April 1, 2025 • 21 mins
"Fractional work is an opportunity to help make an impact inside an organization as quickly as possible. Accelerate speed to impact by helping people move forward."
Notable Moments
01:02 Fractional Executive Recruitment Clarity
05:55 Navigating Noise in Fractional Roles
08:41 Strategic Planning and Caution
09:55 Beware of Fake Consultancies
15:24 Fractional Executive Expertise Essentials
16:39 Finding Right Fractional Expertise
19:23 Fractional Executive Solutions
Connect with Mike Simmons
https://www.findmycatalyst.com/fractional
Connect with Tim and his team:
Website: https://bestculturesolutions.ca/
LinkedIn: Best Culture Solutions, Inc
Instagram: @best.culture.solutions
Email: tim@bestculturesolutions.ca
Fractional roles are shaking up the business world, offering tailored executive support without the full-time price tag. Navigating this dynamic landscape can be daunting. This week, I welcome Mike Simmons, a seasoned expert in people and processes, to demystify the world of fractional work.
Mike and I have observed a considerable rise in the number of professionals offering fractional services, especially since the pandemic. Businesses are keen to tap into high-level expertise without committing to a salary-heavy full-time role. However, the surge has brought along its fair share of confusion and noise. Mike points out the perils of "fractional by convenience", or those who unexpectedly enter this space without the requisite experience, aiming to learn on the job instead of delivering impactful results.
Our discussion hit home on the essence of fractional work: speed to impact. Unlike traditional roles that evolve over time, fractional experts are brought in to initiate swift, substantial progress. Mike and I stressed the importance of hiring the right person to ensure businesses move out of their strategic ruts effectively.
For those considering fractional help, we encourage a proactive approach, assessing whether it's a good fit before the problems arise. We've even developed a fractional readiness assessment to guide you through this decision-making process.
In the end, the key takeaway is simple: fractional work should expedite and streamline solutions via experienced professionals who are ready to make an immediate impact. If you're feeling lost in the maze of fractional offerings, remember, there's always a way to find the right support to tackle your business challenges.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:07):
Welcome to the World of Work podcast where business leaders and job seekers
come together to create winning cultures and fulfilling careers.
Now usually, you would hear I'm your host Jody Mayberry or Katie Kearns, but today
you're gonna hear I am your host Tim Dick. And the reason for that
typically is because we have a special guest with us. Today,
we have Mike Simmons. Mister Simmons, introduce yourself and state your
(00:29):
case. Wow.
I am Mike Simmons, and, I I think that's as much as I
really can say about you you shocked and surprised me. I didn't
know I was stating a case today. What case would you like me to state,
Tim? Well, I think we're both gonna state a little bit of a case about
some stuff that we've been working on in the fractional executive space. Now it's not
(00:51):
a fair question to ask you to state your case because I have known you
now for nearly four years. And so it's like,
if I need to ask you that, how well have I done? But more for
for our guests here and and to share with them what you know, a little
bit about you and catalyst acts and stuff like that, and we'll get into the
fractional stuff. So I'm Mike Simmons. I'm based in Arizona.
I am a people and process guy
(01:14):
who has had kind of an interesting career going from ops
to customer success to sales, and I've been running a consulting practice
now for just over nine years, which is, as Tim mentioned, catalyst to
acts. There we go. Well, it's good to have you. I we have had you
on our show twice before, so people may already know who you are and some
of the clarity that you provide people. You are definitely a people and process person
(01:36):
who is able to create clarity in situations where
there might not be, which is kind of, I think, like the ethos of Mike
Simmons. Right? Let's create clarity around people and processes in many different ways.
But the reason why Mike is here today is we Mike and I have been
working on something together to help companies recruit the right
fractional executive help for their company, and it's something that we're
(01:57):
passionate about. And the reason for that is because we're seeing more and
more activity, I guess, is the word, confusion,
lack of clarity around fractional. We're seeing more and more people become
fractionals. I I don't know, Mike, about you, but I definitely saw a
proliferation, if you will, around the pandemic with people that were
offering fractional help. I think some people realized that they wanted to have
(02:19):
greater flexibility in their work life, and they started becoming fractionals. But
what's happening is that it's created a lot of noise, and a lot of confusion.
And I think a good place for us to start is is just to talk
about before we introduce what we've been working on, let's talk about what fractional is
and why there's confusion in that space. How would you define fractional? Because you
and I work around a little differently sometimes. So how would you define it? I
(02:41):
just go to math, and I think about, like, you have a
you have a numerator and you have a denominator. Like, that's it.
So that's what a fraction is. Numerator, denominator.
