Fractional CMO Show

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 Links: Twitter: https://twitter.com/CaseyStanton LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseystanton/ CMOx Website: https://cmox.co/call/ The Fractional CMO Method: https://cmox.co/book/ Shout Outs: Glazer-Kennedy Insiders Circle The Way of the Superior Man by David Deida Ways to Tune In: Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/039bc2d6-c1b5-4ced-ac2a-437e69546e7c/fractional-cmo-show Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fractional-cmo-show/id1592740671 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1HGwnjsXA4c4gYQvj4w53E?si=bd6e0908e25749ec Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mcmFjdGlvbmFsY21vLmxpYnN5bi5jb20vcnNz?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjlpNDTveb0AhUXEFkFHaZcDtYQ9sEGegQIARAC YouTube: https://youtu.be/2WuQHziW1qU

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 Links: Twitter: https://twitter.com/CaseyStanton LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseystanton/ CMOx Website: https://cmox.co/call/ The Fractional CMO Method: https://cmox.co/book/ Ways to Tune In: Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/039bc2d6-c1b5-4ced-ac2a-437e69546e7c/fractional-cmo-show Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fractional-cmo-show/id1592740671 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1HGwnjsXA4c4gYQvj4w53E?si=bd6e0908e25749ec Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mcmFjdGlvbmFsY21vLmxpYnN5bi5jb20vcnNz?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjlpNDTveb0AhUXEFkFHaZcDtYQ9sEGegQIARAC YouTube: https://youtu.be/t3LQZcahc0I

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 Links: Twitter: https://twitter.com/CaseyStanton LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseystanton/ Free CMOx Scorecard: https://cmox.co/scorecard/ CMOx Website: https://cmox.co/call/ The Fractional CMO Method: https://cmox.co/book/ Ways to Tune In: Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/039bc2d6-c1b5-4ced-ac2a-437e69546e7c/fractional-cmo-show Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fractional-cmo-show/id1592740671 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1HGwnjsXA4c4gYQvj4w53E?si=bd6e0908e25749ec Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mcmFjdGlvbmFsY21vLmxpYnN5bi5jb20vcnNz?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjlpNDTveb0AhUXEFkFHaZcDtYQ9sEGegQIARAC YouTube: https://youtu.be/z_HR_wgBC0M

Discover the power of dashboards and scorecards in marketing. Learn how they provide critical insights that enable fractional CMOs to evaluate business health effectively. Uncover strategies for clearly defining goals and measuring progress, ensuring actions align with desired outcomes. Explore practical examples and tools to enhance sales tracking and strategy adaptation. This episode highlights how data visualization can transform marketing effectiveness and drive business success.

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 Links: Twitter: https://twitter.com/CaseyStanton LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseystanton/ CMOx Website: https://cmox.co/call/ The Fractional CMO Method: https://cmox.co/book/ Ways to Tune In: Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/039bc2d6-c1b5-4ced-ac2a-437e69546e7c/fractional-cmo-show Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fractional-cmo-show/id1592740671 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1HGwnjsXA4c4gYQvj4w53E?si=bd6e0908e25749ec Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mcmFjdGlvbmFsY21vLmxpYnN5bi5jb20vcnNz?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjlpNDTveb0AhUXEFkFHaZcDtYQ9sEGegQIARAC YouTube: https://youtu.be/-gC3LwlGrO0

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 Links: Twitter: https://twitter.com/CaseyStanton LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseystanton/ CMOx Website: https://cmox.co/call/ The Fractional CMO Method: https://cmox.co/book/ Ways to Tune In: Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/039bc2d6-c1b5-4ced-ac2a-437e69546e7c/fractional-cmo-show Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fractional-cmo-show/id1592740671 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1HGwnjsXA4c4gYQvj4w53E?si=bd6e0908e25749ec Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mcmFjdGlvbmFsY21vLmxpYnN5bi5jb20vcnNz?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjlpNDTveb0AhUXEFkFHaZcDtYQ9sEGegQIARAC YouTube: https://youtu.be/oqEbUDzuZQM

