Consulting Across Ambiguous Client Problems.
Two client engagements and three case competitions spanning pricing, community research, market analysis, recommendation development, leadership, and final presentation QA.
Sky Rivers Advisory
I researched comparable firms, competitors, client/customer types, pricing, and marketing approaches; helped develop recommendations; and performed substantial final editing and error-checking. The client described the final deliverables as “five-star work” and expressed interest in future collaboration. I do not claim observed implementation.
Regional credit-union client
I combined interviews, local-community and historical research, online forums/social sentiment, and partnership research. The resulting recommendations covered schools, community organizations, space, and programming. The client gave strongly positive feedback and stated intent to use the work; implementation was not independently verified.
Disagreement works better when the evidence can move everyone
During the regional credit-union work, I disagreed with skepticism around using schools as a partnership / outreach channel. My reasoning was that schools operate under meaningful data-protection constraints, so the channel deserved to be evaluated on evidence rather than dismissed from intuition.
I did not try to win the disagreement by repeating the point more forcefully. I listened to the concern, brought back supporting evidence, and used the evidence to make the reasoning legible to the rest of the group. That experience reinforced a consulting habit I want to keep: disagreement is most useful when it improves the decision, not when it becomes a contest over who sounds more certain.
Learning to lead under competition pressure
I served as formal team lead, consolidated market research and data, developed recommendations with the team, and built presentation materials for a 10-year media-led growth roadmap around a $20 million capital opportunity / threefold valuation target.
Soybean/export case
When original teammates withdrew, I led an ad hoc replacement team, delegated workstreams by strengths, analyzed potential international target markets, and coordinated trade, finance, marketing, and contract research. The team did not advance from its bracket.
CIT graduation airline case
Another teammate was the formal lead. I took analytical initiative on difficult data gathering, carrier positioning, and market options including Vietnam, Singapore, and Indonesia.
Related writing
The consulting work reinforced how I use structured frameworks: as tools for connecting evidence and improving judgment, not as substitutes for either.