"Unlocking the Power of a Fractional CMO" with Allison Michels

Summary

In this engaging conversation, Chantel Soumis interviews Alison Michael, a fractional CMO, who shares her insights on the importance of marketing leadership, the role of a fractional CMO, and how to effectively manage multiple brands. Alison discusses her journey into marketing, the challenges faced by CEOs, and the significance of building trust and clarity in marketing strategies. She emphasizes the need for CEOs to focus on their strengths and delegate marketing responsibilities to experts, ultimately leading to growth and success for their organizations.

Takeaways

• Referral marketing is still the best form of marketing.
• CEOs often misunderstand the value of a fractional CMO.
• Building trust is key to effective marketing leadership.
• Marketing strategy goes beyond just logos and colors.
• Every business has unique challenges and needs.
• Effective marketing requires clarity and direction.
• Social media engagement is crucial for brand visibility.
• Ignoring the noise in marketing can lead to better focus.
• Fractional leadership can be a game changer for organizations.
• Consistency in marketing efforts is essential for long-term success.

Chapters

• 0:00 Meet Alison Michael: The Visionary CMO
• 1:40 Understanding the Role of a Fractional CMO
• 4:27 Alison's Journey into Fractional Marketing
• 5:56 The Importance of Marketing Leadership
• 10:01 Distinguishing Marketing Teams from Leaders
• 13:21 Prioritizing Client Needs in Fractional Marketing
• 15:52 Celebrating Successful Marketing Projects
• 17:30 The Engineering Mindset in Marketing
• 20:02 Trends to Ignore and Embrace in Marketing
• 24:32 The Marketing and Sales Divide
• 25:07 Shifting Mindsets on Fractional Leadership
• 27:31 Tools for Modern Marketing
• 28:45 Navigating Viral Content
• 28:46 The Importance of Hope and Connection

Transcript

Chantel Soumis (02:00.831)
Hey everybody! Today's guest is a ray of sunshine with a relentless work ethic, the vibrant and visionary Alison Michael. As a fractional CMO, she brings bold ideas, fearless execution, and next-level energy to every brand she partners with. With a heart for service and a mind for scaling, Alison doesn't just show up, she transforms.

CEOs, if you've ever wanted a marketing leader who feels like a co-founder, thinks three steps ahead and brings the fire without the fluff, this episode is your golden ticket. Welcome to the show, Alice, and I'm so excited to have you here.

Allison (02:44.09)
my gosh, it's such an honor. Thank you. I appreciate it so much.

Chantel Soumis (02:49.024)
Alison, so every once in a blue moon, know, these treasures in my life, these connections that I love and adore and have completely transformed my world and my career, introduce me to people that I immediately adore and love and obsess over. And you're one of people. I love that you, right?

Allison (03:08.21)
Yay, same.

Chantel Soumis (03:11.817)
Honestly, referral marketing is still the best and strongest form of marketing there is if we got to speak fractional CMO language. And I love it when people introduce me to people who just raise the bar over and over and over again. So thank you. I'm so excited to hear what you have to share with us today and dig deep in behind your CMO wisdom and arsenal of tools that you can share with all of us. So I got my first question for you.

What do most CEOs misunderstand about the role of a fractional CMO?

Allison (03:48.572)
I think how helpful it is as soon as I get hired on, it's like, my gosh, I wish I would have hired you sooner.

I think oftentimes what happens is CEOs feel like they need to make a lot of the CMO decisions and they just, they think of it as another cost, but it's really an investment in their company and in their growth and in their executive team. And so when I come on, I think the thing that I've heard over and over and over again is, my gosh, I wish I would have hired you sooner because, you know, having a marketing strategy isn't just like,

having some colors and a logo. It's much more than that and it's much deeper than that. And because I'm an entrepreneur, I've been building business for over 20 years. I've got this wealth of experience of understanding what works. I'm able to offer so much to the CEOs and to help guide them and simplify their life so that they can scale where they want to scale.

