What got you here won’t get you there.
—Marshall Goldsmith
The thing no one tells you about building a successful agency:
The skills that get you to $2M will actively hold you back at $5M.
I learned this watching hundreds of agency founders navigate M&A. Some were ready - their businesses ran without them, had predictable revenue, clean financials. Buyers competed for them.
Others weren't. Great work. Talented teams. Strong client relationships. But when you looked under the hood - everything ran through the founder. No one else could close deals. Operations were reactive. The business was successful but unsellable.
The gap between those two wasn't talent. It was infrastructure.
My path here.
I didn’t start in consulting. I started in the agency world, eagerly managing campaigns, coordinating teams, and soaking in as much knowledge as my first job would let me.
Then, as life would have it, I took a sharp turn into M&A, working as Director of Growth at an agency-focused firm. My job was to bring in founders who were considering an exit, help them understand how selling worked, what their business was worth, and guide them through preparation.
I worked with hundreds of founders and creative leaders - some just starting out and building to sell, others looking back at their legacy with pride and their future, with a desire for a new chapter, some at 1M in revenue and others at $50M.
I noticed the same patterns repeat and I quickly learned the identifiers of businesses that scale vs those that stall.
Later, I got a different education: I was brought in as an operator of a video production agency during a high-pressure transition. It completely terrified me and fueled me at the same time.
That experience taught me what advisory couldn't…
What it actually feels like when everything's on fire. Not from a distance, but in the middle of it - implementing systems, managing teams, stabilizing operations while the ground is shifting beneath you.
Why do I do this?
I kept seeing the same story: talented founders hitting a wall not because they lacked vision, but because they were missing the operational foundation to get there.
They needed someone who understood both sides - the M&A perspective (what buyers look for, how to build enterprise value) AND the operational reality (what it takes to implement systems when you're already stretched thin).
That's what throughline advisory is. Strategic counsel from someone who's been in the trenches - helping you build the foundation for what's next, whether that's sustainable growth or eventual exit.
My approach
I work with a small number of agency founders at a time (typically 3-6 month engagements). I'm not interested in prescriptive frameworks or cookie-cutter solutions. Every agency is different.
What I bring is pattern recognition. I've seen what works and what doesn't across hundreds of agencies. I can help you see the blind spots, make better decisions, and avoid the mistakes that cost you time and money.
I don't do implementation. I'm not your fractional COO. I'm strategic counsel - the person who helps you figure out what needs to change and how to do it, while you and your team execute.
If you're navigating founder dependency, revenue plateaus, or exit preparation - and you want someone who's lived it to help you figure out what's next - I'd love to talk.
