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SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Fractional executive resources, business strategy, leadership roles, small business impact, AI integration, executive coaching, peer communities, business growth, strategic planning, operational efficiency, business challenges, fractional COO, business innovation, executive expertise, business collaboration.
SPEAKERS
Jen Hamilton, Damon Pistulka, Speaker 1
Damon Pistulka 00:07
All right, everyone, welcome once again to the faces of business. I am your host, Damon Pistulka, and I am not just excited, not just incredibly excited. I am extremely, incredibly, I don’t even know the right word excited to have Jen Hamilton on with us today talking about identifying fractional executive resources for your business. Jen, awesome having you here.
Jen Hamilton 00:36
I’m also whatever the bit bigger word than excited is to be I’m extremely excited. It’s always fun to have these conversations with you, and I just am so grateful for the work you’re doing, putting these resources, interviewing folks like myself and others. Damon, it’s really needed for people to understand and access like what else can I do? It’s so hard to get stuck in your day to day and to be tunnel vision. Focus on what’s challenging and trying to just swim through this life that is so challenging as this business. So I’m grateful for you putting this on and having
Damon Pistulka 01:13
me back. Awesome, awesome. Well, I lived that way for many, many years in inside of the businesses, and I know how that can be. You get that tunnel vision on, on making them work, and you really being able to stand up and and talk to people like yourself and just learn from others is such an important thing for us to to broaden what we think can happen in these businesses so it can work. And I love that to talk to today about identifying fractional executive resources, because that’s a fairly new topic. So talk a little bit about fractional executive resources and what that really means.
Jen Hamilton 01:53
The simplest way, it’s not a full definition, but the simplest, just to keep it super simple, is that you get expert executives part time, yeah. And I think that a lot of people are like, what is that fractional? Coo, because that’s the kind of fractional I am. And I’m like, fractional is just a fancy word for part time. We do more than that, but that, I think, is the first beginning of opening your mind to what’s possible is that, what is a challenge? And my mentor, who you know as well, Ben Wolf, and I love learning from him, first, which was, there’s this catch 22 you’re a small business, and in order to get to the next level, or deal with this challenge, or just be able to go on from where you are stuck, you need an experienced executive, but yet, you have to get to that next level to afford an experienced executive. So that’s the whole catch 22 and part of what I think is actually a win for the the professionals that we are, as well as the businesses who are like, I’m just not at that level where I can have a full time, experienced executive. It’s a win for both of us, because you can get access to these expertise without having to worry about I can’t afford it so we can help you get to that next level where you can transition to a full time. Or some people just stick with fractionality. That’s pretty sweet, you know, I don’t have to put you on my salary.
Damon Pistulka 03:32
Yeah, yeah. I think that’s a great way. It is. It is just paying for an experienced executive part time and it, I think about, I think about the what was the saying when someone went to have some famous painter paint them a painting, and they could paint it in like three minutes, and they, you know, it’s 1000s of dollars, and it’s like, you really do get that kind of resource, because the fractional executives are typically someone that’s got a lot of experience and flexible enough to be able to draw on that experience and bring them together for this situation to really make a difference.
Jen Hamilton 04:09
There’s another piece to it that I was clued into recently, that is, yes, we have lots of past experience, and we’re at an executive level, right? It’s not, it’s not something where we are managing we executive means you’re you’re doing strategy you’re leading teams. You have excellent leadership skills. You have project management skills. You have strategic skills. But the other thing that I think is really neat, that is an advantage for businesses that work with a fractional versus a full time. So even if you can afford full time, you are having them now only in your business. And one of the things that we keep bringing, and I do this almost every week, is I’m still in other businesses, even when I’m working with my clients. So if you. Could, as a business owner, go peek in the window of another business and be like, how are you doing this? You can’t. They’re not going to let you. But I already am. I’m in there, trying things out here, tweaking it a little bit, and like, oh, that’s going to work for this client. So we keep bringing that ability to see outside of your business. Sometimes you could say competitors, because oftentimes you work in a niche, but I see it really more as a way to actually have us go collaborate with others on your behalf.
Damon Pistulka 05:34
Yeah, yeah, that’s a great point, because I didn’t you know we had always talked about the fact that you have all these experiences, and you bring them together, but you’re you’re right, because you’re constantly testing something over here and going well that may apply over here.
