Hire the Best Business Coaches in California

I help growing organizations solve the problems that come from moving fast: leadership gaps, funding gaps, and execution gaps. I'm a Ph.D. organizational psychologist with nearly a decade advising founders, CEOs, and executive teams through growth, leadership transitions, and increasing complexity. I'm Hogan-certified, and I bring the same rigor and follow-through to every project I take on, whether it's a leadership question or a deadline-driven deliverable. Leadership & Executive Assessment • Assess leadership readiness for the next stage of growth • Run validated executive assessments (Hogan) for hiring or promotion decisions • Build stronger leadership teams and reduce founder dependency Grant Writing & Strategic Proposals • Research, draft, and position proposals that get funded • Translate complex organizational goals into clear, compelling narrative Executive Operations & Fractional Support • Step into fractional executive ops or recruiting when a growing team needs experienced hands, not another hire • Manage the operational details that keep a fast-moving company on track Consulting & Execution • Advisory sprints for founders and executive teams navigating growth • Hands-on execution when a project needs someone who can think and deliver I care about doing the work well and doing it on time. If you need a conscientious, sharp partner for your next project, whatever kind of project it is, let's talk. Dr. Asha Gipson Founder & Principal, Addison Leadership Advisory

I help brands build marketing systems that actually drive results. With 10 years of experience in digital marketing, I specialize in social media strategy, campaign management, content systems, and HubSpot, working across B2B and B2C brands in education, financial technology, and professional services. As VP of Marketing and Content at a boutique digital marketing agency, I manage full-funnel campaigns for enterprise clients, including a Fortune 500 financial technology company and a national leader in early childhood education. My work spans organic social, paid media across Meta, Google, and LinkedIn, email marketing, webinar promotion, ambassador programs, and executive reporting. I am not a generalist who does a little of everything. I build systems. Whether that is a content calendar that runs like clockwork, a HubSpot campaign sequence that converts, or a social strategy that grows an audience and moves them toward action, I do the work cleanly and deliver on time. What you can expect: clear communication, no surprises, and deliverables that are client-ready without multiple rounds of back and forth.

I have a history of high success in both the corporate and startup worlds: - Founded Hiperwall, grew it into a global multi-million-dollar business without investors - Managed Zetera global sales, marketing and manufacturing, helped raise over $20M - Part of the 4 person team that launched the Westinghouse line of LCD televisions - Oversaw a corporate turn-around at Premier mounts, restoring profitability and growth - Grew Canon computer sales by over 20% while increasing gross margin by 13% - Increased Compaq notebook sales by 50% to $500M annually in less than 1 year - Received a Silver Anvil from the Public Relations Society of America, their highest award I began my career as a software engineer, working for large enterprises like McDonnell Douglass and Xerox, as well as startup Dayflo, named software company of the year by PC Magazine. Over time, I transitioned to a technical marketing role, then through product management, brand management, strategic planning and eventually into general management. In 2000 I shifted my focus to the world of hi-tech startups. Since that time, I have worked exclusively for emerging companies as a consultant, employee, advisor, board member or founder. I am an adjunct college professor, teaching start-up skills to would-be entrepreneurs. I hold multiple granted patents, with additional patents pending, and am a published author whose work has appeared in preeminent publications such as PC Magazine, U.S. News & World Report, PC Computing and Digital Signage Magazine.

I'm Mike Volkin, a fractional CMO who has built, scaled, and sold six of my own companies. I step in when growth has stalled and take ownership of the number that matters: revenue. 🎖️ Army veteran ✍️ 7-time author and speaker ⭐ 100% Job Success, 400+ successful jobs on Upwork ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🏆 SELECTED RESULTS ▪ Red light therapy company: launch to $60M in annual revenue 5 years later. ▪ Finance company: grew newsletter to over 300,000 subscribers in less than 4 years. ▪ Fitness company: sold product in over 20 different countries on a minimal budget. ▪ SaaS: reduce churn rate 37% within 2 months ▪ Coaching funnel: created a funnel for a business coach that improved lead generation 650% ▪ Agency: improved client retention 400%, Improved employee production tremendously, expanded service offerings without increasing headcount ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎯 WHO I WORK WITH Founders and CEOs of $1M to $50M businesses that have outgrown their marketing but don't need a $250K full-time executive. Ecommerce, SaaS, consumer products, and services. 🔎 WHEN CLIENTS HIRE ME ▪ Revenue has plateaued and nobody can say why. ▪ You're paying an agency or team and can't tell whether it's working. ▪ You're launching a product and need a go-to-market plan, not a logo and a website. ▪ Your email and lifecycle revenue is under 20% of total and should be higher. ▪ You need a marketing leader now and a full-time search will take six months. ▪ You're preparing to sell the company and need marketing that reads as a system, not a person. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔧 WHAT I FIX ✔ Positioning and offer: why buyers choose you over the alternative, in one sentence. ✔ Lifecycle and email revenue: flows that turn leads and customers into repeat revenue. ✔ Launch and go-to-market: channels, messaging, and a 90-day plan you can execute. ✔ Team and agency performance: who to keep, who to replace, what to measure. ✔ Funnel leaks: where leads die between click and close, and the fix. ✔ Unit economics: CAC, LTV, payback, and which channels deserve more budget. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🗓️ HOW AN ENGAGEMENT RUNS Week 1: I review your numbers, channels, and team, then deliver a written diagnosis and a marketing plan (not AI slop) Weeks 2 to 12: I run the plan with your team, contractors, and agencies. Making sure execution is flawless Day 90: you keep the plan, the systems, and the team. Stay on a lighter retainer or hand it to a full-time hire I help you recruit. Longer-term engagements are available. I've had clients that have been with me for years. 📦 WHAT YOU GET ▪ A written growth diagnosis with the three highest-return moves ranked ▪ A 90-day plan with owners, deadlines, and targets ▪ Briefs and direction for your team, contractors, and agencies ▪ A documented playbook you own when we finish 🤝 WAYS TO WORK TOGETHER Fixed-scope project: a strategy, launch, or lifecycle build with set deliverables and a fixed price. Fractional CMO retainer: ongoing leadership of your growth function on a monthly scope. Team and agency review: an independent read on whether your people and vendors are worth it. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🤖 WHY AI IS IN THE TOOLKIT I use AI and automation to remove manual work from lead nurturing, reporting, and content production. It lets me deliver executive-level output at a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire. I hold Google AI certifications and build with Claude, Make, and Zapier. It supports the strategy. It is not the pitch. ❓ COMMON QUESTIONS Do you run ads? I direct paid and organic channels and hold your team to the numbers. Hands-on execution is scoped separately. How much of my time do you need? One kickoff session and about 30 minutes a week. Will you work with my current agency? Yes. My expertise is working with agencies, keeping them accountable, and making sure they're doing a great job. Do you sign NDAs? Yes. 🚫 NOT A FIT IF You want a prompt engineer, a developer, or low-rate hourly task work. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━