Operations & practical AI for owner-run businesses

How many customers did you miss last week?

Most owners can't answer that, and that's the problem. I find where inquiries, time and money are leaking out of your business, then build the system that stops it. I ran my own company for nine years, so I've made most of these mistakes myself.

Tell me what's not working

Rome

2006–09

U.S. Embassy to the Holy See. M.A. Government & Politics.

Washington, D.C.

2010–15

U.S. Commercial Service. USAID via Chemonics.

Windsor

2018

Society of Leadership Fellows. Fellow, Royal Society of Arts.

Albuquerque

2016–25

Founder & CEO, Blush & Whimsy. Oscars, GRAMMYs, QVC.

Frisco

Today

Founder, AI Discovery Group and Planidex. IATAN accredited.

Who you'd be working with

Hi — I'm Micaela.

I spent nine years building a cosmetics company from an idea to several million in revenue, and I ran its front desk the whole time. I answered the messages at eleven at night. I lost a wholesale account because an email sat unread for three days.

Before that I worked in trade and development — the U.S. Commercial Service, USAID, a posting at the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See in Rome. Now I build the systems I wish I'd had, for people who are still in it.

I've now done the same thing twice. I ran a product company and built AI Discovery Group to fix what kept breaking in it. I'm an IATAN-accredited event producer, and I built Planidex because event planning ran on spreadsheets and hope.

You'll deal with me directly. There's no team behind this that you'd get handed to.

How I work

Sound familiar?

You're not losing customers loudly. You're losing them in the gaps.

Somebody called at 2pm

Marketing creates attention. The follow-up loses it, usually within the first hour — and no one is watching the hour.

The answer exists. Just not there

The customer's question and the answer that would resolve it sit with two different teams who never meet.

It works because Sarah remembers

Good people compensate for a process no one owns. It works beautifully, until the day one of them is away.

You bought software to fix it

Each new platform is bought to close a gap and quietly opens another place for work to disappear.

Working together

Three ways to start.

Each starts with a few written lines rather than a call, so the first conversation is about your problem and not your introduction.

One

Executive Decision Intensive

You have one big decision and you're going in circles. You get a written answer: what to do, who owns it, and what to watch out for.

From $10,000

7–10 days

Two

Operating Systems Diagnostic

You know something's broken but not where. I map it, put a number on it, and hand you the order to fix it in.

From $25,000

3–5 weeks

Three

Corporate Workshop

Your team disagrees about what to do next. A day in a room with your real situations, and a memo they can act on Monday.

From $15,000

One day

See all engagements

Field notes

Things I keep seeing.

The customer did not disappear. The handoff failed.

Most of the customers you think you lost weren't lost. Two people each thought the other one had them.

June 2026

AI cannot repair a workflow no one owns.

Automate a job nobody owns and you get the same mess — faster, and now you can't see it happening.

July 2026

The expensive part of automation is usually the exception.

Every demo shows you the easy version. Your budget goes on everything the demo skipped.

August 2026

One short email a week

Something I saw break, and what fixed it. No pitch. Leave whenever you want.

Your move

Let's talk.

Write me four lines about what's breaking. I read everything myself, usually the same day. If I'm not the right person, I'll say so and point you at someone who is.

Tell me what's breaking

I don't run an open calendar. A short note first means neither of us spends an hour finding out it wasn't a fit.