05:47
Yes,
Damon Pistulka 05:49
that’s great. So you have a, you have a fractional coo community. Let’s talk about that a little bit, because I think that’s it’s important first of all to to understand that there are communities out here where, if someone wants to understand more about a fractional executive, or especially in this case, in your community, a COO and what that really means, and what these communities are really doing. There are
Jen Hamilton 06:16
more and more fractional leadership types of communities. There’s ones for all fractional leadership. So one thing we probably should be clear too, is there are different kinds of executive seats. I obviously being one who sits in the operating Chief Operating Officer means I am second in command. You could say coo. You could say integrator, for those who are in Eos, right hand leader. There’s all kinds of things we help run the business, but one of the things that I love about what we do is we also see the other leadership roles. So we are like knowing, okay, you need a strategic leader in marketing or finance or sales or it. You know, I met a fractional chief AI officer last week, and I was like, Oh my gosh, this is, of course, this is a thing now. And so one of the things is to know that there are strategic leaders in different areas of business. And now in this world, there are ways to get them at a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the time. So there are lots of communities for them. And there are some of us fractionals that have communities just for our essentially area of expertise. So there are marketing folks, finance, sometimes their entire firms, or sometimes their community. And my community is called fractional co collective. And so these are mostly solo practitioners. So we are all our own business, and we have our own expertise, different industries, different size businesses, different phases of businesses. We come together for a couple reasons. One, we come together, because when you get to this position, there is no other way to learn other than your peers. You know, when you get to a leadership position, if you’re a business owner, what do you do? You go hang out with other business owners. Would you do as an executive? You go hang out with other executives. So we make each other stronger. We are great alone, but we are stronger together, learn together, solve problems together. So that’s that’s a big win for them and for our clients, but we also have the ability to refer to each other. So one of the things that I think is makes me so proud that we are truly collaborative profession. Most of the fractionals are because we can’t possibly work with a lot of people. I mean, that’s that’s different than a lot of industries, is that we are limited, be it by our own capacity of who we can work with, and yet, we’re also committed to our business, whether it’s our client or not getting the results that they need and deserve. And so one of the things that I love about our community is I have referred members to different small businesses who are a much better fit. So having that best fit person is something we can do in our community. But also my members refer to each other, and I love it because I think that we want, again, we’re collaborative, but we’re also putting the clients needs first. And if we’re not the best solution for it, it’s okay. We know someone who is
Damon Pistulka 09:33
Yeah, and that’s huge, is really getting the right, the right help in a business.
Jen Hamilton 09:39
And again, I will have, I will have people who think, oh, you’re a COO. You can help me project manage, or you can help me with my administrative tasks. And so sometimes you’re not even sure what kind of professional you need. So you can even come to us, and I will say, let me give you a great. Executive Assistant firm that you can go find or or I can even let them know what you need is a project manager all of these areas, it’s hard to know. And so one of the things that we’re also great at is like saying, No, we’re not who you’re looking for or who you need right now. Yeah, but because we’ve done this with so many different companies, and so long in our career, we know where to point you, and sometimes that’s the biggest benefit I’ve had so many people be like, thank you so much for telling me I’m not ready for you yet.
Damon Pistulka 10:30
Yeah. Well, and I think that’s a that’s a big, big thing, and to talk about it today is, is in identifying a fractional resource for your business? What are some of the indications that you know that you might be ready for it?
Jen Hamilton 10:47
It’s a good question. And of course, it depends on what kind of fractional or what kind of area of your business. What I like to do is look at it by function. You have different functions of your business, like we said, marketing, sales, delivery of the product or service, back office, administrative things, finance, type of things. There’s all these different areas. A fractional can be great in any of it. But where I think a lot of people are meeting and saying it’s time for a fractional is when you are getting lost in the strategy, or have none as an executive, we think in why are we doing things? Not how are we doing things? So if you only have people that are doers who are focused on the how, and no one focused on the why and what, that’s when you’re missing a strategic mind. If it’s all on you as the business owner to figure out what we’re doing and why we’re doing it, it’s going to burn you out, especially because if your expertise isn’t marketing, and everyone’s looking to you to decide, why should we be doing this marketing and what should we be doing, then you have to take it to the level to tell them how we’re going to do that. It’s very exhausting, especially because, as I said, there’s different parts of a fractional business. So if you are finding that you’re unable to really put in the effort towards this area of the business, to figure out why we’re doing something, should we be doing something, what we should be doing, and then directing the team on how or to do it? That’s when you’re needing that executive leadership.
