Fractionals United Blog

Separate but connected. A lesson on community from the mighty Aspen Did you know that a stand of Aspen is considered the largest single organism on earth? Whether their leaves touch or they stand 100 yards apart, they are connected by their roots. Connected by their roots. Here we are as a society, motoring well past the post-pandemic, new normal life, with only a slightly clearer picture of how our future work selves will come into shape. Will we return to the office? Will we stay remote? Is remote good for us? Is it bad? Will we work Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday, and work from home Monday and Friday? Is AI going to replace us all? Are mass layoffs coming? (Again) And what's this Fractional business everyone is talking about? What did Bob Dylan say? The answer my friend is blowing in the wind. Fair enough, Bob. Say, I don't suppose you can tell us which way the wind is blowing by any chance? I have a sense of the direction the wind is blowing. I think we hunger for community...

Last year today, I had this crazy idea. I had just come back to being fractional,  found it harder and lonelier, and didn't want to do it alone. When I couldn't find a community for the sake of community, I decided to see if there was interest in one. And as the chart demonstrates, there was definitely interest. But I can't take sole credit for this amazing growth. Yes, it's my community and vision, and yes, I optimized it for ease of entry, but I happened to be at the right place at the right time. And fractional is only going to continue growing. You may wonder what this means for the community.  A few things will remain constant: FrUn will continue to be free and open to current and aspiring fractional leaders; FrUn will continue focusing on community, and as such, prioritize connection, collaboration, and learning from each other; FrUn will continue to partner with those in the fractional ecosystem that provide other needed services for fractionals. And a few things...

Being a fractional isn't easy. I already blogged about the challenges to consider before going this route so I won't repeat them, but there are others I wanted to address: context switching not being able to coast required experience and expertise personal limitations Context Switching It is challenging having more than one client, whether fractional or otherwise, but if you're a fractional, you need to focus on a regular basis to get results. As a Fractional COO, since I run companies, I have to be available daily and the only way I've been able to do this is with strict time blocking.  This means that I literally have blocks on my calendar per each cilent/type of work I do, and I have synched my SavvyCal scheduling links per time block. So Client A can only schedule a meeting during the Client A time block, Client B during the Client B time block, etc.  I actually discussed this in detail with Shadi Yazdan on her podcast, The Raw Founder, which you can listen to here...

Fractionals United is 6-months old and crossed 2900 members. If you've read my other posts, you'll know that I'm a first-time founder and first-time community builder. I won't reiterate my origin story or the lessons I've already blogged about. An additional lesson I'm having to come to terms with is that community is very different than other "businesses." There are similarities and at some point you probably have to monetize, but there are different ways to do so...and in my opinion, that is a means to an end, not the purpose or goal. I chose to make  Fractionals United free and I've gone on the record countless times saying what exists today will remain free. I am told by advisors and friends alike that I deserve to be reimbursed for my time and efforts, and the value that I am providing, and they are not wrong, but I will not go back on my word. Since community is about connecting people, there are countless ways to do it and one isn't mor...

I've caught myself saying the following more times than I can count: "Fractional work allows me to have all the fun associated with working at a startup without the bullsh*t associated with a startup." For most of my career, that has been true. But based on a recent experience, I have started thinking about the times when the bullsh*t of a startup does rear its ugly head and how I could advise new fractionals on how I've approached it. Here’s my list for how to know when to walk away. Reasons to Walk One of the most powerful concepts that I learned in that time is the concept of "firing a customer." There are many reasons why you might need to let a customer go: Nonpayment or chronic late payment; Violation of terms and conditions—for example, work outside scope; Unreasonable demands or expectations—3 AM replies; Abusive behavior; Lack of engagement—they forget they hired you; Misalignment of a target market; Merger and acquisitions; Legal reasons; Strategic...

Last week, Fractionals United turned 3 months old and we hit 1000 members.  To say that I couldn't have expected this back in January when I went looking for my fractional tribe is an understatement. And since I'm an "accidental founder" and a first-time community builder, I've had to learn a lot...every day.  Here are some of my top lessons: Being a founder is hard. As a Fractional COO, I've run small to mid size businesses across many industries and therefore don't shirk from tough decisions and responsibility, but now that every decision and every mistake ultimately is mine, it's harder. I will say that having an ops background and having been a COO and Fractional COO has made some things a lot easier, but it is different in ways I could not have anticipated. It's about the people. It should be obvious that community is about its members, but that means that you constantly have to keep their good in mind and also listen to what they're sayi...

If you've read any of my previous posts either here or on LinkedIn, you know that I believe fractional is a win-win: employers get leaders who can help them scale and optimize, despite not being able to afford that level of talent full-time and leaders can get more flexibility and control over their time and careers, as well as diversify and keep themselves challenged and growing But does that mean that every leader should quit their full-time job and go fractional? No. Like everything in life, there are downsides to going fractional, and I thought it only fair to spell out the three main challenges so that anyone considering going fractional understands both the pros and cons before making that decision. Leads As someone who was a fractional COO for years before "fractional" was a thing, and is newly back to this world, the biggest challenge of being fractional is finding the work. This is a challenge I face and that 98% of the fractionals I speak with—both inside and ou...

Fractionals United turned a month old this past week, and broke 200 members that day.  And tomorrow we launch on Product Hunt , so please check us out and share. We also had our first meetup this past week and it was really great connecting with some of the members beyond slack. We realized collectively that we're actually pioneers revolutionizing the future of work since we strongly believe that fractional work is  the future. And here's why (or at least one of the many reasons why). I started reading Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter  by Liz Wiseman . If you haven't read it and you're a leader, I highly recommend it.  The premise of the book is that there are "leaders" who need to be the smartest in the room and diminish those around them, and there are others—the "multipliers"—who bring out the best in everyone they work with. (There's a lot more to it, but I'm summarizing and keeping it high level.) Multipliers are e...

I was doing fractional COO work before it was called that, went full-time briefly with one of my previous fractional clients, and returned to a very different fractional market. On the one hand, it's now popular and in the news, and there are also many more fractional leaders out there. On the other hand, my previous major source of fractional leads was no longer viable, so I had to figure out how to do this in the new paradigm. So I went looking for a community.  I had discovered the benefits of online communities over the last several years and wanted to find one for fractionals, so that I could learn from others and perhaps collaborate with them. I found a few fractional-related organizations and programs, but not one that was a community first and foremost. As many other founders before me, I decided to build the thing I needed. I posted the idea in several communities to see if there was interest, and when I realized there was, quickly started a free slack and within a day, a ...