An early adopter of the think that latterly became being a Fractional CMO (actually not to start with) and now, agency leader, here’s everything I know:
You’re a business, baby - the mental shift from being an employee to fractional is probably the number one challenge I see folks battling with. Learn the word opportunity cost and stick it on a post it on your face, screen, mirror, wherever. You’ve got to remember that your time is money. And you don’t want people that waste either.
Be crystal clear about what the problem is, and be prepared to do some sleuthing - and learn to coach it out of people, fast. So many times I hear from fractionals that struggle because what they’ve been told the situation is and the actual situation is can be very different - business not growing fast enough (but there’s no business strategy in place and changes direction every 5 mins…), brand is a problem (is it, or is it the positioning, or market that’s changed). Get your sleuth on.
A no is often a not now. Keep in touch with people who decide not to proceed now, you never know.
Likewise find your people. It’s lonely old world out there. And there’s a million places that profess to be a community.. find your people and spend dedicated time to network.
Marketing is STILL misunderstood - so much of your life from before is teaching the rest of the c suite what marketing is. This will always happen - the only thing when you’re fractional is the gap in keeping in touch time being enough for the founder or CFO to ask Chat GPT a new question and get some utter claptrap back… so get ready.
You’ll get the most incredible insights into what people really think - that being ‘in but not full time’ seems to give everyone the permission to open the floodgates and tell you what they really think. Good for some signals of bigger problems, but also a sense of how much the culture is rumour mill city.
A fractional + very junior teams isn’t always a good mix - you need a midweight and driven marketing manager level who can take the reigns on some things and drive it forward without 5 days a week supervision. Very green teams need much more close management than sometimes your fractional coverage can support - i’ve spoken to some fractionals that said it can feel like groundhog day.
New business needs TIME and energy - continually broaden your horizons and network, and do it so often you lose the ick.
In all? Love it.
And love supporting others so much I created a dedicated Fractional Community under my other brand, We Are All Marketing. We find and curate the latest fractional gigs, too. So come join.