ο»ΏEpisode 117 Alison Keutgen Transcript
Guest: Alison Keutgen, Fractional CMO and Founder, Inovari
Host: AJ Riedel
Starting Out: From Startup Uncertainty to the First Fractional Client
AJ: Take me back to when you first got that initial client and set up Inovari. You said you had no idea if you'd stick it out. Walk me through what a typical week looked like then, and fast forward to now, two years in.
Alison: I don't think there really was a typical week back then. I was at a startup at the time, and there were some things going on β the writing was on the wall that maybe it wasn't going to survive, or that there were going to be some team reductions and realignment. So I had started putting some feelers out and got connected with what became my first client. At first, we were even thinking about a full-time arrangement. Throughout those conversations, we both identified mutually that something fractional was going to be a better fit for them. I had been researching fractional CMOs and related work, and with the breadth of background I have, that was something I started to explore as a potential fit. I wasn't really sure.
Flashing forward to now β I don't know if there's a typical day, but there's a little more structure. I've actually continued to work with that first client over a couple of years. We have a great cadence, we're aligned. I know what they need to be doing and what direction the team needs to go. I've been able to structure hours in the week more intentionally, so the team knows when I'll be in the office, and I communicate freely when things need to shift. There's a level of flexibility that they're really amazing about.
The Origin of Inovari: Innovation Meets the Safari Metaphor
AJ: Tell us how the name Inovari came about.
Alison: I wanted to have some basic structure established when I brought on my first client and started speaking with other potential clients. I needed a name β a placeholder I could grow into if I was going to stick with this world. Speaking with a good friend who I used to work with, I had tried using ChatGPT to give me some thought starters, having it mix words and generate ideas. It wasn't great at it, but it got close on a few that gave me some creative fuel. Together with my friend, we came up with a new spin on innovation. Inovari is a blend of innovation and safari β because innovation can be like a safari sometimes. That's the true origin. It captures how you navigate through product development and innovation, and honestly, sometimes just strategic projects too. Even normal complexity can put you on a safari.
AJ: It's memorable.
Alison: Thank you. You asking about it actually triggered a to-do for me β I should probably write about it and include it in my content.
Revenue Variability: The Real Cost of Feast-or-Famine Cycles
AJ: You described having highly variable revenue. What does that actually cost you β and I don't just mean money. What's the real toll of revenue unpredictability?
Alison: I've had a few clients where the intention was long-term β more than six months of runway based on what they were trying to do and how well we were working together. Then economic factors stepped in, and some very random factors occurred and shifted things abruptly. It can definitely be anxiety-provoking. Right now I'm an individual β I haven't taken the growth step into bringing additional people under my umbrella. When you're the one doing the work and the business development and trying to forecast everything, it can be tricky. You're always doing the calculated balance of where the highest impact of your time is.
If you believe you have long-term clients, you know the runway, you know the timeline. You don't always choose to prioritize business development activities in the extra time you have. That was my learning β probably my error. Almost everyone watching this is probably saying they should have anticipated that more.
AJ: Most of them are probably saying, yep, same.
Alison: Right. It can be really tricky because you don't want to live in a constant ball of anxiety. And it's hard to fill the pipeline when you believe you have a longer runway, or when your contract says you do. That's what makes it very tricky from a fractional basis. You enter the agreement, you believe it's going to be months. When factors come out of left field and change that, you need to go back and fill what you thought you had.
AJ: The oh-sh*t moment of realizing you thought you had a full pipeline and now you don't.
Alison: Exactly. I don't have any answers beyond empathy for anyone who goes through that. Almost everybody does at some point, especially in the beginning. One of the things I'm starting to prioritize higher is different ways to diversify revenue streams β even with me as the principal and primary worker β thinking through advisory, coaching, or other types of content that might be monetizable because they reach a certain value threshold. These all fall under business development time.
Pipeline Infrastructure: Building the System Before You Need It
AJ: Two years in, what is keeping you up at night about your consulting business?
Alison: I always knew that the benefit of my network would come to an end at some point. You never really know when that end is. The beauty of networking over the years β working at different places, always being open to conversations, meeting people in interesting sectors β I'm not a huge extrovert, but I've always genuinely enjoyed speaking with people in other professions and understanding their challenges and how those show up in different ways.
Flash forward to a couple years in, and I wonder: did I move fast enough at building a sustainable pipeline and having the right business development infrastructure and systems in place to really optimize the time I spend on that side of the business? I'm doing a lot of content creation, thinking about different ways to create lead magnets β and even that phrase sounds off sometimes. It's less about selling something and more about creating the bridge between what I know I'm good at and what certain types of businesses might need. The challenge is expressing that authenticity and connecting it with the people I could actually help.
AJ: Do you feel like that structure and system is in place now?
Alison: I've done a lot of work over the last couple months. I've spoken with many people β you know who you are, thank you β and gotten great guidance from others who have done similar consulting or fractional work. Understanding what's worked for them has been really valuable. It's come a long way, but there's still work to do.
