Build Your CMO Operating System

Step out of the day-to-day, empower your team, and get back to the work only you can do.

In six weeks, you'll build one connected operating system for your marketing function, your strategy, team, plan, numbers, and operating rhythms, with AI partners working on top of it.
Built for CMOs, VPs, and heads of marketing, in-house and fractional.

Founding price $2,497 rising to $5,997+ after this round
Join the waitlistSee how it works
Mandy Hornaday in her content studio in front of a Strategy, Systems, Scalable Impact neon sign

You're not behind. You're unsystematized.

For so many of us, we're the bottleneck on our own teams. Not on purpose. Too many answers just live in our heads. Who owns this? Should we even do this? Does it ladder to our strategy? The questions pile up, and they all route back to the same place: us.

Add the AI chat you'll never find again, the plan that went stale a month in, and the report you keep rebuilding by hand, and slowly the whole function starts running on you.

What you're hitting is a systems gap. You're not alone, and unsystematized is something we can make real headway on in six weeks.

Work on your department, not just in it.

AI was supposed to hand us our time back. Instead, most of us have more tools, more chats, and more output than ever, with no more clarity. It isn't the AI. We added it to functions that were never fully documented or built on strong systems, the strategy in a deck, the decisions in Slack, the best prompts in old chats. Point AI at that and it scales the mess. Give it a real foundation and the same AI becomes real horsepower.

AI is changing the shape of the CMO role right now. The question isn't whether your function will change. It already is. The question is whether you'll architect how it runs in this new reality, or let that change happen around you.

There's a window to shape what comes next: to build the foundation, make the calls, and architect how your function runs on your own terms.

The operating system for how you run marketing.

The CMO Operating System is a connected foundation underneath your marketing function: your strategy, your team and who owns what, your plan, your numbers, and your operating rhythms, all in one place. On top of that foundation, your AI partners put your knowledge to work. They help you and your team spar on strategy, keep work moving, plan against your goals, and surface what's driving results.

The system is yours. The AI works on your direction.

The marketing everyone sees
BrandProduct MarketingDemand GenContentEvents & FieldMarketing Ops
beneath the surface
The CMO Operating System
Strategy Core
Your positioning, ICP, messaging, goals, and more, in one source of truth.
Team & Decisions
Who owns what, who approves what, and how decisions get made.
Agile Planning
Your roadmap, capacity, and investments, planned on an agile cadence.
Command Center
Your North Star, KPIs, and more, in one reporting view.
Operating Rhythms
Your meeting cadence, QBRs, board prep, and more.
Five layers, stitched into one system you own. And then your AI partners work across it.

What it's already done.

The operating system, running in Mandy's own practice, from pre-revenue startups to $500M organizations:

20% → 75%
of the week on strategic work

Multiple stakeholders and a mix of full-time, contractor, and agency talent. With the system running, meetings got cut in half, and the "who owns this, who approves this" questions stopped routing through Mandy.

More time leading. Less time holding it all together.

$500M B2B services firm

30 days
to a running foundation

A brand-new industry with its own language, acronyms, and players. With no prior healthcare experience, the foundation Mandy built is what now lets her move fast on what's ahead, from a website rebuild to a founder mini-series.

New industry, new context, no starting from scratch.

Pre-revenue healthcare startup

2× depth
on a $15K strategy engagement

Mandy delivered that $15K strategy engagement at roughly twice the depth of her pre-system work, and it won the ongoing fractional CMO retainer, which now starts with the Marketing Brain foundation already built and her walking in ahead.

More leverage from the same expertise.

$150M B2B services firm

We build one layer a week. You keep everything.

You build your system as you go.
Every week you leave with the prompts, playbooks, and skills to make your build fast, with AI doing the heavy lifting from your own materials, not a blank page. What comes out the other side is yours:
Your IP. Your frameworks. Your system.

WK 1

Strategic Core

Bring your positioning, ICP, messaging, goals, and everything else that feeds your strategy into one source of truth, then build your Strategic Sparring Partner on top. Battle-test ideas, pressure-test strategy, and hand it to your team so they spar the way you would.

