Transcript:

00:00:01 Casey: Marketers of the world, why do we work hard to solve small problems? Why do we reinvent ourselves and our clients over and over? And why are we giving away marketing strategy for free? With advancements in AI, we’re all seeing the marketing department shrink from the bottom up. And companies need you to serve them as their fractional chief marketing officer. It’s time to solve bigger problems and bring home a bigger paycheck. It’s time to create the lifestyle we deserve and to make a greater impact. This is the Fractional CMO show and I’m Casey Stanton. Join me as we explore this growing industry and learn to solve bigger problems as marketing leaders. The Fractional CMO Show is sponsored by CMO X, the number one company to teach you how to attract, convert and serve high-paying fractional CMO clients on your terms.

00:00:57 Casey: Hey there. As a fractional CMO or as a marketing strategist or leader, what I tend to find is that people don’t fight enough and I want to tell you what fighting looks like and what it doesn’t look like. So it’s pretty typical to work with agencies who fight hard for the sale, and once they get the sale, they’re going to service. And then they have some service clause that says in the contract, “If you’re unhappy, just give us a 30-day cancellation notice.” And like that’s…and then the client’s like, “Oh, I’m unhappy.” And they’re like, “Okay,  well…thanks for letting us know your service will cancel at the end of September.” And they just kind of let it go. They don’t fight – it’s because they have no conviction. It’s because they don’t, I think, care about the client. And just before we get into this, there’s a difference between having a client that you care for and a client that you don’t care for.

00:02:05 Casey: There’s a client that’s worth fighting for and one that isn’t worth fighting for.  And I just want that, I just want you to consider when you’re working with clients that you want to fight for, that you want to see them win. Are you actually fighting? Are you being clear? Are you calling them to the table and calling out their bullshit and telling them what’s real? So often, business owners surround themselves with people that don’t care. People that just do their job, who take no real pride in their work. They want to do a good job, but they really want to get a B. They don’t want to be the lowest performer, and they don’t want to be the best performer. They just kind of want to skate by. They want to be the vendor or the team member that’s not the worst, not the best. It’s kind of an easy life somewhere in between…but you can’t do that as the leader of the department. You have to have a level of conviction and commitment and hunger and zeal and rigor and focus and drive that makes everyone better as a result of being around. And a line that I use is… I fight and I can tell you a recent example, but the line that I use with them in closing is, “I’ll stand down if you tell me to, but I’m not going down without a fight.”

00:03:32 Casey: And it’s just so easy to work with people that are going to go down without a fight. Who are just going to be like, “They don’t like me. I guess the contract’s over. I guess we’re done.” I don’t live in that world – I live in the world where…it sounds conceited and I hope you don’t hear it as such, but I’m right. And when it comes to marketing strategy, I’m right. Why am I right? Because I considered every approach. I made sure that I wasn’t financially incentivized by any specific approach. I devised the best approach for the business with the tools and assets that they have, with the budget that they have, with the outcomes that the business owner wants, with what’s working in the market today, what’s going on with the economy…and I developed a marketing strategy, and I’m right. Like, if I showed you a marketing strategy that I have for a client and I shared it with you and I said, “Find fault in it.” I’d dare anyone to find fault in it.

00:04:31 Casey: That’s the cool thing about marketing is you can be right. And once I’m right, like once I have the conviction that yes, I did it right, I have the right marketing strength for the client. If they want to, like, change direction, if they want to, like…recently I was on a project and they pulled in some talent from another side of the business and effectively gave me this workerism, you know, see here, the worker wasn’t up to snuff. They didn’t do what was required. I fought. I fought to get them out, because I don’t want drag. Right? I’m committed to be there to fight and to drive the client forward. I want you to have that fight in you too. It sets you apart to call things out. To be honest, to be bold. And just to not take any shit from anyone when you’re working with the client. When a client brings me on, I see myself as, like, a bodyguard. Is that weird? I’m like the bodyguard to the CEO. They’ve entrusted me with large budgets, hundreds of thousands of dollars, right?

00:05:43 Casey: And opportunity, and the opportunity cost is worth way more than the budget. Like if we do it wrong, it’s probably a greater negative to the business than just losing the money. It was the opportunity of what could have been. My job is to mercilessly defend the outcomes that the executive wants and to fight like hell for them and to push them to take time off or to stop challenging me because I’m right and they wouldn’t be investing so much money in me if they didn’t think I was right. It’s to be the person who’s willing to do whatever it takes to get the result  as long as it’s ethical, and we do it in a kind way. Don’t fucking fight. Man. I worked with a company and they had an agency and they were just performing poorly and I tried coaching them and getting them to turn it around and they just didn’t. And it took… I gave them every chance, right? So that I get the [INAUDIBLE] And they were like, “Okay, bye.” Like nothing else, like no fight to resolve it. They were just like, “Eh. Nah, you’re actually trying to get us to deliver something that we’re uncomfortable with delivering.” Which in this situation was just like positive results.

