Hi! I'm AJ

I founded a market research consulting company that specialized in the housewares industry. My clients included well known companies including Progressive, Bradshaw International, Cusinart, Calphalon, and many others.

I earned more than $2 million in my consulting career.

I was regularly featured in trade and business publications, and was a frequent speaker at the Housewares Show and other industry events.

I was in business for over 35 years which made my company one of only 10% of sole proprietor consultancies that defy the odds and are still around after the 5 year mark.

After decades of consulting for major corporations, I decided that I wanted to coach self-employed consultants instead of being a self-employed consultant. So I closed my consulting business at the end of 2018.

On my 66th birthday – a year after I decided to start my new coaching business – I remember standing in the shower feeling a wave of regret wash over me. I remember thinking, "Oh my God, I just wasted a year. I didn't get my business launched. And I'm not getting any younger. I've gotta get my business launched this year."

I tried and failed to launch my coaching business three years in a row. Every year, I would start out excited and raring to go but after a couple of months, I'd hit a setback and I would get discouraged and quit.

And every year on my birthday, I would feel this by now all too familiar wave of regret wash over me that I had just wasted another year.

In 2022, on my 68th birthday, I remember thinking, "I can't do this again." I knew that I had to carry through and actually launch my coaching business... or else. The fourth time had to be the charm. I knew I wouldn't have it in me to try again if I failed this year. That was the day I dedicated myself to doing things differently.

I realized three things:

First, the world of marketing has changed dramatically since I launched my consulting business in 1990. It was exponentially harder now. The strategies that worked for me decades ago weren't working anymore. While I knew how to run a successful consulting business, I didn't have a clue how to use social media marketing to get leads and clients.

I’ve invested $11,000 over the last four years to learn "modern marketing" - social media strategies, copywriting that resonates with ideal clients, LinkedIn lead generation, webinars, landing pages, sales pages... the whole nine yards.

I've been applying everything I learned to launch and market my coaching business. I figured it out through lots of experimentation, lots of trial and error.

Lots of trial and error.

The second thing I realized is that my own mind was my worst enemy. I struggled with perfectionism, procrastination, and negative self-talk that was off the charts. No wonder I would get discouraged and quit. No wonder I never made as much as I wanted during my consulting career.

A random conversation with a fellow Toastmasters member changed everything. He told me about a book called Positive Intelligence. I rushed home, googled it, and watched Shirzad Chamine's TED talk.

I took the PQ Assessment and discovered my Positive Intelligence Quotient was below average. My mind was sabotaging me more than half the time! I immediately joined the six-week Positive Intelligence mental fitness program for coaches.

The third thing I realized is that I am not alone. Most self-employed consultants face the same challenges I did: they're experts in their field but struggle with consistently attracting clients who value their expertise and will pay what they're worth.

I don't want other self-employed consultants to struggle as much as I did or have to do quite as much flailing around trying to find the "right" marketing strategy that will move the revenue needle.

Which is why I created the Client Attraction Program (CAP). I've taken everything I've learned about building consulting and coaching businesses, marketing and messaging, and mental fitness, and combined it with my personal experience.