Transcript:

00:00:00 Casey: In this episode, I wanna talk to you about what’s happening at Google and what’s happening at OpenAI and what that means for you about being a fractional Chief Marketing Officer. I also wanna share with you a bit of a mind trick that you ought to be using to ensure that you’re on the path long-term to be a fractional CMO, that this isn’t some short-term fling that you’re going on and instead it’s a true commitment that you’re gonna have for a long time. I’m excited to share more. Let’s get into it.

00:00:28 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.

00:00:56 Casey: 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 CMOX, the number one company to teach you how to attract, convert, and serve high paying fractional CMO clients on your terms.

00:01:25 Casey: All right, welcome back to another episode of the Fractional CMO Show. It’s me, Casey. All right, so let’s dive in. I’ve got this article in front of me from Forbes, and it says that Google is offering a voluntary buyout program for a division that has 25,000 full-time staff members because they’re pivoting towards AI and to streamline operations. And they say here that they want to, this move is an opportunity for eligible employees to exit with a severance package, thereby enhancing team efficiency and focus. Wow.

00:01:54 Casey: Google is effectively laying off 25,000 people, but they’re doing it kindly. Very interesting, right? Why is this interesting for us as marketers? Well, we know that the marketing department is shrinking from the bottom up. We’re losing those low, low level people on the marketing department, and we’re just like moving up the chain where the people in the middle now have to do the stuff that they used to be doing plus the stuff that the people below them were doing. How is that even possible? AI.

00:02:18 Casey: OpenAI just released their O3 model, maybe it’s Omni 3. And this model’s ability to reason is really amazing. It says it’s the newest, most cost-effective model in our reasoning series, available in both ChatGPT and in the API today. This was as of January 31st, 2025. And it’s really strong in the STEM fields. So think of it as a great model for science, math, and coding.

00:02:46 Casey: So we’re seeing these things happening, right? We’re seeing Google say that they’re gonna let off 25,000 people and then we’re seeing OpenAI release their latest model. And the numbers are showing that this latest model is awfully smart when it comes to STEM stuff. So if you were starting up a business today, let’s say you weren’t doing the fractional CMO thing, but you’re setting up just a business in creating some kind of product, you might want to bring on a full-time doctor, right? Like a PhD. Someone who has decades of experience in the space.

00:03:16 Casey: And you can do that and you can pay their high fees or you can just turn around and just have AI be able to model something that’s probably pretty dang good, maybe even better for like no cost, no bathroom breaks, no overtime, no 401k, no nothing. 20 bucks a month and you can have this. Pretty incredible that that’s available.

00:03:34 Casey: So what does that mean for us as marketers? It means that we’re gonna consistently, constantly see pressure from business owners to make more happen with less. That’s the biggest thing. So what do we do about it? Well, I still believe that being a fractional CMO is the number one thing to do. It’s like top of the list to me. Where do I wanna be right now among all of this automation, among all of this AI innovation? I wanna be the leader and strategist of the marketing department.

00:03:58 Casey: It’s not happening anytime soon that AI is going to evaluate a business, come up with a marketing strategy, build the marketing team and make that marketing team, make the dreams of the CEO and you come true. Only you can do that. It needs human labor. So we want to be in a place where being human is important. All right.

00:04:15 Casey: So there’s there’s an idea that’s on my mind that I want to share with you. And here’s what it can look like kind of on the outside. It’s when people come to me and say, hey, what niche should I pick? Seems like a really good question, right? What niche should I pick? It’s a good question. And we can get into it. Or like, what do I even deliver in my first 30 days with a client? It’s a good question. We’ll talk about it in upcoming episodes, but like, that’s not really the thing that I want them to start with.

00:04:36 Casey: What I want them to get clear on is their commitment to the work and to the role. That’s it. It’s like, maybe you’ve got a friend who’s just been dating their whole life and can never find someone great, but you’ve like met their partners that they’ve had along the way and they’ve had some really great partners and you know that like, it’s not about the perfect partner, someone without flaws, it’s about committing to that person and building a life together. That’s what really matters. It’s not like you’re without flaws, like they can’t be without flaws.

