About Ignium Consulting

Business coaching. Two sessions a month, in person in New Orleans or by video, with text and email in between. We find the one thing the week keeps routing through you and build it so it doesn't.

Strategy Blueprint. One working session on one problem. I do the analysis beforehand, and we leave with the thing decided or built. It's credited toward coaching if you continue.

Systems builds. When something needs building, like follow-ups, reporting or an invoicing flow, I can build it. It's quoted separately as a fixed-fee project, set up on your accounts, and you own it.

Owners who are two or more years in, with real revenue and a team, usually under 15 people. Agencies, service firms, shops, practices, nonprofits, energy and professional services. You're good at the work. The business outgrew the way you've been running it.

It's probably not a fit yet if you're pre-revenue, if you want someone to do the work and call it coaching, or if you can't name one thing you'd stop doing to make room. I'll tell you that on the first call.

The books are on the screen. I open QuickBooks in the first month and keep it open. Decisions come from your real margins, not the bank balance and a feeling.

The person and the business in the same hour. Clients call me their business therapist. We talk about the decision you keep putting off, and why, and then turn it into a plan. I'm not a licensed therapist, and when something needs one, I say so and help you find the right person.

Less on your plate, not more. One priority at a time, no more than three action items a session, and a recap in your inbox within a day with my own to-dos on it too.

The goal is to make you unnecessary. Role maps, templates people actually use, and a business that keeps running when you take a week off. That's also what makes it worth something if you ever sell it or hand it down.

I'm from Los Angeles. I started out in startups there around 2008, doing customer acquisition and then business development, wearing every hat the way small businesses make you. A few years in I was standing at a conference in New York and realized it wasn't the life I wanted, so I left and joined the Peace Corps. I taught in Sierra Leone for two years.

I came back, got a master's in education, and moved to Mexico to spend time with my grandparents while they were still here. To pay the bills I called an old friend who had just started an online mental health care company in New Orleans. I was employee number four.

My job there was internal consultant. The founders and I would look at the numbers, find the part of the business that was broken (my first one was 3,000 unanswered customer service tickets), and I'd go fix it: figure out what was wrong, set up a system, hire and train my replacement, and move to the next one. A few years later we were an eight-figure company. I'd hired everyone from four people to 150, ran operations, and had ten direct reports who each had teams of their own. I spent every day coaching them on how to coach.

That's where it clicked. Teaching and running a business turned out to be the same skill. I was also grinding, driving the Causeway every day and barely seeing my wife. So we both quit our jobs, bought an RV, and I started calling every business owner I knew. Some of them said they could use the help. In 2021 that became Ignium Consulting. We lived in Mexico for a while, our daughter was born there, and we moved back to New Orleans in 2024.

Along the way I also ran a bookkeeping firm, which is where I learned how far behind most small businesses' numbers really are. I build software too. I'm currently building Ignium OS, an operations tool for accounting firms.

The first call. Thirty minutes. It'll feel like a friendly interrogation. I'll ask about the business, the numbers and what's keeping you up, and by the end we'll both know whether I'm the right person. If I'm not, I'll say so.

If it's a fit. You get a scope email the same day in plain language: what we'll work on, how often we'll meet and what it costs. Coaching starts with a three-month term, then goes month to month with 30 days' notice.

The first 90 days. One priority, a win you can point to by day 30, and a review around day 60 that checks your numbers against where you said you wanted to be.

After each session. A short recap in your inbox within 24 hours: what we decided, up to three actions with dates, and anything I owe you.

Five percent of every coaching fee goes to Community Cooks of the Irish Channel, who keep community fridges stocked around New Orleans. It's on every invoice.