Mike was drowning in his own business, wearing every hat while trying to be a nurturing father and present husband. Despite helping other CEOs scale with fractional executives, he couldn’t apply his expertise to himself. Spring 2023 brought his breaking point: a mental breakdown from being stretched too thin across marketing, sales, operations, and family responsibilities.
Mike made the bold decision to “eat our own dogfood” and become one of Malloy Industries’ clients. He used the same fractional executive placement process he provided to others, scientifically matching with Tina Moriarty through the Kolbe A assessment. Where Mike scored high in ideas but low in follow-through, Tina showed the perfect complimentary strengths.
Today, Mike leads a team of six who report to Tina, freeing him to focus on vision and family time. He takes genuine vacations without checking emails, travels for business development, and has built the operational foundation to confidently 10x the business. His “North Star” question now guides every decision: “Will saying yes to this create more time for me to spend with my wife and son before he starts kindergarten?”
Sustainable leadership structure
Foundation to 10x business growth
Family-first operational model
After two years of single-handedly running Malloy Industries while raising his son, Mike faced unsustainable pressure. When temporary intern support ended, he realized retraining help every few months drained his energy and compromised family time. He needed a long-term operational partner.
“One of the biggest benefits of having Tina was the ability to be vulnerable when I was in a rough place mentally and not feeling alone.”— Mike Malloy
Mike recognized his “high Quick Start” visionary style lacked follow-through. He turned to Ashley Berghoff’s Smooth Operator program, which matched him with Tina Moriarty. The Kolbe A assessment confirmed their compatibility: Tina’s methodical execution complemented Mike’s ideation strengths.
“What was important was finding a founder who allowed me to own his business from a responsibility standpoint.”— Tina Moriarty
Mike engaged Ashley Berghoff’s matching service, leading to Tina. The Kolbe A results showed Tina’s strengths filled Mike’s weaknesses. For Tina, the energy match and alignment with Mike’s values outweighed initial rate concerns.
“The fit was immediate. We understood where each other needed to go.”— Tina Moriarty
Mike used an “ABC circle analysis” to delegate tasks (A = irritating, B = neutral, C = fascinating). Tina proactively asked, “What else can I help with?” extracting tasks Mike didn’t realize he could release. By Thanksgiving, she ran operations. During a 2024 crisis (lost client + wife’s retirement), their partnership turned stress into a “we conversation,” not a solo struggle.
“In my first startup, I burned out alone. Here, Tina was my wingman.”— Mike Malloy
Key milestones emerged that validated their partnership: creating the Notion-based operating system established a centralized SOP hub and company manual, while Tina independently leading a SWOT analysis demonstrated earned trust and revealed critical blind spots. The implementation of their 50-question Operational Maturity Assessment, completed every two months, showcased iterative growth through rising scores across previously weak areas. Ultimately, both taking uninterrupted vacations without business collapse proved their model’s sustainability and alignment with core values.
“We built this business around taking time off for our families.”— Tina Moriarty
Mike now leads a team of 6 reporting to Tina. He travels for business development, takes email-free vacations, and focuses on sales/growth. Tina treats the business as her own, even sending Max monthly activity boxes. Mike is “pumped to 10x the business” with scaffolding in place.
“I mention something to Tina on Slack—it just gets done. I’m never worried.”— Mike Malloy
Mike’s hard-won advice for overwhelmed founders centers on finding an operational partner who thrives on SOPs—someone to handle the critical follow-through he lacked. He emphasizes using structured tools like SWOT analyses and Operational Maturity Assessments, but most importantly embracing the mindset that “80% done by someone else is 100% frickin’ awesome”—the key to scaling without burning out.
“You need someone like Tina who dots the I’s so you can scale.”— Mike Malloy
Mike realized the importance of delegating operational tasks. As a visionary, he needed someone like Tina who could manage the day-to-day while he focused on scaling the business. This partnership freed Mike to concentrate on high-level strategy and growth, knowing that Tina had the business running smoothly behind the scenes.
“Having Tina on my team means I can step back and trust the business is in good hands.”— Mike Malloy
Mike’s excitement about growing Malloy Industries stems from knowing he now has the right team and systems in place. With Tina running operations, Mike can focus on sales and business development, confident the business is growing smoothly. The momentum they’ve built is aligned with Mike’s goal of scaling without sacrificing family time.
“We’re no longer struggling to keep things afloat. Tina and the team are making it happen.”— Mike Malloy
No long discovery phase. No weeks of back-and-forth. From first call to embedded operator in 14 days or less.
Ready to move on this timeline? The first step is 30 minutes.
The most common questions growth-stage CEOs and Founders ask before working with Malloy Industries.
A fractional executive owns a function end to end, turning what lives in your head into systems your team can run, so you stop being the single point of failure.
The goal is to remove you as the single point of failure in the part of the business that is eating your time, so you get back to the work only you can do.
We have 150+ clients who trust us with their businesses, and we're happy to connect you directly with CEOs we've helped. Just book a discovery call and ask.
If you've hired a consultant who delivered a beautiful deck and disappeared, or a "fractional CMO" who talked a big game and produced nothing, your guard should be up.
Yes, a fractional sales executive builds the pipeline, the process, the playbook, the cadence, and the coaching, so your team can close without you in every deal.
A fractional sales executive can help you if you have:
Yes, the free Scalability Audit pinpoints where the gaps are, how severe they are, and what to fix first.
You will know:
A fractional executive makes more sense when you need the expertise now, but not 40 hours a week and not as a $300k+ bet on one person.
Most growth-stage companies aren't ready for a full C-suite. Paying $300k+ to one person is a huge bet you're not ready for yet.
Fractional is the bridge that gets you enterprise-level leadership without enterprise-level risk.
Most fractional executives run between 4k and 15k per month, depending on seniority, scope, and how much of their time you need. That is the blended monthly investment, and it is the number you plan around.
No, at your stage you probably already have a CEO bottleneck, and the problem is far cheaper to fix now than after it compounds.
the sweet spot is usually above 3 million, but the decision sums up to:
Yes, we design the onboarding and introduction process to set your fractional executive up for credibility from day one.
In our experience, teams respect competence, clarity, and follow-through, and they will be relieved. They've been waiting for someone to bring structure, accountability, and expertise to a function that's been held together with duct tape.
We activate the Lifetime Second Match Free Guarantee™. Our Client Service team and CEO step in first to understand what's not working, because sometimes the issue is fixable through coaching or a scope adjustment.
If a replacement is the right call:
The process is three steps, everything up to the match is free, and a fractional executive can be working in your business in as fast as two weeks.
Still have a question? Read all FAQs or talk to the team.
