core value, going above and beyond, or coming up with a great idea. Once you kickstart this channel, your team will start to highlight each other.
Encourage your team to take time off and enjoy themselves, provided that outcomes are being met. As the Fractional CMO, it’s not your job to micromanage each team member and their entire lives.
Quote of the Show:
“If you measure yourself from where you are to how far you have to go to be successful, you will never get there” - Casey Stanton
Becoming a Jewelry Thief - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #060
00:16:08
Casey Stanton is the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller, The Fractional CMO Method. Casey shares how you can create your own hallways, when you should use non-scalable tactics, and why you need to become a collector of ideas.
Takeaways:
Marketers generally look at the typical solutions to a problem and then decide which of those typical solutions is best. However, you can be much more effective if you bypass those solutions altogether. For example, cutting through a wall instead of picking a lock.
Before figuring out how to solve a problem, first identify what you are solving for, then you can start thinking about the how.
While scalable tactics are very important, when you first take over as the CMO, you should be looking for the non-scalable tactics you can use to get things jumpstarted. You can start scalable tactics that require lead time after you get the first few wins.
Don’t start with scalable solutions. Start with things that work and then see if you can scale them.
When you come across a problem, step back and define what problem you are solving. Next, think about the typical ways a marketer would solve that problem. Once those solutions are out of the way, get creative and come up with an interesting way to solve it.
When determining which problem to solve for your fractional client, identify which will have the biggest impact for your client and then think of the ways that you can solve it.
Become a collector of new ideas and ways to do things. Pay attention to the way things are being offered in relevant marketing campaigns. Collect these ideas so you can test them for your clients down the road and scale what sticks.
Quote of the Show:
“When you step into a business as the CMO, your job is not to come up with marketing campaigns that are going to last forever and be super robust because oftentimes those campaigns have a lot of waste to get started.” - Casey Stanton
The Mythical Man-Month - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #029
00:08:53
Help your team become more efficient by splitting up their tasks more effectively. Casey Stanton is bringing the concept of partitionable and unpartitionable tasks to the center stage to show how you may be wasting time and effort on tasks while actually making them take longer to finish. You’ll learn how to recognize the different types of tasks, plan for a more efficient quarter and choose the right clients to serve as a Fractional CMO.
Takeaways:
Brook’s Law demonstrates that adding more capacity to a project that’s failing actually extends the timeline it takes to produce a quality product.
There are two main types of tasks, partitionable and unpartitionable. Unpartitionable tasks do not see an increased acceleration in completion with added manpower. Whereas, partitionable tasks are completed faster with more hands involved.
Some tasks, like writing persuasive copy, are unpartitionable because they require a singular voice and vision.
When you add more people to a team, you increase the amount of necessary intercommunication within the team exponentially.
As a Fractional CMO, you should know what tasks are unpartitionable and how you can help the people working on those tasks without getting in their way.
When doing quarterly planning, consider what tasks are partitionable or not and what the time needed to complete them actually is.
As a Fractional CMO, the Three C’s you need to know a potential client has are cash, capability, and capacity.
Quote of the Show:
“It's the unpartitionable tasks that are the tasks that do not scale with more human capacity” -Casey Stanton
A Cautionary Tale on Expectation Setting - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #009
00:09:39
So often, people oversell what the outcome of their work will be or don’t base goals on historical data. Casey Stanton has been there and he’s trying to help anyone else from going there and losing the trust of their coworkers because they couldn’t produce up to those faulty expectations. You’ll understand the dangers of overselling, how to set better goals and what to do if you start to see that you won’t be able to reach your goals.
Takeaways:
Don’t overset any kind of quarterly outcomes, be very realistic and pragmatic with setting your goals.
Meet with everyone involved throughout the course of the project and make sure that everyone is on track with everything they need to do in order to hit the goal.
If you see that you are not on track to achieve the goal let everyone know and get them all involved in resolving the problem so that you can reach that outcome.
If you are faced with a situation and there is no historical data to base your decision on, do not make a “wild ass guess.” This is a super quick way to lose all credibility and trust.
When you are planning out your goals, you have to really think about the worst-case scenario and extrapolate out what that means for the business.
Even if you make great improvements and progress, if you don’t accomplish the goal you laid out, those around you will disregard your work because it didn’t meet the expectation.
Quote of the Show:
“Don’t pick a number because it’s round, pick a number because it’s incrementally larger.” - Casey Stanton
Be A Marketing Leader - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode # 080
00:24:15
Casey Stanton is the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller, The Fractional CMO Method. This week, Casey shares what he learned while at Copy Chief Live about the value that Fractional Chief Marketing Officers provide to their clients. Casey also dives into why your fractional clients need to be the leader of their marketing team rather than just another person who can complete small marketing tasks.
Takeaways:
Great copywriters understand the buyer's pain points and they can craft copy that highlights those pain points in such an emotionally impactful way that the buyer then wants to buy that solution to their pain points.
