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The Inner Circle · Application only

Work with me
directly.
The way the
businesses I'm
closest to do.

The Inner Circle is the roster of clients I work with hands-on as a real partner inside their business, running strategy, building funnels, directing creative, owning the marketing engine end-to-end. Not a coaching program. Not advice from a distance. The deepest engagement I offer, capped on purpose, and the reason every client on this list has stayed for years.

What the Inner Circle is

Real partnership. Real depth. Selective by design.

When a client joins the Inner Circle, I don't run them at arm's length. I sit inside the business, strategically, creatively, and operationally, for as long as the relationship makes sense. That's why the roster is capped. There's a hard limit on how many businesses one operator can serve at this level without diluting the work, and I'd rather have a short waitlist than a stretched calendar.

Most Inner Circle clients have been with me for years, not months. Near-zero churn means slots open infrequently and unpredictably. When you reach out, the honest answer might be: "we're a fit and a slot's available," "we're a fit and you'd be on a short waitlist," or "I think you'd actually be better served by the Automation Suite, here's why." All three are real outcomes from a first call.

What's covered

Whatever your marketing engine needs, run by me.

Inner Circle engagements are scoped to the business. Some clients use the full menu. Others lean heavily on a few areas where I'm most useful. Below is what I actually do, in roughly the order it's most often deployed.

Strategy

01

Consulting

Acting as an outside operator on call for the decisions that matter. Sounding board for hires, offers, pivots, partnerships, and pricing.

02

Marketing Strategy

The plan that ties everything together, channel mix, audience, positioning, calendar, budget. Reviewed and adjusted continuously, not annually.

03

Website & CRO

Site builds and conversion-rate optimization for the pages that actually have to perform. Twenty websites built from scratch, thirty-six currently under management.

Build & Convert

04

Sales Funnel Development

The sequence from first touch to closed customer, landing pages, email, retargeting, follow-up. Built around how your customer actually buys.

05

Lead Generation

The blend of content, paid media, and offers that fills the top of the pipe with the right people. Dependent on funnel quality, built in tandem.

06

Video Production

Direction, scripting, and production of the video that has to perform. 500+ pieces shipped across four states. Selective availability inside the Inner Circle.

Run & Grow

07

Social & Paid Social

Organic strategy, paid media on Meta, creative production for both. Priced and managed inside the engagement, not as a side service.

08

Google Advertising

Search, Performance Max, and YouTube where it makes sense. Ad spend for active clients sits in the multiple six figures annually.

09

Email Marketing

Welcome flows, broadcasts, reactivation, lifecycle. 4M+ emails sent over my career, most written by my own hand before AI made it easier to get lazy.

A note on capacity

Why the list stays small.

The reason Inner Circle clients see the results they do is the same reason I keep the list short. Real partnership demands real attention. When I'm inside twelve businesses at once, none of them get the version of me that built the body of work behind this page. So the cap is a feature, not a marketing flourish.

Practically, that means:

  • New slots open only when an existing engagement winds down, which doesn't happen often.
  • A waitlist exists. I'm honest about the fact that it's not a fast track.
  • When a slot opens, I have a fit conversation, not a sales call.
  • If we're not a fit, I'll tell you. When it makes sense I'll point you toward the Automation Suite or another operator I trust.

If you've been referred here by someone I work with, say so on the call. Word-of-mouth is how the Inner Circle has been built, and I take that seriously.

Book the fit conversation
If Inner Circle isn't the fit

Most businesses are better served by the Automation Suite.

The honest version: most owners I talk to don't actually need a fractional marketing leader inside their business. They need the lead-handling leak fixed, the follow-up handled, and the reviews growing, without taking a slot on the Inner Circle calendar. The Automation Suite is the productized version of the playbook I run for Inner Circle clients. Same systems. Same operator behind it. Different depth of engagement. You still get me. You just don't have to pay me to run the day-to-day.

Common questions

Before you reach out.

Engagements are priced to the scope and the business. There's no fixed retainer because no two Inner Circle relationships do exactly the same work. Most engagements land in the range of a serious mid-tier executive hire, meaningful for the business, defensible against the work, well below the cost of building the equivalent capability in-house. We talk numbers on the first call once we know what's actually involved.
An agency assigns you an account manager, a strategy team, a creative team, and a media team. Their incentives are spread across many clients. The Inner Circle is the opposite, one operator, deep inside one business, with skin in how it actually performs. You don't get a 14-tab dashboard. You get a partner.
The Automation Suite is the productized offer, same playbook, fixed scope, fixed price, run by my team. The Inner Circle is bespoke, strategy, creative direction, operating decisions, the works, run directly by me. The Automation Suite fixes the leak. The Inner Circle is for businesses that want a marketing partner sitting next to them while the whole thing grows.
A mix of eCommerce brands, B2B operators, and local services across Minnesota, Wisconsin, California, and Alaska. Most are doing somewhere between $1M and $15M in annual revenue. A few are larger. The common thread is the operator at the top, someone serious about building, who wants a real partner, not a vendor.
Two paths. One: a real fit conversation gets you on a short list, and you'll hear from me directly when a slot opens. Two: if the Automation Suite fits the actual problem better, I'll tell you and we move you that direction. There's no obligation either way.
Twenty minutes. I ask about the business, what's working, where the leaks are, what kind of help you actually want. I'll be straight about whether we're a fit, what a slot would look like, and whether I think you'd be better off elsewhere. No pitch deck, no canned answers.

Interested in hands-on help?

Book a 20-minute call. Bring the business, what it is, where it's stuck, what you're actually trying to build. I'll listen, ask a few real questions, and tell you straight what I think.

Let's talk