Stop Babysitting: How to Hire the Right Fractional Content Lead
If you’re still doing the heavy lifting after you hire, then you didn’t hire a strategist. Get the checklist. Save the headache.
A straight-talking guide for founders who’ve had one too many content flops
You know the drill: You hire a content person who talks a great game in the pitch — “thought leadership,” “pillars,” “evergreen assets” — but a month in, you’re either editing their work, chasing down deadlines, or trying to figure out what you even paid for. Worse, your brand voice gets mangled, your team loses momentum, and your calendar collects dust.
If this sounds familiar, you're not crazy.
This is one of the biggest complaints I hear from founders, CMOs, and operators:
“I thought I hired a strategic content lead. I got a junior writer with a Canva template.”
Here’s the truth no one wants to say out loud: Most people selling themselves as “fractional” content leads are either ex-agency folks doing surface-level work, or execution-only marketers who don’t know how to build a real editorial function inside your business. They’ve never owned a strategy or scaled a system. They might be good at content. But they’re not good at your content.
So how do you know who to trust?
That’s why I put together this pocket checklist:
How to Hire the Right Fractional Content Lead
It’s a gut-check meets skills audit. A way to quickly vet someone before they cost you six months of backpedaling.
It includes:
What they should do before you even ask
What to run from — fast
Questions to ask that cut through the B.S.
One final filter: How they think about voice, AI, deadlines and growth
But First — Why Hiring the Right Person Is So Damn Hard
The core pain point most founders face isn’t a lack of content. It’s a lack of clarity.
You need someone who can translate your business goals into strategy, systems, and story — without you having to handhold or explain yourself 12 times.
That person needs to:
See your blind spots and close the gaps
Make decisions with data and confidence
Guide your team, not just deliver tasks
Build a scalable system, not just content assets
And they need to be able to write. Period.
As someone who's led content and editorial strategy for 25+ years — across media, wellness, tech and AI — I’ve seen the inside of messy startups and multi-million-dollar launches. I’ve coached junior writers, fixed broken brand voice, overhauled failing funnels, and rebuilt content departments from scratch.
But I’m not the only one who can do this!
You just need to know what to look for — and what to avoid.
Download the Checklist
Print it. Bookmark it. Share it with your ops lead before your next hire. Because the right content lead won’t just write for you — they’ll think with you.
