When Two Months Is Not Enough

Every business reaches a point where a consulting engagement is not enough. The problems are deeper, the stakes are higher, and what you actually need is not a consultant who wraps up their work and moves onto the next client. You need a permanent part of your team, without the permanent overhead.

That is what a fractional Chief Operating Officer is. A senior operational leader who works inside your business on an ongoing basis, bringing executive-level thinking and hands-on execution to the problems that matter most, without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire. Not a consultant. Not an advisor. A partner who is invested in where your business goes.

I built this offer for driven leaders who want to grow and build something bigger. Leaders who want to be challenged, who know they do not have all the answers, and who want someone in their corner who thinks differently than they do.

That is where my background comes in. From industrial and process engineering, to the operating rooms of a major health system where the stakes were life and death, to building future vehicle technologies at a Fortune 50 company, I have operated at scale in high pressure, high complexity environments. And through Radio Chatter, I know what it actually feels like to build something from scratch with your own hands and your own money.

If you have gone through a consulting engagement and found yourself wanting more, or if you already know that what your business needs is not a project but a partner, this is where that conversation starts.

My Core Philosophy

My background is in industrial engineering, where the job was always to work myself out of a job. Build the systems, create the efficiency, leave things better than you found them. That is how I approach the operational side of this work. When the acute phase is done and things are running, you should not need me in the room every week.

But the strategic side is different. Having a trusted partner who knows your business, challenges your thinking, and helps you see around corners does not have a natural expiration date. The best version of that relationship gets more valuable over time, not less.

That is why I offer both. Operational support that ends when it should. Strategic partnership that lasts as long as it creates value.

The engagement scales to the reality of the business, not to an arbitrary timeline.

Who This Is For

Most small and mid-sized businesses reach a point where you cannot do everything alone but you are not ready to hire a full time executive. The need is real but the scope is still taking shape. Hiring too fast means hiring wrong. Hiring wrong means starting over.

This is especially true during periods of transition. New ownership. Rapid growth. A key departure. You have outgrown doing everything yourself. In those moments, bringing in experienced, flexible support makes more sense than committing to a permanent hire before you know exactly what you need.

What I Bring

Two decades of experience across General Motors and Henry Ford Health building systems, leading teams, and solving complex operational problems inside large organizations. From the operating rooms of a major health system where the stakes were life and death, to building future vehicle technologies at a Fortune 50 company, I have operated at scale in high pressure, high complexity environments.

Through Radio Chatter, the outdoor adventure game company my wife and I built from scratch, I know what it actually feels like to build something from the ground up with your own hands and your own money. Product development, marketing, Meta advertising, wholesale partnerships, mobile app development, fulfillment, and customer support. I have worn every hat a small business owner wears.

And I have put this thinking into practice with real clients. Through my consulting work I have helped a commercial cleaning company reposition around its real competitive edge and implement a complete new marketing strategy live on their website. I have helped an entrepreneurship educator restructure her business model so she was no longer the bottleneck in every engagement. These were not theoretical recommendations. They were hands on, rolled up sleeves, get it done engagements with real business owners solving real problems.

That combination, the scale of large organizations, the ground level reality of building something from scratch, and the practical experience of working inside small businesses, is what I bring into every fractional COO relationship.

The Two Tiers

Tier 1: CEO Thinking Partner — $3,000 per month

Roughly five hours per week on average. Some weeks lighter, some heavier, balancing out over the month.

You still run the company day to day. This tier is about reducing the mental burden of doing it alone. You have someone to think out loud with, pressure test decisions, work through problems before they become crises, and take on independent projects that would otherwise sit on your plate indefinitely.

Your team and vendors generally do not see this relationship. It lives between you and me. You still manage everyone, but you manage better because you are not carrying everything alone.

What gets done at this tier: strategic thinking, policy and process development, independent research and analysis, decision support, and ongoing advisory. Projects get handed off, completed independently, and handed back ready to implement.

This tier does not have a finish line. A growing business always has new decisions to make, new challenges to navigate, and new opportunities to evaluate. This tier grows more valuable over time. A growing business always has new decisions to make, new challenges to navigate, and new opportunities to evaluate. The relationship compounds because context accumulates and the thinking gets sharper the longer we work together. And when the business reaches a point where a full time operational leader makes more sense than a fractional one, I will help you find and hire the right person. The goal has always been to leave your business better than I found it, including helping you backfill me when the time is right.

Tier 2: Operational Extension — $6,000 per month

Roughly ten hours per week on average. Some weeks lighter, some heavier, balancing out over the month.

Same advisory relationship as Tier 1, but now I take direct ownership of one or two specific operational relationships, typically a vendor, a contractor, or a defined internal project, so you are no longer the default on those specific things. Those relationships have a point of contact that is not you.

This scope is enough to own those relationships fully, run a weekly operational rhythm, attend key internal touchpoints, and handle the communication overhead those interactions generate. The work happens through a mix of scheduled calls, phone, text, and occasional in-person depending on how your team operates.

This tier works when the problem is specific. You have one or two things you should not be spending time on anymore. I take those off your plate entirely.

The engagement scales to what the business actually needs. Some companies stabilize into Tier 1. Others find that ten hours a week is exactly right indefinitely. And when a full time operational leader makes more sense, I will help you find and hire that person. Either way, the goal is the same.

What Tier 2 Is Not

This scope is not a substitute for a day to day operations manager. It does not replace your presence across the whole business or make me the primary point of contact for everything that currently flows to you. If daily 1v1s, broad employee management, and constant escalation coverage are what you need, that is a different scope and likely a part time or full time operational hire rather than a fractional arrangement.

Finding Your Level

The first few weeks are always heavier than the ongoing rhythm. There is a business to learn, systems to map, relationships to establish, and immediate priorities to identify. Expect the first month to feel more active than what either tier describes as its steady state.

After that the work finds its natural rhythm.