The Generalist Trap: When Industry Agnosticism Blocks Referrals
AJ: You have two pretty different ideal client profiles β healthcare tech and manufacturing. Your manufacturing targets are lurkers who don't show up on LinkedIn and only surface at a few trade shows a year. When you think about reaching people who are basically invisible until you're in the same room, what have you already tried?
Alison: I'm really early in that process. It was just the last couple months that I put pen to paper on narrowing my ICP into something that would guide my first real step into pipeline building and system infrastructure. I don't have answers yet, beyond recognizing that this is where networking really has to shine. Being in West Michigan, manufacturing is everywhere. A lot of my product experience has been in building tangible, engineered, physical goods. I have quite a few contacts in that world, and I can reach out and ask for referrals β do you have anyone in your network who fits this profile, or who you've heard struggling with X, Y, and Z?
There's a lot going on, not just with technology but with Tier 2 and Tier 3 manufacturers across the Midwest β not just West Michigan, but Detroit, Chicago, the whole region. People know people. The question is how to get specific enough that when you're networking, you can describe who you're looking for clearly enough that someone can immediately think of one, two, or three people in their Rolodex.
AJ: If I told you that you had to pick one β healthcare tech or manufacturing β which is more appealing?
Alison: That's a great question. Right now, there's not one that's more or less appealing. Both have ample opportunity for growth, for getting things done, for driving value for clients. Those are the characteristics I'm attracted to. And I think this is something we all have to get good at β not just bridging the conversation to see if there's work to be had, but making sure it's a good fit for both parties. I've been in situations with a client that wasn't a great fit, and you want to identify that early and know how to make a clean exit if you need to.
I look at both ICPs more by characteristics than by industry category. But I've been challenged to add some demographic specificity on top of that, because most people will ask: what category, what industry? I say I'm industry agnostic β I've worked in eight or nine industries, I bring the cross-pollination, let's go to work. But I can see how that makes it difficult for people to know how to connect me to others.
AJ: You can see the connections across industries, but do other people see those connections?
Alison: That's exactly it.
The Time-for-Money Ceiling: Why 40 Fractional Hours Feels Like 60
AJ: You mentioned that 40 hours of fractional work feels like 60 non-fractional hours. Tell me more about what you mean by that.
Alison: I've been reflecting on this for a while. At first I didn't really understand it, but after speaking with other fractional people, I remember a coffee chat about a year ago with a former colleague who had been an outside consultant when we worked together. At one point she said, 'Wait β you're working 40 hours?' I said yes. She said, 'Are you okay?' And I said no, it's exhausting. I got burnout at the startup and wasn't recuperated, and rolling right into 40 fractional hours was insanity. I do not recommend it. Part of the problem is you have no business development time and no decompression time.
When I reflect on it now, I think it really comes down to neural fatigue. Your clients are all human β they bring their own emotions and their own stuff to the table. Business culture across clients can be a complete 180. If you can't time-block them so you're chunking similar work together, you end up with days where things drop back to back from one client to the next to the next. Those transitions are what I find most fatiguing.
You almost have to put on a different set of armor for each client β understanding their culture, matching how they operate and communicate. All of that transition across very different companies compounds, and that's what makes 40 hours feel like 60 or more.
AJ: Hence the reason you're exploring other revenue streams β you don't want to be working 40 fractional hours a week, because it's trading time for money with a hard ceiling. And it sounds like you've felt that ceiling.
Alison: Correct. And I did spend time in the office furniture world, and I remember conversations about exactly this β multitasking and transitions, moving from teamwork to deep individual work, from knowledge work to spreadsheet land. All of that transition is a known thing. When you're doing it across companies with very different business cultures, it compounds the effect.
Breaking the Ceiling: Exploring Advisory and Revenue Diversification
AJ: Tell me about what you're looking at in terms of other revenue streams.
Alison: Mainly exploring the advisory capacity. It can look a little like coaching at times β there are different lenses on what advisory means. I don't know exactly what it looks like yet, but I've been fortunate to have the experiences I've had. A lot of times that affords productive conversations with people whose teams are stuck. They're trying to get things done and not getting through. That's a place where colleagues in coffee chats have said I've given them fresh ideas or helped them see things differently.
This is where cross-pollination can really be a benefit β I've worked across many different types of industries and led a lot of cross-functional teams, so I have a wide storybook to pull from. The same is true on the startup side. I've started things from scratch, been at seed-funded startups in growth mode, and I understand what it's like when you need to build something fast and you're in the middle of it β you can't always zoom out to do the systems work, troubleshoot, or block and tackle what needs it. Others have found that sitting down with me in that capacity has been beneficial. I'm starting to explore how I communicate that and how I build content and lead generation around it.
I also try to take my own medicine and go back to the consumer research side β talking to people at networking events, asking what keeps them up at night. You really never know what you're going to get.
Where She Is Now: Progress, Honesty, and What Still Needs to Happen
AJ: Are you ahead or behind where you wanted to be by now?
Alison: That's hard to answer, because like any business, it's not a linear hockey stick. I'd say I'm about on target for where I was expecting. We'll see how the back half of the year goes. There's a lot that needs to happen β getting the pipeline things set up, working through the right priorities, getting the rest of the foundation built and humming. That will dictate how things roll.