Nobody teaches founders how to buy marketing leadership.
What it costs — with real numbers and named sources. Every option, including the ones that aren’t me. The questions to ask all of us. And how to tell when the answer isn’t a fractional CMO at all.
Written by someone who sells this, with the parts that cost me something left in.
Forty minutes if you want all of it. Three if you don’t. Nothing in it is sequential — every part stands alone, and the answer comes before the reasoning.
Where should I send it?
Straight to your inbox. You’ll also get The Wiring, my weekly note on marketing that actually moves revenue. Unsubscribe whenever — no hard feelings.
What’s actually in it
What problem do you actually have?
Five situations that feel identical from the inside. Only one is solved by hiring marketing leadership — and sorting that out may save you the entire purchase.
Every option, compared honestly
Full-time, managed firms, methodology firms, vertical boutiques, marketplaces, independents. Who each is genuinely better for — named, with prices.
What it costs
Real ranges by commitment and by revenue, every figure attributed — including how much to trust each source, and my own prices.
What a full-time CMO really costs
Built from BLS and IRS primaries to survive a line-by-line challenge. Roughly $371,600 in year one — plus four months with the seat empty.
Eighteen questions to ask
Including several I’d have to answer carefully. Ask the three you’re most reluctant to ask first.
The coffee date
Buy a small piece of paid work before you buy a year of it. Whether the two of you can think together isn’t a soft factor — it’s most of the job.
This is meant to be enjoyable. Not homework. Not an audit. Nobody is grading it, there’s no score at the end, and you have my full permission to skip anything that bores you.
Every part ends with a few questions, and they get harder as the book goes on. Nobody reads your answers — which makes it the cheapest place in the world to be honest, and the only real rehearsal you’ll get before you’re having this conversation for actual money.
It ends with a one-page summary you fill in and carry into every conversation on your shortlist. Hand it over at the start. A good operator will engage with it immediately and probably challenge two of your answers.
Watch which two.
Built for how you actually read
- Nothing is sequential. Every part stands alone. Jump anywhere.
- The answer comes first. Every part opens with its conclusion in one line.
- Bold is load-bearing. Read only the bold and you’ll still have the argument.
- Three minutes gets you the questions in Part 2. Fifteen gets you Parts 2 and 8. Forty gets you all of it.
You’re wired differently. That isn’t a thing to manage around — it’s most of the reason there’s a company here at all. It also means a lot is competing for your attention, so this was built to respect that.
One thing you should know
I run a fractional CMO practice, so I have a stake in what you decide. I wrote this the way I’d have wanted it written for me — which means it points somewhere other than me more than once.
I want this model to work for you. Even if it isn’t with me.
Where should I send it?
Free. No call required, no sales sequence, unsubscribe whenever.