And if you've ever been around a piece of,
a pizza pie, you know what fractions are. You can take
a slice out of that pizza and you get a fraction of the
(03:03):
pie. Typically, those are eight slices. So one slice
out of the eight would be one over eight, one
eighth of the pizza. I think that's the simple
definition of what fractional is. It's a fraction
of a person. It's part time access to a
resource, an executive resource, an expert
(03:26):
in their specific area of practice. So let's
apply a little bit of math, think about a little bit of food, and
simplify the way we think about fractional. Yeah. Exactly. And
so, I mean, talking about pizza on a on a funny note, I don't know
if you've ever heard this quote, but Yogi Berra once ordered a pizza, and they
asked if they wanted them to cut into six or eight slices. And you said,
(03:47):
you better cut into six because I don't think you can eat eight. But, basically,
yeah, you're right. It's a fraction. In the space of fractional executives,
it's the concept that how do I put this? I mean, it's the
concept that, you know, in the executive space, some businesses might not have the
need, the workload, the budget to hire a
full time chief marketing officer, chief operating officer, chief financial
(04:08):
officer. Sometimes it could be a larger company. Right? They just they have a temporary
need because they need to add some heft. We get called on that for some
stuff. Sometimes, even with large companies that have robust HR and recruiting
departments, sometimes it could be a smaller company that says,
hey. Look. We don't have the workload for this. We don't have the budget for
a full time, you know, salary at that level, but
(04:29):
we still want the strategic advantages of somebody who can think
strategically about this particular topic, subject,
what have you. And it's the ability to bring somebody on, right,
at, as you say, as you don't need to buy the whole pizza. You can
just buy part of the pizza. You can just buy the part you can buy
as many slices as you need to fulfill your appetite. Right? And that's what it
(04:50):
is. So, Mike, what are you hearing? There's a lot of now here's what I
think, and I'd like you to confirm this and I or or tell me what
you're seeing. But I am seeing a lot of noise in the fractional space, a
lot of confusion. There's a lot of people that are entering it without fully knowing
what it means, but it's also kinda seems like a wild west where you don't
really know who you can count on or who you can trust or who
(05:10):
is legitimate in that space. Are you seeing that too? Yeah. And be careful about
the marketers because the and and when I say be careful about the marketers, there
are people who know how to market, advertise brand, do all of these things that
will draw you in to something and and in many
cases, make you believe that you need something that you don't.
You need that draw that new driver to hit the ball straight rather
(05:32):
than work on your mechanics. You need whatever it is.
And unfortunately, what's also happening in this space
is some people are fractional by convenience
rather than by design. And what I mean there is they come in and they
are looking for a job. So they're out of work. And like, well, you know,
I'm gonna go throw up my fractional sign up on my business and now
(05:54):
I'm fractional. And anybody can do it. Just like anybody can
be the new pool guy or the new lawn guy or the new whatever guy
inside your neighborhood. So with that very
low barriers to entry, it's you've increased
the amount of volume that exists out in the space which ultimately
increases the noise and then there's a lot of confusion. So I've got a big
(06:16):
c over my left shoulder. Goes off of a video that I did a little
bit earlier today around communication, but then ties into catalyst from a
logo perspective. These c's that keep coming up, confusion,
clarity. Those are challenges that will
persist inside your business when you start
looking for a solution to a
(06:38):
symptom that's existing inside your organization and you hear,
this whole fractional thing might be really cool. I'm going to bring somebody in. Be
careful about the type of person you bring in because that person who's
operating as a fractional might be new to the space and might be using the
name because it happens to be the cool thing that
people are starting are talking about or have been talking about now for a little
(07:00):
bit a little bit of time. So, yeah, there's a lot of noise. There's a
lot of confusion. There are a number of challenges. And unfortunately, I think there's also
a lot of malpractice that exists out there by folks who
are not really clear around the type of work or the type of
problems that they can help people solve inside and organizations who are kinda
playing fractional rather than being fractional. Yeah. And I think that's
(07:21):
exactly it. I mean, it's just like I I mean, if we're being honest, it's
kind of like the coaching space was for some time. Right? Is that anybody can
lay their lay a shingle and call themselves a coach. Anybody can lay a shingle
and call themselves a fractional executive. Right? And the confusion for companies, I think
there's a couple of confusions, Maybe more than a couple, but it's like
who who's legit? Who's gonna follow through? Right? Who can actually
drive the needle for us? Who can you know, you say you're a
(07:45):
fractional in this realm, but are you? Like, have you worked in this space before?
And anybody can lay a claim to anything now. Right? And so I
think that's the biggest challenge is, like, who can you trust to actually be who
they say they are? Do you think maybe? Yeah. I think that and the scary
part about it and I've tested with a number of the different AI
tools that are out there right now to do this, is you can go out
(08:05):
there and prompt them. And one of the prompts that I played around with is
and I've posted some of this stuff before, but the, one of the
prompts is, do I need to have been a VP of
sales in order to be a fractional VP of sales?
Just do that. Prompt that into ChatGPT and see
what kind of result you get. And then from there, just ask
(08:27):
a couple of additional questions beyond it. Just the questions that you would think
about. So Yeah. Like when chat GPT gives you the
answers, ask the question, how would I overcome those challenges?
And then I don't get it. Then wait for the information to come back
and ask a couple of other questions. Like, provide a plan, a ninety day
plan to help me overcome those challenges. And then let's add in
(08:50):
another set of prompts at the end and add something like, what are some
objections that a person on the other side might be thinking about
when bringing in a new fractional like me into this thing, and you
will be shocked by the
information, the response that you get. And if anybody can go out and do
it, how do you sift through all of the noise to find
(09:12):
the person who can actually do it, the person who can
actually execute. And there are ways to go through and do that. So I would
say buyer beware on that side because anybody can use these tools to
start to put together a plan and look really good on paper, but
we know business does not happen on paper. Yeah.