Two things that aren’t required for great copy are an amazing funnel and every copywriting trick in the book. Great copy should be able to stand on its own. For example, it could be part of a direct mailer, a long-form webpage, or a YouTube video.
Fractional clients that are personally involved in delivering value for their customer needs their Factional CMO to come into their organization and be the leader of the marketing team. They need to lead the rest of the business, they don’t have time to lead the marketing team.
While you might be able to do X marketing task, it’s likely a better use of time to have someone on your team address X task, so you can give the rest of the marketing team their assignments so you can solve bigger problems.
For example, a military general should spend most of their time at the frontline of the battle with a rifle in their hand, their job is to devise the best plan to accomplish their goal. Likewise, a marketing leader's primary responsibility is making smart decisions, and they should avoid getting involved in every detail of marketing.
Once you stop being the do-er of every marketing task and become the marketing leader that your fractional client needs you to be, you will become more valuable to them which will result in higher paychecks for you.
Quote of the Show:
“Copywriters matched with a good product team can make beautiful things happen.” - Casey Stanton
Understanding The Fractional CMO Method - Casey Stanton - The Fractional CMO Show - Episode #043
00:43:39
The Fractional CMO route is great for marketers looking to serve multiple clients at a high level with each paying $3,000-$15,000 per month. This week, Casey Stanton talks about his Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller,The Fractional CMO Method, and what you can learn from it. You’ll learn about how to overcome the three biggest challenges of being a Fractional CMO: having control of your pipeline, getting your clients the results they need, and the length of your contracts.
Takeaways:
The problem with being a consultant is the constant revolving door of prospecting for new clients when your contract runs out, whereas a Fractional CMO can serve as the CMO for multiple companies for extended periods, even months or years.
You have to have complete control over your pipeline. That is your key to success as a Fractional CMO. You are the only one that can get you from where you are now to your goal.
Many consultants only have a 30-90 day playbook to use and once it’s done, so is their contract. By serving your clients more effectively with the Fractional CMO Method, you will extend the length of your contracts.
While branding and web design are great and important parts of marketing, if you’re more focused on them than the results that they generate, you’re going to find yourself out of a job.
You need to generate actual results for your clients that are outsized to your cost. Producing that big impact for them is how you stick around.
A marketing agency is not a Fractional CMO. A Fractional CMO is a person who is a stakeholder inside the business whose job it is to build and lead the marketing team.
A company doesn’t get successful by being well-rounded and doing all of the marketing campaigns, it becomes successful by being deadly at a few of them and building a dynamic marketing team inside the organization.
Quote of the Show:
“The only person getting you out of where you are and putting you where you want to be in a place of wealth, in a place of consistency, of confidence is you” -Casey Stanton
Keep It Simple - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode # 079
00:16:26
Yes, going down rabbit holes can be fun, but it’s usually not efficient. Casey Stanton is the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller, The Fractional CMO Method. This week, Casey delves into why the simplest solution is better than the complex, fun solution and how this applies to solving bigger problems for your client businesses.
Takeaways:
While you may enjoy complex solutions or processes if there is a simpler process that produces the same results, just with less fun, you should choose the simpler solution. If you are only being measured on delivering X result, then you should focus on delivering that result, rather than how creative you can make the process to get to that result.
Uncover which specific outcome is the most important and concentrate on achieving that fundamental goal.
For Fractional CMOs in particular, the outcomes that your clients want most are likely to be sales outcomes, not marketing outcomes. Don’t get dragged down into the details of tactics used to achieve those outcomes, stay elevated so you can solve bigger problems.
In the words of Leonardo da Vinci, "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." There is elegance in simple, effective solutions. For example, if you struggle to explain your client’s core business, you should boil the concepts down further.
Prioritize actions and strategies that directly impact customer acquisition and retention. These are fundamental to any business.
Focus on mastering a few things well. It’s better to do a few things in marketing exceptionally well rather than attempting to become an expert in everything all at once.
Quote of the Show:
“Don't do everything all at once, keep it really simple so you can maximize the results wherever you are.” - Casey Stanton
Build an Estimator - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #035
00:08:53
To predict the success of a marketing strategy, you need to build a tool that can estimate what that success will look like for your client. Casey Stanton breaks down what goes into creating an effective and accurate tool along with a great use case. Find out how to measure and understand the outcomes of your efforts!
Takeaways:
You need to build an estimation tool for your clients and team to use to measure the success of a marketing strategy. Having this calculator informs you of the strategy’s likelihood of being successful.
If you are currently using webinars in your strategy, you need to use a 1-click opt-in with your invitations as this will boost registrations and save you from losing 70%-90% of the clicks. If you do this, your CTR and RSVP rate should be equal.
When building out your calculator, the first question is, what is your registration timeline?
The baseline metrics that you need to know to build your tool are your open rate, CTR, RSVP rate, and show rate.
