The Fractional C-Suite Retreat
 

The Fractional C-Suite Retreat

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Joseph Frost, Co-Founder of yorCMO, hosts this exclusive retreat for executives to unwind and hear from their peers about new opportunities and innovations in the C-Suite.

Episodes

A Rock and a Plan - Fractional C-Suite Retreat - Episode # 005

Tuesday Dec 21, 2021

Tuesday Dec 21, 2021

Sharon Means, Fractional Integrator/COO at Entrepreneurial Advisory Institute, has been a CPA for over 30 years. She helps to keep companies on track with their goals and has proven expertise in driving efficiency and productivity through evaluation of financial management systems. She joins host Joseph Frost to discuss what life is like in the c-suite and what some new opportunities are for fractional professionals.

 

Takeaways 

  • With the Great Resignation period that we are going through right now, it’s actually a good time to find people that are looking for work that can better suit your company and move the needle in the right direction.
  • There is a lot more opportunity for people to shift into different roles or jobs now because of how everyone is looking for new work opportunities.
  • You can use EOS tools to better understand what roles work better for people to put them in the best position to succeed.
  • When a fractional professional comes in, it’s not that they are coming in to hold people accountable but rather be more cooperative and encourage positive discourse. 
  • You need a three year plan or a five year plan when it comes to a company. That is one thing companies think isn’t important but it puts a deadline on goals and helps motivate employees to achieve them.
  • You want to make sure that everyone you hire represents your core values and is a fit in your company, that goes for fractional professionals as well.
  • A fractional person can help a company that is bogged down and get them moving again. Some fresh insight can really help get things going again.

 

 

Quote of the Show:

 

12:58 “The first thing that I try to do is lead with how can I help you? What can we do for you? I think that that builds trust.

And then we eventually get to a place where we're holding leadership meetings that are very candid and fluid. We have some nice discourse with people agreeing, not agreeing, but getting to a good result.” 



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The Fractional Innovator - Fractional C-Suite Retreat - Episode # 004

Tuesday Dec 14, 2021

Tuesday Dec 14, 2021

With over 8 years of experience with high-technology and business, today’s guest has worked with some of the largest media technology companies in Europe and the U.S. Mo Hossain is now the Fractional CTO at Data Up. Mo joins host Joseph Frost, to discuss ways that those in the C-suite can be more innovative, such as having companies hire multiple fractional professionals to get more advice on their company.

 

 

Takeaways 

  • The biggest thing that most C-suites are missing out on right now is that they don’t have enough knowledge in the different areas of their business. 
  • Technology is improving and changing so dramatically that it’s extremely important to stay up to date on it so you can help all your customers better. 
  • It’s a good idea for businesses to have a few different fractional professionals come in and evaluate how they are doing things, that way you get a variety of input and advice.
  • Hiring a full time CTO would cost a lot of money, whereas hiring a fractional person to do that would be cheaper and they get projects and plans done faster.
  • User experience improvements is something that a CTO could get involved in and find the best way to handle it. 
  • Because of the changes in social media and it becoming more and more prominent, fractional professionals are having to learn these skills to better help others understand it.
  • You need to take notice of where the trends are in your industry and adapt to them, otherwise you will be behind. 

 

 

Quote of the Show:

 

5:31 “A lot of times the way a business has taken the approach of having advisors. I think that's another great way of handling this. Like, okay, these are my board of advisors, whether it's another, you know, maybe technical person or some experience with that kind of say, okay, well that thing, you know, maybe it could come up, we could do something in a little different way because I'm not going to say that I'm always right.

I'm not, I think that's okay. It's because we don't have, we don't always know everything that we need to know potentially in the moment that we need it. Right. So having another expertise, another person coming in from a different angle, I think is always really interesting.”



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Results vs Outcomes - The Fractional C-Suite Retreat - Episode # 003

Tuesday Dec 07, 2021

Tuesday Dec 07, 2021

In between being part of her local curling club, baking, and being a podcast host, today’s guest has found time to be the founder of her own company. Deborah Coviello, the Founder of Illumination Partners, LLC and the host of The Drop in CEO Podcast, brings over 20 years of experience in quality and operational excellence to the table to create unique ways to solve issues that are preventing companies from growing. She joins host Joseph Frost to talk about what are some of the latest developments in the c-suite industry, such as how cross training employees in all areas allows them to be more well rounded individuals.