100%. And I think too, like, one of the things that
(09:33):
that I mean, look. And I've been a big believer that people can learn new
things. Right? People can gain experience. People can
be grow, learn, all that stuff. Right? But I
think well, I don't think I know. The big the big struggle is that, you
know, if somebody is going on check GPT or just hanging their
shingle on something or or anything like that, It isn't that people
(09:55):
can't learn. It says now you're running the big risk that they're not really here
to learn. They're here to get you to sign a contract and, you know, send
some money over and pay a contract. But they might not really be there to
learn the job. They might be just doing this. And I'm gonna be honest. I'm
not gonna name names. I think we've talked about this before, but I
know people who have set up consultancies,
right, and used ChatGVT and AI to generate a
(10:18):
website, have created a team of people
using stock photos and fake names and used it to
generate false testimonials and to suddenly become experts in about
20 different fields that are completely disparate from one another, nothing to do with each
other. And I would argue that that is probably not
a good way to to build trust, but not everybody's gonna see through that.
(10:40):
Right? And now we have we have here. Right? And it's not
good. And and what's gonna happen to the customer? They're gonna send a check. They're
gonna pay an invoice. Probably not gonna get the result they're hoping
for. And worse the worse, you're gonna lose all
of the time. It's gonna set your business record. You're gonna lose all your all
the time. You might lose people inside the organization because they get frustrated that you
(11:01):
brought somebody in to do this stuff. And it's here's the
deal. Well, from my perspective, you know, my small little world down here in
Arizona. It's okay to learn new things. It's okay Right.
To learn on the job. That's what jobs are
for, not consulting or fractional work. Fractional work is
not an opportunity to learn on the job. Fractional work is an
(11:24):
opportunity to help make an impact inside an organization
as quickly as possible. Accelerate speed to impact,
help people move forward, lead. It is not on the
job training. And if you are one of those people who's like, oh, you know
what? I'm gonna go out there and see if I can learn on the job
and you're not clear with the person on the other end because that can happen
(11:46):
too. Like, you can be really clear with someone on the other end and say,
hey, I'm working on testing. If someone tries some things, and
that's okay too. But if you're misleading
someone on the other end, then I don't think you should be in
business. You're wasting your time, you're wasting your time, and you're
ultimately impacting the lives of others. So anyway, this is not a
(12:07):
negative thing about fractional. I think fractional is really good and exciting. It's Great.
There are some people out there who do not do fractional well, just
like the Jets do not do American football well.
Okay. I'm glad. Okay. I have to clarify. Mind.
Yeah. Go ahead. No. I can clarify for you. That's isn't this
humor? Is that what it is? You're like, do you lay things out one way
(12:29):
and then kinda go? It is. But, I mean, for listeners to to know
why this is funny is Mike and I are both fans of the Jets,
just different Jets. Mike's Jets are the American football Jets who
bluntly are not very good, and my jets are the Winnipeg jet
that's who bluntly are first place right on the NHL. But I will
absolutely acknowledge that means nothing until the playoffs. And so and, you
(12:51):
know, to people who follow hockey, you would know that for one of the big
jets, it has meant nothing because when they get to the playoffs, they lose. But
yeah. And and you're right. It's, you know, it's going back to that. Can okay.
One thing I wanna go back to sorry. Because I got now you got me
all hockey. You mentioned speed to impact. Right? And I think that's an important
thing. Tell me about your ideas around speed to impact. Because that's something that I
(13:12):
that's a term that I have learned from you and explained to
me. And I and in the context of fractional. Right? We said what you said,
Mike, that resonates is this is not about learning on the job. There's nothing wrong
with learning on the job. This is about speed to impact. Expand on that a
little bit. I know what you mean by that, but I wanna hear it really,
like, laid out clear. So we've talked about a couple of different sports here. So
(13:33):
let's look at it through the lens of both of those sports, and we can
look at it through a couple of other lenses, but let's take the sports lens
first. So you've got a hockey game. There are three periods. Those periods run twenty
minutes apiece. You don't win the game in the first period.
You could lose the game in the first period. You just you pull your goalie
early, and all of a sudden you you open things up. There can be some
things that you could do horribly wrong at the front end that will
(13:56):
help reduce the likelihood of success at the end. Or in
American football, there's four quarters. You don't win the game in
the first quarter. You win the game at the end of the game. You win
the game when the clock goes out, not at the beginning of the game.
Accelerating speed to impact is about identifying next logical steps and being able
to take them, taking an iterative approach to keep moving forward, to build
(14:17):
momentum, to achieve impact, change. You
accelerate speed to impact through small incremental
steps, putting your energy toward the right thing,
not going through and trying to make this giant leap,
this huge risk where you try to go, hey, speed to impact is I'm
gonna get to that big win after the first play.
(14:38):
It's not realistic. Accelerate speed to impact by
designing backward, identifying next logical steps,
and then taking those next logical steps. And when I think about
impact, impact is change. Again, hockey or football, when you
make an impact on another player, you change,
ideally change their direction, they don't change your direction. Right?