00:05:02 Casey: Similarly, it’s not like there’s one niche that’s the only niche to pick. Oftentimes when people ask me questions, we’ll like kind of whittle it down to a couple of niches for them. And I say, which one like makes you happy? It gets you excited. And they can choose that one because there isn’t like a perfect answer for that. But what I want you to do in this episode is I want you at the end of it to be committed to being a fractional CMO.

00:05:23 Casey: And think of commitment in a marriage. If you’re like me, and you’re married, and you’ve got kids, and you’ve got a house on a mortgage and all that, there’s a commitment that you have, right? Different commitments in your life. I’m committed to being a husband. I’m committed to being a father. I’m committed to making my mortgage payments on time. Yet someone else could say the exact same things. And then when I said, what about the fractional CMO thing? They’re like, Yeah, it sounds cool right now. But like, maybe I’ll sell a product on Etsy later. Or I don’t know, build websites and sell those or I don’t know, do whatever work falls in my lap. It’s silly.

00:05:51 Casey: I want you to have the same kind of same level of commitment to being a fractional CMO that you have to these other things in your life. Let me tell you like what will happen inevitably. You may be the kind of person who wins a client quickly as a fractional CMO. That happens to you. I’m thrilled for you. Let’s celebrate. Shoot me a message. Let me say like, great job. Okay, seriously.

00:06:10 Casey: Or you may be someone on the other side and it takes a long time to get your first client because of whatever happens, because of the noise in the environment, because of competition. What’s competition? Competition to me? It’s just noise. It’s the tariffs. It’s the trade wars. It’s the political whatever is going on. It’s the wars. That’s my competition because I can’t get my message out because people’s brains are clogged up with other stuff that’s going on. It’s back to school. It’s the flu. It’s, you know, norovirus. It’s whatever.

00:06:36 Casey: Your commitment looks like you committed to being a fractional CMO and maybe winning a client quickly or maybe getting it taking a while. Three months, six months, maybe even longer. That could happen, okay? My question is, are you committed? Are you committed to keep showing up because this is the right path? That’s the question. Do you know that this is the right place for you to be?

00:06:55 Casey: And I’ll tell you, in my marriage, it can get tough. My wife and I, we can have disagreements. They’re tough, right? Like every part of me feels how hard they can be, especially when we’re like under-slept because the baby’s not sleeping. Does that mean I’m like gonna bail though? Absolutely not. I’m committed to my partnership for the rest of my life. I’m committed to being a fractional CMO for the rest of my life.

00:07:17 Casey: When I look at what’s available for me to do, I’m a marketing guy. I love marketing. I wanna be in this space as long as I can, because I know I can deliver more and more value every year that I’m in it. What I can do now in a week, used to take me a month or two months a couple years ago. I can deliver significant value, just like deeply cutting insights quickly, because I’ve just been in the game longer. I want you to have the same level of commitment that you have to other things in your life.

00:07:42 Casey: There’s gonna be times when you’re overwhelmed with work and you have so much work that’s happening that like you’re kind of flooded and you’ve got to like say, hey, I can’t go out tonight. I can’t do this thing this weekend. I got to work the weekend. I got to wake up early on Saturday and work. I got to work late on Monday. Whatever your thing is, are you committed to being a fractional CMO or are you just kind of dating it just for a minute, quick to pivot to the next thing? The line is I’m here for it. That’s it. I’m here for it.

00:08:09 Casey: What are you here for? You’re here for the highs and the lows. And let me tell you the highs are great. When you have your first $40,000 month as a fractional CMO or bigger? Pretty awesome. It’s a great place to be. You’re in the 1% of income earners in the United States and across the world. Man, what are you in the point? 1% of income earners. You are literally one of the richest people on Earth if you have consistent $40,000 months. Unreal.

