Fractional CMO Show – Details, episodes & analysis

In this episode of The Fractional CMO Show, Casey Stanton speaks directly to women in the marketing world who want to step into the fractional CMO role but often hold themselves back. Drawing from coaching over 200 women inside the Accelerator, Casey highlights the recurring patterns he sees — undercharging, over-justifying, second-guessing their expertise, and hesitating to bring in outside specialists.

He walks through the dangers of discounting, the importance of choosing clients who can afford real marketing investment, and how to step into a CEO-level mindset where you orchestrate talent rather than trying to do everything yourself. From understanding EBITDA constraints to leveraging micro-experts on Upwork, Casey gives women a roadmap for charging premium rates and positioning themselves as strategic leaders.

Whether you're a marketer trying to break out of "doer" mode or a fractional CMO struggling to own your value, this episode offers the mindset, frameworks, and permission you need to finally step into the role with confidence.

- Why Casey recorded this message specifically for women fractional CMOs

- The pricing gap: why women tend to undercharge and overexplain

- How to set rates based on the life you want, not what clients expect

- The difference between declaring your price vs. justifying your price

- How money stories and morality distort pricing decisions

- Why you should only work with clients who can afford both you and a real marketing budget

- The dangers of taking on low-EBITDA or discount clients

- Leadership vs. strategy vs. implementation — and why implementation traps women

- Why hiring experts is not a threat, but a superpower

- How confidence is created through intention, not credentials

- Using Upwork and micro-experts to multiply your effectiveness

- Selling future outcomes instead of tactical deliverables

- When to walk away from clients who cannot support growth

🌟 Take the First Step Toward Growth with CMOx 🌟 

Booking a call with our team is super easy, stress-free, and all about YOU. Whether you're exploring options or ready to scale, this no-pressure consultation is designed to understand your needs and guide you in the right direction. 

📅 Schedule your call today: 

👉 CMOx.com/call 

We'll make sure this is the most productive (and effortless) decision you've made for your business. Let's talk about strategy and success! 

🤝 Join the Fractional CMO Community 🤝

Want to continue the conversation and get access to exclusive resources? Join our free Facebook group for fractional CMOs and marketing leaders! Inside, you'll find discussions, insights, and tools to help you grow your business and maximize your impact.

👉 CMOx.com/community

Looking forward to seeing you inside! 🚀

🎙️ Stay Ahead with the Fractional CMO Show 🎙️ 

Want to unlock the secrets of marketing success? Subscribe to the podcast and gain exclusive insights from industry leaders and experts! 

👉 CMOx.com/podcast 

Got questions? We'd love to hear them! Submit your questions for a chance to be featured on an upcoming episode: 

👉 FractionalCMOShow.com 

Subscribe today and start leveling up your marketing game! 

📚 Master the Game with These Must-Read Books 📚

Want to go deeper and build a high-impact marketing career on your terms? These two books from Casey Stanton are your blueprint.

The Fractional CMO Method

Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller. Learn how to attract, convert, and serve high-paying clients while staying focused on strategy and leadership.

👉 CMOx.com/book

Find Your CMO

Hiring a CMO? This guide helps CEOs and founders understand what great marketing leadership looks like—and how to find the right fit.

👉 CMOx.com/find-your-cmo

Start reading and take control of your marketing future.

Connect with Casey Stanton: 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseystanton/

Website: https://caseystanton.com/

In this episode of The Fractional CMO Show, Casey dives into the secret to thriving long-term as a fractional CMO: having fun. He shares why commitment and consistency matter, but also why enjoying the work you do is what fuels creativity, engagement, and lasting success.

Drawing on his own experiences — from conversations with Jeff Walker, the enduring "Launch Guy," to experimenting with vibe coding, AI, and creative marketing projects — Casey shows how curiosity and play can lead to innovation and new opportunities. He explains why marketers who constantly reinvent themselves often burn out, and why committing to your craft while keeping it playful can help you solve bigger problems, create higher-value client relationships, and enjoy the journey along the way.

Throughout the episode, Casey offers practical ways to bring fun into your work, whether that's experimenting with marketing strategies, pricing creatively, or just nerding out on the aspects of marketing that excite you most. This episode is a reminder that the most successful fractional CMOs are those who treat their career like a game — where engagement, joy, and curiosity drive both impact and income.

Whether you're a seasoned fractional CMO or just starting out, this episode will help you rediscover the joy in your work, innovate without pressure, and create a career that's both high-performing and enjoyable.