(15:00):
So that impact will help change what happens inside a business, can help
change what happens on the ice, it can help change what happens on a football
field, and when you make that impact happen in the right
way, in the right order, you can absolutely move your
business forward and achieve the results that you're meant to as a business and then
minimize the amount of waste that you have. So that's what I mean when I
(15:22):
talk about accelerating speed to impact. So if if I were to boil
this down to say, okay. So let's apply this to now fractional help, right,
fractional executive help. If you do not get the right person,
right, or if you get somebody who can't deliver, if you get somebody who doesn't
know how to deliver or is just hanging a shingle on creating a contract,
you know, I mean, the whole point of using a fractional person or getting
(15:44):
that strategic level help that you might not already have in your organization, or at
least if you have it not fully focused on a specific issue. Right? Because sometimes
there's bandwidth issues. I mean, one example for us, I'm sure for you too, is
that larger organizations bring us on even though they have the expertise in house
because the bandwidth is spent, and we need somebody to come in and
get us out of this rut. But my point is that they get you out
(16:04):
of the rut, and you need the right person to know what the rut is
and how to get out of it. Similar to I mean, let's use
the literal example of a rut. Okay? So the other day, where I live,
unlike where you live, there's a lot of snow. And so there was
a gentleman, who was driving a truck, a delivery
truck in our neighborhood, and it was the first time he had
(16:26):
experienced snow. And guess what happened to him? He got the truck stuck in a
rut, literally. Nice. A rut. Awesome. But and he didn't know what
to do. Now I grew up in Winnipeg, so I knew just what to do.
And so I was able to go out and help him get stuck out of
the rut. So I was his fractional truck and sucker. But my point is
that if you don't have a person who has seen those conditions before
(16:47):
and is genuinely motivated to help you solve
that problem, you're gonna stay in the rut. And with the amount of
noise that there is in the fractional space, especially in the last five
years, and it's not going away. I mean, we could spend a whole episode, Mike,
talking about trends and fractional work, and we don't have much more than five minutes.
So we're not gonna do that. But fractional is growing, and it's huge.
(17:09):
And, basically, you know, if you don't have the right person who understands the rut
that you're stuck in, for instance, I would not bring Mike Simmons up here to
help this gentleman get out of the snow because he lives in Arizona. Then you
could stay stuck in that rut for a very long time is basically what we're
saying. Even if I really wanted to help. Right? Yeah. So it's
not about people not wanting to help. Like, people wanna be helpful. I really do.
(17:30):
I truly believe people wanna be helpful. They just may not have the
capability to help. And if you misrepresent your
capability, what are you doing? And, unfortunately,
when organizations start looking for fractional help, it's
not typical for them to proactively look
for fractional help. And I think that's one of the things that Tim and I
(17:51):
will work to reinforce inside the market is take
a proactive approach to thinking about what the future looks
like, not necessarily how I get out of this
dangerous thing that I'm in. Now, you can get out of that dangerous thing that
you're in and the challenge with it is you're going to be looking for help
from everybody so somebody can tell you a really good story and you might end
(18:12):
up stuck there for a lot longer than you need to, so buyer
beware. Another approach to look at this is what happens if I avoid that rut
completely? What could happen if I brought somebody in here to help me
avoid the rut completely while my people inside the
organization, my team focuses time, energy and
attention on doing the things they already do well. You're the experts
(18:35):
in your business. We're the experts in
bringing additional experts to your business to help you move to that
next level, accelerate at speed to impact. Next time you talk to Jody,
ask him about my story about being stuck in a run. Yeah. I
will. And maybe we'll just have to have you back on about that sometime. But
but, you know, I I so I I was hoping and we're already up against
(18:57):
time. I was hoping that we'd get into some of the ways that we help
identify that or identify the right fractional or or share with our
listeners a little bit more about how it works or how we can help them,
you know, have fractional success, so to speak. But, man, we're up against it
already. So I think we're just gonna have to have you back at some
point sooner than later. I mean, I'm not able to sit here and tell you
(19:19):
exactly when, but Mike and I talk a lot, so it'll probably be sooner than
later. But in the meantime, you know, Mike and I are
here to help people find out how to
navigate or help them navigate, sorry, the the murky world of fractional. And we
Mike has also done a really good job of of creating something called a fractional
readiness assessment. So I mean, you can decide or or assess your own
(19:41):
organization or your own company, your own small business, large or small, it doesn't
matter, to find out if fractional, executive help is something that would
fit your business. But we will be back to talk more about it. In
the meantime, Mike, where can people find
the fractional help that we're offering? And, again, that's help understanding your business needs and
finding the right fractional to get you unstuck from whatever strategic rut you may be
(20:04):
in. But, Mike, where can people find that? Yeah. If you go to find
mycatalyst.com/fractional, find
mycatalyst.com/fractional, you'll find that,
readiness assessment that Tim and I work together to build
on. And what you will also find is neither
Tim nor I are fractional marketing people. So
(20:25):
don't don't judge the copy on that page. We're working on it, and we
will continue to get better as we do it. But that fractional readiness
assessment is there and ready for you to to take a look.
Yeah. Go take a look. I will also put a link in our show notes.