00:08:31 Casey: Yet people have whatever affliction that causes them to change their mind rapidly and repivot, say, I’m going to leave my agency and build the fractional CMO thing and they do it for a couple of months and they say, ah, the fractional CMO thing’s not for me. I’m gonna go repivot and do this other thing, and this other thing. And they’re like a drunk walking, couple steps this way, couple steps that way, couple steps that way. And ultimately they don’t really get anywhere. They don’t get any further along than if they were to just pick a path, commit to it and go, go, go. That’s what I want you to do. Pick a path, commit to it and go, go, go.

00:09:02 Casey: You’re gonna have lows as a fractional CMO as well. What are your lows gonna be? Losing a client, having a prospect that you’re talking to. They love you, great energetic fit. They’ve got a great budget. Everything looks good. You send the proposal, they sign it. You wait a couple days, supposed to pay you. You’re gonna start the next day. Payment doesn’t come, delayed, delayed, delayed, delayed, delayed, what happened? Whatever. Some melodrama. Someone didn’t like it. Someone said no, someone died. The business went under. Someone stole money from, who cares?

00:09:33 Casey: Something will happen inevitably. Can you roll with those punches? You will lose an opportunity that maybe you got married to in your mind. Can you roll with those punches? Or do you just wanna go trust the Fortune 500s like Google to keep you employed and happy? Well, obviously you don’t think I think you should go to Google because Google is doing that early termination or severance package or whatever buyout for 25,000 folks. And that’s just the first one that I’m seeing. I’m sure if I dug into the news or kept my eye on the news all week, we’re gonna find more of that. It’s kinda scary.

00:10:03 Casey: So I want you to commit to the longterm. And there’s a line that I got from someone that I look up to. His name is Ram Dass. And Ram Dass says, I work to end suffering without attachment to if suffering ends. And like he says like that’s kind of his secret, right? That’s kind of the whole trick of the whole thing. It’s like you work towards it without attachment to if you achieve it or not. Still means that you’re trying, but you’re just not attached to the outcome.

00:10:28 Casey: So let’s just take that. Let’s just change that. I work to be a great husband and I have no attachment to if my marriage is great. I’m gonna do everything I can. And if I can’t make my marriage great, I have no attachment to it. That’s a tough one, right? How about this one? I work to get rich without attachment to if I’m rich. I work to serve great companies. I work to win and serve great companies as a fractional CMO without attachment to if I win or serve great companies as a fractional CMO. It’s tough.

00:10:55 Casey: In our culture, we say like strive, go after it, get it. And I think you can still have that energy. And the thing that you couple that with is also an acceptance of and it might not happen. And if it doesn’t happen, it wasn’t for me. I did my best. I showed up and I worked and I did my best.

00:11:10 Casey: The battles that we have as Fractional CMOs, really the battles that we have as entrepreneurs is that we’re really never against the market, we’re against ourselves. I don’t look at someone else and say like, I’ve got to beat that person or, you know, they’re doing a better job than me or whatever. It’s all me. It’s all inside of me. So when I reflect on myself and I see, am I committed to the outcome? And am I finding the things that are uncomfortable and investigating them?

00:11:35 Casey: The amount of money I’ve spent on coaching is a lot. I’ve spent a lot of money on professional development, but I’ve also spent a lot of money on therapy because I find these things in me that are blocking me. They’re the reason I don’t charge more for a client. They’re a reason that I feel like I need to be working on a weekend if, because I errantly saw an email when I checked my email because I looked at my email when my kids were having lunch. And like, if that happens to you, there’s a block inside of you that’s stopping you from being the version of yourself that you want to be.

00:12:06 Casey: A lot of us want a lot, but we’re not willing to pay the price. And one of the prices that we have to pay is just commitment and grit and sticking to it. And knowing that sometimes we’re gonna do well, and sometimes we’re not going to do well. But at the end of the day, like we are right now, today, we’re in the golden years. This is like the best time to be a fractional CMO. This is the roaring 20s of being a fractional CMO. There’s no better time.

