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Welcome to the Executive Connect podcast, a show for the new generation of leaders.

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Join Melissa R. Skog as she speaks to a wide variety of guests that bring new insights into

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leadership, prosperity, and personal growth.

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While now it has all the answers, by building a community of open-minded and

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gauge leaders, we hope to give you the tools you need to help you find your own path to success.

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Hello and welcome everyone to Executive Connect podcast.

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Today I am so excited to have Jennifer Clark here today to discuss fractional roles.

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Jennifer, tell us a little bit about you.

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Yes, sure, thanks, Melissa. Thanks so much for having me.

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I'm very excited to be here.

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So a little bit about myself.

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I'm currently serving as a fractional CEO, which I know is the topic of our discussion today.

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I have over 25 years of experience working in various industries,

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from healthcare to technology and food and beverage.

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And with different sizes of companies, everything from Fortune 100,

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publicly traded companies to privately held smaller startups.

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I love it.

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Thank you so much for being here today.

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I'm just going to jump right in.

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Tell me exactly for the listeners, what is the difference between fractional roles and

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how they're different than full-time roles?

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Yeah, that's actually a very common question that I get.

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The world of fractional CXO is very new, I would say.

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And probably has accelerated it over the last couple of years since COVID.

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And we'll talk probably a little bit more about why that is.

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But essentially a fractional CXO is a executive who helps a, typically, a startup company.

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But it might also be a company that has a executive level role that's somewhat in transition,

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and they need someone to help fill in that space.

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So the way I'd like to think of it is sort of hiring a COO is a service.

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In my case, a chief operating officer.

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But I would say there are also other fractional roles that are very popular,

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particular CFOs, chief financial officers,

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chief marketing officers and chief revenue or growth officers are probably the most common ones that are out there.

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I would say the difference between a consultant and a fractional CXO is,

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a consultant is often coming into your organization,

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looking and seeing what the, whatever the opportunity could be.

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So in my case, maybe how the operations are running and providing advice and recommendations

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on where the company can go next.

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And from there, the company often takes that, can take that advice or make tweaks

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and then they move forward with implementation.

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The difference, I would say, with a fractional role is you're a little more embedded into the company.

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And so oftentimes you have recommendations and advice, but you're also responsible for implementing that.

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And you also serve as a key leadership role where the team often is taking direction from you

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to move forward with those implementation or the running of the company,

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which would be different than kind of consultant where they're sort of there to help advise,

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but not really directly overseeing the team.

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That's a great explanation.

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I know we're talking a little bit before.

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One of my children was asking me about how to explain fractional roles.

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And when I think of fractional roles, I also think personally as well.

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Like I know I've outsourced different things in our home from yard work to housework,

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to food services and you name it.

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I feel like the world you nailed it is evolving quite a bit to leverage and increase your productivity.

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Personally and professionally to get the results that you need to drive whatever the position is for.

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So what are some key from your perspective?

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What are some key benefits of companies engaging in fractional roles?

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Like I said, companies are people.

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Yeah, definitely.

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And I very much can relate to that analogy there where we oftentimes have people who come in help

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and they're almost embedded as part of our family, right?

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Sort of our fractional family members that help get things done.

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So what I would say is where, you know, I, there are different types of fractional roles.

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But what I would say is probably the most common.

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And I think this actually started off mostly in the tech world is if you are a startup

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company and maybe only have a handful of employees and you have a handful of capital and resources

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to deploy, right?

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It's very costly to bring in someone early stage like a chief information officer, chief

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technology officer, which you want the benefits of the advice of the strategic, strategic

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direction of that leader.

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So oftentimes instead of hiring someone full time, let's say as a CIO or CTO or, you know,

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my case, a CO, you can really have someone come in and help you on a set project that you

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need strategic help with.

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Or at times you can also hire someone for a set number of hours.

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So for some of my clients, I serve as a fractional CO for one day a week.

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Or I have someone else that actually I serve in that role for three days a week.

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So for a fraction of the cost of what it would have for someone full time salary, you can

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basically get that strategic advice, the executive leadership, the coaching and the mentoring,

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but not have to pay for a full time salary.

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And from a fractional perspective, you can work with multiple companies.

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I would say probably on average, somewhere between one and three customers or clients,

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if you will, is probably about the norm, but you can also help, you know, multiple companies

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at the same time to piece together your own sort of full time salary while someone else is,

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you know, also having you part time as well.