Damon Pistulka 12:31
Yeah, I think that’s a good point, because the you know, why or what direction should we go is really on the executive level, it’s like, Where, where, where do we need to head in this, this thing, this part of the business, like you said, it could be a CFO, COO, CMO, CRO, there’s all different that, or a CEO, because there are some fractional CEOs that really help, help well too. But that why, what direction we going, and why I think those can be really, one, really good that a fractional executive can bring in and go, Okay, especially in your case. And the COO is like, okay, look at the business and go, Okay, what? What isn’t working, what’s working right and on. A lot of times you can see it. But what the next piece behind that is, where are we going, and why are we doing that? Right? That’s the question that’s hard to do, because, as you talked about before, you as a fractional you have all these people, these other businesses that you’ve been in, and all this experience that you’re getting now with other clients that can come to bear on these problems. Whereas the business owner is in there running the business or the business, the person in charge that business now is doing that. You bring us other viewpoint in there, and that, that outside perspective is huge. I believe that the fractional resource brings to the business,
Jen Hamilton 13:56
yes, and it’s hard, even if you have a fresh new hire that outside perspective wanes after a while, it’s and you probably experience it, you get, yeah, you get someone new in a position who has knowledge that you don’t have. Whatever the position is. It could be, it could be an executive assistant. It could be a marketing system, like they know something you don’t know, and it’s like, whoo. It’s a little boost of energy, like, hey, we could do something I never thought of. So to do that at an executive level is a real turbo boost, because now you’re getting it to be smart and strategic, yeah, and then take it to the level of systematic, so that it’s repeatable. We can do make sure we’re going towards the results. We know what the results we want. We know what to tweak, instead of just getting stuck in like, Okay, we’re gonna do this marketing strategy now it’s like, well, you know, should we is that the right people? Are they going to be the ones who actually are. Listening to us like having I think one of the biggest jumps we have is to be a questioner.
Damon Pistulka 15:07
I think you’re right. Yeah. I think it is, is to really ask, well, well, as you said, Why? Why are we going this direction and and then offer suggestions or help, help the people to find their own direction.
Jen Hamilton 15:21
Yes, exactly. Yeah. We don’t have to be an expert in everything, but we are so good at asking enough questions to help, like you said, lead them in the right direction.
Damon Pistulka 15:34
Yeah, that’s That’s awesome. So now your community. One of the things that you guys do a lot of is educating people on fractional resources, what they can do, how they can help. What are some of the fun things that you get to do, working with your community and just educating people?
Jen Hamilton 15:56
Well, I will say my selfish thing first, which is, I get to learn, I get to grow. And I think that’s what had me start in the first place. Is I was looking for a place where just fractional coos gathered and ops control, people who think like me, people who have the challenges like I do, that are serving different clients, and I couldn’t find it. So that’s why I started it and I lead it well, one of my favorite things to see is that I get to bring two other fractionals What I have learned, and see them learn from others. So I just, you know, I just love that collective wisdom that we’re bringing together. But I keep getting to be better. I keep getting to learn too. So my favorite thing is when the light bulbs go up, go off for us, and then I just know that there’s a ripple effect. Because when they are seeing something new or seeing something differently, I know they’re going to go to their clients and they’re going to make that happen in different places, and we just, we just get to take our ops geekiness and make a difference in a way that is probably behind the curtain. You know, we’re, we’re definitely not at the front stage, but it makes everybody else look good. You know, we know okay if we just do these tweaks, or we take these little tools that I learned at this round table, or with this other fractional CEO, I know that I can go in and do something better, and they may not even know it was me who made it happen. Because we try to make the team look good. We try to, like, make the the CEO look good, and we just sort of slightly just hang out in the background and just push the team to be better. And so that, to me, is what’s most exciting is that we learn from each other, and we take it out there and make a difference that has this ripple effect throughout. One of the things that I probably have said is on your on your show before, but my whole thing is that when you really look at what influences a community, it’s the small businesses that make the most impact. Yeah, it’s the ones who are giving the most jobs. It’s the ones who are providing the services and the products. But they also, when they’re doing well, they give back to their community. If you look at who donates to a school, or who is helping out the local community or volunteering or whatever it is they, most of the time, are connected to a small business. So there’s just so many amazing things that can happen to our communities, to our families when small businesses are doing well. And that’s what lights me up, is that I know if we can just get them to be a little bit better, everything goes better. Showing up at work goes better. If you work for a small business, being able to be served or getting products from them goes better. And then everybody that is profitable and successful and has a time that that that they will usually give back they want to go and help something in their community. And that’s that’s what’s exciting to me, when we can free them up and give them a fine, some financial freedom to go make the difference they want to make.
