Sept. 14, 2026
Is Now the Time to Consider Fractional PR?
Episode Summary
Fractional roles seem to be growing in scope, including in Public Relations. Over the years, we have seen our fair share of creative titles, but does the Fractional title in Communication roles have longevity? In today’s episode, we take an honest look at the fractional title, extract what's actually useful, and give solo PR practitioners a real framework for deciding whether fractional positioning is a fit for them, or whether it's a fashionable label with a new set of obligations attached. The hosts discuss the rate data for fractional roles and adoption projections for midsize companies.
Episode Highlights
- [00:18] Should I adopt the Fractional Title?: Michelle opens before the music: if she put fractional communications director on her website tomorrow, would she be sounding as senior as she actually is — or cosplaying a Silicon Valley CMO? Karen loves the question. It names exactly the tension the episode is built around: the fractional label is real and valuable in the right context, and it is also getting slapped on LinkedIn profiles by people who have changed nothing about how they actually work. Karen and Michelle are committed to examining both sides honestly.
- [02:52] The Rate Data: What Go Fractional's 2026 Benchmarks Actually Show: Go Fractional, a marketplace that publishes its own rate benchmarks by role, shows the fractional director of public relations averaging $203 an hour in 2026, with typical engagements running around 32 hours a week. Karen and Michelle both flag what 32 hours means in solo practice terms: that is essentially all of your billable time for one client. There would be no room for additional work. For broader fractional CMO engagements, monthly retainers commonly run $8,000 to $22,000, with day rates in the $1,500 to $3,500 range and hourly rates around $200 to $350. Karen's bottom line: most solo PR pros are already undercharging. The gap between what solos currently charge and what the fractional rate range represents is a real income conversation, not just a semantic one.
- [06:43] The Adoption Reality: Who Is Actually Buying This: Gartner projected that more than 30% of midsize enterprises will keep at least one fractional executive on retainer by 2027. Karen's honest read: 30% is a meaningful number, but it requires understanding which markets and industries you actually serve. She cautions against chasing the label without first asking whether your specific clients in your specific verticals are operating in the kinds of environments where fractional executive models are being adopted. She also notes an important structural difference: fractional engagements are typically time-bound, one to two years, sometimes as short as six months, while many solo PR practitioners maintain client relationships of five, ten, fifteen years or more. That shift in tenure expectations is not a footnote. It changes the business model.
- [09:44] Objection 1: This Is Just a Trendy Label for Freelancer: Karen names the objection directly: fractional is real. There are fractional CEOs, fractional CFOs, fractional CMOs and it emerged from a genuine market need. Companies wanted senior executive function without a permanent hire, particularly high-growth startups scaling toward a defined goal. The problem is that the label has been diluted by people applying it to what they were already doing. Karen's line: it has to be more than a label. It has to be a real change in how you scope work, structure your time, and price your value. If it's just a rebrand of what you're already doing, it will not hold up to a client's scrutiny.
- [11:08] Objection 2: I Don't Have C-Suite Adjacent Experience: Michelle raises the credibility question: what if you don't have 15-plus years or a director-level background? Can you credibly claim a fractional director title? Karen's answer is yes, with honesty about what you bring. She draws on the Dolly Parton example from a recent piece she'd read: when Barbara Walters made a condescending comment, Dolly didn't get defensive. She owned the narrative and redirected it. Karen's parallel for practitioners: if a client challenges your seniority, you don't deny the gap, you own what you do bring and redirect toward the specific value that makes you the right person for this engagement. Karen also flags what the Solo PR Pro community data shows, many solos left corporate America holding director-level titles. The experience is often already there; the confidence to claim it is the gap.
- [13:28] Objection 3: Clients Will Expect Fixed Weekly Hours I Can't Sustain: This is the structural objection, and Karen says it's the most valid one. Fractional positioning is not a marketing decision; it's an organizational one. It assumes fewer clients getting more defined hours each, not the same scattered client load with a prettier name on top. That is a genuine shift in how you run your business. Karen's reframe: for practitioners who want built-in natural breaks, the project-based nature of fractional work is actually an opportunity. You do a high-value six-month engagement, step back, take time, then pick up the next one. But you have to be genuinely ready to operate that way, not just willing to say you will.
- [16:00] Objection 4: What If a Client Asks What Makes Me Different: The quiet objection: if a prospective client pushes back and asks what actually distinguishes you from any other consultant and you don't have a real answer beyond the title, you have a problem. Karen and Michelle are both direct: if you're going to name it, you have to be ready to back it up. Fractional is not a word that does the positioning work for you. You still have to know what you specifically bring, who specifically you serve, and what result you specifically deliver. The label focuses the conversation. You still have to win it.
- [17:09] The Three-Question Filter for Self-Assessment: Karen's three questions for any solo practitioner genuinely weighing this decision. One: can you honestly commit a defined chunk of weekly hours — ten, twenty, or even thirty-two — to a small number of clients rather than juggling many smaller ones? This is a capacity question, not an aspiration question. Two: have you operated at a senior strategic level where you own the outcomes rather than execute tasks someone else scoped? Be honest about what senior strategic responsibility has actually looked like in your experience. Three: does the pricing range work for the size of client you're actually targeting? The $8,000 to $22,000 monthly range requires clients with budgets to match. If you primarily serve small local businesses or early-stage startups on tighter budgets, fractional may be aspirational for a future client base rather than a realistic current pivot.
- [19:10] The Live Drill: Six Years of Healthcare Comms, Eighteen Months Solo: Michelle walks a hypothetical: a practitioner with six years running healthcare comms in-house, now eighteen months into solo practice, currently juggling five smaller retained clients at different rates. Karen runs the filter. On capacity: consolidating from five scattered clients to two or three larger, more defined engagements is a real structural shift, and the right question is whether the listener can genuinely commit to that model. On experience: six years running healthcare comms in-house is exactly the kind of background that supports a director-level fractional claim credibly. On pricing: if even two or three of those five current clients are midsize or larger organizations, there may be a direct pathway to repricing existing relationships at fractional rates. If the current client base skews toward small local clients on tight budgets, the fractional pivot is a longer play toward a different client type.
- [22:21] Why This Is a Positioning Decision, Not Just a Label Decision: Karen closes on the point the whole episode has been building toward: how you describe your own work shapes what you are allowed to charge for it. Most solo PR pros are already undercharging, not because the market won't bear higher rates, but out of habit and out of fear. The fractional conversation, done honestly, forces a real examination of capacity, value, and pricing that most solos avoid. Even for practitioners who ultimately decide the fractional model isn't the right fit, that conversation has value. Karen is transparent about herself: the corporateness of fractional work, the reporting structures, the Slack pings, the internal politics is not where she wants to be. That's also a real answer, and it's the kind of honest self-assessment the episode is asking every listener to do.
