Independent B2B Marketing Strategist Focused on AI-Mediated Shortlisting

UCLA Economics | USC MBA | Deloitte Consulting

Ran a marketing agency for 10 years

No retainer to sell

How I Got Here

I spent 25 years in corporate America: investment banking, commercial banking, HR consulting, IT consulting, Toyota Motor Sales, and Deloitte Consulting.

What I took from that experience was not industry expertise. It was a way of thinking. At Toyota Motor Sales, I learned root cause analysis. At Deloitte, I learned to diagnose the problem a business owner cannot see, and then tell them what they need to hear, not what they want to hear.

Then I ran a B2B marketing agency for 10 years. I sold the retainers, delivered the reports, and built the campaigns. I made mistakes, and I learned what works and what does not.

Now I am an independent marketing strategist focused on AI-mediated shortlisting. I help B2B companies figure out why marketing spend is not converting to pipeline.

I Look at Marketing as a Business Problem

I look at marketing through a P&L lens. Marketing is a revenue center, not a cost center, and it should connect to pipeline and revenue. It is not a set of metrics like traffic, impressions, click rates, open rates, AI citations, and share of voice that look good in a monthly report but do not answer the question the CEO is asking: why is my pipeline down?

My training is in strategy consulting: an economics degree from UCLA, an MBA from USC, and Deloitte Consulting. I also ran a marketing agency for 10 years. That combination gives me a different lens on marketing strategies and tactics.

When I look at a company’s marketing, I am not asking if the campaigns are running well. I am asking if the marketing dollars are pointed at the right tactics.

Why I’m Focused on AI-Mediated Shortlisting

After 10 years running an agency, I saw how AI was changing B2B buyer behavior and undermining the inbound playbook that almost every agency owner, myself included, had been running for years.

Most marketing agencies adapted by applying the old playbook to the new channel. That is not what I do. I do not optimize for AI visibility. I do not track citations or share of voice. I do not sell AEO or GEO services.

I see AI-mediated shortlisting as a business change, not a technology challenge.

I diagnose why AI recommends you, or does not, when a real buyer describes their situation and asks for a vendor shortlist. AEO and GEO do not answer that question, so I built the AI Shortlist Audit. I also teach AI-mediated shortlisting to CEO groups as a certified Vistage speaker.

How I Get Paid

I am paid for the diagnosis, not to implement the fix. I have no retainer to sell and no team whose time needs filling.

I will tell you what you need to do, not what I want you to buy from me next.

There is one trade-off. Someone else has to do the work, which means the AI Shortlist Audit is only worth it if you take action.

If you want help with implementation, I keep a list of marketing talent I recommend. To maintain my independence, I do not accept referral fees or commissions. When I recommend someone, it is because they are best in class, not because I am paid when you hire them.

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