Damon Pistulka 19:16
That is huge. That is huge. I’m glad you brought it up, because the Small Business effect, you know, in our community is, is, is massive. Like you said, you can look at the big communities, the big businesses, all you want, but the small businesses are the ones that are in the background, that are that are donating to, you know, help rebuild the track at this high school, or putting in the time at their their local community center, or the church, or wherever they’re at, you know, they’re really helping out in that community, and it’s just they are the heartbeat of it. And then when you look when those businesses are doing better, they can, they’re spending more money on products and services, they’re able to pay the people better. And I. Um, and then to see, you know, the owners themselves, personally feeling better, less time, less stress, and making a bit more money. That’s a good thing. Well,
Jen Hamilton 20:11
it gives them choice, and that’s where you and I really get excited too, is that when it’s time to choose to leave, they have something so valuable that you can help them exit, yeah, not just to get $1 amount. That’s not what it’s about, though. That is nice. Yeah. It is about having your freedom, your freedom to be with your family, your freedom to be in your community, your freedom to go start another business.
Damon Pistulka 20:39
Yes, yes. And that freedom is and knowing that whenever you’re next, whatever your next is, is that your business that’s going to be there, if it’s set up right, it’s going to continue on and continue to provide for everyone that it has up till then, and continue to do that well into the future. Because that’s, that’s one of the things that in small business, you really hate to see that something had been there 1020, 3040, years, even sometimes, and the owners have not set it up well, have not taken and gotten those resources, and they die. And pretty soon the buildings are vacant and the equipment’s all gone, or the whatever, the parking lot’s empty, and it’s something else. Eventually, yeah, yeah. So when, when you’re looking at the fractional co community and out in the business world, what? What things are exciting you in the fall of 2025
Jen Hamilton 21:37
it would be remiss if I didn’t say AI, yeah, definitely everywhere I turn it’s networking, meetings, education means groups like AI is coming up over and over again, and it’s been a conversation for a while, but I think we’re we’re I was just having a conversation Earlier today with a gentleman who is a tech IT specialist for small businesses, I think that that where I see it going ideally is, is making it simple enough, yeah, and and useful enough for for small businesses they keep because it can be very complicated and can be Very confusing, and this is one of the things that fractionals can really help with, because where we have the time to go network, the time to go learn, yes, trust me, I am just diluting myself in everything I can learn, but with a filter. So when you’re a small business owner, you just feel like I’m supposed to do something with AI, but I don’t know what, where, where we are moving forward with to help our small businesses. Is that we level ourselves up so we can bring the best to you and and figure out what’s, if I may crap, and what is worth actually going to make the business better. So that’s, I think that’s the thing that I see for us, and then we can bring that to other businesses. It’s, How do we make this relevant and useful instead of shiny distraction?