Resources & Additional Information
- Go Fractional: Rate benchmarks by role (2026 data referenced in episode)
- Fractional C-Suite: The Future of Work: Why Fractional Executives are Booming in the AI Era (Gartner Future of Work data)
- Over50Pros: Fractional Work State of the Market Intelligence Report
- That Solo Life, Episode 349: What Solo PR Pros Need to Know Now About the Specialization Economy
- That Solo Life, Episode 355: Why Solo PR Pros Should Plan for Micro Retirement Now
- Solo PR Pro membership community: soloprpro.com
- That Solo Life podcast website: thatsololife.com
Note on sourcing: Karen and Michelle flag on air that some of the broader fractional adoption statistics are difficult to verify precisely — treat aggregate figures as directional rather than definitive.
Host & Show Info
That Solo Life is a podcast created for public relations, communication, and marketing professionals who work as independent and small practitioners. Hosted by Karen Swim, APR, President of Solo PR Pro, and Michelle Kane, Principal of Voice Matters, the show delivers expert insights, encouragement, and practical advice for solo PR pros navigating today's dynamic professional landscape.
Listen to all episodes and catch up on previous conversations at thatsololife.com.
Did this episode inspire you? If you found value in this conversation, please take a moment to leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback helps us reach more solo pros just like you! Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode.
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MICHELLE KANE: Okay, Karen, if I put fractional
communications director on my website
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MICHELLE KANE: tomorrow, would I be sounding a senior
finally sounding as senior as I am?
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MICHELLE KANE: Or would it seem like I'm cosplaying like
some Silicon Valley CMO?
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KAREN SWIM, APR: Michelle, I actually love that question,
I think.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: I do, and we're going to talk about that
today.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: So we have a real answer to it.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: So welcome back, audience to that solo live,
the podcast for independent PR and
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KAREN SWIM, APR: communication pros who are building a
business,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: not just freelancing between contracts.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: I'm Karen Swim and I'm the president of solo
PR Pro.
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MICHELLE KANE: And I'm Michelle K and I am the principal of
voice matters.
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MICHELLE KANE: And it's just the two of us today,
which is awesome.
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MICHELLE KANE: I mean, we love having guests,
but it's cool when it's just us. Hopefully
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MICHELLE KANE: your listeners are cool with that too.
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MICHELLE KANE: But anyway, this, this episode is,
you know,
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MICHELLE KANE: what's a summer without a summer blockbuster?
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MICHELLE KANE: This is our sequel to our Specialization
Economy episode.
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MICHELLE KANE: If you haven't listened to that,
check it out.
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MICHELLE KANE: So if niching down is what you do in your
business,
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MICHELLE KANE: this is about what you call it and what you
charge for it.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: Yeah. So I mean, the question that we're
exploring today is,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: you know, is it the right move today to price
and position yourself as a fractional
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KAREN SWIM, APR: communications director,
fractional, you know,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: PR lead instead of as a consultant or an
agency of one or a micro agency.
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MICHELLE KANE: Right, right. And, you know,
I'm sure some of you are out there rolling
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MICHELLE KANE: your eyes at another borrowed executive
title.
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MICHELLE KANE: And yeah, I get it. So,
you know, it's okay.
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MICHELLE KANE: We can own this one before we tell anyone
else to use it.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: I yeah, I totally agree.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: And I think I think it's going to be an
interesting discussion. There's,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: you know, a lot out on the world wide Web
about,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: you know, fractional work.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: And, and many of us work with fractional
CMOs.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: There are PR contact inside of companies.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: So this is not a new concept,
but I, you know,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: some of the stuff that's out there is,
you know,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: just kind of, you know,
just tried stuff that's been around forever.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: Some of it is new, but we're going to extract
the useful stuff and have a real
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KAREN SWIM, APR: conversation about it today.
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MICHELLE KANE: Yeah, exactly. And of course,
everything, everything we source is in our
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MICHELLE KANE: show notes as always. So yeah,
yeah.
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MICHELLE KANE: So let's start with a number I really trust.
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MICHELLE KANE: What's the PR specific data on all of this?
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KAREN SWIM, APR: Yeah. So there's this marketplace called
what's it called go fractional and it
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KAREN SWIM, APR: publishes its own rate benchmarks by role.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: So when you look at fractional director of
public relations specifically the 2026 data
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KAREN SWIM, APR: shows an average asking rate of $203 an hour,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: with a typical engagement running around 32
hours a week.
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MICHELLE KANE: 32 hours a week. So yeah,
that's not a light touch.
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MICHELLE KANE: I mean, that's pretty much most of a workweek
for one client,
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MICHELLE KANE: but I'm not sad about that rate.
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MICHELLE KANE: They don't live around here.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: I mean, honestly, in all fairness,
32 hours is probably more.
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MICHELLE KANE: Full time.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: Billable hours than yeah,
then we can handle.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: So because we know that in our world,
we don't do the 40 hour work week.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: There's things that you do that are non
billable hours and then there's billable
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KAREN SWIM, APR: hours. So when you really think about that,
that's really all of your billable time.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: You wouldn't have room to do anything else.
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MICHELLE KANE: So correct.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: I, I don't know, let's you know.
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MICHELLE KANE: Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean,
you know, it's not like I do a bit of PR for
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MICHELLE KANE: a lot of people, right?
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MICHELLE KANE: It wouldn't allow for that.
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MICHELLE KANE: It's kind of like I'm effectively your part
time head of communications and you get a
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MICHELLE KANE: defined slice of my week,
which is actually kind of how I work with one
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MICHELLE KANE: client. You know, I'm not in-house,
but I'm the de facto marketing rep.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: Yeah.
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MICHELLE KANE: I'll change my fancy name and give them that
number and they'll fall over.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: I mean, there's that,
right.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: And. You know, but on the pricing side for
the broader fractional CMO data,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: it shows that monthly retainers actually,
you know,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: commonly run 8 to $22,000.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: So and growth stage engagements run around
like,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: I don't know, 8 to 12,000.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: So day rates in the 1500 to 3500 range and
hourly around two to 2 to 350.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: So that makes more sense because you're
really looking at this almost like a a job.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: And you may have time,
like I've known fractional CMOs that have had
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KAREN SWIM, APR: more than one engagement at a time.