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 Links: Twitter: https://twitter.com/CaseyStanton LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseystanton/ CMOx Website: https://cmox.co/call/ CMOx Toolkit: https://cmox.co/toolkit/ The Fractional CMO Method: https://cmox.co/book/ Shoutouts: Parris Lampropoulos - https://www.linkedin.com/in/parris-lampropoulos-96531630/ Ryan Levesque - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlevesque/ Josh Nelson - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshnelsonimc/ Kevin Rogers - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-rogers1/ Joel Erway - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelerway/ Vinnie Fisher - https://www.linkedin.com/in/vinniefisher/ Mark C. Winters - https://www.linkedin.com/in/markcwinters/ Rory Stern - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rory-f-stern-6b53296/ Ross O'Lochlainn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ross-o-lochlainn-a3505528/ Trivinia Barber - https://www.linkedin.com/in/trivinia/ Dan Kennedy - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dankennedygkic/ Ways to Tune In: Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/039bc2d6-c1b5-4ced-ac2a-437e69546e7c/fractional-cmo-show Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fractional-cmo-show/id1592740671 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1HGwnjsXA4c4gYQvj4w53E?si=bd6e0908e25749ec Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mcmFjdGlvbmFsY21vLmxpYnN5bi5jb20vcnNz?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjlpNDTveb0AhUXEFkFHaZcDtYQ9sEGegQIARAC YouTube: https://youtu.be/ahNGQTV0IxE

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 Links: Twitter: https://twitter.com/CaseyStanton LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseystanton/ Website: https://cmox.co/call/ The Fractional CMO Method: https://cmox.co/book/ Shoutouts: Kevin Rogers - https://copychief.com/ Ways to Tune In: Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/039bc2d6-c1b5-4ced-ac2a-437e69546e7c/fractional-cmo-show Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fractional-cmo-show/id1592740671 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1HGwnjsXA4c4gYQvj4w53E?si=bd6e0908e25749ec Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mcmFjdGlvbmFsY21vLmxpYnN5bi5jb20vcnNz?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjlpNDTveb0AhUXEFkFHaZcDtYQ9sEGegQIARAC YouTube: https://youtu.be/U66-4aqfxxA

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 Links: Twitter: https://twitter.com/CaseyStanton LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseystanton/ Website: https://cmox.co/call/ The Fractional CMO Method: https://cmox.co/book/ Shoutouts: Brian Krebs - Krebs on Security LastPass: https://www.lastpass.com/ Have I Been Pwned: https://haveibeenpwned.com/ 1Password: https://1password.com/ Fastmail: https://www.fastmail.com/ Ways to Tune In: Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/039bc2d6-c1b5-4ced-ac2a-437e69546e7c/fractional-cmo-show Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fractional-cmo-show/id1592740671 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1HGwnjsXA4c4gYQvj4w53E?si=bd6e0908e25749ec Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mcmFjdGlvbmFsY21vLmxpYnN5bi5jb20vcnNz?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjlpNDTveb0AhUXEFkFHaZcDtYQ9sEGegQIARAC YouTube: https://youtu.be/pc4-OrZcvq4

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 Links: Twitter: https://twitter.com/CaseyStanton LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseystanton/ Website: https://cmox.co/call/ The Fractional CMO Method: https://cmox.co/book/ Shoutouts: Eugene Schwartz Ways to Tune In: Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/039bc2d6-c1b5-4ced-ac2a-437e69546e7c/fractional-cmo-show Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fractional-cmo-show/id1592740671 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1HGwnjsXA4c4gYQvj4w53E?si=bd6e0908e25749ec Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mcmFjdGlvbmFsY21vLmxpYnN5bi5jb20vcnNz?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjlpNDTveb0AhUXEFkFHaZcDtYQ9sEGegQIARAC YouTube: https://youtu.be/Z8uDixs8QTs