I’m an Fractional CMO to Small Business Owners — Here are 3 Insights About Them

Patrick McFadden • October 19, 2017

In 2012 I started a marketing firm, Indispensable Marketing that works with service-based business owners to approach marketing as a process and develop and define the strategic elements of their marketing before we ever consider the tactical elements.


During this time my firm has had the privilege to operate in a strategic marketing role and me as a fractional CMO for our clients in different industries. I’ve worked and continue to work with organizations from accounting, training, tradeshow services, staffing, home repair services, commercial repair services to consulting.


Whenever I meet with prospective fractional CMO clients I’m struck by how similar the challenges are across industries. Yes, they are usually focused on growth, bright and passionate, protective when it comes to their company.


But they are also some other things I notice across the board:


#1. They’ve been burned by ineffective marketing or a bad marketing approach

Because the resource of time is scarce in a small business they often get hunted down by marketing service firms, salespeople, and consultants all looking to sell under the heading of marketing one tactic or some outsourced element, whether it be social media, SEO, graphic design, SEO, content, web design, etc. The sea of these different types of offering and service vendors means it’s very likely they have been burned by ineffective marketing or a bad marketing approach.


I personally think this is a learning curve for a growing small business owner. It’s sort of like dating. You never know what a good date looks and acts like unless you’ve dated some bad ones. I’ve had clients admit the decision to work in a process way and hire me in a fractional CMO capacity took so long because the whole “strategy before tactics” which we call “diagnosis before prescription” approach didn’t appeal to them as much as the let’s go do (without proper research) some SEO, website work, message creation, branding, advertising, etc.


Read this: How to Build a Marketing Engine That Gets Results


#2. They view marketing as an important investment

Using the dating analogy here: The great thing about our small business clients is that even though they’ve had some bad dates with marketing it doesn’t stop them from getting married. Yes, they view (good) marketing as an important investment — something they spend on now for the betterment of their business over the long haul.


In some ways, because we work with service-based business owners they see marketing as an extension of their current efforts — building the know, like and trust needed to speed up sales cycles with prospective and current clients.


They also view the development and maintaining of marketing assets critical to their marketing investment success.


These assets come in different forms based on the businesses core strategy but can be:


  • Website
  • Keywords
  • Business listing and/or Preferred vendor list
  • Newsletter
  • Proposals
  • Email List
  • Process, Methodology, and Point-of-view
  • Materials and Collateral
  • Marketing Training
  • Employee marketing education
  • Articles
  • Brand — logo, guidelines, graphics
  • Marketing Technology


These assets are not a silver bullet, and they will not deliver instant results. Marketing should deliver slow, steady and often incremental results, but it only will when business owners commit and invest in their marketing.


#3. They seek geometric growth not just linear growth

This can translate to my small business clients seeking to create happy customers through personalized and great client experiences. They want long-term relationships that will grow over time and understand marketing doesn’t end once the sale is done. To them, the end of the initial service is only the beginning of the relationship. They keep in touch with clients from that point forward in a manner that nurtures and further develop relationships.


This results in strategic conversations around growing geometrically with more sales to current clients through:


  • enlarging the size of each transaction
  • having more transactions per year
  • tapping the referral motivation of current customers


Contact your fractional CMO at Indispensable Marketing

If you’re a small service based business that wants to explore if fractional CMO services is right for your business or improve your business’s online presence on Google and other search engines, at Indispensable Marketing we can help. We offer marketing strategy consulting, marketing audits, monthly marketing packages, consultations, exploratory calls or monthly local SEO services. Contact us for more information. 

The Missing Layer in AI: Why Judgment, Not Just Data, Will Define the Next Era of Intelligence

By Patrick McFadden • May 2, 2025
Everyone is scaling outputs. Almost no one is scaling judgment.

Everyone Talks About AI Judgment. We Built It.