Mike, what's your email address if people wanna email you directly? Email is where
stuff goes to die with me. Okay. So I'm gonna
(20:46):
I'm actually what I'm gonna what I'm gonna say is connect with me on LinkedIn
and send me a direct message on LinkedIn. Everything's open there. That is
gonna be the best or fastest way. If you happen to be in one of
the Slack channels that I'm a part of, send a Slack message. That's another good
way. And if you know somebody who knows me, you know my cell phone number
and you can text me. Perfect. And then I do email, and I've had
(21:07):
tim@bestcollegedecisions.ca. I am also on LinkedIn as
well along with Mike, but Mike and I are here to help
people, you know, make sense of that fractional world and find the right fractional
help simply because, you know, we believe that nobody should
should have a lack of access to the help they need to solve their problems.
It doesn't matter if you're big, small, and otherwise, there's always a way to solve
(21:28):
problems, and that's why we're here. Mike, it's so great to see you. We'll be
back. We'll talk more fractional, I'm sure, very soon. But in the
meantime, thanks everybody for listening to the World at Work, and we will see
you next time.
Welcome to the World of Work podcast where business leaders and job seekers
come together to create winning cultures and fulfilling careers.
Now usually, you would hear I'm your host Jody Mayberry or Katie Kearns, but today
you're gonna hear I am your host Tim Dick. And the reason for that
typically is because we have a special guest with us. Today,
we have Mike Simmons. Mister Simmons, introduce yourself and state your
(00:29):
case. Wow.
I am Mike Simmons, and, I I think that's as much as I
really can say about you you shocked and surprised me. I didn't
know I was stating a case today. What case would you like me to state,
Tim? Well, I think we're both gonna state a little bit of a case about
some stuff that we've been working on in the fractional executive space. Now it's not
(00:51):
a fair question to ask you to state your case because I have known you
now for nearly four years. And so it's like,
if I need to ask you that, how well have I done? But more for
for our guests here and and to share with them what you know, a little
bit about you and catalyst acts and stuff like that, and we'll get into the
fractional stuff. So I'm Mike Simmons. I'm based in Arizona.
I am a people and process guy
(01:14):
who has had kind of an interesting career going from ops
to customer success to sales, and I've been running a consulting practice
now for just over nine years, which is, as Tim mentioned, catalyst to
acts. There we go. Well, it's good to have you. I we have had you
on our show twice before, so people may already know who you are and some
of the clarity that you provide people. You are definitely a people and process person
(01:36):
who is able to create clarity in situations where
there might not be, which is kind of, I think, like the ethos of Mike
Simmons. Right? Let's create clarity around people and processes in many different ways.
But the reason why Mike is here today is we Mike and I have been
working on something together to help companies recruit the right
fractional executive help for their company, and it's something that we're
(01:57):
passionate about. And the reason for that is because we're seeing more and
more activity, I guess, is the word, confusion,
lack of clarity around fractional. We're seeing more and more people become
fractionals. I I don't know, Mike, about you, but I definitely saw a
proliferation, if you will, around the pandemic with people that were
offering fractional help. I think some people realized that they wanted to have
(02:19):
greater flexibility in their work life, and they started becoming fractionals. But
what's happening is that it's created a lot of noise, and a lot of confusion.
And I think a good place for us to start is is just to talk
about before we introduce what we've been working on, let's talk about what fractional is
and why there's confusion in that space. How would you define fractional? Because you
and I work around a little differently sometimes. So how would you define it? I
(02:41):
just go to math, and I think about, like, you have a
you have a numerator and you have a denominator. Like, that's it.
So that's what a fraction is. Numerator, denominator.
And if you've ever been around a piece of,
a pizza pie, you know what fractions are. You can take
a slice out of that pizza and you get a fraction of the
(03:03):
pie. Typically, those are eight slices. So one slice
out of the eight would be one over eight, one
eighth of the pizza. I think that's the simple
definition of what fractional is. It's a fraction
of a person. It's part time access to a
resource, an executive resource, an expert
(03:26):
in their specific area of practice. So let's
apply a little bit of math, think about a little bit of food, and
simplify the way we think about fractional. Yeah. Exactly. And
so, I mean, talking about pizza on a on a funny note, I don't know
if you've ever heard this quote, but Yogi Berra once ordered a pizza, and they
asked if they wanted them to cut into six or eight slices. And you said,
(03:47):
you better cut into six because I don't think you can eat eight. But, basically,
yeah, you're right. It's a fraction. In the space of fractional executives,
it's the concept that how do I put this? I mean, it's the
concept that, you know, in the executive space, some businesses might not have the
need, the workload, the budget to hire a
full time chief marketing officer, chief operating officer, chief financial
(04:08):
officer. Sometimes it could be a larger company. Right? They just they have a temporary
need because they need to add some heft. We get called on that for some
stuff. Sometimes, even with large companies that have robust HR and recruiting
departments, sometimes it could be a smaller company that says,
hey. Look. We don't have the workload for this. We don't have the budget for
a full time, you know, salary at that level, but
(04:29):
we still want the strategic advantages of somebody who can think
strategically about this particular topic, subject,
what have you. And it's the ability to bring somebody on, right,
at, as you say, as you don't need to buy the whole pizza. You can
just buy part of the pizza. You can just buy the part you can buy
as many slices as you need to fulfill your appetite. Right? And that's what it
(04:50):
is. So, Mike, what are you hearing? There's a lot of now here's what I
think, and I'd like you to confirm this and I or or tell me what
you're seeing. But I am seeing a lot of noise in the fractional space, a
lot of confusion. There's a lot of people that are entering it without fully knowing
what it means, but it's also kinda seems like a wild west where you don't
really know who you can count on or who you can trust or who
(05:10):
is legitimate in that space. Are you seeing that too? Yeah. And be careful about
the marketers because the and and when I say be careful about the marketers, there
are people who know how to market, advertise brand, do all of these things that
will draw you in to something and and in many
cases, make you believe that you need something that you don't.
