Marketers of Technology
00:07:58 · Andres Figuera
[00:07:58] S1: Of course. Of course. And, Matt, you mentioned at the beginning that you had some pros and cons about being a fractional CMO or CRO. Would you be able to tell us a bit more about that, please?
00:08:06 · Matthew Lattanzio
[00:08:06] S0: Yeah. Absolutely. It's lonely. I'll say that more than anything else. Like, when you have a good day, you have no one to tell. When you have a bad day, you have no one to tell. My wife gets most of, like, my my, like, feeder around how the business is going, but she has no context to what I do. So she'll say, like, good job, babe. But I don't really have that, like, that buzz that you come out of a great sales meeting and you know you're gonna close this big account and the team on the sales force sort of buzzing around and you get that kind of energy from other folks. So you need to self motivate, and you need to be mentally and physically healthy, I think, to be able to stay focused and keep that motivation up when you are having a slump in sales or a down month. I'd say there is volatility. I haven't experienced a lot of it yet. I had a few slower months, but generally every month has been pretty consistent or better than the last. But peers of mine have seen a lot of volatility in the business and sometimes you're working... You're making all of your money in six months of the year and that you have to kind of account for that. Right? So you need to ensure that you're sort of, like, balancing and projecting properly. And then I do miss sort of, like, operating with an executive team and having peers. That's another thing. Not just having a team that I can manage and being able to be a mentor, but I do miss, like, working with really great peers that I respect, and we're kind of rowing together, and we're on the same mission together. My clients are peers. Like, the CEOs that I work with, treat as peers, but it's just not the same energy as being an operator full time. And I think you have to just... That is some of the trade offs that you have to make versus fractional life. I'd say financially, I'd say, no question, fractional life has been better. I know it's like, I don't get it... I won't get into specifics, but it is much more lucrative, I'd say, as someone who wants to get into this business if you're doing it right. But, yeah, those are some of the trade offs. Like, flexibility is great. Again, I have two young kids. I I wanna be accessible to at all times. So I'm my own boss. I can make my own hours. And and on the flip side, I have five bosses that I have to work with.
00:09:57 · Matthew Lattanzio
I'd say the last thing is, like, every c c suite executive that I know has worked for a psychotic CEO at some point in their life. Someone who just made their life miserable and just, like, had a awful experience with. Even if I do get one of those, it's one of five, and I can... It's not as critical, I'd say. So even when you are working with a challenging personality, it doesn't hit so close to home and you're not so kinda stressed out about it because you could... I I have fired clients who haven't been a good fit, and you can do that in a fractional business and it won't derail your life or lifestyle. So you get to be choosy of who you work with. I've made mistakes too. Like, I've had clients that were a bad fit and I should not have maybe signed them, and I've learned from that. But I'd say, overall, that's sort of one of the the trade offs as as well as that.
00:10:40 · Andres Figuera
[00:10:40] S1: No. And I can only imagine because when you're just working for a company and you're hired full time by then, then you're just, like, kinda married to them for as long as you stay there. So if you have just one CEO that isn't that good of a person or that good of a fit with how you work, I can understand how it can get a bit stressful or not be such a good situation. But, also, man, when you mentioned that maybe you could just maybe making your money six months a year from the year and then have to really just generate demand or see what else you do, respect for that. Because if you have a family and you're still doing well and being able to progress with the fractional CMO stint, it's amazing, dude. And another question I do have, Matt, is how are you generating demand for what you're offering with with the consulting?
00:11:20 · Matthew Lattanzio
[00:11:20] S0: Yeah. It's a good... I'm actually still learning, like, what channels are effective for my business. I'd say the first year, I was humbled that I was very busy. Like, I was turning down clients. I was... As soon as I sort of waved my flag and said I was taking on some consulting work, it was all inbound. And it's still to this day, I'd say most of my my business comes inbound. It's... And sometimes it's very short sales cycles that I didn't prospect into, had no awareness of the account, and someone will reach out and ask for some time, and then I'll sign the client in a week. Other times, it takes six months to get a deal signed, and it's a deal that I've prospected. And you're laboring over it and having to really play chess with them. I do a lot of LinkedIn content. I have some content pillars around family life and work life balance, and that seems to resonate really well with my audience. I think I can attribute that to, like, some of the inbound that I've generated just due to my LinkedIn presence because most of my inbound does come directly from LinkedIn. I was a little bit cocky the first year. I had no website for the first year, and I was trying to see how long I could go without actually having a website. Over the summer in a slow period, I did build one finally, but I had zero inbound still to this day from the website. No one has booked a meeting from my website to this day, and I don't know that will become a kind of a channel for me. I've tried some trade shows. I've attended trade shows with my clients and then also cartel time for prospecting. That's been good for pipeline, but it's funny. Like, I'd say most of the business that I've closed, some of the bigger, longer engagements that I've closed have been inbound. Just folks reaching out to me directly, which is not something you can just wait around and wait for. I don't do any paid advertising. Most of the work I do is either through... I'd say last name, referrals is a good one. I think I know a lot of other fractionals and peers who maybe they're not a fit for the account, and they'll forward it over to me and vice versa. I'd say referrals have also been, I think, a really good source, and that's just through my network that I've built through my career.
00:13:05 · Andres Figuera
[00:13:05] S1: Now... And if you're obtaining referrals and obtaining clients through referrals, that means that you're doing something right with the clients that you're working with at the moment, and that just speaks to the nice job that you're doing with them. And having that organic way of generating more demand is always nice because if somebody's speaking well about you and then you're able to really work with somebody else due to that, it's like everything's going well there.