Most scaling CEOs assume a revenue problem is a sales and marketing problem, and it costs them the real diagnosis. In this episode, Kati Peterman, founder of the fractional executive firm YourFRX, breaks down why so many operations issues get misread as leadership or marketing failures, and what actually happens when a CEO gets too far removed from their own numbers.

Kati walks through her five five four framework for diagnosing where a growing company is breaking down, from meeting structures to KPI tracking, and shares a case where a founder was blaming their CMO for a revenue shortfall that turned out to be sitting untouched in an unmanaged accounts receivable process worth millions of dollars. The conversation covers when a fractional leader makes more sense than a full-time hire, why CEOs often make the mistake of hiring another version of themselves instead of the operator they actually need, and how staying curious about the numbers, even when things look fine, prevents small gaps from becoming expensive ones.

Kati Peterman is the founder of YourFRX, a fractional executive team helping scaling businesses close operational gaps across leadership, finance, and operations. Learn more at yourfrx.com.