MY ROAD TO FRACTIONAL: A TELL-ALL OF THE FIRST YEAR
After I posted about being a fractional marketer and consultant for a year, I received a lot of questions – How did I do it? What tips can I share? How amazing is it?
It is amazing, but it is also a risk and hard work. I’m writing this on a flight from a vacation at 11PM – two months after I intended to. (And publishing it a month after I wrote it!)
The vast majority of people I’ve met in my year of consulting started doing so because they either (1) were laid off or (2) quit in a fit of rage and burnout. My story begins with the latter. My road to fractional started after working too many hours and feeling like I wasn’t accomplishing nearly as much as I wanted. I was burnt out on the bureaucracy of corporate, but didn’t want to work start-up hours. So I found myself asking, what else is there?
I quit my job for my mental health and for my family – not so I could stay at home, but so I was the best version of myself when I was with them. It was one of the harder decisions I’ve made, riddled with guilt over leaving the team I loved and helped build. But I believe that if you don’t put yourself first, no one else will.
I gave six weeks’ notice without having a real plan outside of knowing what was in my gut and having enough confidence in my skills that I would figure it out. That’s around the time I saw a former colleague start touting that she as a fractional marketing leader and was simultaneously being targeted for ads on Instagram for a book called CMOX by Casey Stanton. The book helped get me over my insecurities. I hadn’t exactly held a CMO title, but I had led marketing strategy and product marketing for 4.5 years for a $700M business unit, navigating four different product areas. It made me realize that was more than enough.
The Path to Fractional
I took about five weeks from first learning about the concept of fractional to deciding that’s what I wanted to do and another four weeks to determine my positioning, messaging, packaging, and launch a website. While not every fractional leader has a website, as someone focused on product marketing, it was important to me to demonstrate this expertise for my own business. I look at my business the way I would look at go-to-market for any product. I was my own first client, officially launching in March 2024.
As part of this effort, I reached out to a former colleague, who is a creative director. She built my visual brand identity and logo that I use in all of my materials.
For the first couple of months, I wavered a bit on if I would stay in the hospitality and travel technology industry or if I would expand beyond that. My early conversations with former colleagues and new friends led to my niching down in an industry, which I attribute to much of my growing success. My visibility in the industry across former colleagues, fellow consultants, podcasts, and media channels helped to boost my credibility, as did my overall unique offering in the industry. At least for now, I don’t have any competition.
The Path to Clients
The first person I reached out to was my former manager, now the head of product at a different company. We had stayed in touch for the four years since he left and I knew he was thinking about hiring some product marketing help. A quick text turned into a meeting, a couple rounds of proposals, and a contract for my first project. It was for product marketing consulting work, which I saw potential for turning into a fractional role in the future.
My second client was another former colleague, now turned founder. I reached out genuinely interested in what she was doing and offered to help on a project – for free. I knew demonstrating my experience was more important than money when starting off. In exchange, I received a testimonial, numerous introductions, and a friend to lean on when the founder life got tough. This client and friend was the one who cheered me on and encouraged me to give myself at least a year to make this work.
Growing Visibility
After launching my website, I began posting a couple times a week on LinkedIn, but I’ll be honest when I say that it took a while to find my groove. Silly me, I didn’t initially approach it like I would for a brand. In May, I took a step back and planned out my content strategy. I defined my goal for LinkedIn, my three content pillars, how frequently I would post, my engagement strategy, and found lists of influencers to follow. By defining my focus and increasing my engagement, I immediately began to meet new, interesting people who were both willing to share their experiences and amplify each other’s content.
In June 2024, I decided to go to the largest industry event of the year, HITEC. I was a bit nervous about how I would be perceived not being there “with” a client, but I also knew that “everyone” would be there and another former colleague turned consultant convinced me it was more important for people to see than it was for me to be perceived as “successful” at that time.
As both of my clients were in attendance, I technically was there with them. I walked the show floor and met new founders and consultants, who introduced me to other people. I left HITEC with perhaps a dozen follow up meetings and a feeling of momentum. In the meantime, I was making enough money to break even on my business expenses and the cost of daycare.
The Tough Part
I was warned early on by people who had been doing this for a while that “if you can make it a year, you can make it.” And that it was inevitable to hit a dry spell. Despite having so many great conversations during HITEC, I wasn’t successful in closing any new business. I reevaluated and tested my packaging and pricing and I consistently posted on LinkedIn. This resulted in three podcast guest appearances, but still no clients. For something that was looking so good, two months without any income was tough to wrap my head around. During this time, I set myself a new goal: Be known as the go-to person for positioning and messaging in hospitality.