- Why commitment and consistency are essential for long-term success

- Lessons from Jeff Walker on staying focused and building enduring expertise

- The danger of constant reinvention and chasing short-term wins

- How "play" and curiosity fuel innovation and learning

- Turning your marketing interests into fun experiments that enhance skills

- Bringing joy and energy into client work, pricing, and problem-solving

- Why being playful attracts clients, collaborators, and opportunities

- How fun amplifies engagement, mastery, and long-term success

Booking a call with our team is super easy, stress-free, and all about YOU. Whether you're exploring options or ready to scale, this no-pressure consultation is designed to understand your needs and guide you in the right direction.

📅 Schedule your call today:
👉 CMOx.com/call

We'll make sure this is the most productive (and effortless) decision you've made for your business. Let's talk about strategy and success!

Want to continue the conversation and get access to exclusive resources? Join our free Facebook group for fractional CMOs and marketing leaders! Inside, you'll find discussions, insights, and tools to help you grow your business and maximize your impact.

👉 CMOx.com/community

Looking forward to seeing you inside! 🚀

Want to unlock the secrets of marketing success? Subscribe to the podcast and gain exclusive insights from industry leaders and experts!

👉 CMOx.com/podcast

Got questions? We'd love to hear them! Submit your questions for a chance to be featured on an upcoming episode:

👉 FractionalCMOShow.com

Subscribe today and start leveling up your marketing game!

Want to go deeper and build a high-impact marketing career on your terms? These two books from Casey Stanton are your blueprint.

The Fractional CMO Method
Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller. Learn how to attract, convert, and serve high-paying clients while staying focused on strategy and leadership.

👉 CMOx.com/book

Find Your CMO
Hiring a CMO? This guide helps CEOs and founders understand what great marketing leadership looks like — and how to find the right fit.

👉 CMOx.com/find-your-cmo

Start reading and take control of your marketing future.

Connect with Casey Stanton:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseystanton/
Website: https://caseystanton.com/

In this episode of The Fractional CMO Show, Casey Stanton takes you inside a real "day in the life" of a fractional CMO—pulling back the curtain on what it actually looks like to serve clients at the highest level without burning out. He explains why Mondays are heavy, Fridays are light, and why designing your week this way gives you both structure and freedom.

Casey also digs into the mindset shift that separates successful CMOs from those stuck playing small: delegating everything except leadership, building teams around encouragement and outcomes, and practicing the lost art of predicting the future. He shares why solving bigger problems is the only path to higher pay and deeper impact—and why asymmetric upside deals (equity, phantom stock, revenue share) are often worth more than cash retainers alone.

You'll hear why the best Fractional CMOs aren't micromanagers but vision-setters, why niching down unlocks real earning potential, and why this moment—amidst AI-driven marketing shakeups—is the perfect time to step into this role.

Key Topics Covered:

• What a "day in the life" really looks like for a fractional CMO

• Why Mondays should be heavy and Fridays should be free

• How to delegate everything except leadership

• Building teams through encouragement and outcome-based management

• Creating bonus structures that foster collaboration and ownership

 •The three pillars of great fractional leadership: solve bigger problems, delegate, predict the future

• Why niching down multiplies your value and credibility

• How to structure asymmetric upside deals (beyond retainers)

• Why now is the best time to enter the fractional CMO space

🌟 Take the First Step Toward Growth with CMOx 🌟 

Booking a call with our team is super easy, stress-free, and all about YOU. Whether you're exploring options or ready to scale, this no-pressure consultation is designed to understand your needs and guide you in the right direction. 

📅 Schedule your call today: 

👉 CMOx.com/call 

We'll make sure this is the most productive (and effortless) decision you've made for your business. Let's talk about strategy and success! 

🤝 Join the Fractional CMO Community 🤝

Want to continue the conversation and get access to exclusive resources? Join our free Facebook group for fractional CMOs and marketing leaders! Inside, you'll find discussions, insights, and tools to help you grow your business and maximize your impact.

👉 CMOx.com/community

Looking forward to seeing you inside! 🚀

🎙️ Stay Ahead with the Fractional CMO Show 🎙️ 

Want to unlock the secrets of marketing success? Subscribe to the podcast and gain exclusive insights from industry leaders and experts! 

👉 CMOx.com/podcast 

Got questions? We'd love to hear them! Submit your questions for a chance to be featured on an upcoming episode: 

👉 FractionalCMOShow.com 

Subscribe today and start leveling up your marketing game! 

📚 Master the Game with These Must-Read Books 📚

Want to go deeper and build a high-impact marketing career on your terms? These two books from Casey Stanton are your blueprint.