WK 2

Team, Decisions & Momentum

Most work doesn't stall because the team is slow. It stalls when people aren't sure who owns it, who approves it, or what happens next. Map all of that, then build your Momentum Partner to answer the questions that keep routing through you.

WK 3

Agile Planning

Keep your roadmap, capacity, and investments current against your goals as priorities shift. Your Agile Planning Partner makes updating the plan take minutes, and every call stays yours.

WK 4

Command Center

Build one clear view of your North Star, KPIs, and the investments behind them, with your Insights Spotter flagging the moves that matter. A working proof of concept, ready for your ops team (or you!) to bring to life. When your CEO, CRO, or CFO asks what marketing is driving, the answer's already on a screen.

WK 5

Operating Rhythms

Design your meeting cadence, QBRs, board prep, and reporting rhythm, with your Value Translator turning your numbers into the story each room needs. This is where the hours you won back start to compound, because the day-to-day runs on the system, not on you.

WK 6

Your Marketing Brain, assembled

Connect every layer into one complete Marketing Brain, then build your Chief of Staff on top, the layer that orchestrates the whole system on your direction. Some of the best CMOs hire one. You built yours into the operating system you own, yours across every role and client after this.

Format

Two hours live a week

One hour of teaching and demonstration, where Mandy shows exactly how she builds and prompts each partner. Then one hour of building together and answering questions live.

Together

We build it together

We build live on a shared example company, so you're never blocked by confidential data or a half-finished doc, and you apply each build to your own world between sessions (around here, Fridays are the favorite build day).

Focus

The highest-impact 20%

You won't document everything, and that's OK. We'll have AI reverse-engineer the highest-impact 20% so the lift stays light, a slammed week won't knock you out, and everything's recorded with a year of access.

Join the waitlist

At the end of six weeks, you own:

Your Marketing Brain 🧠 Your strategy, team, plan, numbers, and rhythms in one connected AI workspace.

Your AI partners The Sparring Partner, Momentum Partner, Agile Planning Partner, and more, running on your IP and your direction.

Your Command Center A proof-of-concept reporting view of what marketing is driving, ready for your ops team (or you!) to bring to life.

Your operating rhythms A cadence for your function designed on purpose, prep made light, and your calendar back.

AI fluency that matters for a CMO, plus the full library Every prompt, playbook, skill, and template behind the builds, with a year of access. All of it yours to keep.

Your function stops running on memory.

Once everything lives in one workspace, your teams and tools finally work from the same source. Ownership and approvals can be answered without you, your best AI work becomes something you reuse instead of something you rebuild, and your marketing plan moves as the business moves.

What you do with that reclaimed capacity is the real payoff: more time looking up and out at where the market is going, and less time holding the day to day together by hand.

Your team moves better work forward, faster, and you get to lift into the strategy, creativity, and bigger bets only you can make.

Join the waitlist

One system. Two ways to use it.

In-house CMO or VP

One operating system for your function.

Shared context for the whole team, fewer questions routing through you, and more of your week spent leading. And you get to choose your next move from strength.

Fractional CMO

One system you make your own and run across clients.

Faster onboarding, more consistent delivery, and your expertise packaged into something you own and can sell as a package. Then decide whether that means more clients, a higher rate, or the same income with more of your week back.

Built by a CMO, for CMOs.

Mandy Hornaday is a fractional CMO and the founder of Growth Activated. She scaled a company from $50M to $750M as its marketing executive, led teams across full-time, contractor, and agency talent, and navigated multiple acquisitions. Today she runs a $40,000+ a month fractional practice using this exact system, across companies from pre-revenue startups to $500M organizations, and she runs it remotely while traveling internationally with her husband and two dogs. She didn't build this from theory. She's living it right now.

SCALED · $50M → $750MPRACTICE · $40K+ MRRBUILDING · across clients
Mandy Hornaday, fractional CMO and founder of Growth Activated

Be one of the first in.

