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One of the coolest CMO jobs around!
HARRY’S COMMENTS: We are working with FitLife Brands in their search for a CMO based in based in Omaha, Nebraska — where you never can tell whom you’ll bump into.
So let’s talk about Omaha: Sure, it’s not SF, LA, Chicago, or NYC. I get that. But sometimes the best opportunities for personal and professional growth arise in unexpected places. Besides, it’s really nice out there, and there are lots of great places to get a square meal.
For what this CMO job will pay (conservatively), using the 28/36 rule to qualify for a 30-year fixed mortgage, you’ll probably end up living in a house like this. (My estimate does not assume a down payment, so your mileage may vary.)
Still: How much would a spread like that cost you in the Bay Area?
My guess is that even if you CRUSH IT in this role, you and your family will be in Omaha for five years. Not an eternity (even though a lot of people moved to Omaha and don’t want to leave). Where were you in 2013? Seems like only yesterday, doesn’t it?
But it isn’t. It’s five years ago already.
And where will you be in 2023? Well, if you play your cards right, you could be a proven CMO who helped take a publicly traded company to the next level. So let’s talk about that …
FitLife is not a “one brand, one customer” company.
The company is in the health supplement business, and it strives to deliver superior quality for superior results throughout its product portfolio. In all of its products, FitLife uses only the purest, highest-quality ingredients to promote professional-caliber nutrition for everyone from weekend warriors to body-building experts to extreme-fitness competitors.
FitLife has seven brands and soon will launch an eighth. The company’s brands are …
- PMD Sports: PMD products are available exclusively through the GNC franchise network. There’s not a lot of work for you to do on this brand. FitLife manufactures the product and distributes it to the franchisees who handle the in-store marketing.
- NDS Nutrition: NDS provides trusted products for increased calorie burning, body toning, weight maintenance, general health and overall well-being. NDS products are available exclusively at GNC franchise locations.
- Siren Labs: This brand offers a wide range of high-quality, cutting-edge solutions tailored to furthering athletic achievement and personal best performance for devotees of all levels. Its products are available exclusively at GNC franchise locations.
- Metis Nutrition: The latest brand in FitLife’s portfolio, Metis Nutrition strives to meet the ever evolving consumer need for beneficial, safe supplements through advanced ingredients delivered in progressive formulas. Metis Nutrition products are available exclusively at most GNC corporate and franchise locations.
- iSatori: Founded in 2001, iSatori was established as a total solutions provider to help individuals build their best bodies and healthy minds. iSatori products are sold in a variety of channels, including specialty retail, national drug store chains, and online.
- Energize: Energize is an energy supplement which is sold everywhere, including Walmart, CVS, Rite-Aid, and Walgreens.
- BioGenetic Laboratories: This brand engineers breakthrough weight-loss products to help people achieve their weight loss goals and ultimately feel lighter, healthier, and more confident. This brand has only three SKUs used mostly as a single ingredient supplement largely targeted at weight loss. Currently, this brand gets the most direct marketing traction of any brand in FitLife’s portfolio.
- Core Active: This soon-to-launch brand offers precisely tuned, daily nutrition essentials help accelerate results for beginners to hardcore enthusiasts. Core Active is a brand the company previously marketed to gyms (which is why the website is active), but the company is in the process of developing and re-launching Core Active as an online exclusive brand. Between now and December, defining, shaping, and launching Core Active will be one of your first big initiatives.
ALL FitLife products are manufactured in facilities that comply with cGMP (current Good Manufacturing Practices) regulations. Incoming raw materials used in its products undergo identity and microbial testing, and all outgoing finished goods are tested for microbial and heavy metals.
The firm is proud to lead the supplement industry with its truth-in-labeling initiative. The information on FitLife’s labels far exceeds industry standards, helping its consumers better understand what goes into FitLife’s products (and therefore, into their bodies). The company makes it easy to see exactly what types, and what levels, of each ingredient are in the supplements it offers.
For health enthusiasts of all stripes, this is a BIG deal.
In a way, FitLife operates seven different businesses under one corporate umbrella. Traditionally, the company has operated all of its brands on different websites — with tech stacks as varied as the brands. Download BuiltWith for Chrome and run it on the above sites and you’ll see very little overlap in FitLife’s technology portfolio.
Consider the complexity (which you will have to tame):
You take the FOUR non-GNC exclusive brands and multiply them by all the ways you could bring them to market: Heck, there are seven different types of retailers, and you could find yourself selling through two or three of them PER brand. Now think about all of the direct marketing activities (digital and otherwise) for each brand / channel combo.
Not to mention that there is a TON of work to be done in the areas of branding, positioning, pricing, and influencer marketing. FitLife is using an outstanding Amazon agency to manage its AMZN 3P business.
You’re going to have a lot of your plate … at a time when Google is making major changes to how diet and nutrition sites are ranked in the Google SERPs.