Damon Pistulka 23:13
Yeah, I think that’s, that’s huge. Two things you said were huge. First of all, AI is it’s just, it’s just everywhere. I mean, I if I looked at all my browsers right now, I bet I got three or four browsers that are set on AI doing something or that I’ve used to do something today. And because it is a handy tool, it’s a handy tool, and if we don’t understand how to use it and how to implement it in business intelligently, to to allow our people to do, do more and better and faster we’re going to we’re just going to get overtaken by the people that are. And the second thing that a fractional person brings that so and it was before we talked about it, but this is a great, great part of it is to be an effective fractional coo. In this example, you should know, and if this is we’re talking about identifying fractional executive resources for your business today. I mean, if you’re talking to a fractional COO and or any fractional in their their specific area of expertise, and if they can’t offer, I know somebody that can do this. I know somebody that can do this. And if somebody can do this, you know, if I’m in finance, there are things that they have. They have a CPA that specializes in the way they do. They have this, they have this, or CRO or COO. That’s a great question, I think, is like, you know, these are the kind of things that we have. You know, who are you related to, or who do you have relationship with that can help us in these things, because that time to identify and validate and make sure that that’s somebody that we really want to work with is huge. Average, when I’m a business owner trying to run everything else, and a fractional person can take that to almost very much less time. And the fractional person is also when you when you’re in some place, and you’re a fractional person, you do not want to recommend somebody and bring them in and they’re not going to do well, because that just looks poorly on you, plus it just creates more work that you got to, you got to get out of. So I think it’s, it’s a it’s a great benefit for a business owner that does is identifying, trying to look for those practical resources like, okay, here are the problems we have. How would you approach them differently? Or Who do the people, you know, because it’s so huge,
Jen Hamilton 25:43
absolutely well, it’s part of why fractional CEOs are attracted to our community as well, is that we want a shortcut. And one of my favorite places to go when I don’t have a resource already in my network, which I do have quite a few, or tool, you know, a tool like we’re talking about AI and what’s your favorite tool? What’s your you know, I just, I was onboarded with an incredibly effective employee engagement tool this morning, you know. So we are constantly looking for that. But my shortcut is to go ask other fractional CEOs. Yes, you use. What are you doing? So how I know that’s one reason that fractional CEOs will come to us too is that they don’t want to spend all their time figuring it out. We want those shortcuts from our fellow professionals that know and think like us.
Damon Pistulka 26:36
Yes, yeah, that’s a great point about your your fractional coo community is you can share those among, amongst the Coos. And again, if, if, if someone’s referring somebody, it’s their reputation. So they you do have a a higher level of confidence when, when someone refers somebody, 100%
Jen Hamilton 26:58
Yeah, absolutely. I have had it go really well, and I have had it go really poorly when I refer someone in and I do own and clean up any mess of something preferred. So it makes you more cautious, like you said,
Damon Pistulka 27:13
Oh yes, yes. And I think, I mean, it’s, it’s another good, a good thing from, from a business executives perspective, is like, okay, great. You’re saying Jen can come in and do this. That’s awesome. You’re the one that gets to make sure you coordinate it. You’re the one that gets to do it. Okay, yep, make it go away, yes. And that’s I mean, and that’s really what, what the fractional executive can can help bring, is bring the organize the right people from outside and coordinate them with the inside to actually have things get done?
Jen Hamilton 27:47
Yeah, for sure, absolutely. Because the the other thing about a smaller and even medium sized business, and probably even a very large business, is that you don’t have to have everything internal. In fact, sometimes that’s more harmful than helpful. And nowadays there is the gig economy. There’s just different vendors and different solutions. And so navigating all of that, I think that’s where a lot of times we do have that benefit is we’re trying to find solutions that work in fitting new puzzle pieces into new puzzles these days is it’s no longer the day of you just hire people full time and they’re there for 40 years and you’re taking care of their pension. So yeah, now there’s a lot more little puzzle pieces that we’re trying to fit in.
Damon Pistulka 28:38
Yes, I agree 100% and that that is so relevant too, because, you know, we, we can be doing a project, and we need to find that who that can help us in those specific technical details. And when that project is done, if we’re out there hiring full time people for each one of them, well, then we have, we have something to deal with, but but under knowing those people that can help us with that specific thing, applying that resource effectively when needed, and then that affect the resource, going away when it’s not, is a huge thing for business today.
Jen Hamilton 29:15
Well, I find that one of the biggest challenges that I have with small businesses and why they’re stuck, why they’ve hit a ceiling is that they haven’t fired the people they knew they need to fire. And so it’s much easier when they’re not your employee and they’re a contractor with a certain thing. So we still work through that. Of course, yeah, I don’t like to think I’m the hatchet queen, like I’m not going in firing. We want to make it work with who you have. But oftentimes that’s part of what’s nice about a solution is this is much easier to say goodbye when it’s a project based or just for this certain thing. And so there is a lot more flexibility when you’re not just put. Putting employees into everything,
Damon Pistulka 30:01
yeah, yeah, that’s a great point. So as as we’re talking about fractional executives, somebody’s trying to find, okay, am I ready for it? We talked about that a little bit. What are some of the things that you see when a fractional executive is really may not be your best choice. Maybe it’s time to get into a full time executive, a COO or other C level person.