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MICHELLE KANE: Yeah, sure.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: They've been fractional for two companies.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: You could be fractional and maybe take on a
couple of,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: you know, projects, maybe 1 or 2,
not a lot.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: So I don't know.
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MICHELLE KANE: Yeah. And you know, we're getting into the
sphere,
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MICHELLE KANE: which is, you know, side note,
it's, it is, as I alluded to before,
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MICHELLE KANE: it is a very different number to what most of
us are able to charge,
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MICHELLE KANE: as, you know, generalist PR consultants.
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MICHELLE KANE: So, you know, is it a shift of mindset in
some ways or.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: Yeah, I mean, I so I think,
you know, and we learned this way back at a
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KAREN SWIM, APR: solo PR pro conference many years ago,
I think,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: and our data has validated this over the
years that most solo PR pros do.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: Undercharge. So let's be clear about that.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: So you're already not pricing yourself
accurately for your expertise and your value
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KAREN SWIM, APR: that you bring to the marketplace. And so
when some of the solos are thinking about,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: you know, 200 $0 engagements as a fractional,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: it's probably going to make their head spin
like,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: oh my God, you know, what do I,
am I worthy of that number?
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KAREN SWIM, APR: Yes you are. But I think that the gap between
fractional and what most solo PR pros are
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KAREN SWIM, APR: charging is, is why this is such an important
conversation to have.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: Yeah. Because if if adding fractional as that
label lets you charge inside that range,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: that's more than just,
you know, semantics.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: That's real income.
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MICHELLE KANE: Yeah, yeah. But you know,
taking that the next step,
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MICHELLE KANE: let's think about the adoption numbers,
right?
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MICHELLE KANE: Is this really catching on with these clients
or potential clients?
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MICHELLE KANE: Or is this just us talking to each other and
thinking,
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MICHELLE KANE: yeah, let's get it.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: I mean, I think that that is such a good
point.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: And so we have to be careful,
right?
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KAREN SWIM, APR: We don't want to just chase like the cute
name or,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: you know, this, this little pivot or,
you know,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: and again, I do as you called out right away.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: I do see this very much as a Silicon Valley
thing.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: And everybody doesn't work in that space or
want to.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: So we want to think about that.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: So I think it was Gartner projected that more
than 30% of midsize enterprises will keep at
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KAREN SWIM, APR: least one fractional executive on retainer by
2027.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: So that's, you know, 30% is a decent number.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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MICHELLE KANE: And the rest.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: And the rest is 40% of firms,
35 rising to 48%,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: 72% of CEOs. And, you know,
there's, it's hard to find some hard facts
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KAREN SWIM, APR: around this. So I think to me,
I think the best way to research this is to
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KAREN SWIM, APR: look at the markets that you serve and the
industries you serve and see,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: like how many people are really doing this
and are people open to it?
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KAREN SWIM, APR: Like if you open a discussion like,
hey, have you guys ever considered,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: you know, bringing on a fractional PR person?
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KAREN SWIM, APR: Now, here's something that we haven't talked
about yet either.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: I've worked with tons of fractional CMOs.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: They are typically these are bound in time
engagement.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: So they're not, you know,
for solos, we often have engagements that can
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KAREN SWIM, APR: be five years, ten years,
15 years or longer.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: We keep our clients for a really long time.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: These are usually like 1 to 2 year
engagements.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: When they're on the longer side,
sometimes they're shorter than that because
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KAREN SWIM, APR: sometimes you're brought in for a very
specific growth spurt.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: So it could be, you know,
a six month engagement.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: So that has to be something that you're
comfortable with.
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MICHELLE KANE: Right, right. And I do love that,
you know, we're looking at this from all
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MICHELLE KANE: sides today. We're not just saying,
oh, that sounds so impressive.
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MICHELLE KANE: Let's do it. You know,
so we're keeping it real for everybody,
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MICHELLE KANE: including ourselves, right?
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KAREN SWIM, APR: Absolutely, absolutely.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: And we want to cover,
you know, the questions,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: the challenges, because we don't want to
ignore things that are happening.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: It's good to examine it and.
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MICHELLE KANE: Right.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: You know, test it out and then see if maybe
that is a fit for what you're doing.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: And I've seen some of our solos pivot to
fractional.
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MICHELLE KANE: Yeah, yeah. And you know,
and I love even how you said that to look at
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MICHELLE KANE: others doing fractional work and seeing if
it's possible. I mean, isn't that what we all
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MICHELLE KANE: did before we decided to try going solo?
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MICHELLE KANE: So it's just again, we're just honing in on
that.
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MICHELLE KANE: But let's talk about some of the pushback.
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MICHELLE KANE: Okay. What are some of the objections against
doing this?
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KAREN SWIM, APR: Yeah, I think one of the objections is that
this is just a trendy label for freelancer or
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KAREN SWIM, APR: consultant. It's it's not a rebrand and it's
not substance.
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MICHELLE KANE: Right. And, you know,
and that's fair because you know, a lot of
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MICHELLE KANE: people are just slapping this word on their
LinkedIn headline without changing anything
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MICHELLE KANE: about how they actually work,
because they think,
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MICHELLE KANE: oh, that's what I have to call myself in this
moment in
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MICHELLE KANE: time. And it's like, oh.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: We've seen this before,
right? We've been here with the cute titles.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: And I mean fractional.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: It's not a cute title.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: It is a real thing. You know,
there's fractional CEOs,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: there's fractional CFOs.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: And you know, this all came about with
companies wanting to hire,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: you know, executives that they really needed
that function in that role,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: but they didn't want to commit to a permanent
engagement.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: So I've seen some companies run through
fractional execs with lightning quick speed.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: I've worked on engagements where we've gone
through three fractional CMOs in a year.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: That's that's quite a bit.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: And the company decided to go fractional to
sort of test as a pathway to permanent.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: But in most cases, I see this a lot with high
growth startups that really are,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: you know, looking to scale and they just,
you know,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: they don't want the permanent employee yet,
but they want people to do
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KAREN SWIM, APR: very specific things.
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MICHELLE KANE: So yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense.
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MICHELLE KANE: Let's look at another objection.
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MICHELLE KANE: You know, we might think to ourselves,
well, gosh, I don't have,
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MICHELLE KANE: you know, 15 plus years or a C-suite adjacent
background,
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MICHELLE KANE: right? So how can I credibly claim a director
level fractional title?
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KAREN SWIM, APR: Yes you can. I don't think that you're
overselling yourself.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: And I think it's important to be honest.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: But again, here's where I think sometimes we
get in our own way of diminishing the value
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KAREN SWIM, APR: of what we've done in our experience.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: Yeah. I just read something and I will try to
find the source,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: but it's a communications person who talked
about Dolly Parton and the lessons learned
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KAREN SWIM, APR: from an interview where Barbara Walters said
some rude things like,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: so are you a hillbilly?