But that’s okay, because you’ll have the MONEY, PEOPLE, TECHNOLOGY, and INVENTORY to be successful. All you need is the right approach.
We will expect you to apply 80/20 thinking to these opportunities. Where is the low hanging fruit? Is there any fruit laying on the ground? (Probably.) Your job is to put together a plan for growth, build / organize / energize your team, and get after it.
For this search’s intake call, I spent 2 hrs / 15 min on the phone with FitLife’s CEO, a former 9-year McKinsey consultant and Baker Scholar from Harvard Business School. He’s probably the smartest guy I’ve ever engaged on a phone. We covered everything: FitLife’s brands, its SWOTs, as well as the past, present, and future of the company.
You won’t believe how much we know about this search …
Like I said, I spent a ton of time on the phone with the client teasing out exactly what you’ll need to KNOW and DO to hit the ground running in this role. Some of the things I can share with highly qualified candidates include …
- The “real” background requirements for this position, along with the top five things all resumes MUST have to be considered for the role.
- The top five problems that exist due to this position being open. These are the little brush fires you will be expected to put out during your first month on the job. Every CMO job has these — and this one’s no different.
- What your average day / week will look like in this role. There’s what you read in the standard job posting … then there’s reality. We’ve got the reality.
- The leading and lagging KPI’s that will determine your success in this role. In a nutshell: How you keep score.
- The major projects you’ll need to complete by Day 100 to be considered a home-run in this position. We’ve got the lowdown on how you can plug-and-play and drive REAL value in this CMO job.
I have a massive amount of proprietary intel to share with qualified candidates. My industry research for this assignment exceeds 100 pages! Be sure to TEXT Harry Joiner at (404) 281-2025 for this info. Or simply use the email link when you apply for the role below.
CANDIDATES, PLEASE NOTE: We have an exclusive on this search. All applications which are submitted directly to the client will be sent back to us for processing. It’d be much easier if you simply apply below. Thanks for understanding.
View Harry Joiner’s profileResponsibilities:
- Create content, product videos, website copy, blog posts articulate the benefits of FitLife’s products to the world.
- Speak and present both internally and externally to promote the story of the brand.
- Measure and optimize the buyer journey.
- Find FitLife evangelists through relationships found via social media.
- Get them to help them promote the brand’s cause. We are willing to pay them or provide free product.
- Perform competitive research to helpless position the brand and win more customers.
- Collect and analyze the data that supports FitLife’s products and brands in the market.
- Collaborate with marketing teammates and senior management and other stakeholders
- Proactively scope and present new ideas to improve FitLife’s website experience for customers or potential customers
- Grow the team through hiring and training
- Make data driven decisions to to move the team and brands forward and hit company financial goals
- Ensure sales team needs are met in terms of advertising materials and communications
- Optimize content for search engines and lead generation
- Growing blog subscribers and expanding the overall reach of the brand, both online and off
- Lead and manage the team responsible for telling the company’s story
- Build the brand through exceptional creative by nurturing relationships with influencers
- Own the brand positioning and messaging. [ But, wait! There’s more! ]
- Lead all design and copywriting (There are people to help with that.)
- Identify and build relationships with prominent influencers and thought leaders in FitLife’s space and ensure that these relationships benefit both the company and the individual
- Match FitLife’s internal content creation with external influencers who would enjoy receiving it and want to contribute themselves
Requirements:
- BA / BS degree or equivalent work experience
- Proven track record of positioning and growing brands online. [ Here’s an interesting example of positioning. ]
- Good communicator
- Data-driven; Must know how to look at data to assess and prioritize opportunities and performance and can read the tea leaves to identify trends
- Creative – We’re looking for someone who has a PROCESS for coming up with creative-yet-reality-based ideas. Can you be creative on demand? Let’s discuss.
- Solid, demonstrable experience improving product/market fit
- Highly analytical approach
- Extensive experience in digital marketing. Must have a deep knowledge of digital marketing industry best practices.
- Willingness and ability to work in a highly collaborative environment in a cross functional capacity with other team members
- Proven experience with research and competitive analysis. We’re looking for someone who can think very critically / creatively about the market, the existing players, and how to position for growth FitLife’s brands.
- Ability to launch products and iterate quickly based on the data
- Good leader, cross functional, good communication skills, strategically savvy, financially literate
- Past experience producing evergreen content for the web, as well as channel specific knowledge
- Excellent organizational skills, with the ability to work independently and manage products with many moving parts
- Deep domain knowledge of social media
- Must be analytical and able to extract meaning from data and use that to optimize the team’s approach and the company’s forecast
Applications for this CMO job are being coordinated by Harry Joiner. To apply, CLICK HERE. Candidates, please be sure to email Harry for additional information that will differentiate you in your candidacy. Due to the intensely competitive nature of this search, thorough preparation for these interviews with this proprietary material is strongly recommended.