00:12:29 Casey: You might say, oh, but what about a couple years before, years ago, before AI really came out? No one really knew about fractional CMOs. Well, isn’t it gonna be better later? It’s like, yeah, I don’t know. I’m pretty happy right now. I think this is a golden era for the fractional CMO. Now is the time to be a fractional CMO. I also think it’s probably gonna be okay in a couple years too, and in 10 years and in 20 years. You might go back to this episode, maybe listen to this into the future. It’s like, mark my words. I think being a fractional CMO is a great thing to be long-term.

00:12:57 Casey: Why? Because the top of the marketing department just like won’t change. It’ll always be a strategist and leader of the marketing department. We’ll always have a president of the United States. Well, you know, there’ll always be a prime minister of a country. Like that role will exist. You need a leader for people. That can be you for marketing forever.

00:13:14 Casey: So just stay in that role and elevate, commit to it and commit to it for the highs and for the lows. And I think what you’re gonna find is that the lows are hard. Like the lows are really, really hard. I don’t know where you go. Like where do you go when you get down? I get like pretty collapsed. You know, get super bummed out. My affect is really flat. You know, I’ve got my vices I kind of go to when I get bummed out. I got to pull myself out of that bunk. Keep at it, keep working, because I’ve got a commitment to this thing that outlasts the energy I have in a given day.

00:13:44 Casey: So many people get energetically enthusiastic about being a fractional CMO, and they’re like, Casey, you’re right. And then they start going after it. And then they smell rejection from a prospect or difficulty or they fumble a call or they don’t get on a call or the call cancels or they try some outreach method and it fails the first time or whatever. And then they just give up thinking that they can take that same level of grit and commitment to like the next thing in their life and have it somehow work better for them.

00:14:14 Casey: It’s like a lack of a muscle. It’s an underdeveloped muscle. And they think it has to do with them being a fractional CMO. So when we think of the question, what niche do I pick? It’s less important what niche you pick. And it’s more important that you commit to the niche. Maybe the better question is, what niche can I stick with where I like the people in it? And if you’re indifferent, then just choose a niche that maybe you have like a little bit of experience in. We can talk more about niche later.

00:14:35 Casey: But it’s not about choosing the perfect niche. It’s about choosing a niche and just going deep into it. So it’s early February, 2025, and the current administration just defunded DEI. If you were in a DEI-related niche, that’s probably a bad place to be right now. That’s like a good niche to not choose.

00:14:55 Casey: What else is a good niche to not choose? I don’t know. I’ll say it, I think for the third episode in a row, I think the chicken industry, probably not good right now with the avian flu. If that comes through, wipes out a bunch of chickens, probably a tough place to be. Man, there are a few other bad niches to choose. Find stuff that’s something that’s like perennial and choose it and then commit to it.

00:15:13 Casey: Commit to the niche long-term, knowing that you’re gonna have highs and lows and you have to weather the storm so that when the market conditions shift, you’re there to capture all the capital. And when it’s tough, you can still duke it out with a couple clients who pay you well. Cover your bills and do well. Right? There’s a lot of opportunity to make great money in crises.

00:15:35 Casey: So commitment is more important than niche. It’s more important than what you deliver. It’s more important than what you say on a sales call. And I don’t want you to listen to the rest of my podcast episodes if you’re not committed. I don’t want you to go to cmox.co and buy a copy of my book. It’s like $5, $4.99. The fractional CMO method. Don’t buy it. Don’t download our lead magnets on fractional CMO salaries or whatever else we have. Just don’t do it. Just let it go. Don’t be a fractional CMO if you’re not committed to it.

00:16:03 Casey: But if your commitment to your career is like your commitment to your spouse or your partner or your kids or your family or your community or your religious institution, your college, your sports team, whatever that commitment is, if your commitment is at that level where you’re committed for the long haul, where you’re not gonna just stop one day, I’m gonna stop being a family member, I’m gonna stop being a Stanton. I’m just gonna like, you know, leave my family. I’m gonna stop being a husband, right?