In order to start predicting the success of a marketing event, it’s crucial to know what the RSVP and Show-up rates for your events are from every channel.
Quote of the Show:
“Start predicting major outcomes and then understand what has to be true along the way” -Casey Stanton
Don't Do This Busywork So You Can Be a Successful Fractional CMO
00:25:11
Are you actually running a business as a fractional CMO, or just going through the motions? In this episode of The Fractional CMO Show, Casey Stanton breaks down the difference between being in business and playing business. He calls out the distractions—like obsessing over websites, business cards, and LLC structures—that keep marketers from making real money. Instead, he shares the key to success: solving big problems, talking to check writers, and building deal flow. If you’re ready to stop spinning your wheels and start landing high-value clients, this episode is for you.
Here’s what we talked about:
- The difference between being in business vs. playing business - Common distractions: websites, business cards, and unnecessary LLC setups - Why talking to check writers is the fastest path to success - How to build real deal flow and attract high-paying clients - Why dressing the part and fancy branding don’t matter - The power of community and surrounding yourself with high-level thinkers
🌟 Take the First Step Toward Growth with CMOx 🌟
Booking a call with our team is super easy, stress-free, and all about YOU. Whether you're exploring options or ready to scale, this no-pressure consultation is designed to understand your needs and guide you in the right direction.
My Vision For You, Direct Report - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #019
00:05:57
As a Fractional CMO, you can’t do all the work yourself, so you need a good team. But you can’t stop with just hiring a good team, you need to have a vision for them and help in developing them to reach that vision. Casey Stanton is giving you the keys to doing this and reaching your own vision in the process. Prepare to learn about championing the success of others, surrounding yourself with diverse voices, and solving bigger problems!
Takeaways:
Always have an updated vision of where you see each of the people who report directly to you. What larger role do you see for them? Create a gap between where they are and where you think they can ascend to.
You need to enroll your direct reports in the vision you have for them and push them toward it. Give them the encouragement they need
Champion the success of the people on your team!
Build the “dream team” for your client that you know you can depend on.
Ask your direct reports what they need to do to get to that next step. Empower them to solve those bigger problems.
You don’t want to be the CMO of a company where everyone just listens to everything you say. You need people who will push back against your ideas, bring in new ideas, and provide their unique perspectives.
Quote of the Show:
“ You want people to start solving for their own ascension” -Casey Stanton
The Leadership Secret to Getting 80 Hours of Labor Done with 1 Hour of Your Time - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Ep. # 070
00:20:25
Casey Stanton is the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller, The Fractional CMO Method. This week, Casey shares how to get more stuff done without working full-time for your client. You’ll hear about the importance of setting milestones, what you need for holding your team accountable, and how to construct self-sufficient teams that you can leverage.
Takeaways:
As a Fractional CMO, you are responsible for a wide variety of outcomes. Within a given day, you might be in charge of 80 hours worth of work being accomplished for a client. That is the equivalent of having ten direct reports all working eight hours a day.
The two foundations to getting more done in less time are solving bigger problems and delegating everything except leadership. These two concepts are central to attaining success in both work and life as a Fractional CMO.
A key tactic for Fractional CMOs is setting weekly or bi-weekly milestones that track to the progress of a quarterly goal for your team. Build a culture of candidness around the milestones to hold people accountable and find when to help the team if they’re behind.
To be an effective Fractional CMO, you need to build self-managing teams that can get stuff done and handle most issues. Successful Fractional CMOs with multiple clients don’t micro-manage their teams, they support them from a high level.
If you hear that someone on your team is off-track of their milestones, you need to reach out to them and ask how you can help them. This team member will be likely to reciprocate this action the next time someone is falling behind their milestone.
Think of milestones as photograph-able outcomes, such as a webpage being built and deployed, X amount of emails sent, all of the collateral for a live event. Create milestones by breaking down the larger outcome into more manageable pieces
As the CMO, it’s not your job to think through every little detail of each campaign, live event, etc. Your job is to make sure that those details are thought through by someone, and you can then review their work afterward.
Quote of the Show:
“If you want to micro-manage people, you cannot be a Fractional CMO, have multiple clients, and be very successful.” - Casey Stanton
Crushing Content Creation - Ken Tucker - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #004
00:36:03
You know content is important, but it seems so costly and complicated to create. Guess what, creating content can actually be easy and affordable and by putting it off, you’re missing out on all the benefits you already know of, but also the huge impact it has on your SEO. Thankfully, the sensei of SEO and content marketing, Ken Tucker, is here to show you the way! Learn how to create great content, how to get the most out of your content creation efforts, and how to differentiate your content and your company amongst the sea of competitors.
Takeaways
Google creates a “Canonical URL” which it attributes to the first website that publishes a piece of content. If two sites have duplicate content, Google will ignore the site without the Canonical URL when ranking for SEO. This is why it is imperative to create unique content for your company and your clients.