You need that draw that new driver to hit the ball straight rather
(05:32):
than work on your mechanics. You need whatever it is.
And unfortunately, what's also happening in this space
is some people are fractional by convenience
rather than by design. And what I mean there is they come in and they
are looking for a job. So they're out of work. And like, well, you know,
I'm gonna go throw up my fractional sign up on my business and now
(05:54):
I'm fractional. And anybody can do it. Just like anybody can
be the new pool guy or the new lawn guy or the new whatever guy
inside your neighborhood. So with that very
low barriers to entry, it's you've increased
the amount of volume that exists out in the space which ultimately
increases the noise and then there's a lot of confusion. So I've got a big
(06:16):
c over my left shoulder. Goes off of a video that I did a little
bit earlier today around communication, but then ties into catalyst from a
logo perspective. These c's that keep coming up, confusion,
clarity. Those are challenges that will
persist inside your business when you start
looking for a solution to a
(06:38):
symptom that's existing inside your organization and you hear,
this whole fractional thing might be really cool. I'm going to bring somebody in. Be
careful about the type of person you bring in because that person who's
operating as a fractional might be new to the space and might be using the
name because it happens to be the cool thing that
people are starting are talking about or have been talking about now for a little
(07:00):
bit a little bit of time. So, yeah, there's a lot of noise. There's a
lot of confusion. There are a number of challenges. And unfortunately, I think there's also
a lot of malpractice that exists out there by folks who
are not really clear around the type of work or the type of
problems that they can help people solve inside and organizations who are kinda
playing fractional rather than being fractional. Yeah. And I think that's
(07:21):
exactly it. I mean, it's just like I I mean, if we're being honest, it's
kind of like the coaching space was for some time. Right? Is that anybody can
lay their lay a shingle and call themselves a coach. Anybody can lay a shingle
and call themselves a fractional executive. Right? And the confusion for companies, I think
there's a couple of confusions, Maybe more than a couple, but it's like
who who's legit? Who's gonna follow through? Right? Who can actually
drive the needle for us? Who can you know, you say you're a
(07:45):
fractional in this realm, but are you? Like, have you worked in this space before?
And anybody can lay a claim to anything now. Right? And so I
think that's the biggest challenge is, like, who can you trust to actually be who
they say they are? Do you think maybe? Yeah. I think that and the scary
part about it and I've tested with a number of the different AI
tools that are out there right now to do this, is you can go out
(08:05):
there and prompt them. And one of the prompts that I played around with is
and I've posted some of this stuff before, but the, one of the
prompts is, do I need to have been a VP of
sales in order to be a fractional VP of sales?
Just do that. Prompt that into ChatGPT and see
what kind of result you get. And then from there, just ask
(08:27):
a couple of additional questions beyond it. Just the questions that you would think
about. So Yeah. Like when chat GPT gives you the
answers, ask the question, how would I overcome those challenges?
And then I don't get it. Then wait for the information to come back
and ask a couple of other questions. Like, provide a plan, a ninety day
plan to help me overcome those challenges. And then let's add in
(08:50):
another set of prompts at the end and add something like, what are some
objections that a person on the other side might be thinking about
when bringing in a new fractional like me into this thing, and you
will be shocked by the
information, the response that you get. And if anybody can go out and do
it, how do you sift through all of the noise to find
(09:12):
the person who can actually do it, the person who can
actually execute. And there are ways to go through and do that. So I would
say buyer beware on that side because anybody can use these tools to
start to put together a plan and look really good on paper, but
we know business does not happen on paper. Yeah.
100%. And I think too, like, one of the things that
(09:33):
that I mean, look. And I've been a big believer that people can learn new
things. Right? People can gain experience. People can
be grow, learn, all that stuff. Right? But I
think well, I don't think I know. The big the big struggle is that, you
know, if somebody is going on check GPT or just hanging their
shingle on something or or anything like that, It isn't that people
(09:55):
can't learn. It says now you're running the big risk that they're not really here
to learn. They're here to get you to sign a contract and, you know, send
some money over and pay a contract. But they might not really be there to
learn the job. They might be just doing this. And I'm gonna be honest. I'm
not gonna name names. I think we've talked about this before, but I
know people who have set up consultancies,
right, and used ChatGVT and AI to generate a
(10:18):
website, have created a team of people
using stock photos and fake names and used it to
generate false testimonials and to suddenly become experts in about
20 different fields that are completely disparate from one another, nothing to do with each
other. And I would argue that that is probably not
a good way to to build trust, but not everybody's gonna see through that.