00:16:29 Casey: If you’re not gonna do something like that and you’re really committed long-term and you have a long-term vision of what you’re doing, which is you’re in the way of deal flow, you’re an expert in marketing leadership and strategy, people come to you when they want help with marketing strategy and leadership and you can charge top rates for it and you deliver one hell of an outcome. Like you change the business, it’s a beautiful vision.

00:16:52 Casey: Charging high rates to solve big problems and the quality of problems coming to you every single week or month or quarter get harder and more complex and therefore more valuable to solve. It’s a good place to be. I don’t know anyone in the marketing space who’s lasted who hasn’t committed.

00:17:08 Casey: I’ll share a story I’ve never told anyone I think. Jeff Walker, do you know him? Great marketer, amazing marketer. Product launch formula is his claim to fame. And he’s been doing PLF forever. I remember reading PLF that I got from a client that I was working with my first client ever. I was reading product launch formula, I think 1.0 or 1.5 or something like that on my bed at home after you know, like visiting my folks or something like my childhood bed, I was thumbing through it. And it was great. It was like, look what Apple does, how they launch a product, what’s the PLF method. It’s beautiful.

00:17:41 Casey: And I sat down with Jeff, I don’t know, like a year and a half ago. I said to him, Jeff did like, real talk, you’re doing the same old same old, like you’re just doing PLF. How are you still so relevant? How is it still working? You know, cause like it’s still product launch formula. It’s not like he’s changing what he’s selling. He’s not selling like webinar secrets or he’s selling Meta DM cash money machine, blah, blah, blah. Right? He’s focused exclusively on the one thing that he’s doing which is product launch formula.

00:18:06 Casey: And he was just like, I just take delight in my customers. He’s like committed to his customers. So huge. Like his commitment outlasts any kind of short-term buzz. He’s just committed to his customer. I take delight in their wins. I’m committed to them. So it’s like always looking for ways to help them. It’s a beautiful thing. He could have said, I’m just chasing the money. And we all know marketers who chase the money.

00:18:27 Casey: And I’ll tell you those guys, they make big money when they launch something new. They’ll go make a million bucks or two million bucks or five million bucks and then they’ll like have to figure out how to deliver it with a shoestring budget and like a limited team and then they’ll go and disappear for a year or two or three and then come up with their next genius idea and do it again. You can see these guys like blips on the radar, right? It’s one way to do it.

00:18:47 Casey: But Jeff, constant steady and always doing well. He’s created a great life for himself, just keeping it really simple. I really like that. So I go back and I think about where I live, Philadelphia. And just down on Market Street, if you know the city, Market and Broad’s the center of the city with City Hall. You head east on Market Street to about 10th, 9th, 8th, something like that. And Market is Thomas Jefferson’s house. That’s where the Declaration of Independence was written, later signed. Amazing, all happened right there. Like that’s a declaration, that’s a commitment. Will you commit? Will you commit to this for the long haul, knowing that this is the place to be?

00:19:21 Casey: What happens when you commit is you stop thinking about today, you certainly think about today, but you also think about where you’re gonna be in 2 years and in 5 years and in 10 years. When I wrote my book, The Fractional CMO Method, it wasn’t for like to launch it, it was to have it for the rest of my life. It was to be an author for the rest of my life. When I started doing outreach to strangers to sell them on Fractional CMO services, part of me was like, I kind of would really like a customer. Like I’d like a client kind of ASAP. The other part of me was like, I want to build a pipeline and it doesn’t matter how long it’s going to take for those people to convert because I’m going to stay in the game long enough in order to have them convert.

00:19:55 Casey: I’ve had customers take over 250 days from first contact to cash in for me. It’s a long time. I’ve also had people who’ve converted incredibly fast within two phone calls, within one phone call. One of my biggest clients ever started paying me like nearly immediately. It was a phone call to a proposal to a yes all in the matter of maybe 48 hours. And then I worked with them for years at a pretty high monthly rate.

