Entrepreneur
I’m Rodney Warner. I’ve owned businesses since my twenties: a construction company, a one-person motion graphics company, then a branding, web and marketing agency I founded in 2010 and built into a seven-figure business. Before I started my own agency, I stood up an agency’s SEO practice from nothing and ran an agency that managed about three million dollars a month in Google Ads. Along the way I’ve helped scale multiple companies to eight-figure revenues. I’ve spent more than 15 years helping companies grow, and I look at a marketing plan the way an owner does, because I’ve signed the checks.
A CEO once asked me what I’d do if it were my business, and if I were their chief marketing officer. Every engagement comes back to that question: the call I’d make if it were my company, and the reasoning behind it. I work AI-first, and the teams around me tend to pick it up. I’m based in Houston and work with leaders across the U.S.
The three calls people make
Leaders usually call me at one of three moments. It’s the closest thing I have to a description of the job.
They usually sound like this
- Help me figure this out. Something in the company is broken and nobody can name it. I’ve probably been through some version of it, or I’ll think about it hard enough to be useful.
- Is this even a good idea? You can see an opportunity and want to bat it around with somebody before you commit money to it. I’m often one of the first calls.
- How do we make it real? Once it’s a good idea, the question becomes what it actually takes: what it costs, who builds it, in what order, and what has to be true for it to work.
How I can help
These are the disciplines I get hired for. Most engagements start with one of them.
Fractional CMO
Senior marketing leadership for part of the week. I set the direction and own the plan, and I’m in the room when the decisions get made. View Service
Marketing consultant
A plan that ties what you spend to what the business needs, and a straight read on what to stop doing. View Service
SEO consultant
Where your buyers search, and what it would take to be the name they find. View Service
AI SEO consultant
How AI assistants answer your buyers’ questions, and what’s worth doing about the sources they lean on. View Service
Business consultant
Owner-level thinking on the problems that don't have a department: pricing, hiring, which bets to fund. View Service
AI implementation consultant
How a company adopts AI: who builds, what breaks, and what leadership has to decide. View Service
Google Ads consultant
Whether your paid search is buying customers or form fills, and what to change before you spend another month. View Service
Social media consultant
One sentence that says what social is for, then the platforms, the face and the measurement that follow from it. View Service
Brand consultant
Positioning you can defend in a sales call, before anyone touches a logo. View Service
Website consultant
What your website is for now that buyers arrive already decided, and whether the one you have does that job. View Service
Agency hiring advisor
Choosing an agency, briefing it, or deciding to let one go, with years of seeing how agencies work from the inside. View Service
What this looks like when it works
Healthcare IT · since 2025
Focus Solutions
A healthcare IT company that had built something no competitor offered, with no ten-second way to say it.
My role. I led the positioning and guided my team through everything built on it: identity, sales tools, content, video and trade shows, all from one strategy. Today I work directly with their board on go-to-market.
- “The best he’s ever seen.” A leadership advisor who had worked with six other agencies on brand work.
- Repositioned from “another MSP” to a category of one, with a framework their sales team still uses with prospects.
Food inspection equipment · since 2021
TDI Packsys
An equipment maker competing against industry giants. TDI says more than 90% of its sales start on the website.
My role. I set a research-first strategy and guided my team from the rebuilt site into SEO, paid search and content. The relationship has since grown into strategic advisory.
- 600% growth in qualified organic traffic since 2021, with organic now matching paid in lead volume.
- On ChatGPT’s shortlist, alongside the industry giants, when a poultry processor asks about x-ray bone detection (November 2026).
How this works, and what it costs
Advisory
From $3,000 a month · about 2 to 4 hours a week
A working session every two weeks or monthly, with preparation and access in between, on the decisions that carry the most risk.
Ownership
$8,000 to $12,000+ a month · about 8 to 12 hours a week
As your fractional CMO, I own a defined part of the business and direct your team and vendors on it, with a weekly working session.
Portfolio
$12,000 to $18,000+ a month · about 12 to 20 hours a week across the companies
One voice across several companies under the same owner or fund, with weekly sessions and portfolio reviews.
Who this is for, and who it isn’t
This works when
- Somebody in the room can actually decide: a founder, a chief executive or a leadership team.
- You’re roughly $5M to $100M in revenue.
- You have people who can execute, or the budget to hire them.
This doesn’t work when
- You only need hands. A good agency or freelancer is the better buy.
- Nothing has to change, or the decision is already made and you need a signature.
- There’s no budget for the work the plan will need. Waiting is a legitimate answer.
- You need someone in the building every day, managing people. That’s a full-time hire.
Worth reading first
- Blog
Partway through a proposal review at my agency, a buyer asked us how we had failed our customers. They wanted a real project where the...
- Blog
How many leads do you need? Start with the revenue goal and work backward: subtract what existing customers and dependable referrals will bring in; the...
- Blog
The short answer to fractional CMO vs full-time CMO: if marketing needs a leader every day and there’s a team to lead, hire a full-time...
Start a conversation
Tell me a little about the company and what you’re weighing. I read every note myself and reply within one business day.