It’s not just you.
Marketing and PR genuinely feel harder right now. Not because the core principles have changed, but because everything around them has — the tools, the expectations, the pace, and the pressure. Tighter budgets also aren’t helping matters.
Across our clients, the pattern is clear. Teams are being asked to do more, more quickly, with less headcount and less clarity. And the cracks are showing.
The VP of Everything
We’re seeing VPs of Marketing being tasked with everything from owning the CRM, to developing strategy, running paid campaigns, managing up and down, owning brand and PR narratives, reporting on metrics, and somehow also staying on top of 100 HubSpot updates a week.
We want to be clear: These are capable leaders. But the scope has ballooned so far beyond reason that strategy inevitably takes a back seat.
Not only that, marketing leaders are also being asked to serve as a secondary CRO, where metrics reign supreme. Not only has this created mounting pressure for leaders and their teams, but it also stifles creativity and hinders the business from developing a distinct personality or brand identity.
The Myth of “More With Less”
We’ve been sold the idea that AI will fix everything. We’ve been told that it’ll make us faster, leaner, and more efficient. And to some extent, it does. You can spin up a content calendar in minutes, draft email copy on the fly, automate reports, analyze campaign performance, or create a compelling social post simply using natural language.
But the real problem isn’t speed. It’s the expectation that everything should happen instantly.
Marketing and PR are feeling the downstream effect of a broader cultural shift — the same shift that made 2-day shipping feel slow and turned “can you send this over by EOW” into “actually can you just do it now.” Leaders want results fast, and founders want coverage tomorrow. Everyone’s chasing efficiency, but no one’s asking whether the foundation is strong enough to move faster without breaking.
AI didn’t create that pressure, but it’s definitely adding to it. And if your marketing engine was already shaky — messy CRM, vague strategy, unclear brand identity — AI doesn’t solve those problems. It just helps you build a glasshouse faster.
Speed is great, but speed without strategy compounds existing chaos.
Warped PR Expectations
On the comms side, it’s a constant negotiation between what’s possible and what people think they deserve. The bar for what counts as “success” has completely warped.
We’re seeing companies come out of stealth with $3M in seed funding, expecting front-page coverage in The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal. They want splashy headlines, top-tier exclusives, and a viral moment before they’ve launched a product, signed a customer, or done much of anything. Anything less than that is seen as a failure.
But PR isn’t magic; it’s a momentum game. And we will die on this hill.
The most successful campaigns are typically the result of consistent storytelling, strategic positioning, tangible proof points, and a clear point of view consistently shared over time.
The problem is, we’ve entered an era of “I need this to happen right now.” And when expectations are that high without a foundation to support them — such as media relationships, market readiness, and differentiated messaging — it becomes a months-long cycle of disappointment and finger-pointing.
We spend more time than ever educating clients on how media actually works. If you’ve worked with us long enough, you could probably do our job. That’s how much context and calibration it takes. Because PR does work, just not in the way most people have been conditioned to expect.
Where We Go From Here
Now that we’ve made you feel like everything is f*cked, it would be a great time to remind you that none of this is beyond repair.
That said, it does require a mindset shift… from the top down (we know, a lot to ask).
You can’t move faster without systems. You can’t scale without a strategy, and you definitely can’t demand excellence while second-guessing the people you hired to deliver it.
It’s time to build it more intentionally. That doesn’t mean slowing down entirely; it means giving your team room to think, taking calculated risks instead of reactive ones, listening more, rushing less, and investing in structure before you invest in speed.
The truth is, marketing and PR still work. But only when the foundation is strong, the expectations are realistic, and the people behind the work are trusted to do their jobs.
Lose the “The VP of Everything” Mentality
We’ve got to stop asking one person to master CRM architecture, brand strategy, demand gen, product management, data analysis, AND somehow stay human enough to manage a team.
That’s not a job description. That’s a fantasy.
The companies that aren’t slowly imploding have figured out something simple: Stop trying to hire unicorns. Start building partnerships.
Why This Works:
Your Marketing Manager isn’t drowning in HubSpot hell because someone who’s built these systems 50 times set it up right from day one. Your fractional Communications Director has managed actual crises, not just your first product launch. Your demand gen isn’t a science experiment because it’s run by someone who already knows what works.
The reality is that trying to wrap all of this under one umbrella will hurt your business. A “VP of Everything” costs $200K+ and will be mediocre at most of their job. This hybrid approach gets you senior-level expertise across every function for roughly the same investment, except everyone’s good at what they do.