Chantel Soumis (04:48.485)
That's a really interesting piece to say because so many owners do feel like they need to wear all the hats right they feel like they need to have that brand control in order for it to make it their own right.

Allison (04:59.56)
Yeah, I think that's been my biggest, mean, you know, over and over and over again. And as I've been able to step in and gain trust, obviously it's a lot about trust and building that relationship, which I think is really key and understanding the brand and understanding where they want to go and all of that fun stuff. But I think soon as you can help out, it like it just offers that space, that even brain space to the CEO so that they can go out and do amazing things within the company to grow it.

more. Um whereas when they're bogged down by thinking about something that maybe isn't their strength zone, they're not as effective and as efficient. Whereas you know, this is you get it too because you're a fractional CMO but we eat, breathe, sleep, and we we think about CMO stuff all the time and it it comes easily to us because we've done it for so long. Whereas if you aren't in that space, it it can be challenging and a little tricky especially with how quickly things change.

Chantel Soumis (05:58.504)
That's the beautiful way of putting, you need to carve out time to work on your business, not in your business, right? It's so hard for a founder and CEO to really make that shift, make that change. But once they do, that's when the real growth happens. I love it. So rewind a little bit. Can you tell us a little bit more about who you are and what actually got you into being a fractional CMO and helping these leaders across the United States?

Allison (06:07.774)
Mm-hmm.

Allison (06:28.09)
Absolutely. first off, I'm a mom. I say that's my number one role and I absolutely love being a mom. have two kiddos. I do leadership development and I have been doing marketing for almost 15 years. I've worked with all different types of industries, all different types of businesses, startups to hundred million dollar companies and everything in between. And I just always have loved it. I love the creative spirit behind marketing. I love working with

teams. I love how how it translates into results within the company. I just love the process and I think that's the thing that really excites me about marketing is really understanding that you know there is a formula that you can utilize kind of like the playbook. Once you have it, you can implement it and it can drive results within companies and to be able to be that person that kind of like is like you know this can be easier. We can we can make this work for you is super fun. It's kind of like you come in and and you can like high five people and

and move forward.

Chantel Soumis (07:30.306)
You know, I always joke about if I'm doing my job right, which I should be, right? That's why I'm hired and working with all these brands is if I do my job right, I work myself out of a job. Right. That's the goal is to build the systems, create the foundation that then the team can grow upon. And that's the ultimate success. So can you walk us through a time when you had to pivot fast in a role?

Allison (07:36.04)
Yeah.

Chantel Soumis (07:57.632)
of helping brands grow fast and what the outcome taught you.

Allison (08:02.268)
You know, I was thinking about that question and really thinking about, the thing that came to mind, which is, this is a hilarious story. This is when I got into marketing. My first big job when I was right out of college was to do a full campaign for condo redevelopment in Northern Wisconsin. And the owners of this real estate company, real estate development company reached out and they're like, hey, we've got six weeks, do everything for the entire market.

campaign. Like everything. Website. You know, you're looking at me like this is crazy. Correct. It's crazy. Nobody does that. But six weeks later I had done it. We did all of the things and it taught me number one that you can get a lot done. I would never say yes to that again. But it taught me how to do marketing in a way that's very efficient and effective and I understand it because I did it that way.

Chantel Soumis (08:39.647)
Wow.

Allison (09:02.112)
That was my first big project. Since then, you know, that's how I think about marketing is really strategically and how are we building a plan and how are we implementing it and that type of thing. So oftentimes we don't often have to pivot too quickly because I've thought through the process. I'm so sorry.


Chantel Soumis (10:16.127)
I mean, I love what you said about how you have to learn. In marketing, you literally are fed to the sharks every single day with a new challenge, a new mountain to climb. And the fact that you did all of that in six weeks is bananas. Did you have a marketing team help you or did you have, was it?