What does it mean to chase this goal? It means I’m in front of my computer 35 hours a week whether I’m making money or not. I try to take some time for lunch and can make appointments. I have flexibility and I rarely log back on after the kids go to sleep.
The Influx
And just as I started to interview for full-time roles with a pit in my stomach at the thought of going back in-house, I landed three new clients in two weeks in October/November – all inbound through LinkedIn.
(1) I had connected with a head of sales before HITEC and talked about meeting, but it didn’t pan out. In my “desperation,” I messaged him again via LinkedIn. He agreed to take the call and brought one of his founders. It wasn’t an immediate match. They were looking for something slightly different than what I wanted to offer service-wise. I adapted and offered to provide that service for a three-month retainer.
(2) A conversation that started back in August (that I had been sure would close for September) came back around. Another head of sales and a founder came across my LinkedIn content and reached out to me, despite having not once engaged with my content or being connected with me. We had numerous mutual contacts, and they agreed to sign a six-month retainer for a fractional marketing leader. This client has since signed to extend to a full year.
(3) I commented on a thought-provoking LinkedIn post by a founder of a start-up. His co-founder reached out directly to me and set up a call, and we hit it off right away. We agreed to a three-month retainer, which ended up extending to six months.
The Resources
We are nothing without our communities and our tools. In my case, my communities helped me determine most of my tools, so I’ll start with the communities.
Community
One of the best things you can do is find a group of people who do what you do and can provide tips for you. I was lucky to find a number such groups over my first year that helped me get where I am today and find the tools I currently use.
Fractionals United – an inexpensive Slack-based group of fractionals across all areas and industries, providing tips and advice.
Marketers & Margaritas – a free Slack-based group of marketing consultants.
PMM Camp – a private membership-based group of product marketers that meets a couple times a month, has one-to-one meet-ups, and chat forums.
Female Founders in Hospitality – a free application-based group that meets by cohort monthly and as an organization quarterly, with additional Slack channels.
HSMAI Boston – the most active industry group in the New England area, I do what I can to get down to events in Boston every couple of months, meet new people, and learn from the hoteliers in attendance.
Tools
One of the first things fractionals starting out always seem to ask is what tools to use. Here’s a list of what I use. (If you’re reading this and find it of value, I’d appreciate you using the referral links below.)
Email, Meetings – Google Workspace | My personal preference.
Website, Hosting, Domain purchase – Squarespace | I liked that I could do everything in one place, and it supported sales in case that’s something I need in the future. I purchased a template from Etsy.
Promotion – LinkedIn Premium | My top lead generation channel.
Design – Canva | Incredibly powerful for light design and you can also purchase templates for many things, like social media.
Contracts and Invoicing – Honeybook | Includes e-signature as well as accepts credit card payments.
Insurance – Hiscox | The top recommended insurance in my home state. A former colleague of mine suggested insurance as an “absolute must.”
Calendar – Calendly | Instrumental in making meetings happen. You can add the links easily to emails and LinkedIn chat and set available meeting times.
LLM / AI – Perplexity Pro | Excellent at writing when you provide numerous documents, style guides, brand books, etc.
Project Management – Trello for myself and whatever the client uses for client-facing visibility. | I’m a die-hard Trello user, but found it to be a hurdle to add another system to most clients. It’s much easier for me to adopt one of their systems.
Tips:
Have your client provide you with a company email address, calendar, chat, shared drive, and project management tools. It helps keep everything organized and makes it a lot easier for them to navigate.
Unfortunately, I still don’t know how to best sync all my calendars so my clients can see my actual availability. If you’ve figured this out, please let me know!
The Results
I read that a job is only worth it if you’re learning or earning. Ideally, you’re doing both. In my first year as a fractional marketing leader, I was definitely learning. In my first full year as a consultant, I made exactly 50% of what I was making in the corporate role I left, with very few true operating expenses. And what I’ve learned? Invaluable. I still made money. Even if I hadn’t, I tried and won’t have regrets down the line, wondering “what if?”
That being said, I’m five months into my second year doing this and am at 49% of what I was making when I left my corporate role. Things are looking up! Though you never know what’s around the corner, or what’s going to happen with the economy. But do we ever? Are our corporate roles really that stable?
To date, I’ve been featured on eight podcasts, four online feature publications, one newsletter, and chosen as a Top 100 Product Marketing Influencer for 2024 and a Top 50 Social Media Influencer in Hospitality for 2025.
As a new friend recently shared with me, “it takes a long time to become an overnight success.”
I’m just getting started.