00:07:07 Casey: So they just left us. I would…you know, I won’t, but if anyone asked me, like I won’t slander them publicly but if anyone asked me, “Hey, I saw that you worked with these people in the past, would you work with them again?” The answer is no, and run away, they are the worst. They weren’t fighters. They weren’t fighters for anything. They weren’t even fighters for themselves. You know, like they weren’t even fighters to keep the book of business. They were just living in the easy, like an easy street, hoping that everything would come true for them. And here’s the biggest problem with that: lack of fight, lack of commitment, urgency. It turns into…for you, a marketer, like if this is you, you lack this fight. You turn to someone who’s just waiting for things to happen.

00:07:54 Casey: Just like, just waiting. Like, “Oh, I don’t know, the last client I got came in from a referral and I don’t know, like maybe I’ll give them another referral and things will be good.” Oh, bullshit, you know? Maybe, and if that happens, I’m happy for you but it’s not like you did anything to deserve it. You didn’t go out and do all that was required to get the outcome that you want. The people who are successful are those that fight. They fight for their clients, they fight for themselves, they fight for getting new business, they fight for the results, they fight for their team members. I worked on a team and it was like a traditional kind of business kind of structure, not employees, full HR team, the whole thing. They didn’t have paternity leave. I fought like hell for one of my core guys to get pat leaves. It was a requirement. No way I’m going to let that guy not have paternity leaves. I go to bat for him. I’m fighting for him.

00:08:51 Casey: Does the company really want to pay? And, you know, I fought for a month, a month of a guy’s time, that’s like an important guy in the business, and then we got to find someone to fill in for him. And like, they really want to pay that? No. But I fought, and he got it. And it was the right thing to do, and the team became a team of fighters who fought for the right outcomes and fought for each other and fought to build something of significance that would stood in that business situation. Hiking interest rates that would have crushed most other businesses, but these folks just shouldered more and more responsibility happily because they were fighters. So when you think about building your business, are you the kind of person who’s going to fight?

00:09:39 Casey: When you think about serving your clients, are you the kind of person who’s going to fight? Are you going to do whatever it takes? Are you going to ask for help? Are you going to show up on calls with me if you join the accelerator? Are you going to read books? Are you going to ask ChatGPT? Are you going to just figure it out? Or are you just going to hope that it’s going to get easier? Are you going to let the wily clients go because you couldn’t handle their emotion because you couldn’t self-regulate and be able to be in the eye of the storm.

00:10:12 Casey: It’s frustrating to work alongside people who aren’t willing to fight, and this is a call to you – if that’s you – to know it and to do something about it. I love this guy [INAUDIBLE], I don’t know if you know him, he’s from the Northeast, Richard Alpert who moved out to India and did the whole kind of like, meta guru, right? He’s got a great story. And he says, like… “The hardest thing to do is keeping your heart open while you’re standing in hell.” And then isn’t that it? Like when things are hard, when revenue is not where you want it to be, when the business isn’t as successful as you want it to be, keeping your heart open and fighting and like doing what’s required, or do you recede and go hide and go like wish things were easier and supplicate yourself with social media or drugs and alcohol or whatever. There’s just a difference here, so this is just a call to anyone here who’s a fighter just to keep going. That is the secret. The secret isn’t a cool new marketing campaign that you haven’t thought of yet, or how to rank number one in ChatGPT. It’s not, you know, one weird trick with Facebook ads and a new conversion optimization technique. It’s not that. That isn’t going to change your trajectory. The single thing that does is your commitment to be a fighter and to do whatever it takes not to give up.

00:11:46 Casey: I turn 40 next year. Then I’ll turn 41 and then I’ll turn 42, right? It’s going to happen no matter what. Like as long as I’m alive, I’m just going to get older. I’d like to be more successful as I get older. I can hope that that all comes true or I can do whatever it takes to be in control of it. That’s what I’m doing. What are you doing? If you’re with me, let me know. Like write in the comments, like “I’m a fighter.” Tell me you’re a fighter. Tell me they got a person that does whatever it takes to live. Alright, I’ll see you later. Bye.

00:12:19 Casey: Thank you for sticking around for the full episode. As you know, learners are earners, but you’ve got to take action on what you heard today. For more information and show notes, visit fractionalcmoshow.com. If you’d like me to answer your questions on an upcoming episode, you can share your question at fractionalcmoshow.com. And last, please hit the like and subscribe button so that I know that this content is helpful to you. Alright, go get them.