Mitch Kelly, Fractional CMO and founder of Nectar Agency, discusses his transition from corporate leadership to the fractional model, growth strategies for businesses, and the future of executive roles in the age of artificial intelligence.
Having spent over two decades leading marketing, operations and strategy functions across Australia, EMEA, and Southeast Asia, Mitch Kelly has built a reputation for turning complex, multi-market challenges into clear, revenue-driving strategies.
Armed with an MBA he brings both academic rigour and real-world commercial instinct to every engagement. From scaling a listed education, construction, and engineering business across five countries to serving on non-executive boards and advising early-stage SaaS start-ups on go-to-market strategies. His career spans corporate scale, governance, and entrepreneurial agility.
Today, through his Fractional CMO practice Nectar Agency, Mitch partners with growth-stage and mid-market businesses to build performance infrastructure and strategic clarity needed to compete at the next level.
Fractional Insider: How was your transition from a traditional career to fractional leadership/consulting?
Mitch Kelly: My transition from a traditional career path to Fractional CMO happened while I was still employed, and before I knew how the fractional model worked. I was speaking with my network about the pain points they were experiencing, whether they wanted to work with the agency I was a director of, and many times over they said they didn’t like general agency models and that they wanted to only work with me.
I offered to provide a fraction of my time to help manage their marketing performance, put systems and strategies in place, and ultimately help them grow.
This is how I accidentally became a fCMO and started to position myself as one.
Fractional Insider: What attracted you most to this model, and what challenges did it bring?
Mitch Kelly: The flexibility to manage my own time and use the strategic skillset I’ve built across a range of businesses, rather than just one.
I was previously a Group CMO for a public company that owned 12 subsidiaries, so the ability to work on a portfolio of businesses is what came naturally. The challenge has been growing my network and client base, whilst still respecting my clients confidentiality and intellectual property. You can’t copy a strategy or discuss processes from past engagements with new clients as that will but your past clients at a disadvantage and also not give unique value to new clients.
Fractional Insider: How do you choose the projects and clients you work with?
Mitch Kelly: I only work with clients if I’m 99% confident I can solve a problem for them. I will also not work with unethical businesses that are doing no good for society. There are a couple of red flags I keep an eye out for when discovering their business and leadership team, if I feel there are some of these present, I will also not agree to partnering.
Fractional Insider: Tell us about a moment when you had a major impact as a fractional leader.
Mitch Kelly: I’ve had a few now.
The two that I’m most happy about is; establishing a go-to-market strategy and effectively scaling that, putting the right teams and processes in place to see them achieve greater profitability and market penetration.
That and being brought on board to put new systems in place for a training provider, along with manage their existing marketing agency and establish an internal team that will take over their duties. This resulted in a huge uptick in revenue with minimal increase in operating costs.
Fractional Insider: What are the main differences between being a full-time executive and a fractional one?
Mitch Kelly: The main differences are that you have a larger number of stakeholders that you need to work with and that these stakeholders all have competing demands that need to be managed carefully.
You also do not have a team that you are directly responsible for and therefore, performance can sometimes be at the whim of team morale or skillset. To combat this, we established some top level digital marketing services so we can manage that component ourselves.
For morale, we assess that on a case-by-case basis. We have the capabilities to model organisational behaviour challenges and if necessary propose that to the board if needed.
Fractional Insider: How do you explain the value of a fractional leader to a skeptical CEO?
Mitch Kelly: It comes down to where the mindset of the CEO or Board is at the time. We typically work on referrals and inbound, so generally there is an underlying issue present.
But the most common concern is lack of strategy and cost. Which both work together. They receive an experienced senior executive for a fraction of the cost and get exactly what they would pay for a full-time hire – with less risk. Fractional CMOs have to perform, other their personal and professional reputation is on line, it is generally in their best interest to go above and beyond for clients.
Fractional Insider: What are the most common mistakes companies make when working with fractionals?
Mitch Kelly: Thinking they are an entire team, from strategy to execution. This is actually quite a common mistake I see many companies assume, and one of the reasons while we established a light versions of digital marketing execution with our services.
Fractional Insider: How do you see this career model evolving in the coming years?
Mitch Kelly: We’re starting to see many more start-ups with the rise of AI, some of these will gain traction and some of these won’t. The challenge will be, how do they market themselves once they reach the end of that hockey stick growth? They’ll need experienced executives who can advise, but they may not have the budget for a full-time hire. I see the Fractional CMO model increasing in demand, their will be a bit of friction with businesses thinking AI can do it all, but we’ve see thus far that AI doesn’t output lasting marketing that makes a lasting impression.
Fractional Insider: What advice would you give to a senior professional considering becoming fractional?
Mitch Kelly: Start networking, and begin to understand business problems and the language used by boards and CFO’s. These will become ever more critical to breakthrough to stakeholders who have the strongest pull within the organisation.
The Fractional CMO model is becoming an increasingly important solution for modern businesses seeking executive-level strategic expertise without the commitment of a full-time hire.