 

Takeaways 

  • The biggest challenge facing c-suites right now is that they are hyper focused on results and that comes at the cost of peace of mind. 
  • There is a difference between results and outcomes. Results only focus on one area rather than getting the whole team together to have an outcome of all the goals combined.
  • You want to make sure your employees are cross trained in all different areas so that they not only are well rounded, but they can help out in all the areas of need.
  • There are risks to every opportunity for c-suite executives, but it’s their job to innovate while trying to mitigate the risks.
  •  The best leaders develop great leaders underneath them. A fractional c-suite executive might be in a better position to create leaders within an organization.
  • Sometimes pulling in an expert into your company is the best thing you can do. You won’t be an expert in everything. 
  • A fractional c-suite executive can drop in and see issues in a more clear sight than most people who are in the company can see them. 

 

 

Quote of the Show:

 

6:32 “You still have to set goals. You still have to measure people. You need to be able to provide feedback, but goals might be different. Are you moving forward? So for instance, I want to make sure that I have people that are cross trained in all the different functions.

So if I need to put more people out there in the sales arena, I can take some of my customer service people. I can bring some people from operations and go face to face with the customer, build a partnering relationship. That's building capability in your organization. So a leading metric you might want to start focusing on or how many people are cross trained in other functions.”




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The Pricing Solution - Fractional C-Suite Retreat - Episode # 002

Tuesday Nov 30, 2021

Tuesday Nov 30, 2021

With plenty of experience working as a c-suite executive, today’s guest is the perfect person to talk about life in the c-suite. Luke Templin is the co-founder, fractional CFO, and profit first coach at a2 Advisors. He sits down with host Joseph Frost, and together they talk about new things that c-suites are facing and ways they can improve their businesses, like through the triple cheeseburger pricing model. 

 

Takeaways 

  • Almost every business has an opportunity to do a subscription model, and that can provide a larger revenue stream. 
  • The triple cheeseburger model; you have three prices where one is no contract and it’s the highest price, then a year contract and a two year contract with lower margins. 
  • Pricing isn’t formulaic, it’s really an art form. People need to realize how to use this art form to make their pricing options better. 
  • To decide if you are priced right, you need to look at your customer and notice what is important to them.
  • Since fractional c-suites work with other businesses, they get to see what worked well and what didn’t work well with other businesses and only carry over best practices.
  • A fractional CFO adds accountability to a company, typically most CPA firms are hesitant to give guidance but a fractional CFO will share their opinion. 
  • 82% of businesses fail because of cashflow. Most owners understand their profit and loss statements well but they struggle to understand the cashflow.

 

 

Quote of the show:

 

2:17 “One thing we put together is, what I call the triple cheeseburger model. So you have three prices, essentially. You have one that's no contract and is the highest possible price. Then you have here's what a year contract looks like and how much volume you have to purchase from us. You go to the midrange. And then a two year  contract with lower margins. I call it the triple cheeseburger cause the triple cheeseburger was created in order to sell the double. If you pay attention it's all around us. If you look at Starbucks, it's a lot of pricing.

I call it gaming, but a large option. I don’t know what that at Starbucks is called, you look at the price difference between that and medium, there's not a huge difference and it's really not a huge difference in size either. And so there's a theory that people don't put into pricing. Most people think pricing should be some formula that should be very scientific, but to me, it's an art form." 



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Less is More - Fractional C-Suite Retreat - Episode # 001

Tuesday Nov 23, 2021

Tuesday Nov 23, 2021

Valerie Cobb is the Fractional Chief Sales Officer at Lodestar U.R.Y., and she joins host Joseph Frost to talk about how outsourcing can provide a lot of help to other C-Suites. She was not only the Director of the highest selling team in company history at Taxware Systems, but also a private vocal coach for 18 years!  



Takeaways:

  • The biggest problem facing c-suites today is that they are missing out on some opportunities because they are closed off to ideas they don’t understand.
  • Outsource work is a great way to save costs and take a lot of work off the plate of those in the c-suite.
  • Marketing needs to drive sales. They have to be well meshed in order for them to work well together.
  • You need to have a process in place before you assign a person to a job, otherwise it’s work without a clear direction.
  • C-suites have to look for the line drawn in the sand between training and consulting and actual fractional chief leadership of any kind.  
  • Every business needs to have three core values to survive; Finances, Operations and incoming revenue. 

 

 

Quote of the Show:

 

7:28 There are three core things that a business has to have. They have to have finance, they have to have operations and they have to have inbound. They have to have revenue coming in. So imagine, a small company, they can afford $50,000, but they're just really throwing $50,000 away, because it's going to take them four or five years. I have taken statistics talking to people like how long did it take you to ramp that position up?

 

Oh, four years. Okay. What did you just do for four years? Not only did you lose revenue for those four years because it wasn't really great. But you also paid somebody 50,000 plus benefits for 4 years. So in the fractional marketing world, we do it all the time. We outsource digital, we outsource calls, inbound lead generation from cold calling teams and things like that.”



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