The founding cohort is intentionally small, so you get the most direct access and closest support this program will ever offer.

$2,497rising to $5,997+
1

Hands-on support.

A small first cohort means closer guidance as you build, and we'll do whatever it takes to make sure you walk out with a system that works.

2

A hand in shaping it.

Your feedback shapes how the program runs for everyone who comes after you.

3

The best price it will ever be.

In return, if it delivers for you, we'd love your honest feedback and a testimonial.

The guarantee

Build the system. If you're not satisfied, get your money back.

Complete the program through the live sessions or replays, build the system alongside us, and if you're not satisfied with what you've built, we'll give you your money back. We're confident in what happens when you do the work.

What to know before you join.

Cohort

Small & first

The founding cohort is intentionally small and personal. You're in the very first group to build this, with the most access you'll ever get.

Deadline

Join by Sep 30

The last day to join at the founding price. After this round it rises to $5,997+, and the founding rate doesn't come back.

Start

We start Oct 12

We start building together the week of October 12, and go layer by layer from there, with a full year of access to everything afterward.

Save your founding seat.

Add your details and you'll be first in line. We read every signup, and we may reach out to learn what would make this most useful for you.

FOUNDING PRICE · $2,497
DOORS CLOSE · Sep 30
WE START · Oct 12

No payment now. You'll be the first to know when the founding cohort officially opens.

A few things you're probably wondering.

Is this just an AI course in disguise?+

Not exactly. AI is the engine, but the work is systems, scaling, and orchestration. If you've built a custom GPT, you've felt both the power and the ceiling: one assistant with one slice of context. This is different, a connected foundation with working partners that share one source of truth and compound together. You'll also leave fluent in the AI that matters for a CMO, since building the system is how you pick it up.

Will it fit my situation, in-house or fractional?+

Both. One system, two lenses. In-house leaders build one deep brain for their function, and fractional leaders build a version they adapt across clients. The cohort learns from seeing both.

I'm behind on AI. Is it too late to start here?+

Not at all. Whether you're starting with AI or already using it daily, this meets you exactly where you are and starts with the system underneath it.

What if I fall behind on the homework, or can't keep up?+

You won't get stuck. We build together using an example business, so even when your own work isn't finished you stay in the game, and you finish your own version on your time.

How much work is this, really?+

Two live hours a week, plus focused time between sessions to apply each build to your own company or clients. AI drafts most of the documentation from your own materials, and our prompts and templates do the heavy assembly, so the lift stays light and the minimum path still leaves you with a working system.

I only have a small team of two to five people. Is this still for me?+

Absolutely. A brain like this pays off whether your team is five, ten, or fifty. With a small team you can roll it out fast, and moving quickly without burning out matters all the more.

What if I can't make the live sessions?+

We'd love to see you each week, and the community is one of the best parts. Everything is recorded, so you can build on your own schedule and bring questions to office hours.

What's a founding cohort, and why is it less expensive?+

It's the first time this runs live. You get more direct access than any cohort after you, a hand in shaping the program, and the founding price. In return, if the system delivers for you, we'd love your honest feedback and a testimonial. We'll do everything we can to make sure you win.

Should my company pay for this, or should I?+

Either works. Many leaders fund it themselves, because the system is built from your own IP and belongs to you across this role, your clients, and whatever comes next. If your company invests in development, this qualifies too, and everything you build serves the function from day one.

What tools do I need, and how long do I have access?+

Nothing exotic, the AI tools you likely already touch, plus a couple we'll set up together at the start. You keep the materials and recordings for a full year.

What happens after the program is over?+

The community doesn't end when the sessions do. You keep the system, your AI partners, the peers you built alongside, and access to all the materials and recordings for a full year.

Get back to the work only you can do.

Six weeks from now, you'll have built a connected operating system for your marketing function. It is yours to keep, at this company, the next one, or across every client.

An investment in you, not just the role you're in.

Save your seat