(10:40):
Right? And now we have we have here. Right? And it's not
good. And and what's gonna happen to the customer? They're gonna send a check. They're
gonna pay an invoice. Probably not gonna get the result they're hoping
for. And worse the worse, you're gonna lose all
of the time. It's gonna set your business record. You're gonna lose all your all
the time. You might lose people inside the organization because they get frustrated that you
(11:01):
brought somebody in to do this stuff. And it's here's the
deal. Well, from my perspective, you know, my small little world down here in
Arizona. It's okay to learn new things. It's okay Right.
To learn on the job. That's what jobs are
for, not consulting or fractional work. Fractional work is
not an opportunity to learn on the job. Fractional work is an
(11:24):
opportunity to help make an impact inside an organization
as quickly as possible. Accelerate speed to impact,
help people move forward, lead. It is not on the
job training. And if you are one of those people who's like, oh, you know
what? I'm gonna go out there and see if I can learn on the job
and you're not clear with the person on the other end because that can happen
(11:46):
too. Like, you can be really clear with someone on the other end and say,
hey, I'm working on testing. If someone tries some things, and
that's okay too. But if you're misleading
someone on the other end, then I don't think you should be in
business. You're wasting your time, you're wasting your time, and you're
ultimately impacting the lives of others. So anyway, this is not a
(12:07):
negative thing about fractional. I think fractional is really good and exciting. It's Great.
There are some people out there who do not do fractional well, just
like the Jets do not do American football well.
Okay. I'm glad. Okay. I have to clarify. Mind.
Yeah. Go ahead. No. I can clarify for you. That's isn't this
humor? Is that what it is? You're like, do you lay things out one way
(12:29):
and then kinda go? It is. But, I mean, for listeners to to know
why this is funny is Mike and I are both fans of the Jets,
just different Jets. Mike's Jets are the American football Jets who
bluntly are not very good, and my jets are the Winnipeg jet
that's who bluntly are first place right on the NHL. But I will
absolutely acknowledge that means nothing until the playoffs. And so and, you
(12:51):
know, to people who follow hockey, you would know that for one of the big
jets, it has meant nothing because when they get to the playoffs, they lose. But
yeah. And and you're right. It's, you know, it's going back to that. Can okay.
One thing I wanna go back to sorry. Because I got now you got me
all hockey. You mentioned speed to impact. Right? And I think that's an important
thing. Tell me about your ideas around speed to impact. Because that's something that I
(13:12):
that's a term that I have learned from you and explained to
me. And I and in the context of fractional. Right? We said what you said,
Mike, that resonates is this is not about learning on the job. There's nothing wrong
with learning on the job. This is about speed to impact. Expand on that a
little bit. I know what you mean by that, but I wanna hear it really,
like, laid out clear. So we've talked about a couple of different sports here. So
(13:33):
let's look at it through the lens of both of those sports, and we can
look at it through a couple of other lenses, but let's take the sports lens
first. So you've got a hockey game. There are three periods. Those periods run twenty
minutes apiece. You don't win the game in the first period.
You could lose the game in the first period. You just you pull your goalie
early, and all of a sudden you you open things up. There can be some
things that you could do horribly wrong at the front end that will
(13:56):
help reduce the likelihood of success at the end. Or in
American football, there's four quarters. You don't win the game in
the first quarter. You win the game at the end of the game. You win
the game when the clock goes out, not at the beginning of the game.
Accelerating speed to impact is about identifying next logical steps and being able
to take them, taking an iterative approach to keep moving forward, to build
(14:17):
momentum, to achieve impact, change. You
accelerate speed to impact through small incremental
steps, putting your energy toward the right thing,
not going through and trying to make this giant leap,
this huge risk where you try to go, hey, speed to impact is I'm
gonna get to that big win after the first play.
(14:38):
It's not realistic. Accelerate speed to impact by
designing backward, identifying next logical steps,
and then taking those next logical steps. And when I think about
impact, impact is change. Again, hockey or football, when you
make an impact on another player, you change,
ideally change their direction, they don't change your direction. Right?
(15:00):
So that impact will help change what happens inside a business, can help
change what happens on the ice, it can help change what happens on a football
field, and when you make that impact happen in the right
way, in the right order, you can absolutely move your
business forward and achieve the results that you're meant to as a business and then
minimize the amount of waste that you have. So that's what I mean when I
(15:22):
talk about accelerating speed to impact. So if if I were to boil
this down to say, okay. So let's apply this to now fractional help, right,
fractional executive help. If you do not get the right person,
right, or if you get somebody who can't deliver, if you get somebody who doesn't
know how to deliver or is just hanging a shingle on creating a contract,
you know, I mean, the whole point of using a fractional person or getting
(15:44):
that strategic level help that you might not already have in your organization, or at
least if you have it not fully focused on a specific issue. Right? Because sometimes
there's bandwidth issues. I mean, one example for us, I'm sure for you too, is
that larger organizations bring us on even though they have the expertise in house
because the bandwidth is spent, and we need somebody to come in and
get us out of this rut. But my point is that they get you out
(16:04):
of the rut, and you need the right person to know what the rut is
and how to get out of it. Similar to I mean, let's use
the literal example of a rut. Okay? So the other day, where I live,
unlike where you live, there's a lot of snow. And so there was
a gentleman, who was driving a truck, a delivery
truck in our neighborhood, and it was the first time he had
(16:26):
experienced snow. And guess what happened to him? He got the truck stuck in a
rut, literally. Nice. A rut. Awesome. But and he didn't know what
to do. Now I grew up in Winnipeg, so I knew just what to do.