Differentiation comes from how you describe the problems people have and provide content to guide people to the solution. When crafting your messaging, consider how people approach the problem both internally and externally.
A great source for unique content is any emails with customers where you solve a problem they have. You can write problem-based content that speaks to FAQs and common problems. This kind of content is great for SEO.
Video is very powerful from a content repurposing perspective, it creates a “Little Content Machine.” You can post the full video, put the transcript on your website, create a blog post based on video, post clips of video on social media, pull quotes from the transcript and blog for social media, and publish a press release for inbound links.
Creating video content doesn’t have to be a very elaborate and expensive process, it can be very easy and low-budget while still being good quality and impactful. Even just using a cellphone camera can be enough to produce content your company can use.
Google uses “Review Velocity” when ranking for local search results. Review Velocity refers to the frequency of new reviews your business gets on Google. Old reviews “degrade” after ~6-months and Google marks them as less important.
At present, customers have a huge amount of control over the Buyer’s Journey, so it is very important to be making the kind of content that your customers really respond to.
Quote of the Show:
“Most people are natural content creators. They just don't realize that they're creating content that they could easily put onto their website.” -Ken Tucker
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fractional-cmo-show/id1592740671
Spotify: https://fractionalcmo.libsyn.com/spotify
Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJhY3Rpb25hbGNtb3Nob3cuY29tL2ZlZWQueG1s
Stitcher
YouTube https://youtu.be/rTM9P3BiVqw
27 Apr 2022
A Different Way of Thinking - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #026
00:08:17
When it comes to your team, does the squeaky wheel get the grease or the pink slip? Casey Stanton discusses if there is a right and wrong answer to the question and what role your situation may play in the decision. You’ll learn about identifying the “magic” in an employee, what you can do to optimize an employee’s capacity, and how to weigh the options from the perspective of your company.
Takeaways:
While you are looking for new opportunities in life, what are you doing to make yourself stand out amongst the other people searching for those same opportunities.
Your word is the most important thing you have. Even if you lose everything, you still have your word, so make sure that it means something.
The leader needs to figure out how they can manipulate the environment so that their team can perform better.
What changes can you make to get a nonlinear benefit?
Simply firing anyone who can’t get up to speed or can’t keep their word, is an expensive solution to the problem. As an alternative, think of processes that you can implement that will help the employee produce greater outcomes.
Quote of the Show:
“It’s unacceptable to have a commitment and fail to deliver on that commitment” -Casey Stanton
What's the Difference between Strategy and Tactics in Marketing? - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #038
00:10:44
Your job as a Fractional CMO is to stay focused on the big picture strategy and not get dragged into the tactics, but where is that line between them? That’s what Casey Stanton is discussing in this episode! Casey dissects the intricacies of what makes up strategies and tactics, and how you should approach conversations around both. You’ll hear about how to delegate everything but leadership, what companies really want from a Fractional CMO, and how to strengthen the tactical abilities of your team.
Takeaways:
Marketers love to dive into all the fun ways to use tactics, but they miss sight of the strategy-level decisions.
To recenter the conversation on the strategy level, ask, “what you are solving for?” This is where you need to dwell as the Fractional CMO. You need to be able to scale back from the tactics conversation and look at the bigger picture.
The strategy provides guardrails for the tactics used later on. The strategy is based on asking a question and the quality of that question determines the quality of the result.
Starting with the strategy allows you to solve bigger problems! You can and should delegate everything except leadership.
Instead of hiring your tactical work out to an agency with exorbitant pricing, you can hire an expert to come in and train your team in the company in that tactic. This gives you a strong tactical knowledge base in your company overnight that you completely control!
As the Fractional CMO, you don’t need to know every tactic out there. What you need to know are strategy and leadership; those are what companies are looking for.
Quote of the Show:
“To get back to the strategy level in conversations, I like to ask the question of what are you solving for?” -Casey Stanton
Peak Anxiety with Clients, Transformed - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #017
00:13:08
Anxiety is a natural part of business and it is crucial for you to know how to cope with it and then use it to help yourself grow. Casey Stanton shares his own story of facing anxiety when first starting as a Fractional CMO and how he used that experience to gain perspective and get stronger. You’ll hear about how to prepare before betting on yourself, what to do when you find yourself scraping against the bottom, and why you need to undergo your own path to reach success.
Takeaways:
Although you may feel like you are walking in circles around something you are anxious about, you can grow and gain “elevation” as you would on a spiral staircase to allow you to see the anxiety from a different perspective andsee it for what it is.
Anxiety in business is an opportunity for you to solve something that obviously feels wrong.
You will have many anxieties that will never go away in your life, even after they have peaked they will still persist. However, by going through the peak of those anxieties, you become better equipped to handle them in the future.
When approaching the idea of becoming a Fractional CMO, you need to have a long time horizon and give yourself a runway.
When betting on yourself, it’s important to be very self-aware. Understand the risks and be prepared to face them and whatever else may come up.