Allison (10:34.866)
That's funny. It was me and like one other person. Correct. I mean, this was one of my first big huge gigs and I just, you know how you're naive to things like it's insane. But yeah, it taught me a lot. think it's one of those things where you can get your hands really dirty and you learn all of the pieces of something and then you understand it from a different perspective in sense that he that

Chantel Soumis (10:41.017)
wow.

Allison (11:03.246)
time, you know, it just helped me do everything a little bit differently and then also leverage teams, right? Like now, because I went through that by myself, now I understand the importance of leveraging people with different strengths than me to get things done. And that's why I really love the fractional CMO because I'm able to create the strategy and then I work with the team in order to implement it. obviously that was a long time ago, but it has, it really helped me kind of educate myself on the process.

Chantel Soumis (11:33.214)
I laugh every time I have a conversation with somebody outside of the world of marketing and they're like, you know how to code really? You know how to build things really? You know how to design? You have to, you have to be a Swiss army knife in order to really make a change, an impactful change in a business. So you mentioned the idea of, okay, we've learned, we've grown, we've been able to work with teams and tap into that power. We've also been able to lead

Allison (11:42.007)
Yes, you have to learn all the things.

Chantel Soumis (12:01.871)
and provide foundational change with brand strategy. But what's the difference between a marketing team and a marketing leader? And why does that distinction matter?

Allison (12:13.016)
So I think that's a great question and I love it. I worked within an organization that did not understand that and unfortunately they are going to continue to run into the same roadblocks over and over and over again because they did not understand the importance of having a marketing leader. They felt like their sales director could run the marketing department and it just does not work because marketing strategy and the plan in order to roll the

that out involves a lot of different, a lot of different.

areas, I would say, a lot of different specific things that need to happen. And if you are not in the world of marketing, it kind of can feel like a different language sometimes. It can be very confusing. And you can miss a lot of things and or you can have a whole bunch of vendors telling you need to buy all these things. And it does none of it makes sense or you're duplicating your processes. It just it just it gets to be a very big chaotic mess quickly is what I'm going to say about that. If you don't

have the marketing leader there and you have just a team that's out there doing their day-to-day operations within the marketing world.

there's just not it's kind of like you don't have a direction that you're going and You don't have clarity on the vision of where marketing is going and you don't have the specific brand built and you don't have Messaging and you aren't speaking a specific voice and you don't know who you're talking to and you don't know why you're selling to them and all of the things it just kind of all Turns into a mess. And so marketing leadership really helps a company find clarity

Allison (13:59.64)
and it helps everybody get on the same page and understand the importance of why we're going that direction. And obviously you need to be agile as well, right? Sometimes things don't work and you need to shift and reprioritize, but again, the leader should have that vision and kind of understand and be able to monitor it and help guide you to that next step. And so that's what I really love about the marketing leadership.

Chantel Soumis (14:26.754)
I always try to compare it when somebody asks me, why would we hire, you know, a marketing leader to come in? I'm like, well, where should I begin? But I like to compare it to how a company is in a company, right? And the company's in a jar, right? Well, when you're inside the jar, you can't read the label from the outside. But when you hire a marketing leader, they can understand all the culture, all of the ins and outs by looking at

at things from the outside in, and it brings a whole new level of perspective and beauty and marketing leadership versus the marketing team, which can provide that detailed level of expertise and value that companies really do need to level up. So thank you for sharing your discernment on the difference between those two elements there. So you support in the fractional marketing world. We support many.

many clients at once, right? How do you prioritize and protect each brand's voice? How do you choose what to work on day to day? What's your process like?