And so I was able to go out and help him get stuck out of
the rut. So I was his fractional truck and sucker. But my point is
that if you don't have a person who has seen those conditions before
(16:47):
and is genuinely motivated to help you solve
that problem, you're gonna stay in the rut. And with the amount of
noise that there is in the fractional space, especially in the last five
years, and it's not going away. I mean, we could spend a whole episode, Mike,
talking about trends and fractional work, and we don't have much more than five minutes.
So we're not gonna do that. But fractional is growing, and it's huge.
(17:09):
And, basically, you know, if you don't have the right person who understands the rut
that you're stuck in, for instance, I would not bring Mike Simmons up here to
help this gentleman get out of the snow because he lives in Arizona. Then you
could stay stuck in that rut for a very long time is basically what we're
saying. Even if I really wanted to help. Right? Yeah. So it's
not about people not wanting to help. Like, people wanna be helpful. I really do.
(17:30):
I truly believe people wanna be helpful. They just may not have the
capability to help. And if you misrepresent your
capability, what are you doing? And, unfortunately,
when organizations start looking for fractional help, it's
not typical for them to proactively look
for fractional help. And I think that's one of the things that Tim and I
(17:51):
will work to reinforce inside the market is take
a proactive approach to thinking about what the future looks
like, not necessarily how I get out of this
dangerous thing that I'm in. Now, you can get out of that dangerous thing that
you're in and the challenge with it is you're going to be looking for help
from everybody so somebody can tell you a really good story and you might end
(18:12):
up stuck there for a lot longer than you need to, so buyer
beware. Another approach to look at this is what happens if I avoid that rut
completely? What could happen if I brought somebody in here to help me
avoid the rut completely while my people inside the
organization, my team focuses time, energy and
attention on doing the things they already do well. You're the experts
(18:35):
in your business. We're the experts in
bringing additional experts to your business to help you move to that
next level, accelerate at speed to impact. Next time you talk to Jody,
ask him about my story about being stuck in a run. Yeah. I
will. And maybe we'll just have to have you back on about that sometime. But
but, you know, I I so I I was hoping and we're already up against
(18:57):
time. I was hoping that we'd get into some of the ways that we help
identify that or identify the right fractional or or share with our
listeners a little bit more about how it works or how we can help them,
you know, have fractional success, so to speak. But, man, we're up against it
already. So I think we're just gonna have to have you back at some
point sooner than later. I mean, I'm not able to sit here and tell you
(19:19):
exactly when, but Mike and I talk a lot, so it'll probably be sooner than
later. But in the meantime, you know, Mike and I are
here to help people find out how to
navigate or help them navigate, sorry, the the murky world of fractional. And we
Mike has also done a really good job of of creating something called a fractional
readiness assessment. So I mean, you can decide or or assess your own
(19:41):
organization or your own company, your own small business, large or small, it doesn't
matter, to find out if fractional, executive help is something that would
fit your business. But we will be back to talk more about it. In
the meantime, Mike, where can people find
the fractional help that we're offering? And, again, that's help understanding your business needs and
finding the right fractional to get you unstuck from whatever strategic rut you may be
(20:04):
in. But, Mike, where can people find that? Yeah. If you go to find
mycatalyst.com/fractional, find
mycatalyst.com/fractional, you'll find that,
readiness assessment that Tim and I work together to build
on. And what you will also find is neither
Tim nor I are fractional marketing people. So
(20:25):
don't don't judge the copy on that page. We're working on it, and we
will continue to get better as we do it. But that fractional readiness
assessment is there and ready for you to to take a look.
Yeah. Go take a look. I will also put a link in our show notes.
Mike, what's your email address if people wanna email you directly? Email is where
stuff goes to die with me. Okay. So I'm gonna
(20:46):
I'm actually what I'm gonna what I'm gonna say is connect with me on LinkedIn
and send me a direct message on LinkedIn. Everything's open there. That is
gonna be the best or fastest way. If you happen to be in one of
the Slack channels that I'm a part of, send a Slack message. That's another good
way. And if you know somebody who knows me, you know my cell phone number
and you can text me. Perfect. And then I do email, and I've had
(21:07):
tim@bestcollegedecisions.ca. I am also on LinkedIn as
well along with Mike, but Mike and I are here to help
people, you know, make sense of that fractional world and find the right fractional
help simply because, you know, we believe that nobody should
should have a lack of access to the help they need to solve their problems.
It doesn't matter if you're big, small, and otherwise, there's always a way to solve
(21:28):
problems, and that's why we're here. Mike, it's so great to see you. We'll be
back. We'll talk more fractional, I'm sure, very soon. But in the
meantime, thanks everybody for listening to the World at Work, and we will see
you next time.
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