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That's great.

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I'm sitting here thinking of all the other questions I want to ask you, but what are you

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for companies who've never used fractional roles or they're very, we're hiring it, we're

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in-sourcing everything who've never outsourced in a fractional capacity.

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What are some challenges or obstacles that those companies might face when integrating

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these type of roles into their already existing organization?

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And really how can they overcome those challenges as well?

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I guess the second part to the question.

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Yeah.

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And maybe I'll share sort of a personal experience I had with one of my main clients.

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I think they've gone very smoothly, but I think part of it is how you communicate and set

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expectations with existing employees of that company.

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So for one of my clients right now, they're actually a publicly traded company.

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They don't have a CO right now, so I'm sort of filling the void, if you will, of helping

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one of their business units with the CO services.

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Now from the onset, I first came in and kind of did an assessment of their operations

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to say what's working well, where did I see opportunities for improvement?

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And then they wanted me to come in kind of this expanded role to help with the implementation.

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So one is they had to sort of set expectations with the team on what my role was, right?

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And they actually said, Jennifer is a little bit different than a consultant where she really

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is going to come in and help lead you through these improvement efforts.

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I think partly what distinguishes also a consultant from someone in bed, someone serving

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a fractional role is I'm very embedded in their systems.

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So I would have an actual email in the company.

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So when we're doing email correspondence, even sometimes with outside vendors that were

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working with suppliers, internally I look like I'm a member of the team and really I'm

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acting as such on behalf of the company.

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Also if we need to do calendaring, messaging through Microsoft Teams or GCHAT or whenever

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it is, you're also embedded in the system so people can really directly have access to you.

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That is very different than a consultant where you're really engaging with that client

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outside email systems.

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But also in terms of running team meetings, one on one, sitting in on the executive calls,

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I'm doing all of that.

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It's a really outside of personnel decisions.

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And certainly I am providing advice on hiring or any performance management issues, but

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obviously as a not as an employee, I am not doing any direct hiring or performance management.

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I would say that would be a key differentiator.

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But I think part of it is like really setting the expectation.

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I know they were like Jennifer's part of our team.

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We want you to think of her as somewhat your manager.

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Go to her for advice, mentorship, and so I really become a trusted resource not only to the

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rest of the executive team, but also managers, direct reports or other people who can come

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to me for advice.

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Great.

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I love that.

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When I think of it, I also when I think of it in today's world, working more, working

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nothing's ever enough, kind of the culture thing more and more and more and more.

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I think of fractional roles.

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I also think of it emotionally, like job sharing, increased responsibility and satisfaction

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across the organization.

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So you hit on it, right?

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When you were mentioning that you're really focusing on what you're doing, it's going to help

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other departments reduce burden, burn out, spread the responsibility across the board.

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So not one person is doing 50 things on their list a week.

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Maybe they have like ten key things they're focusing on and I also think too, like when you're focusing

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on 50 things, it becomes really difficult to be productive.

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When you're overwhelmed with too many things to do, you're really not as effective doing

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the things you need to be doing.

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And then it really kind of, you're really engaging part time with somebody who's an expert

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in an area for a limited amount of hours.

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So they're just focusing on that time for those key initiatives that they've been engaged

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for.

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Yeah, you bring up a couple of really good points.

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So one is I am a firm believer of prioritization.

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If you have 20 projects going, you have 20 balls in the air, air, something's going to fall,

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right, and slip through the cracks.

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So as you were saying, most of my engagements are quarter by quarter.

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So I'll sign an engagement for quarter and then we'll kind of decide one month prior

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to the end of the quarter if we're going to continue to the next quarter.

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But for every quarter, we're very strategic and specific about these are the priorities

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for the quarter and that's what I'm specifically working on with the teams to get over the

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finish line.

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Once we hopefully get those, once we hopefully get those in place, then we can move on

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to the next priorities for the next quarter, right?

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I think the other thing which you brought up in terms of just communication in some ways,

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a lot of times I'm serving as kind of a go between amongst the functions, especially when

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you get to a larger size organization, there could be tension between departments or functions

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or politics, a play, etc.

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And in some ways, like, I don't have those, those conflicts, if you will, because I'm technically

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a member of the team.

