Take as little or as much as you need.
I work with creative shops where the craft is brand, identity, design, or advertising. If you sell project work and deliver through people, we’re likely talking the same language. My scope can flex from being a monthly advisor to a fully embedded Head of Ops.
Every engagement starts with two free thirty-minute calls. Afterwards, a 2–3 week diagnostic sprint can make sense, potentially followed by a move into a fractional retainer.
See the full menu below.
What I usually find.
01Doing it yourself.
The founder is still the best operator, so they are still doing the work. It persists because it feels responsible, but the founder’s calendar is now the entire agency’s ceiling. This isn’t a character flaw, just a structural default.
02Promoting a junior.
A Senior Project Manager is promoted to Head of Operations. A good person in a new function. Finding out if they succeed can take over a year, and you’re down your best PM who now lives a different life. It looks responsible. It’s also expensive.
03Waiting it out.
Hope is not a system. The agency grows to 40 people before anyone admits the delegation problem was real at 15, and by 40 it is more expensive to fix. By 40, the founder has burned out twice and is talking about a sabbatical.
How I can help you.
My favorite engagements are with North American creative shops of 10–75 people working in brand, design, or advertising. My involvement can flex up to 15 hours a week over a 6–8 month arc.
Discovery Calls. Free 2x 30 min None
Fee: Free · Capacity: 2x 30 min · Commit: None
Two calls, thirty minutes each. On the first one you describe your agency and what’s stuck. On the second one I ask sharp questions and play back what I heard. You’ll walk away with my best advice from those calls. If it’s a fit, we talk about a project or a retainer. If it isn’t, I point you at someone who is.
Advisory. $2,000/mo 2 calls/mo + Slack/email Monthly
Fee: $2,000/mo · Capacity: 2 calls/mo + Slack/email · Commit: Monthly
A monthly retainer for founders who already have an operations lead and want a sounding board. A standing call every other week, with async Slack or email access in between. Not a fit if there is no one on the inside yet; this is a multiplier, not a substitute.
Project build. $5,000–$25,000 By scope As quoted
Fee: $5,000–$25,000 · Capacity: By scope · Commit: As quoted
Fixed-scope, fixed-fee work on a single operating surface. Past examples can be found in the notes: a rate card and quote builder, a 20-category SLA matrix, an integration playbook, a performance architecture, you name it.
Fractional Lead. $8,000/mo 10 hr/wk 3 mo min
Fee: $8,000/mo · Capacity: 10 hr/wk · Commit: 3 mo min
10 hours a week, 3-month minimum. I run specific operational work streams: pricing architecture, capacity planning, hiring process, leadership cadence. Designed for shops that need a senior hand on one or two surfaces plus overall guidance, but not yet a full operating layer across the entire agency.
Fractional Partner. $12,000/mo 15 hr/wk 3 mo min
Fee: $12,000/mo · Capacity: 15 hr/wk · Commit: 3 mo min
15 hours a week, 3-month minimum. Same scope as Lead, but more hands-on. I act as your agency’s Head of Operations across the full operating surface, attending leadership meetings, owning the entire ops cadence. Designed to leave: I hire and train my successor as part of the engagement and transfer my knowledge of your shop to them.
Founder Unstuck Sprint. $10,000 2–3 wk None after
Fee: $10,000 · Capacity: 2–3 wk · Commit: None after
2–3 weeks. I shadow the agency, read the utilization, watch how the founder’s calendar actually breaks. You get a comprehensive written playbook: where the time goes, where the delegation is held, and the top 3 moves I would make first. Fixed scope, fixed fee, and a detailed document you own afterward.
Head of Operations. Negotiated Open-ended Fully
Fee: Negotiated · Capacity: Open-ended · Commit: Fully
I am open to the right full-time Head of Ops role at a creative shop where the craft matters. 10–75 people, North America.
He came prepared with his own financial models and asked the right questions, which made our collaboration productive from day one. He’s one of the few operations leaders I’ve worked with who genuinely understands the numbers, not just the processes.
Nuts and bolts.
What’s the minimum commitment?
A Sprint has none after the 2–3 week deliverable. Fractional Lead and Partner are both a 3 month minimum, then month-to-month with 30 days notice. Advisory is month-to-month from the start.
Remote, hybrid, or on‑site?
Remote-first. I’m in the Chicago metro area, and I’ll travel to your office on a cadence that makes sense: e.g. kickoff in person where possible, then quarterly visits during a retainer. I’ve run engagements four time zones from the team, and I’ve sat down with founders for working sessions when the work needed the room. Both work. Not a fit if you need someone at a desk in your office multiple days a week.
What’s not in scope?
Day-to-day account management. Client pitches. Creative reviews. Direct line-management of your in-house PMs and ops staff stays with your internal operations leader. If you don’t have one yet, we will make hiring that person part of the engagement.
How does a typical engagement start?
Two 30-minute discovery calls. If it’s a fit, a move to a limited Advisor role, or a deeper Sprint. If the Sprint surfaces ongoing work worth doing, we move to a retainer. If it doesn’t, we don’t. There’s always a clear off-ramp.
What if I want to end early?
A 30-day written notice after the minimum is over. No penalty. If something is broken, I’d rather you tell me than wait it out.
Start with a thirty-minute call. No pitch.
If it’s not a fit, I’ll point you at someone who is. That might be another fractional operator, or a fractional CFO, CTO, or specialist outside ops entirely if that’s what your shop needs.
Book a discovery call →