From Holiday Rush to A Fractional Journey.

How helping skyrocket sales launched an unexpected career shift.

More than a decade ago, I took a call that quietly rerouted my career.

It came from the president of Ashford.com, the online watch retailer known for luxury at a discount. Ashford had a thriving wholesale business. Direct-to-consumer was another story. It sat at $11 million and wasn’t growing.

He wanted help getting through the holiday surge, keeping operations moving with a "lights on” approach; that is, no new spend.

Becoming part of the family

I walked in as the outside consultant and as a cultural outsider. That didn’t last. The team told me "welcome to the family” and made me feel at home. It shifted my perspective from hired hand to valued team member and gave purpose to my efforts.

Working the list, in order

With few resources available, and a very lean team that was motivated but largely inexperienced, I lined up the highest impact areas, one at a time and attacked the problems surgically.

Checkout. This was before the one-page Shopify checkout became the norm. Ashford’s flow had more steps, more fields, and more places to give up. Simplifying information, flows, and adding proof points widened the path.

Merchandising. Products were lumped together and the merchandising hierarchy didn't sync with shopper behavior. I dug throug the data and identified which products to surface and how to recategorize them.

Personalization. Ashford was selling watches priced between $30 and $500,000. Shoppers interested in inexpensive watches weren't considering spending tens of thousands, and vice versa. I met with Oracle to understand the intricacies of the technolgoy "battleship" we were sailing and found ways to maximize its capabilities and tailor the shopping experience to user behavior and interests.

Training. The person who was charged with Ashford’s ecommerce and marketing had just shifted from his role as the wareshouse manager. The CEO knew wholesale but not direct. They were smart and hungry, so I prepared a series of training documents, topic by topic, that helped them quickly hit their stride.

Polish. While it's tempting, and often ideal, to smooth out the branding and visual identity system, this step came last by necessity. Sales had begun cooking, and we were able to bring aboard a small design agency to bring to life the "affordable luxury" that Ashford was doing better than any other companies in its space at the time. B

Things took off

We exited the holiday season a few monat a $16 million annual run rate. Same budget. Same traffic sources. Better execution.

Then we kept going. The next year, DTC hit $35 million, and Ashford ranked among the fastest-growing retailers in the country. By year two, it reached $70 million and kept climbing from there.

An addictive thrill ride

I knew I brought strong experience thanks to senior roles at Dell and the companies that followed.

What I didn’t expect was the multiplier. Put that experience inside an organization that’s eager to learn, willing to trust, and built on a sound business model, and it moves faster than any large company I’d worked in.

I didn’t plan to become an interim executive. I certainly didn’t plan to go fractional. But that one holiday project became a way of working I’ve come to love. And what an array of wonderful companies I've been part of, from flavored feminine wipes to cannabis to apparel to traditional furniture...

Not many careers run from discounted luxury watches to flavored feminine wipes. Mine did, and I’m better for it. Every company is a new puzzle. Every team teaches me something.

Let’s talk

The holidays are upon us, with 2027 growth initiatives not far behind. If you want to compare notes, or you’re staring down your own holiday surge and want a partner for it (and perhaps beyond), reach out. No pitch. Just a conversation.