Four ways to work with Lee after the pilot.
The pilot ends with a clear set of recommendations and a 90-day plan. From there, the relationship continues only if it earns its place. Pick the path that fits your team's capacity, your budget, and your appetite for outside oversight.
Book a Fit Call Compare the Four Paths
Four ways forward, one clear comparison
The pilot is the entry point. What happens next is a function of how much oversight you want and how much capacity your team has.
Take the Plan and Run
Your team owns execution. The plan is written for your actual capacity, in language your operating leaders can act on without translation.
- Plan written for your team's real capacity, not a perfect-world version
- Vendor-neutral recommendations you can pursue alone
- Sequencing so the first fix funds the next
- You keep all materials, ownership, and momentum
Best fit: Strong internal operations leadership, available capacity, and confidence on the technical side.
Talk Through the Self-Run PathExecution Oversight
Lee oversees the partners and vendors who build the recommended fixes. The work matches the diagnostic and the plan stays on track.
- Vendor-neutral selection of execution partners
- Weekly progress reviews and risk flagging
- Translation between leadership and technical teams
- Defensible business case for each spend
- Course corrections before they become rework
Best fit: You have budget for execution but want a seasoned operator watching the work and protecting the original intent.
Scope Execution OversightFractional Operations Advisor
A monthly relationship across operations, AI, and systems. Lee sits in the seat between leadership, technology, and the work.
- Monthly leadership working sessions
- Decision support on tools, hires, and contractors
- Quarterly drag review and re-prioritization
- On-call sounding board for major calls
- Direct line to Lee between sessions for time-sensitive decisions
Best fit: You want a senior operating brain in the room every month without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire.
Explore the Fractional RoleHold and Act When the Timing is Right
Sometimes the right move is to keep the plan, watch the conditions, and act when the business is ready. The pilot deliverables hold their value.
- Plan stays useful for 12 to 18 months in most businesses
- Drag estimates can be re-calibrated when you re-engage
- You start the next phase with most of the diagnostic work already done
- No retainer; no obligation
Best fit: Other priorities are taking the bandwidth this quarter, and you want to be ready to move when they clear.
Discuss the Hold OptionWhy vendor-neutral oversight protects the original ROI.
Most growing businesses do not lose money on the build itself. They lose it in the gap between what was diagnosed, what was scoped, and what eventually got built. By the time the gap shows up, the contract is signed and the cost of switching is high.
Execution oversight closes that gap. Lee stays connected to the partners doing the work, flags drift early, and translates between technical decisions and business consequences. The role is not project management. The role is making sure the work that gets built is the work that should have been built.
What Lee actually does in this role
- Reviews vendor scopes against the original diagnostic
- Sits in on key working sessions with execution partners
- Surfaces decisions that look technical but are actually business decisions
- Flags scope creep before it becomes a budget problem
- Validates that what gets shipped matches what was designed
- Owns the relationship between you and any partners introduced through the advisory
Inside the Fractional Advisor role
- Monthly leadership session. A scheduled working session with the leadership team to review progress and the next decision on the runway.
- Decision support, on demand. A direct line for the calls that should not wait for the next meeting: a vendor question, a hiring choice, a tool evaluation.
- Quarterly drag review. A re-prioritization of the original drag map against the conditions of the business now.
- Cross-functional alignment. Lee sits in the seat between operations, sales, marketing, and technology so the same operating picture shows up in every room.
- Defensible decisions. Every major recommendation comes with the reasoning written down, suitable for a board or investor conversation.
Senior operating judgment, on a monthly basis.
The fractional role gives you a senior operating perspective that is closer than an outside consultant and lighter than a full-time hire. Lee learns the business once and stays close to the decisions that matter, so the monthly sessions move forward instead of restarting.
For most businesses between $5M and $50M, the fractional role replaces three things: an internal hire that is too senior to justify, an outside consultant who has to be re-briefed every engagement, and the time leadership spends second-guessing decisions about systems, technology, and customer-facing process.
Talk Through the Fractional FitA short guide to the right engagement
No two businesses pick the same path. The variables that matter most are internal capacity, budget, and how much oversight you want during the build.
Strong internal ops leadership
Take the plan and run. Use the pilot as the structured starting point. Re-engage Lee for a quarterly check-in if useful.
Budget for the build, not the oversight
Engage execution oversight. The cost is small against the cost of a misaligned build, and it protects the original ROI of the pilot.
An ongoing decision load
Bring Lee on as fractional advisor. The monthly cadence pays for itself when there are real decisions on the calendar every month.
A bigger fire to fight first
Hold the plan. The deliverables stay relevant for 12 to 18 months in most businesses. Re-engage when conditions clear.
Multiple internal partners
Combine paths. Some businesses use oversight for a specific build and the fractional role for ongoing decisions. The structure is flexible.
A board or investor conversation coming
Use the pilot deliverables. The defensible business case is built for that conversation; bring Lee into the room if it helps.
Common questions about the four paths
Do I have to choose a path during the pilot?
No. The choice happens at the leadership readout, after you have seen the deliverables. Many teams take a week or two to discuss internally before deciding.
Can I switch paths later?
Yes. Many engagements start with execution oversight on a specific build and shift into a fractional role once leadership wants the broader operating relationship. The reverse also happens.
How is each path priced?
Execution oversight is a monthly fee tied to the scope of the build. The fractional role is a monthly retainer with a defined session cadence. Self-run and hold paths have no ongoing fee. Pricing is set on the fit call so it matches the work.
What if our team starts the self-run path and gets stuck?
Re-engage at any time. The pilot deliverables stay relevant, and the work picks up where it left off. There is no penalty for choosing a path and changing your mind.
Do you work with the partners we already have?
Yes. The advisory is designed to work with the people you already trust. Lee's role is to help those relationships produce the right outcome, not to replace them.
How much of your time do we get in the fractional role?
Engagement is built around a monthly leadership session and reasonable on-call decision support between sessions. Specific time is scoped on the fit call so the structure matches your decision load.
Do you have a minimum engagement length?
The fractional role is structured in quarterly increments so both sides can confirm the fit. Execution oversight runs the length of the build it covers. Nothing has a long-term lock-in.
Operator first. Technologist second.
Most AI consultants enter through technology. They arrive with a tool and look for a problem. Lee enters through operational diagnosis. The business gets examined first, the breakdown gets identified, then AI, automation, or systems get prescribed where they fit.
The combination of 20 years inside Marketing and Sales Operations, an active AI practice inside a real services business, and a vendor-neutral position is what lets the work spot waste quickly, talk to non-technical owners and technical builders in the same room, and connect you to the right execution partners without selling you their software.
The Full BackgroundCredentials That Matter Here
- 20 years inside Marketing and Sales Operations
- Author of CASH: The 4 Keys to Better Sales, Smarter Marketing, and a Supercharged Revenue Machine
- Running AI inside his own services business and using it to deliver client work
- Vendor-neutral position; no software resale, no hidden referral structure
- Cross-functional view across operations, sales, and marketing
The right path is decided after the pilot, not before.
The pilot is the entry point that makes every other choice possible. The fit call is the entry point to the pilot.