Brand
Brand and positioning
What you do, who it is for and why someone picks you, said in a way people can repeat. Then how it shows up: the identity, the website, and social and content that fit your time.
Consultancy for independent businesses
Brand. AI. Operations.
One consultant across all three, bringing a holistic approach to your business and what it needs.
When you run an independent business, everything runs through you. It can be overwhelming, and it is hard to know where to start.
In the age of AI, everything seems to move so fast that it is easy to feel like you are falling behind. I’m here to tell you that you’re not.
Bring what you are working on. We work out what to fix first, what to automate and what stays yours.
Paid consultancy, by the hour. Start with a 30-minute scoping call, then book hours with James at £1,000 + VAT as you need them.
Fifteen years of campaigns, brands and teams for
adidasPradaGoogleVogueMaison MargielaPop Magazine
Which of these have you said this week?
If you run an independent business, you have probably said at least one of them.
- I don’t know where to start.
- Everything still comes back to me.
- Our brand doesn’t say what we do any more.
- I know I should be posting. I don’t have the time.
- Everyone’s using AI. I’ve tried a few tools and nothing stuck.
- I feel like I’m falling behind.
- We’re paying for tools nobody uses.
- There’s nobody to ask who actually gets what I’m building.
If one of these is on your mind, that is what the hour is for.
Book a scoping call for £250 + VATThe starting point
Everything runs through you. So where do you start?
In an independent business, you are the brand, the operations and the person deciding which AI tool to try. Every new tool, post, hire and idea lands on you.
Brand, systems and AI each come with their own advice and their own experts, so they look like three separate problems. That is what makes it confusing to know which one to pick up first.
We look at them together: how you are positioned, how work moves, what gets automated and what only you should be doing. Then we pick the first thing to do.
At the heart of what I do is building a system that puts the pressure on the system, not the person.
What we work on
Three disciplines, one approach.
AI
AI in your business
Which tools are worth paying for, where they fit, and how you and your team use them day to day, from admin to content production. We start from what you already have.
Operations
Systems and logistics
How work moves through the business without going through you. Workflows, suppliers and production, the admin that eats your week, and the automations that take it off you.
On AI
AI is only as good as the person using it.
I teach you to automate and improve your business. I show you how to build the whole infrastructure: the systems, the automations, even the content production. You and your team put it in place, and all of it is there to take the weight off you.
It will never replace you, or the ideas that come from you, and it can’t have them for you. That part stays yours.
Selected work
A few examples of AI in the work.
How it works
Start small. Book more when it’s useful.
I meet you exactly where you are, wherever that is.
Book a scoping call
Tell me what you are working on. We work out whether I am the right person for it and what an hour should cover. The fee comes off your first hour if you book one.
Book an hour
One hour on one problem, or a run of hours to build something properly.
Leave with the next steps
The decisions we made, in the order to do them, written down so you can act on them the next morning.
Who you’d be talking to
James Hazlett‑Beard
I have spent fifteen years in advertising, working for leading agencies, building departments inside them and leading their teams. Alongside that I have built businesses of my own, and brought AI into how they run and how they make their work.
- AdvertisingFifteen years in the advertising industry. Worked for leading ad agencies, built departments for them and led their teams.
- Proven entrepreneurLaunched and ran a six-figure business. Founded Art Engine and Fuel Tank: campaigns, covers and billboards in New York and Paris, with teams of up to 150.
- AI in the workBrought AI into creative campaigns, including campaigns for adidas and Maison Margiela.
- Built with AIBuilt my coaching practice, expansion works®, from scratch: the brand, the coaching platform, and the automations behind its content, email and admin.
It’s not the right fit if…
- You want AI to come up with the ideas for you.
- You want a list of tools without changing how you work.
- You don’t have a business idea or a plan yet.
The investment
Two ways to book.
Start here
Scoping call
£250+ VAT · 30 minutes · comes off your first hour
We find out whether this is the right fit and what an hour should cover.
Book a scoping call for £250 + VATAdvisory hour
An hour with James
£1,000+ VAT · £1,200 in total
Your problem, worked through properly. Book one, or a run of hours for a bigger project.
Book an advisory hour for £1,000 + VATQuestions
Before you book.
Do I need to understand AI already?
No. We start from how your business runs today and add AI where it saves real time. If you can describe your week, you have enough to start.
Will AI replace people in my business?
That is not what I teach. AI is only as good as the person using it. We use it to take repetitive work off people, so their time goes on the work that needs them.
Why £1,000 an hour?
The hour is spent making decisions about your business, drawing on fifteen years of building brands, teams and systems. You pay for the hours you use and nothing else.
What can I bring to an hour?
Anything you are working on: a rebrand, a launch, a back office held together by spreadsheets, a tool you are not sure about, a decision you keep putting off.
Do you build it for us?
No. We consult, you action. I show you what to build, in what order and how, and you or your team put it in place between sessions. Bigger projects run as a series of hours, scoped on the scoping call.
What would you do with the hours back?
Book a scoping call and bring the thing you keep putting off.
Book a scoping call for £250 + VAT