Allison (15:32.508)
Yeah, that's a great question. I time chunk. I have like a time, I do time blocking and on a weekly basis, I know that there are specific times that I am most focused and there are specific types of tasks that I can do and or that I need to delegate. And so I kind of structure my week around that and then I have specific priorities with each client and talk through on a weekly basis with that whoever is my

that we can check in if there's any questions, there's any changes, that type of thing. And then we just make the time and block it and keep going. think it's really fun. I know that you have a brain similar to me where I love thinking about a whole bunch of different things. It actually helps me thrive. If I have more than one organization that has more than one priority, that is my strength zone. Lots of people can't

do that and they think I'm crazy when I talk about how I think of all things because I can have multiple strategic plans that I'm implementing for multiple companies and they can be at various stages. But for whatever reason, that is something that I love to do and I can really think in that space and help move projects forward.

Chantel Soumis (16:54.965)
Power of color coding, man. I tell ya. Right? When you look at things from an outside, like just, what am I gonna do today? Well, I see a lot of green, there's a lot of yellow, a lot of blue. All right, this is gonna be a good day. I completely thrive in those situations as well. And I don't, I mean, I get it. Like there's a lot of folks who need to do the routine day to day, in and out, and that's how they thrive. But being able to take the wisdom from multiple simultaneous projects,

Allison (16:57.243)
You got it?

Allison (17:05.272)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Chantel Soumis (17:24.651)
is incredible. Like for instance, one of my favorite things to do is analyze like benchmarking ads, like Google ads, right? Web strategy, web traffic. And then I can compare it client to client and say, okay, this is a complete outlier. What is going on over here? Whether it's good or bad, we need to figure it out and get to the bottom of things. But having just one, you know, being that your center of focus, you don't get that insight. You don't get that red flag that's tossed in there to

Allison (17:37.895)
Okay.

Chantel Soumis (17:53.34)
to say, you guys, you need to look at this. This is a critical component that could be losing a lot of leads. Do you have a favorite project that you've worked on that has brought in significant results where you're just super proud it's in your brag bag and you wish you could duplicate it for everyone?

Allison (17:59.838)
Mm-hmm.

Allison (18:11.942)
Yeah, I mean, I think every project has its like, I get excited about all different types of projects. Recently, think, you know,

The chaos, like clarity to chaos has been, that's my most exciting thing when I am working with a CEO who I start off with and is very overwhelmed and stressed out when we're first meeting and I'm able to create the marketing strategy and we start to implement things and he starts to see it working and leads are coming in and there's funnels built and the website has been up leveled to attract the ideal clients.

science and things are all working together. It's kind of like angels are singing. That's really what I love to do. You know, I mean, it sounds really dorky, but for me, you know, that clarity and that consistency and simplicity is really key to the work that I do. I have a background in engineering, which is kind of weird. But so systems and processes and reverse engineering success is really something that I love to do. And I think that's

Chantel Soumis (19:01.766)
I love it.

Allison (19:24.956)
one of the things I offer my clients and so anytime I can do that that's what I love to do.

Chantel Soumis (19:31.321)
can you pull back the curtain just a little bit and let us into understanding your engineering brain with how you process getting started with a client? Because what I'm trying to uncover here and highlight for folks is that it's not about knowing, it's not about ego, it's about asking the right questions, right? And I have this feeling that you've got a portfolio of items to check off the checklist and go through.

Allison (19:57.224)
you

Allison (20:00.626)
Right, absolutely. think that when I'm first starting with a client and every, I believe every business is at a different state and has different challenges and obstacles and experiences, think recognizing what they've done with marketing in the past and what that experience has been has been eye-opening to me. And oftentimes it's not the greatest experience, let's be honest. There are a lot of people out there that are selling marketing systems that maybe don't have

experience with marketing and or aren't really delivering on the things that they say that they're going to deliver on. And so when I start with the audit, like recognizing where are they, what is their perspective, asking tons of questions related to where they're trying to go. You know, obviously with anything, like if you don't have a vision, it's really challenging to get there. And so I love to figure out where are you trying to go, you know, in the next three, six, nine months, what would that look like or in the next year?