The Reality:
This only works if your fractional people feel like team members, not vendors you call when shit breaks. Weekly syncs matter. Clear handoffs matter. Monthly strategy reviews where everyone’s in the room matter.
So what does this actually look like in practice? How do you structure a team that can scale without breaking? The answer depends on where you are in your growth journey, but the principle stays the same: match expertise to need, not budget to ego.
Here’s what we think it should look like:
Post-$1M ARR - Strategic Foundation (4-6 People + Specialists)
You’ve hit your first million. Congratulations. Now comes the hard part: building something that won’t collapse under its own weight.
This is where most companies make their first big mistake. They think hitting $1M means it’s time to hire that “VP of Everything” we talked about earlier. Wrong move. You should stop pretending one person can do the work of five and start building a foundation that can handle real growth.
The Reality Check: Instead of hiring a “VP of Everything,” work with specialists who’ve done this before. A fractional communications leader brings senior-level strategy without the overhead. An experienced RevOps professional sets up your foundation correctly from day one. Demand gen gets executed by someone who knows what works, not someone learning on your dime.
Your structure should look something like this: CEO at the top, with a Head of Growth/Marketing managing your core team (an SDR, Account Executive, and Customer Success). Then you layer in the specialized expertise that actually moves the needle: a Fractional Head of Communications who knows how to build narrative, a RevOps specialist who can set up your systems without turning HubSpot into a digital nightmare, and a Demand Gen expert who’s seen what works across dozens of companies.
Add an Events Coordinator for the growing list of conferences and a GTM Engineer on a project basis for the technical stuff that breaks at 2 AM, and you’ve got a machine that can actually scale.
Post-$1M ARR - Strategic Foundation (4-6 People + Specialists)
CEO/Founder
├── 🎯 Head of Growth/Marketing
│ ├── 📞 SDR
│ ├── 💼 Account Executive
│ └── 🤝 Customer Success
└── ⚙️ Specialized Expertise
├── 📰 Fractional Head of Communications
├── 🔧 RevOps + HubSpot Specialist (project-based)
└── 📈 Demand Gen Expert (ongoing)
└── 📈 Events Coordinator (ongoing)
└── 🛠️ GTM Engineer (project/retainer basis)
Five million changes everything. You’re not a startup anymore, you’re a business. And businesses need different structures than scrappy early-stage companies.
You’ve outgrown the “do more with less” phase. Now it’s about doing more with better people in the right roles. Your Marketing Manager specializes in marketing. Your Content Manager focuses on content. Your fractional experts handle the complex strategy and systems work.
At this stage, you need a CRO who can actually own the revenue function, a Marketing Manager who isn’t drowning in twelve different tools, and specialists who can execute at the level your growth demands. A Demand Gen Specialist who knows paid acquisition inside and out. A Content Manager who understands how to build narrative at scale. An additional SDR because one person can’t handle the volume anymore.
Your strategic experts evolve, too. The Fractional Communications Director now handles crisis management and executive positioning, not just press releases. Your Senior RevOps Consultant might be implementing AI workflows that would have been overkill at $1M but are essential at $5M. Paid Media becomes its own function because the budget and complexity demand dedicated expertise.
The key distinction: efficient scaling means being strategic about where you invest in full-time talent versus where you leverage specialized expertise. You’re not being cheap, and you’re not overspending on roles that don’t need to be full-time. You’re being smart about how you deploy resources for maximum impact.
This isn’t about cutting costs or spending just to spend on talent. It’s about scaling efficiently with the right expertise in the right places.
$5M ARR - Hybrid Excellence (6-8 People + Strategic Experts)
CEO
├── 👑 CRO/VP Sales
├── 🎯 Marketing Manager
│ ├── 📈 Demand Gen Specialist
│ ├── ✍️ Content Manager
│ └── 📞 Additional SDR
├── 🤝 Customer Success Manager
└── ⚙️ Strategic Experts
├── 📰 Fractional Communications Director
├── 🔧 Senior RevOps Consultant (could include AI)
└── 💰 Paid Media
└── 🛠️ GTM Engineer (project/retainer basis)
The Scale Reality: You’ve outgrown the “do more with less” phase. Now it’s about doing more with better people in the right roles. Your Marketing Manager specializes in marketing. Your Content Manager focuses on content. Your fractional experts handle the complex strategy and systems work. This isn’t about cutting costs or spending just to spend on talent. It’s about scaling efficiently with the right expertise in the right places.
The key distinction: efficient scaling means being strategic about where you invest in full-time talent versus where you leverage specialized expertise. You’re not being cheap, and you’re not overspending on roles that don’t need to be full-time. You’re being smart about how you deploy resources for maximum impact.
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