After years inside your own business, the problems get hard to see.
…Not because you’re not smart (you built something real and you’ve kept it running!) but because at a certain point, proximity becomes its own obstacle. You know too much about how things got to be the way they are to see clearly what needs to change.
As a consultant, I come in, look at your actual situation (your messaging, your site, your systems, your data) and tell you specifically what’s not working and how to fix it. My clients leave our work together with something concrete they can act on immediately, feeling empowered to approach their old work in new ways.
This is for you if you’re running a small business that’s genuinely working… but you have a specific problem you haven’t been able to crack on your own, and you’re ready to invest in getting it solved properly.
What working together looks like
It starts with a conversation: a free thirty-minute call where you describe what’s stuck, and I ask enough questions to know whether I can help. If it’s a good fit, we schedule a working session.
Some of my engagements (especially with wedding industry creatives) are a single focused session. You bring the problem and I bring the outside perspective, the diagnostic framework, and twenty-five years of pattern recognition. We work through it together in real time, and you leave with a clear direction and something tangible: a brand audit, revised copy, a fresh perspective, a restructured offer, a new AI workflow, or whatever the situation actually calls for.
Some of my clients book me for blocks of sessions so we can really dig into systems, training, and mindset. Others pay me monthly for ongoing engagements, where I act as fractional leadership.
I work with a small number of clients at a time. That’s deliberate. The goal is always that you leave knowing exactly what to do next.
Authority you can trust
I’ve spent twenty-five years at the intersection of media, technology, and small business. I built my own bootstrapped company from scratch into a publishing operation that reached over 100 million readers and went on to lead platform-wide product development at Medium, and ran marketing at Microsoft before that. I’ve written about AI for The Guardian and been interviewed by the New York Times about inclusive small business practices. I’ve built things, scaled things, and watched things break, which means I know the difference between a problem that needs a better system and a problem that needs clearer thinking.
Testimonials
“In 20 years, I’ve never heard anyone describe what I do so succinctly. Even I couldn’t have described my approach any better than Ariel did. She used those insights to give me concrete action items to improve my messaging with clients. Whether it was my own confidence or potential clients better understanding what I was actually offering, I saw benefits right away. Meeting with Ariel is one of the best things I’ve ever done for my business.
–Channing Johnson, Photographer
“Ariel’s approach is one of the most original and honest AI techniques I’ve seen — and I’ve pretty much seen them all.”
–Matt Corwine, Director, Microsoft Research Creative Studio
“Ariel is one of the most naturally gifted prompt-crafters I’ve ever met. Getting the most out of AI tools requires both offbeat thinking and deeply innovative structure, and Ariel brings both in spades.”
–Alex King-Harris, Co-founder, EvolveWell
Work, recently
Here’s how I’ve helped leaders and teams turn complexity into clarity:
- When the writing wasn’t landing A senior product manager at a global gaming company was facing her second performance improvement plan in two years. Their thinking was sharp, but their written communication wasn’t translating for executive leadership. We built them a custom framework for structuring product briefs — one that worked with their neurodivergent thinking style rather than against it. They kept their six-figure job, and the skills they built transfer to every leadership role they’ll ever have.
- When the brand needed to convert A Seattle wellness clinic had deep values, loyal clients, and a website that wasn’t doing justice to either. In one session we built a brand guide, developed three client personas, and created a productized service offering aimed at her most skeptical potential customer. She left with usable copy and a pricing strategy.
- When the data needed a story A technical bookstore had a year of sales data and no clear merchandising strategy. One session turned that data into a buying guide organized around actual customer behavior. It drove sales immediately.
Ready to see your business clearly again?
Book a free 30-minute call. You describe what’s stuck, and I’ll tell you honestly whether I can help and what that would look like.
Not ready to book a call yet?
Get started with my signature framework… free!
Start here: Sound Like YOU, Not Like Slop: One-Hour AI Brand Training is a one-hour brand training that helps you train AI to write in your actual voice (not a generic approximation of it).
It’s the foundation I use with most clients, and you can work through it on your own before we ever talk.