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KAREN SWIM, APR: And rather than Dolly getting offended or
defensive about it,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: she owned it. But she changed the trajectory
of the comments.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: So she owned that narrative,
but leaned in and redirected it and made it
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KAREN SWIM, APR: her own story. And so this this person that
wrote the book talked about how we all should
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KAREN SWIM, APR: be doing that, don't you know?
198
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KAREN SWIM, APR: So if somebody says but you've never been a
CEO,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: you can absolutely lean into that narrative,
but then you can counter back with,
200
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KAREN SWIM, APR: I've never been a CEO,
which actually makes me a great candidate for
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KAREN SWIM, APR: this job because I'm coming from a fresh lens
and from a different perspective.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: And here's what I do bring.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: So but you don't want to obviously take on
something that you feel like you can't fail.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: But if you see what the job requires and the
results that you know they want,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: then yes, you can absolutely credibly claim a
director or higher level fractional title.
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MICHELLE KANE: Yeah. I mean, the work is the work just
because we're not wearing power suits here at
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MICHELLE KANE: our laptops and, you know,
walking into specific types of rented,
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MICHELLE KANE: you know, office space doesn't mean we're not
thinking doing the same kind of thought
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MICHELLE KANE: process, doing the same kind of work,
you know?
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MICHELLE KANE: All right, let's go through another
objection. The third one,
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MICHELLE KANE: if I position as a fractional,
you know, won't clients expect a fixed weekly
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MICHELLE KANE: hour commitment that maybe I really can't
sustain across multiple clients,
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MICHELLE KANE: which we alluded to before?
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KAREN SWIM, APR: Yeah. I mean, I think that this is,
you know,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: a great question. And,
and it's, it's a very valid objection because
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KAREN SWIM, APR: this becomes more of it's not a marketing,
you know,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: thing, a decision. This is really,
you know,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: organizational structural about how your
company is set up.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: So when you do fractional work,
the assumption and the way that many people
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KAREN SWIM, APR: work this out is that you're working for
fewer clients.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: So you're not doing five,
you know, different clients at a time.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: So that means that they are getting,
you know,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: more defined hours each than maybe in your
other engagement.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: So it's, it's not the same scattered client
load with just,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: you know, this pretty name on top.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: It really is a, a shift in how you're doing
business.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: I will say, though, that think about all
that.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: This way of working means if you're somebody
that likes to build in natural breaks,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: then this could be a way to take these,
you know,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: fractional CMO, you know,
projects because they are projects,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: they're not forever. And you do those
projects and you can space them out.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: So maybe you're, you know,
getting, you know,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: paid great money for six months a year,
but then you have the benefit of maybe taking
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KAREN SWIM, APR: three months off before your next engagement.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: Or maybe you dial it down and you take a
project or two.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: So yeah, there are some benefits to, you
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KAREN SWIM, APR: know, doing this?
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MICHELLE KANE: Definitely, definitely.
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MICHELLE KANE: And I, you know, I think it's definitely
worth,
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MICHELLE KANE: you know, worth looking into especially,
you know,
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MICHELLE KANE: it reminds me of I always used to be a car
buyer.
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MICHELLE KANE: I buy my cars. I do not lease,
I own them.
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MICHELLE KANE: Well, truth be told, after a few owning I'd
owned it for a month and then I'd want that
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MICHELLE KANE: nice big fat warranty back.
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MICHELLE KANE: And the thing that's not going to give me a
problem that isn't covered right. And I'll
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MICHELLE KANE: never forget the day the one salesman,
you know, kindly called me on it.
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MICHELLE KANE: He goes, you don't own this one.
248
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MICHELLE KANE: I'm like, shut up. Don't,
don't point out my buying thing.
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MICHELLE KANE: So you know all that to say.
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MICHELLE KANE: You you may already be operating this way and
you just didn't sit back to go,
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MICHELLE KANE: oh Yeah, I do.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: Yeah. So but when you market yourself that
way,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: that means you're attracting a different
buyer,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: right? Looking for.
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MICHELLE KANE: Exactly.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: That's looking for that model.
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MICHELLE KANE: Right, right. So, so yeah,
you better be ready to deliver it if you're
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MICHELLE KANE: actually going to take that step and name it.
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MICHELLE KANE: Well, there's always a quiet one.
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MICHELLE KANE: There's always a quiet pushback.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: Yeah. So I think it's what if a client asks
what actually makes me different from any
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KAREN SWIM, APR: other consultant, and I don't have a real
answer beyond the title?
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MICHELLE KANE: Oh. Well, that brings us back to if,
if you're going to name it,
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MICHELLE KANE: you got to be ready to back it up.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: You nailed it.
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MICHELLE KANE: Can't just pretend.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: Yeah. You can't say
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SPEAKER 3: That's what we're doing now.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: So it's like, I like the word.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: Got it will work for LinkedIn.
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MICHELLE KANE: It makes me sound official.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: Right. It has to be more than a label.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: It really has to be. It has to be a real
change in how you scope out work,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: what your structure is,
how you price your time.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: It can't just be like this rebrand of what
you're already doing.
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MICHELLE KANE: Right, right. So. We always love a little
lens,
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MICHELLE KANE: a little filter. Let's walk everybody through
a way to actually decide if this is right for
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MICHELLE KANE: them. Instead of saying, yeah, that word
sounds good.
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MICHELLE KANE: Let's slap it on there.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: Yeah. Yeah. So here's a couple things.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: Like one, one thing that you can do is ask
yourself,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: can I honestly commit a defined chunk of
weekly hours to so ten,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: 20, maybe even 32 hours to a small number of
clients rather than juggling a lot of
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KAREN SWIM, APR: small ones?
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MICHELLE KANE: Yeah. You know? Okay. Number two.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: I think you have to be honest and look at
your,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: you know, experience. Have you ever operated
at a senior strategic level where you own the
288
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KAREN SWIM, APR: outcomes? This is important because as yeah,
PR consultants,
289
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KAREN SWIM, APR: we own our outcomes. But this would be a
little bit broader.
290
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KAREN SWIM, APR: So you're not just executing tasks so that
somebody else is actually scoped for you.
291
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KAREN SWIM, APR: So you need to be honest about that.
292
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MICHELLE KANE: Yeah, definitely. Definitely.
293
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MICHELLE KANE: And then question three.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: I think this is really important.
