About

Called in, not sold to.

I'm Mark Skalla. For twenty years I've run marketing and operations for founder-led companies, from both chairs.

Mark Skalla, founder of Fulcrum Fractional

The short version

I've been the bottleneck. I've also been the fix.

I started on the marketing side. In 2015 I founded Axiom Digital Marketing, built it to seven figures, and exited it. Along the way I consulted for Tony Robbins and Everyday Health. Then I ran digital marketing and ad operations at ConversionLogix: a 13-person team, 1,800+ client accounts and $2M+ a month in ad spend.

Marketing kept teaching me the same lesson. The campaign was rarely the problem. The handoff was. So I moved into the other chair.

For three years I was President and COO of a 75-person retail and ecommerce company, the founder's #2, running EOS as the Integrator. The business went from a $200K annual loss to $600K in profit in year one.

That combination is the point. Most companies have one person who knows where the growth is and another who knows whether the operation can survive it. I've been both.

In 2025 I wrote The Leverage Point, became a Certified EOS Integrator, and started Fulcrum Fractional. I live in Lone Tree, Colorado.

Certified EOS Integrator3+ years in the Integrator seat

Author, The Leverage Point2025, Amazon bestseller in Business Consulting

Former President and COO75-person company

B.S., Digital Media and Web TechnologyUniversity of Maryland University College

20+ yearsMarketing and operations leadership

Lone Tree, ColoradoIn person across the south metro, remote everywhere else

Track record

What the work has looked like, in both chairs.

$249M

Marketing to operations

In loan volume over 11 months at Proffer Financial, about 90% of the company's total. The mailers were never the problem. The handoff was.

$600K

Operating turnaround

Profit in year one, up from a $200K annual loss, as President and COO of a 75-person retail and ecommerce company. About $1M in cumulative improvement over three years.

1,800+

Marketing at scale

Client accounts and $2M+ in monthly ad spend, run by the 13-person team I led at ConversionLogix.

Past results, not promises. Your business is its own case.

How I work

Four things I won't argue about.

Systems buy freedom.

Done right, structure is what lets you leave the building. Done wrong, it's paperwork. I only build the first kind.

Revenue isn't the scoreboard.

Growth that doesn't reach the margin is just a busier version of the same problem.

Fractional means senior, not scattered.

You get operating judgment for the hours you need, not a freelancer with ten other priorities.

Find the lever before you push harder.

Effort is rarely what's missing. Placement is.

In their words

A client, an Implementer and a CFO. Three different seats, one view.

Current client · Marketing

"He thinks beyond the ads."

I've worked with Mark for nearly two years. He manages our marketing, but what makes him valuable to me is that he thinks beyond the ads. He understands what we're selling, what it takes to deliver it, and whether the numbers make sense for the business. We've spent as much as $12,000 a month on Meta, and some individual campaigns have reached 15x return on ad spend. When something needs attention, Mark doesn't just point it out. He helps me figure out what to do next.

Mike O.

Owner, consumer quilting brand · Oklahoma City, OK

EOS Implementer · The Integrator seat

"Someone I would want in that seat."

Mark and I worked together while he was the Integrator for a 75-person business. In our sessions, we could identify the right priorities. Mark's contribution was making sure those priorities became work the leadership team actually owned. He brought structure to meetings, made the numbers visible, and followed through when an issue crossed departments. I saw him take on difficult decisions while helping the founder step back from day-to-day operations. If a founder needs someone who can carry responsibility across the business, Mark is someone I would want in that seat.

Leonard L.

Expert EOS Implementer · Texas

Financial partner · The turnaround

"How the whole business made and kept money."

As a financial partner to the business Mark led, I had a close view of how he managed it. He didn't treat the P&L as a report to review after the fact. He used it to ask better questions, address costs, and hold leaders accountable for performance. I watched the business move from a loss to sustained profitability during his tenure. That kind of change takes more than a good marketing campaign. Mark paid attention to how the whole business made and kept money.

Faysal T.

Partner, fractional CFO firm · Greater New Orleans, LA

Hear it first-hand

Forty minutes with me, before you spend thirty.

You can tell a lot about someone from how they think out loud. Pick a show.

Episode

B2B Brand180 Strategy Podcast

The Leverage Point: why growing companies break where marketing and operations meet.

Listen on mill.agency

Episode

The Interview Connections Podcast

On founders who built the business and now can't get out of its way.

Listen on Spotify

Episode

The Innovative Agency

For agency owners: the operating problems that show up between $1M and $3M.

Listen on Apple Podcasts

The book

The Leverage Point.

The thinking behind every Fulcrum engagement, written for founders who have outgrown the way the business was built. Amazon bestseller in Business Consulting.

Get it on Amazon About the book

Thirty minutes. That's the whole ask.

If there's something worth fixing, you'll leave the call knowing what it is, and the one-page summary follows within 24 hours. If there isn't, I'll tell you that too.

Book a 30-minute call Find your Bottleneck Cost