Successful marketing doesn't happen by chance. It starts at the top, with good leadership.
Top brand companies already know it. It takes discipline + expertise to set a clear strategy and execution plan. To experiment and innovate and measure. To help teams, partners, and agencies bring their best work. To instill a customer-first mindset that delivers powerful insights.
And if your growth needs to accelerate, this leadership depth is more important than ever.
I help brands grow.
And businesses run
better, faster, smarter.
I specialize in being a contract CMO or strategic advisor for startups and brands with ambitious growth goals. I bring critical marketing expertise, especially as you approach a major pivot point:
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initial launch or scale-up
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stalled growth
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brand overhaul
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acquisition or merger
Whatever your challenge, I can sharpen strategic direction, elevate the brand, and build the necessary pieces and discipline for growth.
About
Katie Fagan, The Other CMO

A full-stack, classic brand marketer by training, I've spent 20+ years building brands and helping businesses in a variety of B2C + B2B markets (consumer healthcare, fintech, higher ed, SaaS, industrial manufacturing, and even art), through both digital + traditional channels.
Demand gen, analytics, and innovation are my special sauce...but mostly, I have a passion for understanding why people make a specific choice for something, in a given moment.
This path has given me a fast learning curve -- and an arsenal of lessons and best practices to help you rise above the market clutter and connect with modern consumers.
Services & Capabilities
Your unique goals, company stage, and whether you have a marketing team in place (and how big) will guide our integration and partnership. I work with a very limited client roster, so that I can be immensely valuable and incredibly available.
In all cases, my objective is to get your brand and marketing operating at a high level, to build both near-term wins and long-term value.

Fractional Leadership
For startups and smaller companies, a little can go a long way to ensure you're maximizing value of your marketing dollars. I'll step in as part-time leader, assess gaps and weaknesses, develop a plan, bring on any necessary partners, and oversee implementation. And as you grow, I can continue building your permanent marketing function.

Strategic Advisory
A demand gen strategy for startups, a sound growth plan for stalled brands, optimizing brand impact from acquisition or merger. In this engagement, I serve as advisor to the CEO to work through a specific challenge — which they’ve identified as a pre-cursor to creating or growing their marketing function.