Imagine accessing board-level talent only when you truly need it no bloated overhead, no inventing tasks to fill a calendar.

That’s the promise of fractional leadership, and it’s reshaping how ambitious companies scale. We sit down with Kevin Steele, founder of Clarendon Financial and Strategy, to unpack how a fractional CFO links finance to strategy and builds the financial engine that powers growth.

TLDR / At A Glance:

• What a fractional executive is and is not
• Why growing firms choose fractional over full-time
• Cost, flexibility, and scaling engagement up or down
• CFO focus on linking finance to strategy
• Clean data as the non-negotiable foundation
• The 30-60-90 plan and engagement stages
• When and how to hand over to a full-time hire
• How to vet credibility, sector fit, and references
• Managing fractionals for outcomes, not hours
• The future of fractional work and the credibility gap

Kevin lays out a clear operating model: start with discovery, fix the data, then install budgets, forecasts, and non-financial KPIs that tie your commercial story to cash. He explains why clean data is non-negotiable garbage in, garbage out and how a focused 30-60-90 plan drives measurable results fast.

We dig into the moments when fractional support creates the most leverage, from due diligence and acquisitions to board reporting and scenario planning, and how engagements flex up or down based on need.

The conversation also gets practical about selection and trust. Not all “fractionals” are equal. We outline a simple due diligence checklist: proven C-suite experience, sector specialism aligned to your model, and live client references.

Kevin shares why he specialises in B2B services and why, at scale, a fractional CFO should help you graduate to a part-time or full-time hire with clean systems that a new leader can run with.

Along the way, we talk about the credibility gap in a world where anyone can claim expertise, and why the real value often looks like “another adult at the table” a steady, independent voice that challenges assumptions and keeps strategy honest.

If you’re weighing full-time versus fractional, or wondering how to get real ROI from rented expertise, this conversation gives you the playbook to decide with confidence.

Subscribe for more deep dives on leadership, finance, AI, and the operating systems that help founders grow. If this helped clarify your next move, share it with a colleague and leave a review what role would you rent first?

Need a fractional executive in your business? Then let's chat - https://calendly.com/kierangilmurray/next-steps-fractional

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𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗰𝘁 my team and I to get business results, not excuses.

☎️ https://calendly.com/kierangilmurray/results-not-excuses
✉️ kieran@gilmurray.co.uk
🌍 www.KieranGilmurray.com
📘 Kieran Gilmurray | LinkedIn
🦉 X / Twitter: https://twitter.com/KieranGilmurray
📽 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@KieranGilmurray

📕 Want to learn more about agentic AI then read my new book on Agentic AI and the Future of Work https://tinyurl.com/MyBooksOnAmazonUK

Machines that wait for our prompts are giving way to systems that plan, decide, and act. We unpack the three waves of AI predictive, generative, and agentic and explore how the newest wave is redefining work by turning software into autonomous collaborators. From forecasting to content creation to coordinated action across tools and networks, we trace what changes, what stays, and what leaders must do next.

TLDR / At a Glance:

• defining predictive, generative, and agentic AI
• why agency matters for decisions and actions
• the tech stack enabling autonomous agents
• where agents fit in real workflows
• trust, ethics, and safety guardrails
• workforce shifts, reskilling, and new roles
• staged autonomy from observe to execute
• the move from apps to agents
• leadership playbook for the agentic age

I walk through the tech convergence making agency real: large language models for reasoning and dialogue, cloud scale for memory and orchestration, and machine learning for perception and optimisation. We look at how agents break down complex goals, call APIs, coordinate with other agents, and adapt to feedback, delivering speed and quality that manual handoffs cannot match. Along the way, we surface hard truths about trust, safety, and ethics why guardrails, auditability, and clear accountability are non-negotiable when machines act on your behalf.

The conversation turns practical with a leadership playbook: map processes by risk and value, start with narrow pilots, use staged autonomy from suggest to execute, and measure outcomes you care about latency, quality, cost, and satisfaction.

We dig into workforce transformation as the value of memorising and repeating knowledge declines, and highlight emerging roles like agent wranglers, policy designers, evaluators, and workflow architects.

Expect frank talk on displacement, reskilling, and how to build an agent registry, permissions, and incident response so your digital workforce behaves like a reliable product, not a risky experiment.

If you’re ready to move from “there’s an app for that” to “there’s an agent for that,” this deep dive will help you design, supervise, and scale agents responsibly.

Subscribe for more research-backed guides, share with a colleague who’s rethinking their operating model, and leave a review to tell us how you’re preparing your team for the agentic age.

Want to buy the full book or audio copy? This excellent book is now available globally on Amazon and Audible.

Support the show

𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗰𝘁 my team and I to get business results, not excuses.

☎️ https://calendly.com/kierangilmurray/results-not-excuses
✉️ kieran@gilmurray.co.uk
🌍 www.KieranGilmurray.com
📘 Kieran Gilmurray | LinkedIn
🦉 X / Twitter: https://twitter.com/KieranGilmurray
📽 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@KieranGilmurray

📕 Want to learn more about agentic AI then read my new book on Agentic AI and the Future of Work https://tinyurl.com/MyBooksOnAmazonUK

What happens when you’re asked to keep an iconic music video exactly as fans remember it except the singer must perform a different song, in perfect sync, for four minutes straight?

We brought Joyrider Films founder and executive producer Spencer Friend into the studio to unpack the creative calls, the technical stack, and the leadership habits that make a moment like that possible.

TLDR / At a Glance

• why Joyrider built in-house production and post
• what defines fast, visual, cinematic storytelling
• how to choose between practical, CG, virtual, and AI
• where consumer AI breaks and pro pipelines start
• the Coldplay and Idols “Grace” lip sync workflow
• training, slap comps, and iterative refinement
• ethical guardrails and likeness consent in AI
• testing methods before committing to a pipeline
• why storytelling and continuity still lead hiring
• skills young directors need to thrive

Spencer walks us through Joyrider’s hybrid approach across commercials, entertainment, and music videos: when to shoot practically for authentic performance, when CG delivers the impossible, and where AI or virtual production creates real value rather than novelty.

The Coldplay x Idols “Grace” project becomes our living lab: a model trained on Chris Martin’s face, an iterative cycle of training and slap comps, and the fine-grain compositing choices that made an overcranked, front-facing close-up hold up under scrutiny.

We explore why consumer AI tools fall down on continuity and how a nodal workflow like ComfyUI supports professional control over look, lip sync, and consistency at scale.

We also get practical about responsible AI. Consent-driven likeness capture, clear data provenance, and ethical standards keep talent protected while improving results.

Spencer argues AI won’t erase jobs; it expands them, demanding directors who think in shots and systems, VFX artists fluent in light and latency, and AI artists who can code while protecting performance.

Story remains the north star: every tool decision ladders up to narrative clarity, emotional truth, and deliverable quality under deadline pressure.

If you care about how cutting-edge production actually ships—across branded content, music videos, and beyond this conversation maps the choices, pitfalls, and wins.

Subscribe for more deep dives, share with a producer or creative who needs a modern toolkit, and leave a review with one question you want us to tackle next.

Support the show

𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗰𝘁 my team and I to get business results, not excuses.

☎️ https://calendly.com/kierangilmurray/results-not-excuses
✉️ kieran@gilmurray.co.uk
🌍 www.KieranGilmurray.com
📘 Kieran Gilmurray | LinkedIn
🦉 X / Twitter: https://twitter.com/KieranGilmurray
📽 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@KieranGilmurray

📕 Want to learn more about agentic AI then read my new book on Agentic AI and the Future of Work https://tinyurl.com/MyBooksOnAmazonUK