00:20:19 Casey: So sometimes you get business quickly. Sometimes you get business slowly, but in the wash, you get the business that you’re gonna get. And you’re here for it. And that’s the line. I’m here for it. I’m committed to it. I’m here for it. In my marriage, I’m here for it. I’m here for it. I’m here for it for my wife in the first trimester and in the fourth trimester. I’m here for it when my baby daughter is screaming in the middle of the night and she just wants me to hold her so she can scream in my face. I’m here for it.

00:20:43 Casey: As a fractional CMO, I’m going to build a business. I’m going to build a pipeline. I’m going to nurture that pipeline. I’m going to go out there. I’m going to try stuff. I’m going to feel a bunch of weird feelings about like, man, discomfort and shame and embarrassment. I’m here for it. I’m going to have months where I am living like a king, making more money than I’ve ever made in my life. Also, I might lose a client the next day out of the blue, but I’m here for it. That’s it. I’m here for it. I’m not running away from it. That’s the courage you have to have as an entrepreneur. It’s like a dogged commitment.

00:21:13 Casey: There are people that are lucky. It feels unfair sometimes that they’re so lucky. But when I think of the people that I really look up to, they’re committed. Above all, they’re committed. When I think of the great photographers that I love, you might know one of my hobbies is documentary photography, I think of like the work that they’ve done. No one that I love in photography has one book that they’ve ever written. They have mounds of photos, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of photos. They’ve built like a true corpus of content.

00:21:42 Casey: They’re committed to photography, less so committed to being famous, less so committed to being rich. They’re committed to doing the work, finding the moment. Cartier-Bresson says the Decisive Moment. And they’re building out their portfolio. And the best of them hopefully get rewarded. And there’s certainly some positioning in marketing that you’ll ultimately have to do as a creative to get rewarded for your hard work. But these people didn’t just become rich overnight or become famous overnight. They were committed to it.

00:22:09 Casey: Like Elliott Erwitt. If you don’t know him as a photographer, incredible photographer, funny photographer. He’s just, he’s delightful. He’s got some really great stuff of Pittsburgh that he photographed, like stuff with animals. I’ve got Erwitt on the beach. It’s just really fun stuff. And he’s an older guy now. I think he’s in his 90s. He’s still photographing. He’s still doing it. He’s doing it cause he’s like committed to the game, the game of it all. And he knows that sometimes he has an appearance or a workshop and he makes a lot of money. And other times he’s like scraping together money to buy another roll of Tmax 400. He’s getting another roll of film or something. He’s committed to it.

00:22:43 Casey: There’s a game to being a fractional CMO. And if you’re only here for the good times, you’re not gonna know whether the bad times, just don’t even play. Don’t even do it, don’t even waste your time. Go do something else. And if you’re here for it, I’m excited. I’ve got some really fun episodes coming up for you. So be committed to this, write it down on paper.

00:22:59 Casey: I have this notebook that I’ve been really liking. Personally, if you’re watching this on YouTube. It’s a Lochby, L-O-C-H-B-Y, little zip notebook. And I’ve got a Rite in the Rain orange pen that nestles really nicely inside of it. And this is where I write that kind of stuff, like personal messages to myself. You might write, I’m committed to being a fractional CMO, and then date it and sign your name. Really write it like if it was a marriage certificate, what would that look like? Like sign your name, be committed to this. Be committed to the highs and the lows.

00:23:29 Casey: I guarantee that this is the best place to be as a marketer. I continue to study the landscape and I can’t- I don’t want to be anywhere else. I just want to be a fractional CMO. That’s the best place to be. So if you want to join me on this journey, tune in for the next episode. Can’t wait to share more. And if you want my help building your fractional CMO practice, just go to cmox.com/call and book in a call. Cool. All right. I’ll see you soon. Take care.

00:23:53 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’em!