Written by Jonathan Barnes / Founder & CEO at Work Heartily
For over 20 years, I’ve been building teams. Some from the ground up. Some in seasons of uncertainty. Some that simply needed the right leadership and structure to take the next step.
I didn’t start out planning to build a fractional executive firm. But the truth is, I came to believe in this model because I needed it myself, as a founder, as a leader, and as someone trying to build something that lasted.
Learning Leadership Early
My career began as a per diem nurse recruiter at a large medical staffing company, often on call 24/7, managing relationships with nurses and facility leaders, and getting a front-row seat to the realities of high-demand staffing. At 22, I was asked to take over a struggling branch. We were losing money, but we focused on building a cohesive team with shared ownership. Together, we turned the branch around.
From there, I helped to launch new service lines for the company, opened a home health division, and trained leaders to run different P&Ls. I learned a lot during those years, especially how important it is to have the right people in the right seats, and how costly it can be to delay difficult decisions out of fear of disappointing others.
From Startup Setback to Purpose-Driven Work
After more than a decade, I joined a healthcare data startup. It was a risk I was excited to take, but like many startups, it didn’t get the traction it needed. When it closed down, I found myself at another crossroads.
Thankfully, a stock payout from my previous company gave me the margin to build something new. That became Staffing as a Mission, a Health IT staffing firm built around a simple idea: do great work, and give 10% of profits back to local ministries and charities. That business grew quickly, and I was grateful for the opportunity to lead it for over five years.
Realizing the Need for Fractional Leadership
As Staffing as a Mission grew, I began to feel the weight that many founders carry: leading a team, reporting to a board, driving growth all at once. I made the decision to bring in a fractional CFO because I didn’t have the financial strategy lens the business needed. Later, we brought in a fractional CMO to help clarify our messaging and go-to-market strategy.
These weren’t extravagant hires. They were lifelines. They brought margin back into my thinking and gave our team clarity we didn’t have before. Then 2020 hit. COVID stalled our momentum, delayed projects, and forced tough decisions. To preserve cash, the board reduced staff, and part of that meant asking me to step away. It was painful. But it also gave me time to reflect and reimagine what was next.
Building Something New: Work Heartily
In April 2020, I launched Work Heartily. At first, it was just me doing coaching, consulting, serving businesses where I could add value. I didn’t know it then, but I was stepping into the world of fractional executive work.
A few months in, a friend called asking if I knew a CIO for his growing medical practice. I reached out to someone in my network who had capacity and interest in doing fractional work, and we pitched a combined approach: he would lead technology, and I would support the executive strategy and leadership.
That’s the moment where it clicked. It wasn’t just about plugging gaps. It was about bringing a team-based approach to help a business grow, without requiring them to make a full-time hire they weren’t ready for.
Why Work Heartily Is Different
We’re not a traditional consulting firm. We don’t hover around the edges offering advice. At Work Heartily, our executives embed inside your business and lead the function. Whether it’s Sales, Marketing, Operations, or Technology, we bring experienced leadership with a bias for execution.
And here’s the key: we serve as a team. Every executive in our network has access to the others for troubleshooting, strategic input, or benchmarking. That shared insight strengthens the service we provide and allows clients to benefit from a broader brain trust, not just a single contractor.
Where We’re Going
Work Heartily is growing on purpose. We’ve brought on a Chief of Staff to document and streamline internal processes. We work with a fractional CFO and a fractional CMO (from within our own ranks) to help us steward growth. I’ve become Working Genius Certified to better support team alignment and leadership development.
Most exciting of all, we launched a cohort model this year, equipping experienced executives to build their fractional practice under the Work Heartily name, with full support and shared values. We’ve also built a network of strategic partners we trust, so if a business needs something outside our scope, we can still point them in the right direction.
Why It Matters—Especially in the Southeast
We believe there’s a growing need among $5–25M companies in the Southeast. Many of these businesses are founder-led, growing, and hitting complexity, but they don’t yet have the full executive team they need.
That’s where we come in.
We help these companies build capability, gain clarity, and grow intentionally. Our goal isn’t to stick around forever. It’s to help clients hit the next level, what Les McKeown calls Predictable Success, and then build the internal leadership to sustain it.
Let’s Talk
If you’re leading a business that’s growing but straining, if you’re carrying more than you should, if you need someone to own a function, guide a team, or free up your time to focus on the right things,
Let’s talk.
We’ve been there. We’ve built through it. And we’re ready to help.