Needless to say, that was extremely scary. I was excited to take the full 16 weeks of parental leave offered by my job and then, all of a sudden, I didn’t even have a job.

A lot goes through your head in moments like this. For me, I was immediately doing the mental math of how quickly I would need to find a job to start soon enough to even qualify for proper parental leave before the baby came.

But at the same time, I was thinking…what if I could just not go get another job and, instead, go out on my own?

That felt extremely risky with a child on the way, but then again, the tech world is far from stable these days so was it really that much of a risk?

I started interviewing for full-time roles. I also started reaching out to people in my network about fractional work.

And, to my surprise, by the time I started reaching final rounds of interviews a few weeks later, I had already secured $14K/month in billing with 3 month contracts. (More on exactly how I did this in a future post.)

With that, I decided it was time to bet on myself and withdrew myself from every interview.

By May, I was actually making more from fractional work than I was in my full-time job leading a marketing team at a hyper-growth startup. Crazy.

Setting Goals as a Fractional Marketer

In my last job, I was making $220K annually for my base salary. That comes out to $18,333/month, which became my initial goal: just be able to match what I was making.

If you’re still with me, you’re probably picking up that I’m a very transparent guy.

That’s what this newsletter is ultimately about: transparency.

So in the spirit of full transparency, here’s what my monthly billing has looked like since starting.

Since then, I’ve updated my goals. Here’s what I’m currently focused on.

1. $25K/month billing. This feels like an ambitious, but attainable goal. I’ve got a baby on the way so things like insurance, parental leave, investments, etc. are all 100% on me.

2. 10,000 followers on LinkedIn by EOY. This feels like a big stretch goal, but LinkedIn is by far the most impactful marketing channel thus far, so I’m doubling down there and trying to grow my following. More to come in future posts about this.

3. Flexibility. Right now, this means I have the flexibility to set my own schedule (I’ve made it to almost every baby appointment, which has felt so great). Eventually, the goal is that I can fully own childcare one day a week, so I can spend more time with our child and also save some money.

If you’re interested in this kind of career transparency and learning how you might do the same, this is going to be the core of this newsletter, so I hope you’ll join me in this journey.

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Why Share All of This?

Well, a funny thing happened when I announced that I was going fully fractional.

I got countless messages from my fellow marketing homies telling me they’ve been secretly wanting to make a change in their careers for years.

Some people just wanted to make some money on the side. Some have been laid off and needed income, while others just want to have the flexibility to spend more time with their families, travel, or, in some cases, they want to take time off to travel with their family.

Like I said, I believe in transparency and think we should have a more open dialog about careers.

The reality is that careers are weird, sometimes messy and, frankly, changing extremely fast in the world of AI.

Based on the conversations I’m having with friends, colleagues and strangers on LinkedIn, there’s a lot of appetite to try something new.

Seems like we’re all thinking about it, so let’s actually talk about it.

If you’re like me, you want to have agency and options in your career.

I’m not going to pretend like I’ve got all the answers here (trust me, I don’t), but I’m going to share what I learn along the way in the hopes that it helps someone else navigate their own career with a little more confidence.

What to Expect from This Newsletter

As of now, I’m planning to post twice a month:

1. Monthly Reports. I’ll kick off each month with a full breakdown of how I’m progressing against my goals. If you want a voyeuristic look at the behind-the-scenes of what building a fractional business looks like, this is for you. I’ll be sharing real numbers around my income, growth on LinkedIn (and now, this newsletter!), and how I’m doing with personal flexibility. First monthly report drops in just a few weeks.

2. Bi-Weekly How-To’s. In between monthly reports, I’ll be sharing lessons I’m learning along the way. Here are a few topics I’ll be covering in the near future:

   • How to land your first clients

   • Pipeline analysis of where my leads come from, close rates, etc.

   • Crafting an offer that people will actually pay you for (and how to set your rates)

   • My marketing funnel that build my pipeline

   • And so much more. (leave a comment about what you’d like me to cover!)

So, if you’re a fellow tech marketer interested in exploring a fractional career, you’re among friends.

I hope you’ll consider following the journey.

And by the way, I want to connect with you all so I’m blocking off a little time on my calendar to schedule meet n’ greets with subscribers. If you want to meet, swap experiences, or just ask some questions make sure to subscribe so we can connect.

Thanks for being here, friends.