And then from there, you know and asking those questions and digging into what they already have built right because sometimes they have they already have the social media manager that's working on this and Is it actually effective is it working? They have the website, but they hate it and they don't like working here Whatever it is, you know, so really asking the questions of what's working for you. What's not working for you? And then for me, I like to audit it

you know, give me all the things and let me look at it from my lens and really give you some suggestions of what I see is the biggest priority that's gonna move the needle the quickest and the easiest and then we can build from there.

Chantel Soumis (21:46.392)
Beautiful. What a great process. Step by step, taking your way from the top down, getting granular on your way on in. What's a marketing trend CEOs should ignore? And then, or one that they should maybe double down on, like right now.

Allison (22:03.036)
Yeah, think one thing that is very, so ignore the noise. Ignore the emails that are constantly coming in that say that you should do this or you should do that or get on this directory or on this radio. Like all of the things. You don't have to do everything. That's my biggest, and I have to tell my clients that sometimes, is like, okay, when you get that email,

you can ignore it. Like we're done now. We have our strategy. We understand what we're implementing. We understand why. One of the biggest opportunities I think is really just posting. If you're like...

Yes, simple, organic social media posts. It sounds crazy, but I have just seen so much traction in that consistency. And it can really amp up your brand. People even for me, like I post all of the time. It's free, number one. Number two, like the impressions and the engagement and the people that you reach. It's crazy. I just don't understand why more people aren't doing that. And they don't have that as a strategy because it's so simple and it's so easy.

adding value to people through social media is easy. So I would say that is a very, you know, very easy thing that you could start utilizing and implementing that would help you, you know, gain some traction.

Chantel Soumis (23:33.836)
That's a good way to highlight the fact that it's a marathon, not a sprint. You're not going to see instant results in a lot of these different places. And a lot of it has to do with showing up and posting or commenting. I joke that comments are the new posts because comments get more impressions than most people's posts now, which is bananas, especially to be able to see that data in LinkedIn.

is really fascinating. But you're right, you're not going to see people reach out to you immediately and sign up for your software or your program or whatever it is. But they will see you.

Allison (24:10.878)
Exactly, and I think that's the thing. I love that you say that because, you know, that's one of the things with marketing and creating the brand is that you're trying to get people to know, like, and trust you and to be present and to be yourself or whatever the brand is representing, right? And I think that takes some time. You can't expect to say, OK, I'm going to get all these leads tomorrow. It just you can't like turn it on. I mean, you could buy leads, but is that really going to be effective and efficient? Probably not.

Chantel Soumis (24:38.346)
Are they gonna be quality? Yeah. They're probably just gonna... Yeah.

Allison (24:39.582)
I know, there's probably not going to be equality. There's probably going to be a cake thing, like let's be honest. But you know, people will sell that and that's the thing that gets me is like, stop. Like you need to build it.

Chantel Soumis (24:48.234)
Yeah.

love it. So you said something that really resonated with me, which is ignore, you need to ignore the noise. Especially when everyone's an expert, right? Everyone's marketing themselves as an expert. So it's hard to know exactly who is that's why I love the referral marketing and word of mouth marketing and building relationships. Because that is trust that I that I truly believe in. But I had this funny story of a client that I had that

I helped them go from startup to Series B funding. And when they got Series B funding, they were like, okay, we have this budget. I've always wanted to run a billboard. Let's get a billboard. Let's do this right outside of their company. You know, it's going to be smack dab right there. And they were serious. Like, let's look up costs. Let's get this going. And I said, y'all, okay. In this greater metropolitan market, there's only one business.

that's going to need your services, one business, is it worth a $20,000 billboard that they're probably gonna ignore or find tacky? Right? And then they finally started to like, you know, you're right. We should probably pivot and throw that at ads because $20,000 on Google ads will go a lot further than a billboard. It'll reach a lot more potential customers.

Allison (25:58.696)
Right?