Quote of the Show:
“If you have the long time horizon and you provide yourself the runway to make things happen, it is inevitable that you'll be successful” -Casey Stanton
Exploring The Fractional CMO Landscape - Jon McMonagle - Fractional CMO Show - Episode # 052
00:26:21
Today’s guest is Jon McMonagle, the Director of Enrollment at CMOx. Jon helps marketers become Fractional CMOs so they can solve bigger problems. In this episode, Jon shares where the growing demand for Fractional CMOs is coming from, why Fractional CMOs are not the same as consultants, and what lies ahead for fractional work.
Takeaways
The range of companies that are now looking for Fractional CMOs has grown drastically over the past few years. Although the early demand came from B2B SaaS companies, now legacy businesses that have existed for decades are looking for Fractional leaders.
A driving force behind the increased demand for Fractional CMOs is private equity firms that have analyzed the business model and are looking for the insights of a CMO without paying someone a full-time salary.
Once a Fractional CMO establishes a relationship with a private equity firm and shows them the results they are looking for, that private equity firm will often introduce the Fractional CMO to their other ventures and become a valuable referral partner.
Many seven to eight-figure businesses have traditionally thought that a CMO would be inaccessible due to their salary demands, however, through the fractional model, these companies can now get access to the crucial marketing leadership they need.
The difference between a Fractional CMO and a marketing consultant is that consultants come in to fix a marketing problem and leave, whereas a Fractional CMO comes in to fix a structural problem and they tend to stick around with their clients.
Becoming a Fractional CMO is so much more than just doing run-of-the-mill marketing work. The role requires you to provide not only strategy but also leadership. If you are a great marketer but you can’t lead, you’re going to struggle to be a Fractional CMO.
While marketing tactics will change and become more complex in the future, the strategy and value proposition of a Fractional CMO will become more important.
Quote of the Show:
“A Fractional CMO will come in to solve a structural problem, it just happens to pertain to marketing” - Jon McMonagle
$81k/mo as a Fractional CMO and Other Brain Upgrades
00:28:05
What if making $81k a month as a fractional CMO isn't the dream you think it is? In this episode of The Fractional CMO Show, Casey uncovers the hidden challenges behind high-earning solo practices—and how to build a sustainable, scalable business instead. From avoiding burnout to leveraging AI, structuring client engagements, and pricing your services for long-term success, Casey shares the playbook for thriving as a fractional executive. Don't just chase revenue—build a career that lasts. Tune in now!
Here’s what we talked about:
- Why having too many clients in different niches leads to inefficiency. - The challenge of context switching and why focusing on a niche is crucial. - The evolving role of AI in marketing execution and business management. - The downside of overspending on expensive tools and platforms early on. - The shift from "fraction of the cost" to "everything you need." - How to structure marketing teams efficiently for growth. - Selling outcomes, not hours—why hourly rates diminish your value.
🌟 Take the First Step Toward Growth with CMOx 🌟
Booking a call with our team is super easy, stress-free, and all about YOU. Whether you're exploring options or ready to scale, this no-pressure consultation is designed to understand your needs and guide you in the right direction.
Resilience and Reverse-Engineering - Armen Mardirousi - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #005
00:39:16
Nothing you do will be easy at first, but that’s not a bad thing! Entrepreneur and Fractional CMO, Armen Mardirousi, joins host Casey Stanton to discuss the importance of setting clearly defined goals. Listen to learn about why and how to break them up into smaller pieces. Armen also shares his experience on how to face many of the problems that Fractional CMOs confront every day.
Takeaways:
The importance of being resilient cannot be understated, especially when it comes to business. The first year of just about anything is difficult. Embrace the grind and grow from it!
Make sure you know exactly what you want to do before you start doing it. If you don’t know the destination, how will you know when you get there? Determine what you want to do and then reverse engineer a way to do that and break it into doable pieces.
It is a fact of life that there are some things that you just can’t prepare for. When things like this happen, it’s imperative to push past them. Recognize any mistakes made and learn from them, but don’t waste time and energy on things in the past.
Everyone will try to give you advice about pretty much everything. It’s important to listen to everyone and be respectful, but ask yourself, “Are they where I want to be in relation to the topic they are talking about?”
Unfortunately, a lot of people have had bad experiences with marketing agencies, consultants, etc. As a Fractional CMO, it’s on you to overcome a prospect’s opinion of marketers by understanding what they’ve dealt with and communicating your plan.
A “blueprint” that you can adapt to each client you work with is a great way to clearly explain what you’re going to do and how you’re going to do it. You should say to the client, “I’m here to help, and here’s how I’m going to help.”
An amazing benefit of being a Fractional CMO is that you can choose to work with clients that help people in ways that you can see. You can select clients who are helping others which can make the work very fulfilling!