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And so I'm really, truly there to help with all the pain points across all the functions

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without really having a loyalty to in my case, like the operations team because I'm sort

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of an outsider, but also on the inside.

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And so really, I see a lot of my role is more kind of the connector and the glue across

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the departments to break through the barriers of like, I would want to say this to this other

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department, but I can't really say that.

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They might take it the wrong way.

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So if everyone can kind of use me as that buffer, if you will, I can take the feedback and

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really understand where the changes are and why we're not breaking forward.

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And then keeping who said what anonymous, I can usually start to forge a path forward of

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getting everyone together.

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And like, here's what I heard collectively, collectively between all the departments and

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very, how we move forward really without thinking about the politics and people's feelings

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being heard and really just focusing on what's the improvement opportunity and moving

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it forward.

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I have seen a tremendous increase in collaboration and communication amongst the departments

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since I've joined some of these organizations, which is another good benefit of having a

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fractional person because they can kind of cut through some of those, you know, layers,

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if you will, that might exist.

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Yeah, I love that.

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I've been a part of consultants, not a bunch of fractional roles.

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This is fascinating to me because you're right.

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There's a big difference between that.

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So switching gears, you know, you'd touch on a bit at the beginning.

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What trends do you foresee in the future of this type of work and fractional roles?

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How might companies look at that for their businesses?

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Yeah, you know, I see a tremendous opportunity to see an increase in the amount of companies

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that are leveraging fractional executives.

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I think both for startups, it definitely makes sense, right?

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You have limited capital, limited resources and you need to stretch all those dollars until

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you get a viable product to market and see the revenue for oath, right?

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I think it's a matter of getting the word out because a lot of people that I talk to that

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are founders, entrepreneurs, don't even know this is even an option for them.

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And so that many of them struggling with getting the marketing that needs to be, you know,

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out there to help your product or service get out there, but there's a trade off, right?

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So it's like you need the executive to maybe help or a revenue officer or whatnot, or you

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need a CFO to help with the capital raise and deployment, but they're like, when do I

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hire that person?

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There's that push pull struggle, right?

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And so I definitely think in the startup space, it really makes a lot of sense.

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I think, but also, you know, because some of my clients that go saying are larger organizations

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and are also are not startups, but I think anytime you're in some sort of transformation

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or transition.

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And you're not sure maybe what the right type of candidate that you need for a C O role

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or whatever it might be.

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I feel like this is a great opportunity in some ways to also test the waters.

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Now for myself, I consider my career path as a fractional C O. I know some people take

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them as an interim role because maybe they haven't found the right opportunity, but they

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want to be contributing and working still.

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It's kind of a good way to test the waters.

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I would say in both sides, I see it sort of like dating, right?

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Maybe go on a few dates before you decide if you're making some sort of commitment for a long

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term relationship.

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And I think this is a really good way to also do that too is a fractional executive.

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You can see what the culture is like.

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What things are like once you're actually inside the company and see what the type of work

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is.

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If it's what you're looking for in terms of your career, but also is an opportunity for

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the company and the employer to also make sure that that executive is the right fit or see

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what direction they might want to go with the company, especially if they're in a sense

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of transformation.

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And they're like, hey, we could hire this type of CIO or maybe this type of CIO like someone

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who's very tax savvy, maybe someone who's more data, an analytics savvy.

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And you can kind of test the waters and see really what you're looking for before you're

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diving in and then maybe realizing, oh, we maybe should have hired someone who had this

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experience instead.

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So I think I see it.

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And I think a lot of people from executives standpoints, especially I think in a world

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of post COVID where we saw the great resignation and people are really prioritizing different

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things in their career.

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A lot of people who were senior leaders were unfortunately leaving and a lot of women in

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particular who were feeling undervalued or maybe not challenged or the right environment.

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And I think this is also a way to still serve an executive role, but maybe have some better

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work life balance or flexibility picking out clients that you feel like really meld

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with your values and your working style.

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And so I see a lot of people maybe moving in this path to kind of keep that buffer from

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the burnout like you were saying or kind of just keep some better work life balance.

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So I see the trend continuing is kind of a win-win both for individuals as well as companies.

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Yeah, I think too.

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I know switching years a bit from a technology standpoint too.

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Like a lot of the tech companies are using like AI and automation.

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Those resources are really, really expensive right now.

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And sometimes they're doing very routine tasks and those tasks can be outsourced to maybe

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like a fractional C-so.