Allison (26:11.198)
I that. I have one where a company I was working with thought sweatshirts was the way to go. Sweatshirts, let's just fill our marketing budget with sweatshirts. And so I would get calls and he'd be like, hey, do you have an extra small sweatshirt? I'd be like, why are you asking me this? Are you kidding me right now? That is not marketing, sir. But he would get so like, oh, it's fun.

Chantel Soumis (26:17.231)
Oooo!

Chantel Soumis (26:33.256)
boy.

Chantel Soumis (26:40.524)
sweatshirts, billboards, I tell ya, there's always something.

Allison (26:40.958)
Come on people. Yeah. This was the sales director guy, the sales guy. Sorry, I should laugh. Sales people, like, you, but come on.

Chantel Soumis (26:46.918)
Let's reverse engineer it.

Chantel Soumis (26:54.374)
I I know, know. It's like that endless, endless war between marketing and sales, you know, we will always speak a different language and we just need to be okay with not being okay.

Allison (27:05.116)
Yes, correct. Yes.

Chantel Soumis (27:07.59)
Okay, so my last question for you. This has been so insightful, so many nuggets of wisdom, but for the CEO who's listening, who's hesitant to bring in fractional leadership, what would you say to shift their mindset?

Allison (27:23.206)
I'm awesome? No, I'm just kidding. No, good point. No, I think, you know, number one, just like any position that you hire for,

interview whoever it is that you're trying to bring in get to know like and trust them make sure they're a fit with your culture make sure that you've liked them and you want to work with them and That they have the experience that you need in order to help amp up what you're doing Try to understand where they're coming from I think that's one of the things is like oftentimes CEOs are so busy that they assume it's a certain type of Way that you're going to deal with it because they've had this experience in the past so it might be more

than one conversation to get that relationship built.

and recognize that this could be the game changer for your organization. And I think that's the thing that I hear over and over again is like after a little bit of time working with me, they say, or with any, you know, CMO that's really high level, it's the game changer. It takes so much off your plate. It gives you direction. It gives you clarity and it'll give you confidence and swagger. Like, come on, when you have that type of energy, there is no reason why you can't go to that

level of growth within your organization. And I think that's the coolest thing is the confidence that comes from knowing that you have a fractional CMO that is driving direction in your branding and your marketing. It's awesome.

Chantel Soumis (28:53.123)
That's beautiful. Well, Alison, you are awesome. You are a ray of sunshine. Of awesome sunshine. You know what? Just bringing the energy and the hype team alone is worth more than words can say. So, so much value that is packed into not just you, but marketing, the energy team, right? The brand builders, the hype squad. There's so much value. So,

Allison (28:56.146)
Thank you, Flynn. So are you.

Allison (29:07.517)
Right?

Allison (29:19.421)
Yes.

Chantel Soumis (29:21.635)
Thank you so much. Did you have your favorite tool in your toolkit that you can share with all of us that any marketer or CEO should be looking into and tapping into?

Allison (29:32.304)
Yeah, absolutely. Actually, if you would like some of my AI prompts and you go to Instagram, Alison R. Michaels, M-I-C-H-E-L-S, I will send you some prompts I'm using for my marketing. And so if you're interested in that, just say prompts or launch, and I will send you a list of different prompts that you can start utilizing within your ChatGDP to get some marketing done.

Chantel Soumis (29:38.049)
Woo.

Allison (30:02.268)
because I think that's a really great tool that you can start using.

Chantel Soumis (30:06.529)
Absolutely, use the tools. Absolutely. Well, thank you so much. Thank you for sharing that with us. All right. Awesome. Well, and there you have it. Proof that Sunshine and Strategy can coexist. If you're a CEO looking for a CMO who can build the plane and fly it, Allison might just be your co-pilot. But remember, fractional doesn't mean less. It means focused, fierce, and ROI ready.

Allison (30:09.287)
Absolutely.

Yeah, for sure.

Chantel Soumis (30:35.851)
Catch you next time on the Fractional Marketing Advantage. Until then, stay bold, stay brilliant, and stay in your lane.