295
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KAREN SWIM, APR: Does the pricing range work for you?
296
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KAREN SWIM, APR: Yeah. So if you're looking at 8 to 20 000 a
month territory or 200 plus an hour,
297
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KAREN SWIM, APR: does that make sense for the size of the
client that you're targeting?
298
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KAREN SWIM, APR: So that's really useful information and you
need to really factor that in.
299
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MICHELLE KANE: Definitely, definitely.
300
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MICHELLE KANE: Because, you know, again,
since this is a Silicon Valley term,
301
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MICHELLE KANE: they have those Silicon Valley budgets and
not every business is going to have that.
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MICHELLE KANE: But it doesn't mean if this is the way that
you want to start working,
303
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MICHELLE KANE: that you can't make it happen with clients
with smaller budgets,
304
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MICHELLE KANE: you know, and, and for many of us,
maybe your ongoing relationships.
305
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MICHELLE KANE: It makes sense to, you know,
it doesn't have to be a huge pivot right
306
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MICHELLE KANE: away. Right? So let's run the drill.
307
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MICHELLE KANE: Let's say a listener has done in-house comms
for a midsize healthcare
308
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MICHELLE KANE: company for six years.
309
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KAREN SWIM, APR: Okay.
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MICHELLE KANE: They went solo 18 months ago,
and right now they're juggling about five
311
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MICHELLE KANE: smaller, smaller, retained clients at
different rates.
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KAREN SWIM, APR: Okay. So spreading yourself across a bunch of
clients is exhausting.
313
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KAREN SWIM, APR: It requires you to do that context switching
a lot during the course of a day or the
314
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KAREN SWIM, APR: course of a week. And it requires just an
incredible workflow to just really be able to
315
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KAREN SWIM, APR: manage everyone's objectives and be sure that
you're,
316
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KAREN SWIM, APR: you know, giving your clients the time that
is due them per the scope of work in the
317
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KAREN SWIM, APR: budget. So I think that,
you know, as you are looking at this,
318
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KAREN SWIM, APR: you would just say, okay,
what's my weekly capacity for a small number
319
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KAREN SWIM, APR: of clients And if you restructured and you
were going to consolidate down to like 2 or 3
320
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KAREN SWIM, APR: bigger, more defined engagements.
321
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KAREN SWIM, APR: So that's, you know, again,
seeing, is this label going to fit the way
322
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KAREN SWIM, APR: that I realistically can work?
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MICHELLE KANE: Right, right. Okay. Now let's move this
theoretical person through.
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MICHELLE KANE: Question two, their senior strategic
experience.
325
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KAREN SWIM, APR: Yeah. I mean, I would say that if you have,
you know,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: six years running healthcare comms in-house,
that's exactly the kind of background that
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KAREN SWIM, APR: supports a director level claim credibly.
328
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KAREN SWIM, APR: And we know that many in our audience
actually left corporate America with director
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KAREN SWIM, APR: and higher titles. So,
you know, a lot of our audience qualifies.
330
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KAREN SWIM, APR: But for those who may have been,
you know, mid-career or earlier stage career
331
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KAREN SWIM, APR: before they went solo,
this is, you know, for you that this is not
332
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KAREN SWIM, APR: out of your reach either.
333
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MICHELLE KANE: True. So true. And then,
of course, does the pricing range fit,
334
00:21:01.590 --> 00:21:02.990
MICHELLE KANE: you know, your clients?
335
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KAREN SWIM, APR: I mean, so if you have five clients,
if even 2 or 3 of them are midsize
336
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KAREN SWIM, APR: organizations, midsize or large organizations
that could pay you the rate of a fractional,
337
00:21:16.990 --> 00:21:18.750
KAREN SWIM, APR: that is a real pathway.
338
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KAREN SWIM, APR: Because otherwise, now you're looking at,
you know,
339
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KAREN SWIM, APR: winding down with the clients that you have
and reaching to,
340
00:21:29.230 --> 00:21:32.230
KAREN SWIM, APR: you know, change your structure by finding
new clients.
341
00:21:32.270 --> 00:21:35.110
KAREN SWIM, APR: Nothing wrong with that,
but that's just a little bit of a longer
342
00:21:35.110 --> 00:21:40.470
KAREN SWIM, APR: pathway. And it needs to be very intentional
and it needs to be very strategic.
343
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KAREN SWIM, APR: So, but if if you're somebody who works with,
344
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KAREN SWIM, APR: you know, small local clients that are on
tighter budgets or maybe small start ups,
345
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KAREN SWIM, APR: and that's what you love to do,
fractional is more aspirational than,
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KAREN SWIM, APR: you know, for a future client base.
347
00:21:56.510 --> 00:22:00.670
KAREN SWIM, APR: It's, it's maybe not the current pathway that
you should take right now.
348
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MICHELLE KANE: Yeah. So, you know, like with anything like
with,
349
00:22:03.590 --> 00:22:07.030
MICHELLE KANE: you know, we experience this so often with
our business development.
350
00:22:07.070 --> 00:22:08.790
MICHELLE KANE: Yeah. You know, it's not a straight line.
351
00:22:08.790 --> 00:22:11.710
MICHELLE KANE: It's a roadmap. And as we know,
these things take time.
352
00:22:11.710 --> 00:22:14.830
MICHELLE KANE: So that gives you the time to work through
it,
353
00:22:14.870 --> 00:22:19.910
MICHELLE KANE: you know, try, you know,
creating new relationships and,
354
00:22:19.910 --> 00:22:21.390
MICHELLE KANE: and see where it goes.
355
00:22:21.910 --> 00:22:26.270
KAREN SWIM, APR: You're 100%. I think it's,
you know, I think it's more about,
356
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KAREN SWIM, APR: you know, thinking through how you're
positioning yourself,
357
00:22:29.990 --> 00:22:34.350
KAREN SWIM, APR: right? So this is a positioning decision,
not yeah.
358
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MICHELLE KANE: Agree, agree. And, you know,
as we know, even though what we do is very
359
00:22:39.830 --> 00:22:44.390
MICHELLE KANE: nuts and bolts, many people out there in
other businesses still don't understand what
360
00:22:44.390 --> 00:22:50.950
MICHELLE KANE: it is. So sometimes this,
this, you know, term does help them at least
361
00:22:50.950 --> 00:22:55.550
MICHELLE KANE: get it. So anyway, before we wrap,
let's tie this back.
362
00:22:55.550 --> 00:23:00.460
MICHELLE KANE: Why? Why does this matter beyond just one
line on our website?