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I know I work in a lot in the cyber security space and some of these salaries are half a

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million to a million dollars a year.

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And like you said, if you're a startup and you're trying to get going and get expertise

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like outsourcing some of that or outsourcing those kind of functions and I also think of it,

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we didn't really touch the ton on it.

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And I think of remote workers, right?

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As well like setting up their computers.

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It's also a risk to organizations when you have all these people spread all over the globe,

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and then you're just using the information of the company as well.

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So I think there's so many ways to look at fractional roles.

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I think I agree, I think it's the way of the future.

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I think salaries are really expensive.

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Expertise is hard to find someone that you need in very specific roles.

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In some cases you're looking for a unicorn depending on the position.

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They have startup expertise or this expertise.

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So it would be helpful to hire, maybe multiple CFOs that have done raises or different things

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like that, but different expertise.

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Yeah, definitely for different areas of expertise.

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I think the other thing is right now a lot of companies are having to tighten up, right?

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There's been reductions in personality, a lot of companies, but that doesn't mean that

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that expertise isn't needed.

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So as companies are downsizing, they have to be really cost conscious.

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This is another opportunity to maybe piecemeal some roles that weren't really ever full-time

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to begin with, but you needed the expertise and so you've hired someone full-time and now

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realizing that you were saying, "Peace together, a few fractional people."

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So myself having been somewhat in food and beverage, right?

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If you're a company and you have some amount of product development, but you're not developing

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around the clock every day for a year, you could maybe outsource a food scientist or a chief

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innovation officer or something for a specific project of something you're developing for

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a quarter, let's say.

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Then you can kind of roll that person off, right?

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Then maybe in a couple quarters you need someone to help set up and mention data analytics.

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We need someone to come in and set up all of our data warehousing and whatnot.

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So you kind of piece together, like you're saying, these different fractional roles depending

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on where you are in your company.

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There's actually a few companies out there that will actually help with placements of

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teams.

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Maybe you're looking for a CTO as well as a UI developer, software engineer, and so they

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will actually help place a team of a fractional leader plus some other people on their team

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to actually help implement.

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And that's something that I'm seeing being more popular to where you can actually have a

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fractional team, if you will.

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Yeah, I love it.

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I'm all about it.

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It's funny.

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I was part of a pod during the pandemic.

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Let's say a community of people, men and women, and one of the things we were talking about

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during the beginning of March of 2020 is, how can we gain multipliers in our lives?

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We couldn't go anywhere and see our friends.

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So some of us were using fractional services to host a virtual happy hour networking event

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or because we couldn't go anywhere.

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And just all these fractional things, it's not just finance, but like you mentioned, in UX

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and other spaces, marketing, I think it's a really big thing to look at.

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We touched on it a little bit about burnout and jobs sharing and increased satisfaction

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across the organization.

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I know getting to know you, I love this.

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Your personal mantra is you only live once, which I love that mantra.

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I know mine is like, you do you do, right?

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And so not as professional as yours, right?

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But tell me what that means to you and how you're living your best life because you were

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employee employee and now you're doing more fractional work.

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Tell me about that, how that is now for you.

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Yeah, you know, it's been really interesting over the years.

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I love a sense of adventure and I'm constantly wanting to learn and pick up new things, right?

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So it's probably no wonder that I stumbled upon this thing of the fractional CXO world

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because it is new.

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And I've always liked to be a trailblazer and someone who's like, I'm not sure what that

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is, but like, I'll figure it out and try it out.

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Right?

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So, I, you know, I was coming off of a previous role as Chief Operating Officer and probably

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had figured out that what I was looking for next to my career and where I was wasn't quite

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aligned.

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And so I made the difficult decision to actually take a step down without having the next

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thing lined up.

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I've been working for 25 years.

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I've never, ever done that.

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My husband was definitely a little nervous about that move, but he's like, I'm going to trust

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you and you're going to figure it out.

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And so I spent kind of four months in transition trying to figure out what was next for me.

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I was finishing off my executive MBA at the time.

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And I, you know, hadn't quite found the right fit in kind of the only live ones.

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I'm like, I'm not looking for just a job, right?

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And a paycheck.

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Like, I want something I feel really passionate about and that I want to do next.

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And I've always thought that about every role that I've taken.

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I've loved every role that I've ever had.