Quote of the Show:
“I don’t want to be a headache for you and I will not allow you to be a headache for me” - Armen Mardirousi
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fractional-cmo-show/id1592740671
Spotify: https://fractionalcmo.libsyn.com/spotify
Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJhY3Rpb25hbGNtb3Nob3cuY29tL2ZlZWQueG1s
Stitcher
YouTube: https://youtu.be/MG_kgGmoyqQ
25 Feb 2025
Group Coaching Call Inside the Free Fractional CMO Community on Facebook
01:14:37
In this episode of The Fractional CMO Show, Casey Stanton dives into the realities of charging premium rates as a fractional CMO. Inspired by a recent discussion in the CMOX Accelerator group, Casey explores the mindset, strategies, and client selection process necessary to command high-ticket retainers. He is joined by multiple guests who share their journeys in transitioning from agency work to fractional CMO roles, overcoming pricing objections, and finding the right clients willing to pay $8,000+ per month. Whether you're new to the fractional CMO model or looking to scale your business, this episode will provide actionable insights to help you charge what you're worth and work with high-value clients.
Here’s what we talked about:
- Why premium clients exist and how to position yourself to attract them
- Understanding which industries can sustain high marketing budgets
- How ad spend and overall marketing investment correlate with your fees
- Shifting from execution-based services to strategic leadership
- Real-life case studies of marketers successfully making the leap
- The value of helping businesses build internal marketing teams vs. relying on agencies
- Closing high-ticket deals by positioning yourself as a problem solver
🌟 Take the First Step Toward Growth with CMOx 🌟
Booking a call with our team is super easy, stress-free, and all about YOU. Whether you're exploring options or ready to scale, this no-pressure consultation is designed to understand your needs and guide you in the right direction.
Feeling stuck as a one-person marketing department? Casey lays out why the marketing technician is the must-have hire to level up your fractional CMO game. In this episode, you’ll learn how to assess team gaps, find the right kind of marketing technician, and avoid the trap of doing all the implementation work yourself. Casey breaks down exactly how to recruit, train, and manage this key role—plus how to scale with AI and global talent without blowing up your client’s budget. If you’re serious about staying strategic and solving bigger problems, don’t miss this.
Here’s what we talked about:
- Why fractional CMOs need marketing technicians - GWC framework for evaluating team members - Delegation filters and training plans - Process vs. project-oriented technicians - Hiring process locally and globally - AI’s growing role in implementation - Testing process to vet candidates
🌟 Take the First Step Toward Growth with CMOx 🌟
Booking a call with our team is super easy, stress-free, and all about YOU. Whether you're exploring options or ready to scale, this no-pressure consultation is designed to understand your needs and guide you in the right direction.
We’ll make sure this is the most productive (and effortless) decision you’ve made for your business. Let's talk about strategy and success!
🤝 Join the Fractional CMO Community 🤝
Want to continue the conversation and get access to exclusive resources? Join our free Facebook group for fractional CMOs and marketing leaders! Inside, you'll find discussions, insights, and tools to help you grow your business and maximize your impact.
What is the number one campaign to run when joining a new client as a Fractional CMO? Track EVERYTHING. Casey Stanton is the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller, The Fractional CMO Method. This week, Casey breaks down why you need to track every aspect of your marketing efforts, from traffic sources to conversions, and how to do it.
Takeaways:
Use UTMs: Utilize UTM (Urchine Tracking Metric) parameters to track the sources, mediums, and campaigns that drive traffic to your website.
Consider using vanity URLs to easily redirect and track the effectiveness of specific campaigns or traffic sources. For example, fractionalcmoshow.com redirects to cmox.co/podcast.
Implement a data warehouse to centralize and organize all collected data for better reporting and analysis.
Attribute customer actions to specific marketing efforts to understand which channels are most effective. Don’t rely on customers to tell you where they came from, use UTMs to know where they came from.
Continuously monitor and review your tracking efforts to identify gaps and areas for improvement. While UTMs and site traffic don’t need to be checked weekly, you should definitely be checking it at least every quarter.
As a CMO, it’s up to you to ensure that tracking and data collection are prioritized throughout the organization. Educate your team and clients about the importance of tracking, and make it a fundamental part of your marketing strategy.
Tracking provides reliable data that will reveal valuable insights in the long term, helping to make informed decisions about marketing strategies.
Quote of the Show:
“Track literally everything you can.” - Casey Stanton
My name is Casey Stanton and I'm the founder of CMOx, the leading fractional chief marketing officer company.
And today I want to tell you about my podcast, The Fractional CMO show
This isn't just about how you can position yourself as a Fractional CMO.
This is about building the lifestyle you want, where you're loving the work you do...
Yes, being a fractional CMO means you get to call the shots, you get to stay elevated and solve bigger problems, but more important than all of that, you get to create real, sustainable and lasting change in the world.
There is no other role where you can have this much leverage... where you can support great companies and help reduce the suffering of more people around the world.
The Fractional CMO enjoys the fees of a marketing consultant, with the long-term engagements of a CMO. And that's exactly what we'll be talking about.
