I spent most of my career in traditional consulting. Big firm. Established processes. Prestigious clients. Smart people doing smart work. And I was good at it. I built relationships. I delivered results. I made enough money to be comfortable.
But somewhere around year ten, I realized I was tired of solving the same problems in slightly different ways. Every engagement had variations on the same themes. A company was growing. Their processes weren't keeping up. Their culture was slipping. Their talent was stretched too thin. The solution was always somewhat different, but the underlying issues were remarkably consistent.
What bothered me more was that the solutions required a traditional engagement model. We'd come in for a few months. We'd analyze. We'd recommend. And then we'd leave. Sometimes the company executed on what we recommended. Often they didn't. Because recommendations without partnership and without skin in the game are easy to ignore when reality gets messy.
I started paying attention to the companies that actually got better. Not the ones that made the flashiest changes. Not the ones that implemented the most sophisticated systems. The ones that actually got better were the ones where leadership was thinking clearly about their talent, making deliberate decisions, and building systems that aligned to their actual strategy.
Those companies didn't need a three-month engagement. They needed someone who understood their business and their challenges deeply. Someone who could be a thought partner. Someone who could help them think clearly. Someone who could push back when they were making decisions that would create problems later. Someone who had been in their shoes and understood what they were actually up against.
That insight was the beginning of Paige and Purpose. Not a consulting firm. A partnership model. Fractional leadership. Deep engagement with companies that are serious about getting their talent strategy right. People who are willing to think clearly about what they're trying to accomplish and what it takes to get there.
What drew me to this model is that it works for both sides. For founders and CEOs, it means you have someone who understands your business, your constraints, and your strategic priorities. Someone who can be a thought partner without the overhead of a full-time hire. Someone who's seen this before and can help you avoid the expensive mistakes. Someone who can help you build systems that actually work for your business, not generic best practices that don't fit.
For me, it means I get to work deeply with companies I actually believe in. I get to see the work actually happen. I get to be invested in the outcomes. I'm not writing recommendations for a report. I'm sitting in strategy meetings and board meetings and hiring conversations and making sure we're making decisions that serve the long game.
What surprised me most was how much the fractional model actually suits the challenges I see. Most companies don't need a full-time HR leader. They need a strategic partner who can help them think clearly about their people strategy. Someone for maybe ten to fifteen hours a week. Someone who knows them well. Someone who can call them on their blind spots.
The companies that struggle most are usually the ones trying to do everything on their own or with someone who's trying to scale too fast without strategy. They don't need someone who's busier. They need someone who's thinking more clearly.
That was the core insight. The timing. You probably don't need someone full-time yet. But you absolutely need someone thinking strategically. Not about HR. About your business and what it takes to execute your strategy with the talent you have.
That's why this exists. Because I kept watching companies make expensive mistakes that could have been prevented with a different approach to talent strategy. Because I kept seeing founders and CEOs carrying the weight of people decisions alone. Because I saw opportunity to do better work, in a way that actually made a difference.
The mission is straightforward. Help founders and CEOs think clearly about their talent. Build organizations that work. Create teams that can execute at the level that matters. Do it in a way that's realistic about constraints and budget and the stage the company is actually in.
What I love about this work is that it cuts across industries. A founder in biotech is facing the same people challenges as a founder in fintech. Growing their first management layer. Making sure hiring criteria are clear. Developing people into roles they've never had before. Deciding when to bring in different kinds of talent. Preserving what made them special while they scale.
The specific challenges are different. The underlying dynamics are remarkably similar.
What I've learned is that clarity matters most. The CEO who can articulate what they're trying to build and what kind of people they need usually gets it right. The one who's unclear usually gets derailed. My job is to help people get clear. And then to help them build systems that turn that clarity into action.
That's Paige and Purpose. Purpose because there has to be a reason. Something that matters. And Paige because it's personal. We're talking about the people who make the work happen. They deserve to be in organizations where they know what they're building and why it matters. And leadership deserves people who are actually aligned to that mission.
I started this because I saw a better way. Not just for me, but for the founders and teams I get to work with. And every day, I get to see that approach actually work.