363
00:23:00.860 --> 00:23:04.260
KAREN SWIM, APR: Yeah, I think it's because how we describe
our own work,
364
00:23:04.260 --> 00:23:09.740
KAREN SWIM, APR: like as you just, you know,
started to is it shapes what we're allowed to
365
00:23:09.780 --> 00:23:11.300
KAREN SWIM, APR: charge for it, right? Yeah.
366
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MICHELLE KANE: True.
367
00:23:12.020 --> 00:23:16.620
KAREN SWIM, APR: And again, many solos,
you know, out of habit,
368
00:23:16.660 --> 00:23:21.380
KAREN SWIM, APR: out of fear, really do underprice what what
the market actually will bear.
369
00:23:21.380 --> 00:23:26.540
KAREN SWIM, APR: So, you know, when I tell people,
like, why aren't you charging $300 an hour,
370
00:23:26.740 --> 00:23:30.860
KAREN SWIM, APR: even if you're not charging hourly prices,
why isn't that not mapping back?
371
00:23:31.220 --> 00:23:34.380
KAREN SWIM, APR: That sometimes scares the life out of people,
372
00:23:34.380 --> 00:23:36.940
KAREN SWIM, APR: and it gives them a stomach cramp because
they're afraid to
373
00:23:36.940 --> 00:23:38.100
KAREN SWIM, APR: do that. So I think.
374
00:23:38.100 --> 00:23:38.420
MICHELLE KANE: That's.
375
00:23:38.420 --> 00:23:43.900
KAREN SWIM, APR: True. This is a good way to,
you know, if you use this label honestly,
376
00:23:43.940 --> 00:23:48.780
KAREN SWIM, APR: it does force you to have a real conversation
about capacity and value.
377
00:23:49.340 --> 00:23:52.900
KAREN SWIM, APR: And, you know, a lot of avoid those
conversations with ourselves.
378
00:23:52.900 --> 00:23:54.900
KAREN SWIM, APR: We'd rather just kind of plug along.
379
00:23:56.970 --> 00:23:58.490
SPEAKER 4: Yeah. We would. Why are you looking at me?
380
00:23:59.930 --> 00:24:02.450
MICHELLE KANE: And and, you know, and another thought,
honestly,
381
00:24:02.450 --> 00:24:04.690
MICHELLE KANE: we see this popping up in our world.
382
00:24:04.730 --> 00:24:06.690
MICHELLE KANE: You know, what we do is a profession.
383
00:24:06.690 --> 00:24:09.330
MICHELLE KANE: It's nuanced. It takes years of experience.
384
00:24:09.330 --> 00:24:10.890
MICHELLE KANE: And I'm not slamming new people.
385
00:24:10.890 --> 00:24:15.450
MICHELLE KANE: But you see people popping up with their
laptop and a Canva account calling themselves
386
00:24:15.450 --> 00:24:21.010
MICHELLE KANE: communications pros. And anyway,
I'm going to go do brain surgery because I
387
00:24:21.050 --> 00:24:22.330
MICHELLE KANE: once held a sharp knife.
388
00:24:22.330 --> 00:24:25.130
MICHELLE KANE: That's. But that's, that's my gripe for
another day.
389
00:24:25.130 --> 00:24:28.290
MICHELLE KANE: But yeah, so we really do all that to say.
390
00:24:28.290 --> 00:24:32.530
MICHELLE KANE: We do need to own our skills and our
seasoning and
391
00:24:33.090 --> 00:24:34.890
MICHELLE KANE: yeah, our profession.
392
00:24:35.170 --> 00:24:38.250
KAREN SWIM, APR: I agree, and I, you know,
we always say this,
393
00:24:38.250 --> 00:24:42.730
KAREN SWIM, APR: but, you know, just remember that none of
this has to happen in like a little bubble,
394
00:24:43.130 --> 00:24:46.330
KAREN SWIM, APR: that it is really good,
you know, within your networking groups,
395
00:24:46.330 --> 00:24:50.370
KAREN SWIM, APR: among your peers, you know,
with colleagues to stress test some of this
396
00:24:50.370 --> 00:24:53.010
KAREN SWIM, APR: thinking, you know, talk it out with somebody
else,
397
00:24:53.010 --> 00:24:58.130
KAREN SWIM, APR: talk to, you know, another PR pro who has
made that,
398
00:24:58.170 --> 00:25:01.410
KAREN SWIM, APR: you know, shift to being fractional and get
some real insight.
399
00:25:01.450 --> 00:25:05.890
KAREN SWIM, APR: I mean, I feel like networking with
fractional CMOs is smart too,
400
00:25:05.930 --> 00:25:09.290
KAREN SWIM, APR: because they can give you a lens on it on,
you know,
401
00:25:09.330 --> 00:25:12.530
KAREN SWIM, APR: how, what this really feels like from day to
day.
402
00:25:12.730 --> 00:25:19.330
KAREN SWIM, APR: And I mean, I'm going to tell you honestly
that I've seen a lot of fractional CMOs and
403
00:25:19.370 --> 00:25:22.970
KAREN SWIM, APR: CMO as opposed to PR,
but, you know, adjacent because we work
404
00:25:22.970 --> 00:25:28.850
KAREN SWIM, APR: directly with them that have done this for a
while and they're not immune to burnout and
405
00:25:28.850 --> 00:25:31.210
KAREN SWIM, APR: wanting to just make a whole different shift.
406
00:25:31.210 --> 00:25:34.210
KAREN SWIM, APR: And there's a lot of business development
involved,
407
00:25:34.410 --> 00:25:39.530
KAREN SWIM, APR: and there's a lot of corporateness to the
whole thing.
408
00:25:40.090 --> 00:25:42.370
KAREN SWIM, APR: So really be realistic about that.
409
00:25:42.370 --> 00:25:47.730
KAREN SWIM, APR: And I say this, and I think everybody in this
audience knows what that means.
410
00:25:47.770 --> 00:25:52.290
KAREN SWIM, APR: Now, if you're somebody,
you know, like me, I could do with less of
411
00:25:52.290 --> 00:25:55.130
KAREN SWIM, APR: the corporateness. I don't want to do the
politics.
412
00:25:55.130 --> 00:25:58.040
KAREN SWIM, APR: I don't want to Oversee a ton of people.
413
00:25:58.040 --> 00:26:03.520
KAREN SWIM, APR: I don't want to do charts and graphs and
reports that report on the report that report
414
00:26:03.520 --> 00:26:05.960
KAREN SWIM, APR: on the report. I don't want to be in meetings
all day,
415
00:26:05.960 --> 00:26:08.400
KAREN SWIM, APR: and I don't want to be pinged all day on
Slack.
