Fractional CMO | GTM Visionary

Business-first mindset fractional CMO with experience harmonizing business strategies and marketing tactics across 8 industries.

Christian Hollums

Growth | Strategy | Leadership | Performance

I help B2B companies grow.

After 12+ years in marketing agencies, I’ve led strategy, account management, and growth across hundreds of businesses - from early-stage startups to global brands. 

Too many strategies look good in a deck but fall apart in the real world. 

I focus on what works:

→ Building clear go-to-market strategies
→ Fixing what’s not working
→ Aligning revenue teams and executing
→ Turning marketing from a cost center into a growth lever

I see the whole picture and make it make sense. Strategy, ops, execution - all connected.

Let’s talk: wstevens3785 \[at] gmail \[dot] com

Will Stevens

Here’s something depressing that I struggle with:

Honest people have to work twice as hard.

Not because the work itself is harder but because often before you can create any type progress you have to undo damage and incorrect assumptions. 

Clients come in carrying ideas they’ve been sold by people who promised certainty where it doesn't exists. 

Growth hacks. 
Magic frameworks. 
Overnight transformations. 
My least favorite - guaranteed outcomes wrapped in confident language.

"But shouldn't it work like..."

No. You were lied to.

"But I thought if we just..."

No. You were lied to. 

And when those promises don’t materialize reality can look slower and messier than they were led to believe. The cheap version becomes expensive. The fast version takes longer than they thought it would. 

Building strategy includes building expectations. 

And results don’t always show up on demand.

And focus can feel boring compared to whatever current thing is being hyped and promising to be your business's magic beans.

Sometimes I feel like I’m teaching someone to walk again after being told they could fly. That reality can be hard and uncomfortable. And I've seen plenty of opportunities walk out the door because I wouldn't take people's money because I want to sleep at night. 

Sometimes the hardest part of working with a client is helping them unlearn their illusion.

Clarity takes longer to appreciate because it asks for some level of patience, accountability, and thinking grounded in reality. 

And when people have believed imaginary hype it can create a force multiplying drag on real progress when the made up guarantees and fantastical promises don't work out the way they were conned into.

Growth & Strategy Leader | Hands-on strategy & execution to help you think clearly, act decisively, and grow deliberately

One of my previous agencies “wasn’t ready for strategy.” They claimed they weren’t ready for it, their clients weren’t ready for it, their people weren’t ready for it.

Deranged.

Saying you’re not ready for strategy is like saying:

🤦‍♂️ we’re not ready to prioritize
🤦‍♂️ we’re not ready to make decisions
🤦‍♂️ we’re not ready to choose what matters most
🤦‍♂️ we’re not ready to align our team around high leverage work
🤦‍♂️ we’re not ready to decide what NOT to do

And all of that is deeply preposterous.

Strategy isn’t a luxury that shows up once you’ve hit some mythical level of organizational maturity. 

It is simply deciding how you’re going to win with whatever resources you have available.

Every company already has a strategy even if they refuse to call it one.

Sometimes it just looks like:

❌ doing whatever the loudest client asks for
❌ chasing channels because competitors are there
❌ saying yes to everything and calling it "agility"

That’s still strategy. It’s just less intentional strategy. It happens to you instead of you having some agency over it. 

The irony is that the companies who say they’re “not ready” are usually the ones who need it the most. 

They get pulled in a dozen different directions. 

Their teams are busy but outcomes are disconnected. 

Marketing wants one thing, sales wants another, other functional areas are sprinting somewhere else entirely. 

Everyone’s working hard but momentum swirls sideways.

When a leader tells me some version of:

“We’re not ready to choose.”

Choosing is their job. They are literally paid to shape, make, own, and lead the action from their decision. And NOT choosing is itself a choice. Does your head hurt yet? Mine does. 

Strategy is the act of creating clarity BECAUSE things are messy.

Without it every decision becomes equally urgent. 

Every idea sounds good. Every opportunity feels like the one you can’t miss. And the result is predictable.

A good strategy doesn’t make the work any easier. It just gives that work some coherent direction.

It tells people:

✅ what to ignore
✅ where to focus
✅ how today’s work connects to tomorrow’s outcomes

I’ve seen companies spend six figures on tactics while insisting they aren’t ready for strategy. 

That’s like buying every tool at the hardware store before even deciding what you’re trying to build. 

No one is ever “ready” for strategy in the sense they might imagine.

You start with it even if imperfectly because the alternative is busyness and no center of gravity that confuses your team, burns them out, and provides zero direction.

Overcaffeinate. Overstimulate. Clench your jaw. Breathe shallowly. You got this 💪  

Or

Take a minute. Take a breath. Stop feeding the beasts and getting algorithmically captured by social media feeds and find something interesting to connect with on a deeper level.

taplio

The Battle

Christian Hollums

Will Stevens

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taplio

The Battle

Christian Hollums

Will Stevens

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Will Stevens's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreWill Stevens's LinkedIn Performance