Every founder deserves a business that rewards them for what they’ve built.
There’s often more opportunity inside your business than you realize.
We help you see what’s getting in the way, uncover where the greatest opportunities lie, and determine what will create the most meaningful progress.
Here are the ways we can work together.
Starting Engagements
Put experienced thinking behind what matters most.
A consequential decision. A challenge you can’t quite crack. A problem that’s keeping your business from moving forward. Starting Engagements give you access to Heartwood’s strategic thinking, fresh perspective, pattern recognition, and decades of business-building experience, applied to what matters most in your business right now, without a long-term commitment.
Clarity Session
Think with me.
Sometimes you need an experienced outside perspective to help you think through something important.
Bring a question, decision, challenge, or opportunity you’re wrestling with. We’ll spend 90 minutes thinking it through together: challenging assumptions, exploring possibilities, connecting dots, and helping you see your path forward more clearly.
What You’ll Walk Away With
Fresh perspective
Step outside your own thinking and see the question from a different angle.
Sharper thinking
Pressure-test assumptions, explore options and identify what you may not have considered.
Clearer direction
Leave with greater clarity about the decision or next step in front of you.
A Clarity Session includes
- A short pre-session intake so I understand what you want to explore
- 90-minute private working session with Mary
- Focused strategic perspective, ideas, and recommendations during our conversation
- Session summary and next steps
Priority Problem Solving
Let’s solve your problem together.
Bring me one consequential problem your business needs to solve.
You’ll give me the context, data, and relevant materials in advance. I’ll immerse myself in the problem, question the assumptions around it, look for patterns and opportunities, and come prepared to work through it with you.
Together we’ll dig into what’s really happening, what may be getting missed, and what I believe you should do next.
What You’ll Walk Away With
A fresh, experienced perspective
When you’ve been immersed in a problem for a while it can be hard to see it objectively. I’ll bring an experienced outside operator’s perspective to what may be getting missed.
A better understanding of the real problem
The problem as defined isn’t always the problem that needs solving. A marketing problem may be an offer problem. An execution problem may be unclear ownership. A profitability problem may actually be product mix.
Strategic insight and a path forward
You’ll get my observations, hypotheses and ideas, along with what I would investigate, change, test or prioritize next.
Clarity about what happens next
The answer might be a strategic change, action by your team, a specialist, more information, or deeper support. You’ll leave knowing what I believe the smartest path forward looks like.
Priority Problem Solving includes
- Structured intake tailored to your business problem
- Thorough review of relevant data and materials
- Mary’s advance analysis and preparation
- 90-minute private problem-solving session
- Concise written insights and recommended next steps
- 30-minute follow-up approximately two weeks later
Need Something Deeper?
Let’s actually build it.
Some challenges require more than a limited engagement. If the work calls for broader strategic leadership, deeper immersion, or help turning the strategy into meaningful change, a deeper Heartwood partnership may be the right next step.
Explore Deeper PartnershipsExecutive Founder Partnership
See. Lead.We help founders make better decisions.
The greatest opportunities in a business are rarely where they first appear.
A marketing problem may actually be a positioning problem. A team issue may stem from unclear priorities. Slowing growth may have less to do with demand than with the business you’ve built to support it.
As your Executive Founder Partners, our role is to help you step back from the day-to-day, see your business objectively, and identify the decisions that will create the greatest leverage.
Because when you’ve spent years building something, it’s nearly impossible to see it with fresh eyes. History, complexity, emotions, assumptions—and even your greatest successes—can make it difficult to recognize what truly needs to change.
We bring an outside perspective grounded in executive experience to help you see more clearly, think more strategically, and lead with greater confidence.
Together we’ll
- See beyond symptoms to uncover root causes.
- Identify the highest-leverage opportunities for growth.
- Bring clarity to competing priorities and difficult decisions.
- Challenge assumptions and long-held beliefs.
- Align leadership, strategy, and execution around a shared vision.
- Make thoughtful decisions that strengthen the business as a whole.
But a business isn’t transformed by one great strategy session.
As your business grows, new opportunities emerge. Priorities shift. Teams evolve. Markets change. Unexpected setbacks, successes, and curveballs reshape what’s possible.