416
00:26:09.040 --> 00:26:11.520
KAREN SWIM, APR: Fractional is probably not the direction that
I'm going.
417
00:26:13.200 --> 00:26:15.000
MICHELLE KANE: All the rah rah emails.
418
00:26:15.440 --> 00:26:21.240
MICHELLE KANE: That was great. Yeah. Well,
and you know, and of course,
419
00:26:21.240 --> 00:26:24.400
MICHELLE KANE: if you want to talk this through,
there's always our group,
420
00:26:24.640 --> 00:26:28.720
MICHELLE KANE: our membership group at solo PR Pro,
this is where we hash this stuff out,
421
00:26:28.760 --> 00:26:32.640
MICHELLE KANE: you know, and talk about it and have the
honest conversations.
422
00:26:32.640 --> 00:26:39.200
MICHELLE KANE: And, you know, you can always email us
directly at that solo.com.
423
00:26:39.200 --> 00:26:42.880
MICHELLE KANE: Hit us up. We're happy to chat things through
with you too.
424
00:26:42.920 --> 00:26:47.120
MICHELLE KANE: That's, that's what we're all here for. We're
here to help each other do well,
425
00:26:47.360 --> 00:26:50.880
MICHELLE KANE: earn a good living, and have success in our
own
426
00:26:50.880 --> 00:26:52.120
MICHELLE KANE: way. Right?
427
00:26:52.840 --> 00:26:54.720
SPEAKER 5: That just gave me the biggest exhale.
428
00:26:54.760 --> 00:26:55.960
SPEAKER 5: I love that, Michelle.
429
00:26:56.120 --> 00:26:57.920
MICHELLE KANE: Well, it's a it's it's a goal.
430
00:26:59.360 --> 00:27:01.080
MICHELLE KANE: Well that's it for this one.
431
00:27:01.120 --> 00:27:03.760
MICHELLE KANE: Of course, you know, show notes,
our sourcing breakdown,
432
00:27:03.760 --> 00:27:07.160
MICHELLE KANE: all the stats. We were trusting they're going
to be in there.
433
00:27:07.280 --> 00:27:11.880
MICHELLE KANE: Back to our suspension episode which we
talked about at the top of this one is all
434
00:27:11.920 --> 00:27:15.200
MICHELLE KANE: going to be there for you with that solo
life.com.
435
00:27:15.320 --> 00:27:19.680
MICHELLE KANE: Please do share this around if you got
anything from it.
436
00:27:19.680 --> 00:27:25.360
MICHELLE KANE: And hey, hit us up with some reviews too so
we can attract more fun solos to the party.
437
00:27:25.840 --> 00:27:26.960
SPEAKER 5: Absolutely.
438
00:27:26.960 --> 00:27:29.920
KAREN SWIM, APR: Thanks, Michelle. It's been great being with
you today.
439
00:27:29.920 --> 00:27:31.080
KAREN SWIM, APR: Thank you. Audience.
440
00:27:31.360 --> 00:27:34.320
MICHELLE KANE: Yes, yes, definitely. Until next time.
441
00:27:34.320 --> 00:27:36.360
MICHELLE KANE: Thanks for listening to that solo life.
STYLE
::cue(v[voice="Michelle Kane"]) { color: white }
::cue(v[voice="Karen Swim, APR"]) { color: lime }
::cue(v[voice="Speaker 3"]) { color: cyan }
::cue(v[voice="Speaker 4"]) { color: red }
::cue(v[voice="Speaker 5"]) { color: yellow }
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communications director on my website
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finally sounding as senior as I am?
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some Silicon Valley CMO?
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I think.
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today.
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the podcast for independent PR and
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business,
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PR Pro.
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voice matters.
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which is awesome.
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but it's cool when it's just us. Hopefully
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you know,
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Economy episode.
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check it out.
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business,
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charge for it.
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exploring today is,
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and position yourself as a fractional
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fractional, you know,
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agency of one or a micro agency.
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I'm sure some of you are out there rolling
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title.
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you know, it's okay.
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else to use it.
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interesting discussion. There's,
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about,
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CMOs.
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but I, you know,
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you know,
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just tried stuff that's been around forever.
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the useful stuff and have a real
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everything, everything we source is in our
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yeah.
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what's it called go fractional and it
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public relations specifically the 2026 data
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hours a week.
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that's not a light touch.
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for one client,
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32 hours is probably more.
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then we can handle.
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we don't do the 40 hour work week.
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billable hours and then there's billable
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that's really all of your billable time.
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you know, it's not like I do a bit of PR for
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time head of communications and you get a
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which is actually kind of how I work with one
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but I'm the de facto marketing rep.
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number and they'll fall over.
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right.
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the broader fractional CMO data,
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you know,
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like,
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hourly around two to 2 to 350.
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really looking at this almost like a a job.
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like I've known fractional CMOs that have had
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couple of,
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not a lot.
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sphere,
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it's, it is, as I alluded to before,
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us are able to charge,
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some ways or.
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you know, and we learned this way back at a
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I think,
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years that most solo PR pros do.
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accurately for your expertise and your value
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when some of the solos are thinking about,
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like,
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am I worthy of that number?
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fractional and what most solo PR pros are
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conversation to have.
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label lets you charge inside that range,
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you know, semantics.
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taking that the next step,
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right?
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or potential clients?
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thinking,
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point.
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right?
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name or,
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you know,
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thing.
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want to.
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than 30% of midsize enterprises will keep at
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2027.
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35 rising to 48%,
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there's, it's hard to find some hard facts
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I think the best way to research this is to
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industries you serve and see,
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and are people open to it?
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hey, have you guys ever considered,
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about yet either.
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engagement.
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for solos, we often have engagements that can
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15 years or longer.
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engagements.
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sometimes they're shorter than that because
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specific growth spurt.
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a six month engagement.
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comfortable with.
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you know, we're looking at this from all
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oh, that sounds so impressive.
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so we're keeping it real for everybody,
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you know, the questions,
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ignore things that are happening.
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that is a fit for what you're doing.
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fractional.
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and I love even how you said that to look at
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it's possible. I mean, isn't that what we all
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that.
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doing this?
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this is just a trendy label for freelancer or
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not substance.
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and that's fair because you know, a lot of
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LinkedIn headline without changing anything
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because they think,
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moment in
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right? We've been here with the cute titles.
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there's fractional CEOs,
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companies wanting to hire,
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that function in that role,
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engagement.
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fractional execs with lightning quick speed.
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through three fractional CMOs in a year.
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sort of test as a pathway to permanent.