Jen Hamilton 30:31
So there’s, there’s a couple like clues that when you need it, and there’s one thing I’ll say before you even are asking the full time, I think that whether it’s full time or fractional one of the questions you need to ask yourself is, what kind of job? Because oftentimes there is a big line I like to draw, is that, and to put it really simply, do I need more of a doer or a leader? Because a lot of times what you may need full time is a doer, but you’re expecting them to also lead. And so the other side of it is like, I’m going to hire this great leader, and now I’m expecting them to do so. I think one of the questions you need to be asking yourself before you do any sort of full time or fractional is, what do I really need? Because if you have collapsed those two positions, which so many people do, is like, I know I’ll get a fractional or I’ll get a full time leader, and they can go ahead and lead, but then I can also have them like, marketing is a great example. Oh, they’re a marketing leader, but I’m also going to have them create content. It’s like, that is better to have more of a doer because there’s a lot more content to create any you only need to bring in which kind of goes more to your question. You only really need to bring in an executive and move full time when there’s enough executive work, yeah, not when there is more doing work to do, you’re going to actually save a lot more money and save a lot less. Have a lot less frustration and annoyance by the two different people. The doers don’t want to lead, and you’re asking too much of them, and they’re not going to be able to leave, and now you’re frustrated because they can’t do a job. They can’t do, yes, the leaders we don’t want to do we don’t want to do more detail work. We’ve worked our way up to have the ability and it’s harder to lead others to execute with excellence. We’re much better in that. And so going farther, when you’re ready for you truly have enough work for someone to lead. It’s usually that you have a larger team, you have a bigger strategy. You might have bigger projects that you can have them lean versus like the ongoing detail projects. It might be like, Okay, we need to move into a whole new market or another location, or you’re preparing for exit, you know, so having something where it is a bigger strategic level project and more folks to lead, those are two ideas of when a full time is going to be better.
Damon Pistulka 33:13
Yeah, yeah, there is that point where you go over the tipping point where it’s just like, there’s just so much going on that they could be busy working on this strategies and execute and helping making sure the pieces to execute all all day, every day. Yeah,
Jen Hamilton 33:30
yeah, exactly. But please, please don’t put them in the full time, because you have more doing work. Yes,
Damon Pistulka 33:36
that’s great. That’s a great point, because you’re right. I wrote down doer or leader, because that really is you. That’s the first question you should ask, because, again, you can get fractional doers as well. That’s a wonderful thing. Yes, yes, it’s so good, so good. So just it’s so cool to get to talk to you, because when you started talking about your community, I was like, this is an educating business owners around this. It’s so nice because you created a place where people can come and just learn about fractionals and understand how they can help them. Because it’s it in my experience, and seeing them other people, and the way that it really helps the business, that outside perspective can can be really valuable in helping the business run better, but like, like you said, is it gives the owners back their time and helps these small business be more successful and really solve some long term issues that they’ve had.
Jen Hamilton 34:39
It’s absolutely my pleasure, because business is hard enough you don’t have to get in your way, and so we can help you get out of your way and be able to do this stuff that’s much more exciting, which is be doing the research and development, creating the next new thing, igniting some of that passion. In you to go make a difference with your customers or clients like that’s the stuff we want to free you up to do.