I've personally been the fractional CMO to over two dozen companies and have created a clear process to help you do the same.
If you're an agency owner and want to stop giving away marketing strategy for free, just so you can sell your services...
If you're a marketing consultant and want to break free of the revolving door of prospecting, selling, servicing and spinning down clients...
If you're an in-house marketer and you want to grow to become CMO for a couple compaines..
I'm excited for you to join me on this podcast adventure!
I'll be interviewing tactical marketing experts, successful fractional CMOs and business owners, as well as sharing my own ideas, tips and tricks to positioning yourself and winning business as a Fractional CMO.
If you want to SOLVE BIGGER PROBLEMS to create MORE IMPACT and earn a BIGGER check, you're in the right place.
Visit FractionalCMOShow.com right now to subscribe
Subscribe right now at FractionalCMOShow.com
04 Mar 2025
Concreteness: Delivering world-class outcomes as a Fractional CMO (without being an expert in all the tools and platforms)
00:33:35
Struggling to stay ahead as a fractional CMO? Casey breaks down the power of concreteness—why understanding how things actually work makes you a stronger, more resilient marketing leader. Learn how to go beyond abstraction, delegate effectively, and solve bigger problems that drive real impact. From APIs and CRMs to building a high-value team, this episode is packed with insights to help you level up and lead with confidence.
Here’s what we talked about:
- The importance of concreteness vs. abstraction
- Delegating everything except leadership
- How to spot-check technical work without being an expert
- Avoiding reliance on a single platform (e.g., HubSpot)
- Focusing on strategy, not execution
- Hiring the right people and holding them accountable
- Simplifying marketing for better results
🌟 Take the First Step Toward Growth with CMOx 🌟
Booking a call with our team is super easy, stress-free, and all about YOU. Whether you're exploring options or ready to scale, this no-pressure consultation is designed to understand your needs and guide you in the right direction.
We’ll make sure this is the most productive (and effortless) decision you’ve made for your business. Let's talk about strategy and success!
🤝 Join the Fractional CMO Community 🤝
Want to continue the conversation and get access to exclusive resources? Join our free Facebook group for fractional CMOs and marketing leaders! Inside, you'll find discussions, insights, and tools to help you grow your business and maximize your impact.
Reconnecting with Customers- Casey Cheshire - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #002
00:51:14
The way marketers interact and communicate with customers has shifted immensely with the advent of the internet and marketing automation. Today’s marketing is missing the actual dialogue between customer and marketer that has been so essential to successful marketing in the past. Podcasts offer a great way to reopen those communication channels allowing marketers to create better relationships with customers and understand the challenges they face. Casey Cheshire, CEO and Founder of Ringmaster Conversational Marketing joins the show to open marketers’ minds to the amazing benefits of having a podcast such as customer relationships, content creation, and a great forum for learning.
Takeaways:
Marketers have moved away from actually talking to their customers and in a time when relationships are the new currency, this is harming brands and limiting the potential success of marketers.
Podcasts, by nature, create relationships between the host and the guest.
Having potential clients come on your podcast creates a relationship. Customers will be more comfortable discussing their business’ actual challenges on a podcast as opposed to a sales call.
Podcasts can be a great tool for marketers, each episode serves as a great source of content that can be repurposed many times in different media (eg. books, promo videos, clips, blogs, etc.)
A conversational style podcast affords marketers much better access to how a customer or member of a group feels about a challenge, product, etc. compared to reading through online reviews or scrubbing social media posts.
Being the host of a podcast is a great way to learn from guests and the host can ask whatever questions they want to really learn a lot.
By interviewing experts in a particular subject, you can learn the jargon that their field’s ingroup uses. This means that you can learn how to have a conversation in the ‘language’ that the expert understands best.
Podcasts offer a space where people can come and share a moment together reconnecting in contrast to how social media has a way of tearing society apart at the seams.
A fractional CMO’s job is to make those already at a company more effective, not to take their jobs and work. Fractional CMO’s should coach up the marketers around them to be ready to take over their position when they leave.
Quote of the Show:
“I'm not here to create podcasts. I'm here to create human connection.” -Casey Cheshire
Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fractional-cmo-show/id1592740671
Spotify: https://fractionalcmo.libsyn.com/spotify
Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJhY3Rpb25hbGNtb3Nob3cuY29tL2ZlZWQueG1s
dcast
YouTube: https://youtu.be/ljHxCZPAy-o
09 Aug 2023
Burn The Boats - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode # 074
00:18:33
You’ll almost never force yourself to really take a risk and act boldly if you know you can just turn around and go home. Casey Stanton is the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller, The Fractional CMO Method. This week, Casey discusses the importance of fully committing to your choices, why you should start making changes now rather than later, and which mistakes you can learn from others so as not to follow in their poorly trod footsteps.
