I was five months pregnant with my second child, when I was rushed to the hospital for stroke-like symptoms and my neurologist gave me the following ultimatum:
Change what I was doing, or the stress I was under was going to kill me or my baby.
Married with kids, a comfortable corporate marketing salary, a house, and a car—on paper I was living the American Dream. In reality, I’d traded my time, family, and peace of mind for my career. I was living to work, rather than working to live.
Little did I know then, that crisis was an opportunity to reevaluate my life with a fresh perspective. So I tried everything, from freelancing to starting a business. Eventually, I settled on solopreneurship as a fractional CMO, solving complex marketing problems for businesses as a cross-functional, strategic integrator.
While certainly not for everybody, becoming a fractional executive allowed me to renegotiate my relationship with work. I got to travel the world with a loving husband and my two kids, and experience things that would never have been possible with a conventional CMO role.
In this article we’ll cover exactly what a fractional executive is, and the steps you can take to become one.
An unprecedented opportunity ...
There’s a big shift underway in the business world. A shift that has only been accelerated in the wake of a global pandemic that has fundamentally changed the way we view work.
Freelancing was already on the rise prior to the pandemic, reaching nearly $1 trillion in revenue in 2019. And with 39% of U.S. adults saying they’d rather quit their jobs than return to the office full-time, it’s clear that trend is only going to accelerate in the coming years.
This is especially true for executives, who traditionally sacrificed their health and personal lives for financial success.
Sixty-four percent of professionals who are the top in their industry are increasingly choosing to work independently for the benefits of their family, health, and mental well-being.
What is a fractional executive?
A fractional executive is a leader who delivers the same expertise of a C-suite executive such as a CIO, CMO, CSO, or CFO, but rather than working as a full-time salaried employee, they engage with a company for a fractional period of time. An engagement could be part-time or full-time and last for a quarter, a year, or any time period, depending on the need. They’re seasoned strategists and experts who can answer questions and help you grow your business and solve difficult problems.
While the use of fractional executives is nothing new—the oldest and largest fractional B2B CFO company was founded in 1987—technology has made it that much easier for highly skilled professionals at the top of their game to pursue their chosen professional career path independent of a 9 to 5 job as solopreneurs.
How to become a fractional executive
My path to becoming a fractional executive started on Upwork, when I began freelancing as a marketing consultant. By helping other businesses succeed in their marketing strategies, I was gradually able to take on more responsibilities and grow into the role of a full-fledged CMO.
So how can you get started building a career for yourself as a fractional executive?
Step 1: Find your why
What do you really want? Who are you doing it for? Attach a feeling to the thing you are after. The thing that will make you feel whole and bring meaning into your life.
The courage it took to leave the security of my corporate salary came from a fundamental perspective shift in my priorities. It wasn’t the millions of dollars I wanted, but the freedom we typically associate with it. I wanted to have the freedom to have coffee with my husband, run around the beach with my kids, and travel the world.
You don’t need millions of dollars to travel the world full-time and take back control over how you spend your time. Clarity of what you want in life can help you set attainable goals that are more likely to bring you happiness. For myself, freedom was the principal governing factor behind all my decisions, the North Star that helped me push forward on my path toward becoming a fractional executive.
Step 2: Identify your strengths
What do you really do well? Is it project management, marketing, or graphic design? Have you had success in sales? Look at the jobs posted on Upwork and see how your skills fit into the needs of the marketplace.
For myself, I discovered I excelled at bridging the cross-functional divide between industries and departments. So I thought, why don’t I put myself out there, start selling services, and see if people bite?
It worked.
Business owners and executives thought it was an amazing thing for me to do. They found real value in my ability to answer their questions, fix their problems, and grow their teams. I essentially delivered highly tailored action items telling them exactly what they needed to do to succeed.
Step 3: Formulate a plan
Outline how you will showcase your expertise and go after jobs. How will you grow your business and your skill sets as your income grows? Write it all down and you’ll be well on your way to a solopreneur business plan.
Step 4: Create a routine and take action
Having a plan is nothing without consistent action. You may get discouraged because people aren’t responding to your proposals. You might feel imposter syndrome in the face of new challenges.
That’s why it’s important that in addition to understanding your “why” you develop a routine you can use to stay focused. A routine can go a long way towards helping you:
- Set attainable goals and track your progress
- Block your time for meetings, client work, and activities tied to business growth
- Ensure you’re still setting aside time for the things that really matter in your life
As a solopreneur it’s on you to take measures to track what’s working and pivot when it’s not. Use your plan to set achievable goals that bring you closer towards the life you want.
Step 5: Develop your brand as a fractional executive
One big thing that sets apart a top-performing freelancer from a solopreneur is their branding. When you’re starting out, it’s perfectly normal to get into the flow of plugging into a client’s existing system and following through on assigned tasks.
But there comes a point in every successful freelancer’s career where they’ve started providing real strategy and insight to their clients on top of the services they’ve already been billing for. The difference between these top performers and solopreneurs is they are still selling their services and providing their strategies for free.
How did I reposition my brand from marketing consultant to fractional CMO?
I doubled down on my strength (Step 2) as a strategic integrator, and started promoting it on my website and across social media.
I was active on LinkedIn, producing articles, commenting on posts, and engaging with the community.
I even started a YouTube channel and was eventually invited as a member of the Forbes Council, an exclusive forum for executives to ask and answer questions about their industry.
Most importantly of all, I was intentional in picking clients who would grow my business and would give me the referrals, testimonials, and opportunities I needed to develop my brand.
Engage your target audience across social media and provide real value to the communities you join or create. The transition from freelance consultant to fractional executive hinges on your ability to position yourself as a strategist with a plan to solve your clients’ problems.
Let your “Why” be your guide
In this article, I covered 5 steps to becoming a fractional executive:
- Find your why
- Identify your strengths
- Formulate a plan
- Create a routine and take action
- Develop your brand
But there’s a reason “find your why” comes first.
The path to fractional executive can be long and winding. Prospecting for clients as a solopreneur takes time.
You have to be consistent in implementing your plan, even when you don’t feel like doing it. Having a clear understanding of your “why” can be a source of motivation when times are tough. It can also keep you from sacrificing the things you really value for illusions like money.
Today, my family and I are settling into our new life in Portugal. We’ve just moved into a house and obtained our residency, and I’m taking Portuguese lessons from home. We have easy access to Europe and Africa, with the United States just a hop away over the Atlantic.
Looking back, my “why” was the guiding North Star behind the decisions I made since that fateful visit to the hospital all those years ago. By optimizing for freedom instead of money, I was able to find clients who understood the value I provided without having to sacrifice the life I wanted to live.
Today, I’m neither living to work nor working to live. I’m thriving both professionally and personally in a life I can finally call my own. And you can too.
Yunche Wilson is a Fractional CMO with 15 years of demonstrated experience in marketing strategy & execution, development of business model and pricing structures, product development and management, diversity & inclusion efforts, go-to-market planning and execution as well as tracking of ROI on cross-channel digital marketing and offline programs. She has a proven ability to reduce costs, boost sales & marketing productivity, increase revenue and optimize processes and procedures for operational teams across the board.
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