Damon Pistulka 35:07
Yes, and it’s a wonderful thing, because when you see a business leader that is that has embraced this strategy of, okay, my business is not big enough that I need a full time, but I, but I’ve, embraced the fact that I need a fractional COO, for example, and that COO is taken over the executive part of running the business. In a lot of ways, a lot of those pieces now that business owner is able to do a they’re going to get a little time back. They’re not, you know, every weekend, every night, goes away, hopefully, but then they can really, when you see them, the light bulb starts to come on, and they go, Wow. I wanted to explore this with the business, and I wanted to explore that with the business to really see what is our next place that we go, because now I’ve got a partner that helped me, that can help me execute that vision when we find the right next thing, and that owner freed to see that is so cool, to see how 235, years down the business that they’ve gone, rather than just plug along flat,
Jen Hamilton 36:19
yeah, that innovation is what will have them continue to survive and thrive during whatever is next, because there is going to be always, if we’ve not learned anything in the last few years, there’s always something new to deal with, whether from the days of covid to having to deal with AI and great resignation. People a little more picky with what they get to do for their work. All of these things are they’re not going to be. The only things we can’t fool ourselves to think, okay, got through this. We’re good, no, no disruption. So you want to be able to be ahead and have some breathing room to think,
Damon Pistulka 37:05
yeah, just that time to think.
Speaker 1 37:07
Gotta give you that time, time to think,
Damon Pistulka 37:11
yes. Well, Jen, thanks so much for being here today. I mean, we were talking about identifying fractional executive resources for your business. If anyone has questions, what’s what’s the best way to get a hold of you talk about it and learn from what you guys are doing?
Jen Hamilton 37:27
Yeah, absolutely. So one of the things I appreciate you mentioning, too, if you are a leader within a business, an owner within the business, you can come to our peer roundtables, which are populated with quite a few CEOs, and you’ll start to have our brains be able to help you go through some of those challenges that are happening. So it’s kind of a way to get a fraction of a fractional in our round tables. They are free. We host them every month. You can find out about those round tables. And if you are a fractional CO and you’re like, gosh, I want that community, you can find out the same thing at Hamilton coos.com, our website, we’re there to be that hub, that ecosystem of answering all that fractional coo questions, and that place for us to come together as a community.
Damon Pistulka 38:14
Nice, nice. Well, Jen, thanks again for being here, as always, such a pleasure, and just love what you’re doing, helping small businesses connect with fractional resources and then help those fractional resources become better in those businesses. Yes, thank
Jen Hamilton 38:32
you so much for having me and for allowing me to educate others and just have them be aware it doesn’t have to be this hard.
Damon Pistulka 38:39
Yes, yes, I’m just my pleasure now you you have, I didn’t want to forget it. You have a podcast or what are you you’re starting a live what’s going on here? Because I want to share that before we jump off. I just remembered I’d written it down.
Jen Hamilton 38:54
Yeah, it’s not out yet. So here we are in the kind of early stages of q4, 2025, ideally, we’ll have it by the beginning of the year, if not a little bit sooner, in 2026 it’s called fractional coos to the rescue. We I love to see as we were talking about business owners are heroes in their community. They’re out there. They’re the superheroes making a difference with jobs, with services, with purchasing with giving back their community. But every good hero needs a sidekick, so we’re those sidekicks to help them be even bigger superheroes in their community. So our podcast is a way for you to eavesdrop on us as two different fractional CEOs, ops experts talking about one specific area that businesses get stuck, and how we solve them, and some stories of what we’ve done in clients. So you can definitely learn from us. See where you’re doing things right, where you could be doing things wrong. But if you’re ready to to watch some folks enjoy us geeking out over how to fix businesses, that’s. What it’s all about.
Damon Pistulka 40:00
That’s awesome. That’s awesome. Well, I look forward to that, and that’ll be the fractional coo to the rescue. Coos to the rescue, coming out later this year or early in 2026 thanks for sharing that with us, and we’ll make sure to come back and talk about that when you get that going.
Jen Hamilton 40:18
Sounds great. I may or may not be wearing a cape. We’ll see.
Damon Pistulka 40:23
We’ll see that would be cool. Very cool. Well, Jen, thanks so much for being here. I appreciate it. I know the listeners appreciate I can see we have people out there listening today. Thank thanks everyone for being here. Really, really appreciate you. If you came in late, you want to go back to the beginning, because Jen drop some great information. If you’re a business executive, business owner that really is wondering, is a fractional executive for you? She’s got some great tips in there and great things. And also go out to the and Hamilton coos community, COO community, and you can connect with her. More there. Thanks so much. Thanks. Damon, we’ll hang up. We’ll be finish up offline. Jen, thanks everyone. Once again, we’re out for today. You.