Takeaways:
Embrace the idea of committing fully to your goals. Burn the bridges behind you and remove any safety nets to ensure you're fully invested in your success as a senior marketing leader.
Challenges and tough moments are valuable opportunities for growth. Although you might feel like you are hitting your lowest point, the adversity you face can lead to a reinvigorated belief in yourself and your capabilities.
Don't wait for a critical moment of failure to spur action. Instead, proactively work towards your goals to avoid unnecessary stress and setbacks. Start making the changes you want to implement today, this will get you closer to your goal even faster.
Look to successful fractional CMOs who have paved the way before you. Learn from their experiences to fast-track your own growth and success.
Shift your focus from tasks to results. Prioritize projects and strategies that lead to tangible outcomes and impact for your clients.
Develop a consistent and reliable pipeline of potential clients. Cultivate relationships and a strong reputation to attract new business opportunities.
Stand out by offering something distinctive. Highlight your expertise, strengths, and specialized skills that make you a sought-after senior marketing leader.
Quote of the Show:
“The only path is forward and you have to build to get the outcome that you want. If you're willing to do that, you will be successful. It is inevitable that you'll be successful. It is inevitable that you'll work every day on it because you are excited about it.” - Casey Stanton
Three AI Convergences Changing the Marketing Department
00:33:53
AI is moving fast—faster than we think. In this episode, Casey Stanton discusses the three major AI shifts that are already reshaping the marketing landscape. He dives into deep research tools, AI-powered voice agents, and the game-changing ability of AI to move beyond automation into real decision-making. What does this mean for fractional CMOs? Bigger opportunities, bigger challenges, and a chance to stay ahead before the market catches up. If you're a marketing leader looking to secure your future, this episode is a must-listen.
Here’s what we talked about:
- The rise of AI deep research and why it’s a game-changer for marketers - AI-driven voice agents and their impact on lead generation - How AI is now training other AI models—what that means for businesses - The implications of AI controlling computers (without APIs) - Why marketing roles are shifting—and how fractional CMOs can future-proof their careers - The importance of solving bigger problems and delegating everything except leadership
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Creating A Zero-Trust Environment - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #063
00:20:23
Safely securing your company’s data has never been more important than it is now, especially in the wake of the LastPass hack. Casey Stanton is the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller, The Fractional CMO Method. Casey shares a few cyber security best practices for your fractional clients, the tech details that you actually need to know, and why your customers’ data is the number one thing you need to think about as a Fractional CMO.
Takeaways:
As a Fractional CMO, you need to accept technology as a part of your day-to-day and lean into it. This does not mean you need to be an expert in tech and cybersecurity, but you do need to think critically from the outside.
It’s important to understand the basics of your clients’ technological infrastructure. Are their servers in the office or in a data center somewhere in California? Who has access?
The number one thing you should be concerned about as a Fractional CMO is customer data. This includes leads, customers, partners, and anything related to them such as purchase history. This data is typically in a CRM tool or data warehouse.
If your customer only uses one username and password for all of their users, there won’t be an audit trail linked to a specific user in case something bad was to happen.
Everyone that works for your client should not have the same level of visibility and permissions which give them access to everything in a tool that the company uses.
Using two-factor authentication is a great way to strengthen your clients’ security. Two-factor authentication requires users to input a code that is sent to their designated cell phone after entering their username and password.
Although it can be painful, a good way to keep your company’s data safe and secure is to lock everyone out of everything and then give them access once they need it.
Quote of the Show:
“The first thing you have to do as a Fractional CMO is to lean into technology” - Casey Stanton
Your Job Is To Think Big, Here's How - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode # 081
00:18:28
Casey Stanton is the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller, The Fractional CMO Method. This week, Casey shares how you can start solving bigger problems by thinking bigger and eliminating the smaller things that keep you from thinking big.
Takeaways:
- Thinking about your future requires you to break out of the mindset of linear growth. Strive to envision your future in more significant terms. Where do you want to be 25 years from now?
- Identify and solve big problems. Focusing on solving significant problems can lead to substantial progress. This includes not just identifying these issues but also determining the best ways to solve them.
- Find solutions for smaller problems that will either take care of them once and for all or can be outsourced so you keep your time and energy focused on solving bigger problems both in your life and as a Fractional CMO.
- To free up time for strategic thinking, delegate operational and routine tasks. It's essential to delegate tasks and not just responsibility, enabling you to focus on more high-impact work.
- By simplifying the ways that team members report to you, you can be more effective. Simplified reporting structures can also reduce the burden on leaders.
- A crucial role for Fractional CMOs is to predict the future using data. This involves staying ahead of trends, technology, and market shifts and being proactive in responding to them.
- Continuously monitor your market and industry. Be aware of changes and developments in your niche to stay ahead of competitors and adapt your marketing strategies.
Quote of the Show:
“Solving the problem isn't becoming an expert in every single piece of marketing technology; Solving the problem is identifying the problem and figuring out who can solve it.” - Casey Stanton
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