I Hired a Marketing Fixer and You Should Too

This isn’t a cute story with a happy ending. It’s a red-alert wake-up call wrapped in a confession. Because if you’re an overwhelmed marketer juggling way too many demands with too few hands—and you’ve ever caught yourself thinking, “I would pay out of pocket just to make this go away”—you’re not the only one. I know that thought because I’ve had that thought. And I did exactly that.

You don’t need a team. You need a secret weapon.

The Breaking Point Is Not Dramatic. It’s Boring.

Burnout doesn’t arrive like a fire alarm. It sneaks in quietly through 8:00 a.m. meetings that should’ve been emails, slowly stacks itself through decks you had to “tweak” for the third time this week, and settles in around the moment your Slack pings at 7:43 p.m. with “Just one quick thing before EOD.”

I remember the exact day I cracked. Not a nervous breakdown kind of crack, just the quiet, painful resignation of knowing there was absolutely no way I could deliver everything that was expected of me.

The request? “Can you just write up a campaign plan for this product launch by tomorrow? Just something quick and creative.”

You know that moment, right? When your brain does a quick scan of your workload and there’s simply… no space. Not even mental space. Your to-do list isn’t a list—it’s a landfill.

• A board meeting was coming up and all the global business units had still not sent me their data which would have to be cleaned, organized and turned into a sales slide deck. 
• There were the meetings before meetings to figure out what was going to be discussed in the meetings. 
• Oh, and then there was the global team call I had to run with folks on the other side of the world, so yeah, we’re going to do that meeting at midnight. 

I didn’t rage quit. I didn’t cry. I opened a Google Doc, stared at it for 15 minutes, and then Googled “freelance marketing help under $500.”

Because yes, I was seriously thinking about paying for help myself. It was at that moment I realized that I was a mini marketing agency with a slew of both internal and external customers and that my generous 6-figure salary was my retainer (and cash flow) and who said that I couldn’t spend my own money on my own projects?  Some people have hobbies, I needed to save my mental health.

That’s when everything changed.  That simple reframe of my job and responsibilities changed everything. 

The Stats Don’t Lie—And They’re Ugly

We’re not making this up. According to a recent Mixology Digital study, 83% of marketers say they’ve felt burnout. And a Chartered Institute of Marketing survey found that 51% fear they’ll burn out in their current role.

This isn’t just happening to junior staffers. This is you. The one holding all the marketing together with strategy decks and duct tape.

There are one-person marketing departments. That’s not a metaphor. That’s the setup at 32% of companies, according to HubSpot. And if you’re one of them, I don’t need to explain what that feels like.

Why No One Tells You They’ve Done This

Let me be clear about something. I have NO idea whether or not other people did this at the time. I kind of look at this as being on the down low so that I don’t crawl under a rock and go on anti-depressants. 

But I find it hard to believe that I was the only one.  I’ve had some creative ideas, but this one was just too obvious for me to think that other marketers weren’t doing the same thing. 

I mean, no one wants to admit they’ve gone rogue and hired a copywriter off Fiverr to polish their CEO’s LinkedIn article. Or paid a strategist $250 to ghostwrite an internal report that magically “got approved in one go.” Or brought in an outside marketing consultant just to stop spinning in strategy circles for weeks.

But I’m sure they do it.

Because they know the reality: You’re responsible for results. Not excuses.

That’s where the Marketing Fixer comes in.

Who Is Your Marketing Fixer?

She’s not a full-time hire.
She’s not your agency account rep.
She’s not your intern.

She’s the one who turns your gut feeling into a two-page strategy deck.
She’s the one who gets it—and gets it done—without a single meeting.

Think of her as your marketing co-conspirator. The one you don’t have to explain everything to. The one who knows what a “QBR deck with executive polish” means without needing a brief. The one who can crank out a last-minute nurture sequence or fix your messaging hierarchy before lunch.

If this sounds mythical, it’s not. It’s me. It’s the work I’ve done quietly behind the scenes for years. And there are more of us out there—freelancers, consultants, strategists—who’ve built our businesses around being exactly what you need when you need it, without drama or red tape.

OH, and if you’re thinking I’m going to share and spill who these people have been – ummm NO!

Why Marketing Managers Keep This Help on the Down Low

Let’s be honest. There are three reasons you won’t put this on your quarterly update:

1. Perception – No one really cares. You’re supposed to “have it handled.” Hiring outside help might feel like failure. It’s not. It’s resourcefulness.
2. Approval loops – You don’t have time to explain why you need help. You just need the work done.
3. Budget gymnastics – Sometimes it’s easier to expense software than a human. And sometimes, yes, you do pay out of pocket because your sanity is worth $300.

You’re not buying copy. You’re buying capacity. You’re buying peace of mind.

I’ve spent decades being the only trained marketing person on a management team and it’s exhausting. There’s no one to talk to, bounce ideas off of, work back and forth with. It’s a lonely existence.

And, when I finally got smart and invested in getting MY OWN marketing help with my own money, my life and results were transformed.

What It Feels Like to Have Help (for Real)

Here’s what happens the first time you let someone like me in:

• That “launch sequence” you were dreading? It’s done in a day.
• Your content calendar doesn’t feel like a trap—it feels like a plan.
• You stop feeling like you’re always three tasks behind.
• You feel sharp again.

Your boss notices that projects are moving faster. You’re hitting deadlines. Your work sounds tighter, your slides are cleaner, and the results are rolling in. Nobody knows you had help. They just think you’re leveling up.

And the best part? You sleep. You rest. You stop whispering, “I can’t keep doing this,” under your breath on Friday nights.

Why AI Isn’t Enough (And Might Be Making It Worse)

But wiat. Let’s address the shimmering robot in the room.

Yes, AI can help you write emails, generate headlines, even outline campaigns. I use it. You probably use it. But let’s not pretend that dropping a prompt into ChatGPT is the same as having a marketing mind on your side.

AI isn’t the problem. It’s the illusion of speed. It gives you “something” quickly—but not the right thing. Not the on-brand, audience-aware, conversion-tuned thing. It doesn’t know that your VP hates the word “solution,” or that your Q2 campaign tanked last year because the webinar title sounded like a TED Talk for accountants. It can’t feel that a tagline sounds flat or that your nurture sequence is all head and no heart.

AI is a tool. Your Marketing Godmother is a strategist, copywriter, fixer, and filter rolled into one. She doesn’t just generate ideas—she curates the best ones for your goals, your team, your politics, your bandwidth, and your customer.

You can use AI to write a blog post. But it won’t notice that your audience stopped reading after the second paragraph. I will.

AI won’t fight for your message in a sea of sameness. I will.

AI won’t call out BS data, pitch you a better CTA, or gently tell you your offer is confusing. I will.

That’s the difference between content and conversion. Between fluff and firepower.

How to Know It’s Time to Call in Your Marketing Fixer

If you’ve read this far, it’s time. But in case you need a checklist, here you go:

• Your “quick wins” list has been untouched for three weeks.
• You spend more time reacting than creating.
• You’ve reused the same email copy six times and no one noticed (because you don’t have the time to write new ones).
• Your content sounds like everyone else’s—and it bugs you.
• You’re dreaming about an extra set of hands that just… gets it.

Here’s What to Do

If you’re lucky enough to have budget, use it. If not, be scrappy—consultants like me offer quick-hit services, day rates, project bundles, and yes, sometimes, late-night ghostwriting sprints. You don’t have to commit to a retainer. You just have to start.

Because once you’ve had secret help, you’ll never go back.