If You Could Only Be One Type Of C Suite Exec, Who Would You Be?

Welcome to Million Dollar Grit, the podcast that dives deep into the world of entrepreneurship, where tenacity meets strategy and dreams meet reality. My name is Julie, and I explore the raw, often overlooked truths of what it takes to succeed in business and in life. It's not just about the glossy success stories, it's about the grit it takes to get there. Hey everyone, this is Julie, and today I want to answer a really funny Facebook question I saw. I'm gonna go ahead and give a shout out to my friend Tucker. He posted this on his his Facebook timeline, and I answered it in the comments, and I thought, um, I think I want to do an entire podcast on this. So here's the question: a CEO, CMO, COO, and CFO all set off to do their own thing. Who will be better off and why? Obviously, a good business needs all of those, and when it is a new business, you are playing the role of all of those. But as companies grow, we see the C suite start to form, right? So CEO is chief executive officer. This is sort of the president of, if you will, of the company, the head of the company. Then you have a CMO, which is a chief marketing officer. This is the person that's responsible for all the marketing initiatives to get new customers in the door. There's the COO, which is the chief operating officer. This is the person that oversees all of the systems and operations happening internally, mainly due to managing people and departments. And then you have the CFO, which is the chief financial officer. This is the person that is watching the numbers, the money coming in, helping set strategy for what offers are doing well, which ones aren't, keeping the profit margin healthy. There are other C-suite roles. There is CTO, which is chief technical officer. This is very common in like tech companies. There's the CRO, which is Chief Revenue Officer. This is someone who's usually in charge of a lot of the business development in a company, strategic partnerships, affiliates, you know, the revenue generating connections. And then there are a whole bunch of other ones. But I thought this question was interesting because he's basically taking the top 4, the CEO, the CMO, the COO, and the CFO, and saying, hey, they all set off to go do their own thing and who is going to be better off? Well, this is an interesting discussion because typically CEOs are the head honchos of companies, right? They're the ones with the vision. They're the ones that can see the destination. And so a good CEO is going to be a reasonably good communicator because they're going to communicate their vision and values in a way that are going to make people excited to be a part of it. Whether it's team members, whether it's investors, whether it's customers. Right. So the CEO is a visionary and they can build a crowd of believers. And most people who start a business are saddled with a lot of the work of doing the business, whether it's helping clients or doing the marketing or writing the copy or whatever it is that's going on. A good CEO, though, is essentially a visionary. So I was thinking about it. I thought, you know, the CEO going off and doing his own or her own thing without any other C-suite executive or without any other C-suite executive skill in themselves would probably have a big crowd around them ready to invest, but more than likely would lack in some execution. Really good visionaries tend to need the boots-on-the-ground type people that can actually take action. So I don't think I'd put my money on the CEO, even though they are the head honcho. COO, they are the chief operating officer. So these people tend to be great managers. They know how to delegate. They know how to build systems, run systems. They're pretty organized. And I thought, you know, if a COO goes off and does their own thing, they probably will build a great team and they will focus a lot on ops. But chances are they're going to struggle with cash because good COOs sometimes forget to market and they sometimes forget to lift the chin of those around them because they are very much in the day to day. And that's why, you know, a CEO-COO combination is so powerful because you've got the visionary and then you've got the person that's sort of executing and making sure that system runs really well. I decided I probably wasn't going to put my money on the COO either. Then we have the CMO. This is the chief marketing officer. I like to think of this as the character at the party that is probably the most charismatic, center of attention, loves to, like, draw people in. CMO is definitely going to be the one that makes money first, and they probably will also have a platform and an audience more quickly, maybe rivaling the CEO. Depends on how visionary the CEO is. But the CMO is probably the most likely person to get themselves into hot water and into trouble because really charismatic and compelling people, they tend to forget details or possibly they think the rules don't apply to them. And this is why in internet marketing we see such an incredible amount of fraud and scams because a lot of these people are excellent marketers. They're very good at selling snow to Eskimos, as they say, but they don't necessarily think about the consequences of their actions. So I thought to myself, if a CMO goes off, they're probably going to look like the early winner and they probably will be in a lawsuit faster or broke faster. Little side story before I keep going. There was another marketer that was sort of coming on the scene about the same time that I was, and we were sort of neck and neck competitively in terms of revenue and offers and audience. And I noticed this marketer charged ahead and was making double, triple, quadruple the money that I was. And I felt really I don't know, I had a lot of insecurity during that time because I thought maybe I'm not as good of a marketer as I think I am, because this person over here is a fantastic marketer and they are speeding ahead. But 7 years later, I have a much stronger, more stable foundation and more cash on hand than this other person who did absolutely outearn me. But was not able to keep, manage, hold on to it in the same way. So there was a lot of patience required there. Okay, let's keep going. The CFO. So my theory is that if the CFO goes off to do their own thing, I think the CFO will outlast everyone, but it will take a while. And that's because they really do understand business at that atomic level. They understand business is numbers. And even if they're not a great marketer, they're going to see the health of the business in black and white. And a lot of the other types of people, they can fool themselves that their business is doing well because they have a lot of validation on social media or they have a lot of top-line revenue. And I, I think the CFO's probably that personality trait or that skill probably isn't the greatest marketer. So I think it would be much slower going, but I actually think I think that if I had to pick one in which to put my money on long term, I probably would choose the CFO. Now, if they're a really terrible marketer, I might change my mind on that. But the exercise made me realize how crucial all of these skills are and how hard it would be to run a business if you just had one. I did stop and think for a second, what if I had two? I could only pick two, and I think I would choose a MO-CFO combination. The reason I say that is because I think that's what I've essentially done. I am a good marketer and I've invested a lot in my marketing education and my marketing strategy, and I really focus a lot on marketing because without an offer that people are buying, you're not really in business. But I have noticed that without that CFO, without that business sense in dollars and cents and spreadsheets and all of that, that you don't necessarily keep the money. It comes in and that's a great dopamine hit, but it doesn't stay. And so I have really worked on becoming the best CMO, CFO type person that I can be. And I've done that by surrounding myself with people who are very, very good with numbers since it's not something I was naturally good at. And I have learned so much from the people who I've put around me who have supported me to the point where I feel like I have much stronger muscles in that area. Now, if you ask me technical knowledge around accounting and bookkeeping, I'm gonna look at you like you have 3 heads. I don't really understand that, but I understand the numbers that relate to marketing and finance, and so I would probably choose a CMO-CFO combination, and that's really what I'm trying to do for the people who come into my world and want to work with me. But all in all, I would say as a small business owner, if you are running a company, you want to look and ask, how am I doing as the CEO? How am I doing as the COO? How am I doing as the CMO? And how am I doing as the CFO? And the CEO is known for vision and communication and leadership. The COO is known for management of the team and building those strong, stable systems. The CMO is really good at marketing and growing that audience, and the CFO is really good at understanding the numbers and how to manage and grow the money once it's in your world. So thanks, Tucker, for the great prompt. I hope you guys have a great day, and if you really like this podcast, I want the validation, so tag me on Instagram, Julie C. Chenell. Tell me you liked this episode. Leave me a review. It motivates me to get back on the mic and keep producing episodes. I'll talk to you soon. And there you have it, folks. Another dose of Million Dollar Grit. I hope today's episode has left you feeling inspired, equipped, and ready to face your own entrepreneurial journey with resolve. Remember, until next time, embrace the struggle, harness your grit, and keep pushing forward. You're stronger than any challenge you face. I'm Julie Chenell, and this has been Million Dollar Grit.