● Work with me · Marketing · Strategy · AI advisory

Optimism is not a strategy.

I help small and owner-operated businesses market smarter and adopt AI with their eyes open. Twenty years of operating experience, sharpened by doctoral research on how AI adoption actually works.

Start a conversation See the work

20+

Years operating

Retail stores owned, product teams led, payroll made.

48%

Of U.S. workers are at small businesses

The market everyone talks past. The one I serve.

Jobs you're already doing

Strategist, operator, marketer, finance, sales. And now every owner is expected to be the AI decision-maker too. My work takes it off your desk.

How I work

Awareness before adoption

Understanding comes first. Tools come later, if they come at all. That's not a slogan. It's the thesis of my doctoral research.

Operator first, consultant second

I've owned retail stores and led product teams. Recommendations come from someone who has made payroll, not just slides.

Small-business honest

Advice sized to real budgets and real hours. If the right answer is 'skip it,' that's the answer you'll get.

● The work

Four ways in.

Every engagement is sized for an owner-operated business. Keep scrolling — each one gets its own scene.

Assessment · Fixed engagement

AI Awareness Audit

Before you spend a dollar on AI tools, find out where AI actually fits your business, and where it doesn't. I sit down with you, walk your operation the way an owner does, and map where AI could genuinely save time or money versus where it would just add cost and risk.

Owner interview and workflow walk-through
A plain-English readiness report. No jargon, no vendor pitch
A prioritized roadmap: adopt, wait, or skip, with reasons

Start with this

Best for · Owners feeling pressure to 'do something with AI' but unsure what's real.

Marketing · Project or retainer

Marketing Strategy & Execution

The traditional work I've done for two decades: positioning, messaging, and campaigns that fit a small-business budget and actually move the needle locally. No agency bloat. You work directly with me, and every recommendation is one an owner-operator can realistically execute.

Positioning and messaging that sounds like you, not a template
A channel plan built around your budget and your hours
Campaign execution support, from local presence to digital

Start with this

Best for · Owner-operated businesses whose marketing has been ad hoc or outsourced badly.

Advisory · Monthly

Fractional Strategy Partner

Most small businesses can't justify a full-time strategist, and shouldn't have to. A standing monthly engagement where I act as the second set of operator eyes on your decisions: marketing, operations, technology, and the steady stream of AI questions that now land on every owner's desk.

Monthly working sessions with clear decisions, not decks
On-call judgment for vendor pitches and tech decisions
A running plan that survives contact with the real week

Start with this

Best for · Owners who want a thinking partner with skin-in-the-game experience.

Workshop · Half or full day

AI Awareness Workshop

For teams, owner groups, chambers, and associations: a grounded session on what AI actually is, what it costs, where it fails, and how to evaluate it without the hype. Built directly from doctoral research on how small business owners develop AI awareness, not from a vendor's slide deck.

A session tailored to your industry and audience
Frameworks attendees can apply Monday morning
Honest answers, including 'not yet'

Start with this

Best for · Groups that want a straight-talking educator, not a salesperson.

From a client

“Kevin is a true professional! He spent time understanding my goals and immediately found a way to bring in new patients. He's just good at what he does.”

Emily Riesgraf

Rocky Mountain Dental Care · Fort Collins, CO

Selected results

50%
Cut from software spend
AI best practices that consolidated overlapping subscriptions.
Immediate
New bookings and retention
Email marketing campaigns that brought patients back through the door.
Rebuilt
State-of-the-art website
A fresh site for the practice, designed and launched end to end.

How it starts

01
A conversation
Thirty minutes about your business. No pitch, no charge.
02
A straight assessment
What I'd do, what it costs, and what I'd skip entirely.
03
The work
A fixed project or a standing engagement, always sized to fit.

Start with a conversation

Why the doctorate matters

Every AI consultant has opinions. Mine are grounded in academic research.

My doctoral research at Temple's Fox School of Business studies how small business owners develop AI awareness. The advice you get is grounded in evidence about businesses like yours, not enterprise case studies scaled down.

See the research