Your Strategy Isn’t Wrong.
Your Execution Is Broken.
I identify where brands are misaligned between leadership intent, employee execution, and customer experience, then design the operating system that bridges the gap so consistent growth becomes possible.
Brands I've Led Or Advised
The Pattern of Stalled Growth
The Symptoms
The Marketing Gap:
Spend keeps increasing, but sales and customer acquisition remain flat.
The Leadership Carousel:
You’ve cycled through multiple leaders, yet performance hasn't improved.
The Execution Wall: Strategy looks great in the boardroom but breaks down on the frontline.
The Silo Effect: Management operates with conflicting priorities; technology doesn't enable what operations or consumers need.
The Root Cause
It's not a people problem. It's a systems problem. When leadership intent, employee execution, and customer experience disconnect, even good strategy fails.
Specialized Expertise For High-Stakes Environments
Different ownership models require different playbooks. I bring specific experience to:
01. Private Equity Firms & Boards
The Scenario: You have hired strong operators, but they keep failing in 18 months.
The Diagnosis: This is rarely a people problem; it is a systems problem the board isn't seeing. Often, the investment thesis looks smart on paper, but operational reality prevents it from gaining traction.
How I Help: I provide an operator’s view to diagnose why the strategy is failing in execution. Whether acting as a Fractional CEO or Board Advisor, I help you identify the root cause, stabilize leadership, and restore confidence in the asset.
02. Franchise Systems
The Scenario: You are scaling, but franchisee satisfaction and unit economics are sliding.
The Diagnosis: As systems grow, the connection between corporate strategy and franchisee profitability often breaks. Marketing spends more to acquire customers, but the frontline experience is inconsistent, leading to cynicism in the network.
How I Help: I have led strategy for national systems (1,100+ units) and understand the complex stakeholder balance. I align corporate growth priorities with franchisee reality, ensuring the brand promise is delivered consistently across every unit.
03. Founders & Private Owners
The Scenario: Growth has outpaced your structure, or you are navigating a transition.
The Diagnosis: You need to professionalize the business, but you worry about losing the "soul" of what made it successful. The founder is often carrying too much of the system personally, creating a bottleneck that prevents scaling.
How I Help: I help founders build professional leadership structures that respect the company's heritage. I bridge the gap between your vision and scalable systems, creating the stability needed for a future exit or succession.
Results Delivered
Three Ways to Rebuild Your Engine
The Diagnostic
For:
When you know something is broken but can't pinpoint the root cause.
What: 60-90 days embedded in your business.
Outcome:
A roadmap for fixing the break between boardroom strategy and customer reality.
Fractional Leadership (CEO/CMO/CXO)
For: When you need an operator to fix the system from the inside.
What: 3-18 month active leadership.
Outcome: I prove the model works before I leave.
Board Advisory
For: PE Firms & Boards seeing repeated operator failure.
What: Pattern recognition and oversight.
Outcome: Prevent the "18-month fail cycle" of new hires.
About
I spent the first half of my career at agencies like DDB, BBDO, and HAVAS building brand strategies for companies like Reebok, Wrigley, Clorox, and Cracker Barrel.
Then I became an operator. CMO at Marco's Pizza. CEO at Buddy's Pizza. CMO and President at MERGE during the integration and scale from $3M to $120M and two exits.
That transition taught me something: most brands don't fail because of bad strategy. They fail because leadership doesn't have clarity on what the brand should be, employees get cynical about disconnected decisions, and customers experience the confusion.
At Marco's, I drove 8 straight quarters of growth. But I also watched executive team silos and politics prevent us from fixing systemic problems that showed up clearly in employee and franchisee data. After I left, the business declined.
At Buddy's, I was brought in after PE had cycled through multiple CEOs. They didn't realize the brand was actually in a turnaround situation. Their growth thesis was misaligned with operational reality and brand heritage. Once we got aligned around what the brand actually was and could be, we turned around orders, satisfaction, and morale.
That's what I do now through Inspiring 2C. I come in as fractional CEO/CMO/CXO to work inside your organization, run diagnostics to identify root causes, or advise boards that keep hiring operators who fail.
I'm based in Chicago. I work with brands nationally. I also serve on the board of a Midwest marketing agency.
Let’s Figure Out
What’s Actually Broken.
If you are ready to stop guessing and start fixing, let's talk.