The Fractional CMO Method

Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller. Learn how to attract, convert, and serve high-paying clients while staying focused on strategy and leadership.

👉 CMOx.com/book

Find Your CMO

Hiring a CMO? This guide helps CEOs and founders understand what great marketing leadership looks like—and how to find the right fit.

👉 CMOx.com/find-your-cmo

Start reading and take control of your marketing future.

Connect with Casey Stanton: 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseystanton/

Website: https://caseystanton.com/

As a CMO, can you provide more value to a company by always trying to be on the cutting edge of every new marketing advancement or by mastering the slow to change principles of marketing? Casey Stanton sets out to answer that question to get you the most value from your limited time.

Takeaways:

• If you are always chasing the newest marketing techniques, you may find temporary success but in order to stay caught up on the bleeding edge tactics, you will have to constantly reinvent yourself.
• Rather than constantly trying out the latest marketing fad, invest your time and effort into becoming great at those foundational principles of marketing that are slow to change. 
• There is a great value in mastering these principles. These will transcend your niche and even your industry and allow you to provide value to businesses for a long time. 
• The CMO's role is not to be the person who does every little thing, rather it is to build an amazing marketing team. Each member of which is then able to specialize on the finer aspects of the solution.

Quote of the Show:

• "The solution as a CMO is rarely to roll up your sleeves and do it yourself, more often than not the solution as a CMO is to delegate it to someone else"  - Casey Stanton

Links:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/CaseyStanton
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseystanton/
• Website: https://cmox.co/invite

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/VmZUFNAQU0A

You don't have to worry about going all in to start out as a Fractional CMO! Casey Stanton is walking you through his own journey of taking steps toward becoming a Fractional CMO and overcoming the hurdles. You'll learn how to mentally approach the jumping off point, how to provide great values to clients, and understand what you can offer.

Takeaways:

• When starting off as a Fractional CMO, you don't have to go headlong into it with an all or nothing attitude. You can take steps and start off by just getting your first client.
• What would you think about becoming a Fractional CMO if you were able to charge a client $5,000 per month while only working a few hours each week.
• You can service clients from other timezones in order to work with them during hours that won't conflict with your full time job.
• Being a Fractional CMO is about providing value to a company that you alone are able to give them.
• Companies know they need to embrace marketing and to do that they need a marketing leader who can lead their team.

Quote of the Show:

• "This is about you offering super high value outcomes for the organization" - Casey Stanton

Links:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/CaseyStanton
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseystanton/
• Website: https://cmox.co/invite

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/LdtYiPT8uss

It can be hard to do a great job marketing yourself, even if you're a great marketer. Where do you start? How many examples do you need? What tone should you use? These are the questions that Casey Stanton is answering. You'll learn about when to take credit, what to include, and how to craft a powerful narrative about you and your capabilities.

Takeaways:

• Great marketers usually are great at marketing a company, client, etc. but struggle when it comes to marketing themselves.
• Think of a few things you've done recently and try to put that into a pithy, attention grabbing headline that will convert. If you're struggling with doing this, don't worry, it's normal.
• Make a list of all of the great things you've done in your work and then narrow it down to the five most powerful examples.
• When making a claim about what you can do, you need to have overwhelming proof to support it. 
• Write a throughline of your life and work and the great things that you've done. Apply your experiences to a story about you which explains, "I've done this before, I can do it for you."

Quote of the Show:

• "Your ability to market another company is not the same as your ability to market yourself." - Casey Stanton

Links:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/CaseyStanton
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseystanton/
• Website: https://cmox.co/invite

Shout Outs:

• Claude Hopkins
• Gary Halbert
• Gary Bencivenga
• John Carlton

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/7t3k-VRwYM0

As a Fractional CMO, you can't do all the work yourself, so you need a good team. But you can't stop with just hiring a good team, you need to have a vision for them and help in developing them to reach that vision. Casey Stanton is giving you the keys to doing this and reaching your own vision in the process. Prepare to learn about championing the success of others, surrounding yourself with diverse voices, and solving bigger problems!

Takeaways:

• Always have an updated vision of where you see each of the people who report directly to you. What larger role do you see for them? Create a gap between where they are and where you think they can ascend to.
• You need to enroll your direct reports in the vision you have for them and push them toward it. Give them the encouragement they need 
• Champion the success of the people on your team!
• Build the "dream team" for your client that you know you can depend on. 
• Ask your direct reports what they need to do to get to that next step. Empower them to solve those bigger problems.
• You don't want to be the CMO of a company where everyone just listens to everything you say. You need people who will push back against your ideas, bring in new ideas, and provide their unique perspectives.

