The Duality of Control and No Control - Casey Stanton - Fractional CMO Show - Episode #051

There are things that you do and do not have control over in all aspects of your life and business. Thankfully, there is someone to light the path for you and your clients. Casey Stanton is the Founder of CMOx, a Fractional CMO, and author of the Wall Street Journal #1 bestseller, The Fractional CMO Method. Get ready to learn about what Fractional CMO have control over and what they don’t, how to get ahead of future problems, and why using a timeline can make both you and your team more effective. 

 

Takeaways:

• Dualism is the idea that you can hold two competing worldviews at the same time. Because of how interconnected all things are, you can perceive the duality of something as opposed to only wanting one thing to be one way. 
• A Fractional CMO has control over what they choose to focus on and the energy of the team they build around them. However, Fractional CMOs don’t have control over things like CPM changes or platform errors.
• The job of a Fractional CMO is complex because of the downstream impacts of your decisions. This is why it’s vital to take a deep breath and determine the most important problem that you can focus on. Which problem, if solved, has the biggest outcome? 
• For example, the most important problem could be the thing that generates cash the fastest, stops the bleeding the fastest, or it might be the thing that is the long-term fix, like SEO, but it's going to take a long time.
• Use a timeline based on months and quarters. Assign major outcomes that are tied to specific dates on this timeline to your team and let them do the work. This allows you to oversee an outcome rather than manage individual tasks. 
• Make you know, as a Fractional CMO, which outcomes have some wiggle room for their completion date. For example, a product launch will probably have a firmer deadline whereas for other projects you can extend the deadline.
• Try using the stoic practice of Negative Visualization to think about all of the things that are in your control and what would happen if they stopped working. Then, you can pre-emptively solve those potential problems or at least have a plan in place. 
• Work on strengthening your prediction muscle by predicting how long things will take you. Even predicting the completion time small things like grocery shopping will help you hone your skills. 

 

Quote of the Show:

• “People ask, is it hard to be a CMO? And the answer is, it's not that it's hard, it's just that the downstream outcomes of the decisions I make or you make impact more things.”  - Casey Stanton

 

Links:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/CaseyStanton
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseystanton/
• CMOx Website: https://cmox.co/call/
• The Fractional CMO Method: https://cmox.co/book/

 

Shout Outs: 

• Already Free by Bruce Tift

 

Ways to Tune In:

• Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/039bc2d6-c1b5-4ced-ac2a-437e69546e7c/fractional-cmo-show
• Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fractional-cmo-show/id1592740671
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1HGwnjsXA4c4gYQvj4w53E?si=bd6e0908e25749ec
• Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mcmFjdGlvbmFsY21vLmxpYnN5bi5jb20vcnNz?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjlpNDTveb0AhUXEFkFHaZcDtYQ9sEGegQIARAC
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/4ImcwwtVMWk