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growth startups that really are,
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you know,
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but they want people to do
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well, gosh, I don't have,
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background,
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level fractional title?
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overselling yourself.
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get in our own way of diminishing the value
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find the source,
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about Dolly Parton and the lessons learned
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some rude things like,
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defensive about it,
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of the comments.
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but leaned in and redirected it and made it
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wrote the book talked about how we all should
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CEO,
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but then you can counter back with,
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which actually makes me a great candidate for
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and from a different perspective.
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something that you feel like you can't fail.
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results that you know they want,
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director or higher level fractional title.
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because we're not wearing power suits here at
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walking into specific types of rented,
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thinking doing the same kind of thought
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you know?
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objection. The third one,
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you know, won't clients expect a fixed weekly
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sustain across multiple clients,
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you know,
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and it's, it's a very valid objection because
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you know,
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you know,
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company is set up.
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the assumption and the way that many people
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fewer clients.
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you know, different clients at a time.
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you know,
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other engagement.
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load with just,
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business.
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that.
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that likes to build in natural breaks,
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you know,
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projects because they are projects,
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projects and you can space them out.
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getting, you know,
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but then you have the benefit of maybe taking
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project or two.
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worth,
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you know,
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buyer.
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I own them.
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owned it for a month and then I'd want that
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problem that isn't covered right. And I'll
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you know, kindly called me on it.
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don't point out my buying thing.
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you just didn't sit back to go,
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way,
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buyer,
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you better be ready to deliver it if you're
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what actually makes me different from any
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answer beyond the title?
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if you're going to name it,
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change in how you scope out work,
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how you price your time.
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you're already doing.
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lens,
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a way to actually decide if this is right for
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sounds good.
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yourself,
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weekly hours to so ten,
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clients rather than juggling a lot of
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your,
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at a senior strategic level where you own the
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PR consultants,
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little bit broader.
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somebody else is actually scoped for you.
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month territory or 200 plus an hour,
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client that you're targeting?
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need to really factor that in.
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300
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since this is a Silicon Valley term,
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not every business is going to have that.
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you want to start working,
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with smaller budgets,
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maybe your ongoing relationships.
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it doesn't have to be a huge pivot right
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for a midsize healthcare
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and right now they're juggling about five
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different rates.
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clients is exhausting.
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a lot during the course of a day or the
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incredible workflow to just really be able to
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you're,
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is due them per the scope of work in the
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you know, as you are looking at this,
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what's my weekly capacity for a small number
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were going to consolidate down to like 2 or 3
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321
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seeing, is this label going to fit the way
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theoretical person through.
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experience.
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you know,
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that's exactly the kind of background that
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328
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actually left corporate America with director
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you know, a lot of our audience qualifies.
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you know, mid-career or earlier stage career
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this is, you know, for you that this is not
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333
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of course, does the pricing range fit,
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if even 2 or 3 of them are midsize
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that could pay you the rate of a fractional,
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you know,
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and reaching to,
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new clients.
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but that's just a little bit of a longer
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and it needs to be very strategic.
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tighter budgets or maybe small start ups,
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fractional is more aspirational than,
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you should take right now.
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with,
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our business development.
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these things take time.
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it,
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creating new relationships and,
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you know, I think it's more about,
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positioning yourself,
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not yeah.
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as we know, even though what we do is very
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other businesses still don't understand what
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this, you know, term does help them at least
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let's tie this back.
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line on our website?
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our own work,
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started to is it shapes what we're allowed to
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366
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367
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you know, out of habit,
368
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the market actually will bear.
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like, why aren't you charging $300 an hour,
370
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why isn't that not mapping back?
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372
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they're afraid to
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374
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375
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you know, if you use this label honestly,
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about capacity and value.
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conversations with ourselves.
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379
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380
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honestly,
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382
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383
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384
00:24:09.330 --> 00:24:10.890
385
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laptop and a Canva account calling themselves
386
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I'm going to go do brain surgery because I
387
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388
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another day.
389
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390
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seasoning and
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392
00:24:35.170 --> 00:24:38.250
we always say this,
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this has to happen in like a little bubble,
394
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you know, within your networking groups,
395
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with colleagues to stress test some of this
396
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else,
397
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made that,
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some real insight.
399
00:25:01.450 --> 00:25:05.890
fractional CMOs is smart too,
400
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you know,
401
00:25:09.330 --> 00:25:12.530
day.
402
00:25:12.730 --> 00:25:19.330
that I've seen a lot of fractional CMOs and
403
00:25:19.370 --> 00:25:22.970
but, you know, adjacent because we work
404
00:25:22.970 --> 00:25:28.850
while and they're not immune to burnout and
405
00:25:28.850 --> 00:25:31.210
406
00:25:31.210 --> 00:25:34.210
involved,
407
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whole thing.
408
00:25:40.090 --> 00:25:42.370
409
00:25:42.370 --> 00:25:47.730
audience knows what that means.
410
00:25:47.770 --> 00:25:52.290
you know, like me, I could do with less of
411
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politics.
412
00:25:55.130 --> 00:25:58.040
413
00:25:58.040 --> 00:26:03.520
reports that report on the report that report
414
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all day,
415
00:26:05.960 --> 00:26:08.400
Slack.
416
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I'm going.
417
00:26:13.200 --> 00:26:15.000
418
00:26:15.440 --> 00:26:21.240
and you know, and of course,
419
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there's always our group,
420
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this is where we hash this stuff out,
421
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honest conversations.
422
00:26:32.640 --> 00:26:39.200
directly at that solo.com.
423
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with you too.
424
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here to help each other do well,
425
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own
426
00:26:50.880 --> 00:26:52.120
427
00:26:52.840 --> 00:26:54.720
428
00:26:54.760 --> 00:26:55.960
429
00:26:56.120 --> 00:26:57.920
430
00:26:59.360 --> 00:27:01.080
431
00:27:01.120 --> 00:27:03.760
our sourcing breakdown,
432
00:27:03.760 --> 00:27:07.160
to be in there.
433
00:27:07.280 --> 00:27:11.880
talked about at the top of this one is all
434
00:27:11.920 --> 00:27:15.200
life.com.
435
00:27:15.320 --> 00:27:19.680
anything from it.
436
00:27:19.680 --> 00:27:25.360
we can attract more fun solos to the party.
437
00:27:25.840 --> 00:27:26.960
438
00:27:26.960 --> 00:27:29.920
you today.
439
00:27:29.920 --> 00:27:31.080
440
00:27:31.360 --> 00:27:34.320
441
00:27:34.320 --> 00:27:36.360