That’s why this partnership isn’t a one-time exercise in finding the “right answer.” It’s an ongoing cycle of seeing clearly, leading decisively, learning from reality, and adjusting course—again and again—as your business evolves.
Because the right decision today creates tomorrow’s opportunities. And tomorrow will bring a new set of decisions that deserve the same clarity and objective judgment.
Best for founders who want an experienced executive partner to help them continually see more clearly, lead more confidently, and navigate the inevitable complexity of building a growing business.
Embedded Leadership
See. Lead. Build.We help founders make better decisions—and help build the business those decisions require.
Sometimes a business reaches an inflection point.
Growth has outpaced the business you’ve built. A new opportunity emerges. Your positioning no longer reflects who you’ve become. You need a stronger marketing engine, a more compelling offer, a new revenue model, or a different path to scale.
The direction may be clear—but bringing it to life requires a different level of leadership.
During an Embedded Leadership engagement, we become active members of your leadership team for a season. Together, we’ll design, create, and lead the strategic initiatives that shape the next chapter of your business.
Rather than simply advising on what should happen, we’ll work alongside you and your team to build the strategy, marketing, products, customer experiences, and growth initiatives that bring the vision to life.
Every business is different, so the work is never formulaic.
Position the Business
- Clarify your positioning and competitive advantage
- Refine your business model and revenue strategy
- Reimagine your offers, pricing, and product ecosystem
Strengthen Your Growth Engine
- Develop messaging and marketing strategy
- Create customer journeys, sales funnels, and launch strategies
- Identify new opportunities for customer acquisition and revenue growth
Lead Strategic Transformation
- Design and lead complex cross-functional initiatives
- Align leadership, marketing, operations, and execution around a shared vision
- Build the strategic assets and business architecture required for long-term growth
Throughout the engagement, you’ll continue to benefit from the same executive partnership that defines the Founder Partnership. The difference is that we’re also actively building the future of your business together.
Because this level of partnership requires sustained executive focus, significant creative capacity, and deep involvement across multiple parts of the business, Embedded Leadership engagements begin with a three-month minimum, and we work with only one embedded client at a time.
Best for founders navigating significant growth, change, or opportunity who want an experienced partner to help build what’s next.
Operational Leadership
Lead. Build.Your business shouldn’t require heroics to function.
As businesses grow, complexity has a way of taking over:
Projects become harder to manage. Teams become increasingly dependent on the founder. Processes evolve organically instead of intentionally. Technology no longer fits the business. Decisions take longer. Everyone works harder, but the business doesn’t necessarily work better.
In short: the business has outgrown the systems supporting it.
Operational Leadership strengthens the way your business operates: creating the structure, clarity, and organizational capabilities that allow strategy to become consistent execution.
Rather than stepping in to do the work ourselves, we help build the systems, processes, and team infrastructure that enable your business to perform at a higher level.
Create Operational Clarity
- Streamline workflows and eliminate bottlenecks
- Improve project management and execution
- Create repeatable systems that reduce complexity
Strengthen Teams & Execution
- Clarify roles, accountability, and communication
- Build stronger operational rhythms
- Reduce founder dependency by empowering the team
Design for Scale
- Optimize systems, technology, and automation
- Design operational frameworks for growth
- Lead operational initiatives that strengthen the business for the long term
Because every business is different, every engagement is tailored to the challenges and opportunities in front of you. The common goal is always the same: building an organization that operates with greater clarity, consistency, and confidence.
Best for founders whose businesses have outgrown the systems, teams, or operational foundation needed to support the next stage of growth.
Grow.
Growth is the outcome.
But it isn’t the goal.
The goal is to build a business with a stronger core—one that is healthier, more resilient, and better equipped to grow without becoming more complicated.
When leadership is aligned, strategy is clear, and the business is supported by the right foundation, growth becomes a natural result rather than a constant struggle.
Growth is reflected in:
Profitability
Execution
Leadership
Capacity
Resilience
Confidence
A business that becomes rewarding to lead again.
Our role is to help you strengthen the heartwood of your business. We’ll challenge your thinking, help you build what’s next, and strengthen the systems that support long-term success.
We’ll stay alongside you for as long as we’re creating meaningful value. And when your business—and your team—no longer need us, we’ll be the first to say so.
Because our goal has never been to make you dependent on us.
Let’s Build Your Heartwood