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And at a certain point, if I don't love it anymore, that has been my sign that like, I've

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accomplished as much as I can here is time for me to move on.

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I know I've had this mantra to several people, including my husband.

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He thinks like, these are unrealistic expectations.

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But I'm happy to say that for most of that 25 years, that really was true, right?

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So when I thought about what I wanted to do next, what I realized is I actually, you know,

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mentors, several women, other people who are, you know, founders kind of informally.

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And I really like the idea of having a portfolio of companies and people that I could help.

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It's like, how do I take all these years of experience from running a company, a very large

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scale?

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I worked at Abbott at the very large companies where I first learned sort of the ins and

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outs of operations.

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And then moved to a very small startup, you know, employee 1550, help take it through

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an IPO and like, how do you grow and scale a company, you know, with tremendous growth?

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And so I think I, I happen to stumble upon it where I met someone who was a fractional

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CMO and it kind of just started from there, but I was really intrigued by it and kind of

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that you only live once.

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I'm like, I'll just start it and see how it goes.

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And if I don't like it, I'll just pivot in a few months and then I'll at least know,

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right?

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Right.

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I had a lot of work in the past, I had a lot of work in the past, I had a lot of work in the

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past, I had a lot of work in the past, I had a lot of work in the past, I had a lot of work

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in the past, I had a lot of work in the past, I had a lot of work in the past, I had a lot of

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work in the past, I had a lot of work in the past, I had a lot of work in the past, I had a lot

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of work in the past, I had a lot of work in the past, I had a lot of work in the past,

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people were a little more junior in their career being in kind of a senior role too.

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It's been really rewarding.

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So at this point, I am not searching for anything full time and I'm just going to continue

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with the fractional work because I really enjoyed doing it.

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I love it.

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You made me think about things I can do for action.

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Like, what else can I do for action?

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I know I just outsourced my fitness goals to somebody.

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I need to be doing that.

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I'm going to take some inspiration from you there.

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Yeah, I'm like, you know, I need an accountability partner.

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Can you be my accountability partner?

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I think it's just thinking, you know, professionally and personally, thinking

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a ways to gain multipliers in our life too, Ray.

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Like, how can we, you know, live our best life yet, you know, keep growing, learning,

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developing.

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I love what you mentioned about the roles because I think the other cool thing about

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fractional work for you, Jennifer, is all the different industries you're going to get

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to work with and the people that you're going to get to work with and all the different

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problems you're going to have and as a lover of problems, I think it sounds really interesting

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to learn different industries and be able to help and grow companies and make them more

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profitable and build a more productive team and scale it.

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So I would love just closing, kind of closing here.

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Tell us a little bit about your business and a little plug for yourself on how we can help

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you follow you, learn about more about what you do if you wouldn't mind as we close.

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Yeah, for sure.

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You can find me on LinkedIn.

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Jennifer Clark, you said, which I know there's probably thousands of us out there.

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So specifically, Jennifer, Ludwig Clark, the name of my company is called Launch Spot Consulting.

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I generally am doing fractional work in the healthcare space, food and beverage, but really

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could be any CPG product technology.

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And I would say health and wellness.

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I do.

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I actually was part of our early stage startup in cannabis.

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So I would put that under healthcare and food and beverage.

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But honestly, I'm open to anything.

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I feel like a lot of it is transferable skills.

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And like I said, since I love an adventure, I like to learn in the process too.

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So even moving to a similar industry and helping with transferable skills and operations,

401
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I'd definitely be open to, but I would say also my expertise is a lot of new.

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We need to build this out.

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And this doesn't exist.

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And so you need a creative operations person to design it and implement it.

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And I would say also transformation.

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So like this isn't working well.

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And we need someone to come in and redesign it and then re-implement is kind of where I

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would say my forte really is.

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I love it.

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Thanks so much for sharing that.

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And find Jennifer on LinkedIn, connect with her.

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She's a wonderful person.

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I love her energy.

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I love talking to her.

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And you only live once.

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Have a great rest of the week.

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Thank you all for listening and let's do it again, Jennifer.

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Sounds great.

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Thanks for your time.

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You've been listening to the Executive Connect podcast.

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If you have questions or ideas on how to bring leadership to your next level, email us at

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executiveconnectpodcast@gmail.com.

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And don't forget to subscribe so you can catch every new episode.

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Until next time.

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