Quote of the Show:

• " You want people to start solving for their own ascension" - Casey Stanton

Links:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/CaseyStanton
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseystanton/
• Website: https://cmox.co/invite

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/tieRljgOZAk

Anxiety is a natural part of business and it is crucial for you to know how to cope with it and then use it to help yourself grow. Casey Stanton shares his own story of facing anxiety when first starting as a Fractional CMO and how he used that experience to gain perspective and get stronger. You'll hear about how to prepare before betting on yourself, what to do when you find yourself scraping against the bottom, and why you need to undergo your own path to reach success.

Takeaways:

• Although you may feel like you are walking in circles around something you are anxious about, you can grow and gain "elevation" as you would on a spiral staircase to allow you to see the anxiety from a different perspective andsee it for what it is.
• Anxiety in business is an opportunity for you to solve something that obviously feels wrong. 
• You will have many anxieties that will never go away in your life, even after they have peaked they will still persist. However, by going through the peak of those anxieties, you become better equipped to handle them in the future.
• When approaching the idea of becoming a Fractional CMO, you need to have a long time horizon and give yourself a runway.
• When betting on yourself, it's important to be very self-aware. Understand the risks and be prepared to face them and whatever else may come up. 

Quote of the Show:

• "If you have the long time horizon and you provide yourself the runway to make things happen, it is inevitable that you'll be successful" - Casey Stanton

Shout outs:

• Already Free by Bruce Tift

Links:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/CaseyStanton
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseystanton/
• Website: https://cmox.co/invite

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/J1T69QgrKgo

When it's time to talk price, finding the right answer to get you the right compensation for the work that you do is not a clear-cut path. But that's in the past because Casey Stanton is giving you the right mindset to approach this topic and the formula to help you find the rate you deserve to be paid. You'll discover your effective hourly rate and what that says about the work you do and what you should aim for that rate to be.

Takeaways:

• If someone thinks their problem is very big and you offer to only charge them a small amount to fix it, they won't believe that you are the solution to that giant problem because to them, what you are charging doesn't match the immensity of the issue.
• As a very general rule, good SMBs to target for Fractional CMO services are those with over $1 million in revenue but under $100 million in revenue. Generally, they have under 100 employees, but that is not exact.
• What you charge a company should be based on the size of the company. 
• Work out your effective hourly rate, which is how much YOU take home. This includes any prep hours, sales, follow-up, client hours, prospecting etc. Divide how much you bring in per month by the actual number of hours that you spend working. 
• To be called a Fractional CMO, your effective hourly rate should be at least $250 per hour to be properly compensated. You should look at a target rate of $400 per hour.
• You should be able to do a lot in a small amount of time, so the net price to the company may be lower than you would initially expect.

Quote of the Show:

• "You have to charge the price at which the person believes the problem will cost to fix." - Casey Stanton

Links

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/CaseyStanton
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseystanton/
• Website: https://cmox.co/invite

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/hpQ5FC39YyM

So much importance is placed on simply increasing the size of a company's customer pool but this can't be sustained forever. Casey is illuminating how you need to position the company for growth through gaining a deeper understanding of your customers' problems beyond those you have already solved. You'll learn the dangers of stagnation and how to avoid it, how to increase the lifetime value of a customer, and the core of the CMO's role.

Takeaways:

• Your first step as a CMO should be to establish an efficient funnel that regularly converts people into customers. Once you do that, it's not always clear what to do next. The next step is to innovate. 
• You must always be looking for ways to keep moving and innovating to stay ahead of the relentlessly encroaching competition. Other companies will be able to overtake your market share faster than it took you to carve it out.
• The deeper you're in, the more the customer matters. Gaining a better understanding of the customer and their wants and motivations is what inspires innovation. Find all the problems that exist, even if you can't solve them.
• Work with the product team to either develop or find a product that satisfies those other needs. Look for ways to increase the lifetime value of a customer.
• The cost of selling an existing customer another product is very low, there's virtually no acquisition cost and they already have a relationship with the company or brand. You just need to find a way to leverage that relationship.
• The role of the CMO is to think through how to solve problems so that the business grows.
• ​​Ask yourself, "how do you get deeper with the customer to find additional products or services to extend the customer lifetime value?"

Quote of the Show:

• "The lack of innovation is the death of the company" - Casey Stanton

Shout Outs:

• Dan Sullivan

Links

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/CaseyStanton
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseystanton/
• Website: https://cmox.co

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/meVx-1bubJU