By Patrick McFadden • May 2, 2025
Ask anyone in tech where AI is headed, and they’ll tell you: “The next leap is reasoning.” “AI needs judgment.” “We need assistants that think, not just answer.” They’re right. But while everyone’s talking about it, almost no one is actually shipping it. So we did. We built Thinking OS™ —a system that doesn’t just help AI answer questions… It helps AI think like a strategist. It helps AI decide like an operator. It helps teams and platforms scale judgment, n ot just generate output. The Theory Isn’t New. The Implementation Is. The idea of layering strategic thinking and judgment into AI isn’t new in theory. The problem is, no one’s been able to implement it effectively at scale. Let’s look at the current landscape. 1. Big Tech Has the Muscle—But Not the Mind OpenAI / ChatGPT ✅ Strength: Best-in-class language generation ❌ Limitation: No built-in judgment or reasoning. You must provide the structure. Otherwise, it follows instructions, not strategy. Google DeepMind / Gemini ✅ Known for advanced decision-making (e.g., AlphaGo) ❌ But only in structured environments like games—not messy, real-world business scenarios. Anthropic (Claude), Meta (LLaMA), Microsoft Copilot ✅ Great at answering questions and following commands ❌ But they’re assistants, not advisors. They won’t reprioritize. They won’t challenge your assumptions. They don’t ask: “Is this the right move?” These tools are powerful—but they don’t think for outcomes the way a strategist or operator would. 2. Who’s Actually Building the Thinking Layer™? This is where it gets interesting—and thin. Startups and Indie Builders Some small teams are quietly: Creating custom GPTs that mimic how experts reason Layering in business context, priorities, and tradeoffs Embedding decision logic so AI can guide, not just execute But these efforts are: Highly manual Difficult to scale Fragmented and experimental Enterprise Experiments A few companies (Salesforce, HubSpot, and others) are exploring more “judgment-aware” AI copilots. These systems can: Flag inconsistencies Recommend next actions Occasionally surface priorities based on internal logic But most of it is still: In early R&D Custom-coded Unproven beyond narrow use cases That’s Why Thinking OS™ Is Different Instead of waiting for a lab to crack it, we built a modular thinking system that installs like infrastructure. Thinking OS™: Captures how real experts reason Embeds judgment into layers AI can use Deploys into tools like ChatGPT or enterprise systems Helps teams think together, consistently, at scale It’s not another assistant. It’s the missing layer that turns outputs into outcomes. So… Is This a New Innovation? Yes—in practice. Everyone says AI needs judgment. But judgment isn’t an idea. It’s a system. It requires: Persistent memory Contextual awareness Tradeoff evaluation Value-based decisions Strategy that evolves with goals Thinking OS™ delivers that. And unlike the R&D experiments in Big Tech, it’s built for: Operators Consultants Platform founders Growth-stage teams that need to scale decision quality, not just content creation If Someone Told You They’ve Built a Thinking + Judgment Layer™… They’ve built something only a handful of people in the world are even attempting. Because this isn’t just AI that speaks fluently. It’s AI that reasons, reflects , and chooses. And in a world that’s drowning in tools, judgment becomes the differentiator. That’s the OS We Built Thinking OS™ is not a prompt pack. It’s not a dashboard. It’s not a glorified chatbot. It’s a decision architecture you can license, embed, or deploy— To help your team, your platform, or your clients think better at scale. We’ve moved past content. We’re building cognition. Let’s talk.

We Found the Missing Layer AI Has Been Waiting For

By Patrick McFadden • May 2, 2025
In every era of innovation, there’s a silent bottleneck—something obvious in hindsight, but elusive until the moment it clicks. In today’s AI-driven world, that bottleneck is clear: AI has speed. It has scale. But it doesn’t have judgment . It doesn’t really think . What’s Actually Missing From AI? When experts talk about the “thinking and judgment layer” as the next leap for AI, they’re calling out a hard truth: Modern AI systems are powerful pattern machines. But they’re missing the human layer—the one that reasons, weighs tradeoffs, and makes strategic decisions in context. Let’s break that down: 1. The Thinking Layer = Reasoning with Purpose This layer doesn’t just process inputs— it structures logic. It’s the ability to: Ask the right questions before acting Break down complexity into solvable parts Adjust direction mid-course when reality changes Think beyond “what was asked” to uncover “what really matters” Today’s AI responds. But it rarely reflects. Unless told exactly what to do, it won’t work through problems the way a strategist or operator would. 2. The Judgment Layer = Decision-Making in the Gray Judgment is the ability to: Prioritize what matters most Choose between imperfect options Make decisions when there’s no clear answer Apply values, experience, and vision—not just data It’s why a founder might not pursue a lucrative deal. Why a marketer might ignore the click-through rate. Why a strategist knows when the timing isn’t right. AI doesn’t do this well. Not yet. Because judgment requires more than data—it requires discernment . Why This Is the Bottleneck Holding Back AI AI can write. It can summarize. It can automate. But it still can’t: Diagnose the real problem behind the question Evaluate tradeoffs like a founder or operator would Recommend a path based on context, constraints, and conviction AI today is still reactive. It follows instructions. But it doesn’t lead. It doesn’t guide. It doesn’t own the outcome. And for those building serious systems—whether you’re running a company, launching a platform, or leading a team—this is the wall you eventually hit. That’s Why We Built Thinking OS™ We stopped waiting for AI to learn judgment on its own. Instead, we created a system that embeds it—by design. Thinking OS™ is an installable decision layer that captures how top founders, strategists, and operators think… …and makes that thinking repeatable , scalable , and usable inside teams, tools, and platforms. It’s not a framework. It’s not a chatbot. It’s not another playbook. It’s the layer that knows how to: Think through complex decisions Apply judgment when rules don’t help Guide others —human or AI—toward strategic outcomes This Is the Missing Infrastructure Thinking OS™ isn’t just about better answers. It’s about better thinking—made operational. And that’s what’s been missing in AI, consulting, leadership development, and platform design. If you’re trying to scale expertise, install judgment, or move from tactical to strategic… You don’t need a faster AI. You need a thinking layer that knows what to do—and why. We built it. Let’s talk.
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