For one-person and small businesses

Overwhelmed by the noise around AI?Let's find the first thing actually worth doing.

You are the whole company. Some of your work can go to AI, and some of it must not. In ninety minutes we sort out which is which, and what to do first.

Book a session, $250

You leave with at least one specific practical action you can take, or you do not pay.

Ninety minutes, online, anywhere in the world
South African clients R2,500

Fifteen years advising entrepreneurs and companies across the USA, UK and South Africa. Recognised by Marie Forleo, Ramit Sethi and Mark Manson.

What you actually get

Two ways to work.
Both end in writing.

The Session

$250
or R2,500 in South Africa
90 minutesOnlineBook directly

For the person running the business mostly alone, with more work than hours, who suspects AI could take some of it but finds only hype or tool lists online.

What you leave with

A written recommendation within two working days. Ordered, so the item at the top is the one that pays for the session.

Book a session
The detail
What happens

Ninety minutes, online. You bring the thing that is on your mind. We find where your time and your knowledge are actually leaking, what AI can take off you, what it must not touch, and what to do first. You prepare nothing.

Not for you if

You want someone to build it. That is Grow Brave Studios and I will point you there. Also not for you if you want a general conversation about AI. Bring something specific.

Your first week

You do the first item on the list. That is the whole assignment.

The guarantee

If you leave without at least one specific practical action you can take, you do not pay. Tell me within seven days.

The Half Day

$950
or R9,500 in South Africa
Five hours in totalOn site in Cape Town, or onlineBy enquiry

For when it is not one question. The way you work needs looking at end to end, and you want proper time on it rather than ninety minutes.

What you leave with

A written plan: what to change, in what order, what it costs and what it saves. Specific enough to hand to a builder, mine or anyone else's.

Enquire about a Half Day
The detail
What happens
01First working session, two hours
02A break, then a second working session, two hours
03A written plan within five working days
04A follow-up hour the following week, included
How long

Five hours of my time in total. Four of them together on the day, split into two working sessions with a break in between. The follow-up hour the next week is included, not billed on top.

Not for you if

You have not worked with me yet and you are not certain. Start with a Session. If you book a Half Day within ninety days, the Session comes off the price.

Your first week

We book the date and you send me nothing longer than one page about where you are stuck.

The guarantee

The same one. If we finish without a plan you can act on, you do not pay.

The Three Days

Not for sale, and deliberately not priced. Three days is for people I have already worked with, where the work has turned out to be deep enough to need it. Scope and travel vary too much to put a number on, so it is quoted each time. If this becomes you, you will know and so will I.

Where the line is

Two different sentences.

I need someone smart to think this through with me.The Brave Advisory
I have something I want built.Grow Brave Studios

I do not build it. If you decide to build it, Grow Brave Studios can, and the plan you leave with is specific enough to hand to them, or to anyone else you choose.

How people arrive

Three ways in. The same two ways to work.

Not three products. Three situations, all leading to the same place. Here is what to bring.

Door One

A decision to make

“We are about to spend money on this. Is it right?”

Your next stepBook a Session and bring the proposal, the quote or the tool.

Book How it runs
Door Two

A problem to solve

“This is broken, slow or expensive. Could AI help?”

Your next stepBook a Session and bring the process as it actually runs, not as it is supposed to run.

Book How it runs
Door Three

Curiosity about what is possible

“Nothing is broken. I want to know what I am not seeing.”

Your next stepBook a Session and bring one normal week of your work.

Book How it runs
About
Jacqueline du Plessis

One person. Several businesses. That is the method, not a boast.

I run the Advisory, a studio, a record label and a writing practice. There is one of me. The reason that is possible is the thing I sell.

Before this I spent a decade as a marketing consultant, marketing director and creative director, working with multimillion-dollar companies and independent founders across the USA, the UK and South Africa. My formal education is in Psychology. I am a creative technologist and creative strategist, not a software engineer, and I now direct AI to do work that used to need a team. I do it in my own business every day before I recommend any of it to yours.

I also keep parts of my own work by hand, on purpose. The joy and the growth are in doing those parts myself. Working out which parts those are, for you, is most of what a session is for.

AI can do a great deal of the work. It cannot be the one who answers for it. That seat stays human, and staying human takes practice.

Where cybersecurity, legal or financial expertise is needed, I will say so. I am not a substitute for it.

Praise

What can happen in one conversation?

Seeing the real problem

Jacqueline got right to the heart of my biggest business problem, which was giving me nightmares, and gave me a solution in one phone call. She knows how to cut through the noise and save you so much time and headaches.

Carolynn Ananian
Carolynn Ananian
Entrepreneur, USA

Jacqueline zoned right in on three major areas for improvement and new revenue streams, with fantastic, concrete suggestions and action steps that I could actually take.

Sarah Van Loon
Sarah Van Loon
Systems Consultant & Bookkeeper, USA
Getting unstuck

Jacqueline can make the difference between being stuck for two months or two days, and that difference matters a lot. If you're a top performer chasing big things, she's one of those people you want by your side.

Primoz Bozic
Primoz Bozic
Entrepreneur & Consultant, Slovenia

Working with Jacqueline helped me accelerate in ways I didn't realize before. The difference between where I was and where I am now is night and day.

Naveen Dittakavi
Naveen Dittakavi
Software Entrepreneur & Business Advisor, USA
Spotting the opportunity

During a massive product launch, she suggested one action, that required little effort on my part, that brought in almost $20k extra revenue.

Jason Zook
Jason Zook
Serial Entrepreneur & TEDx Speaker, USA

Jacqueline is extremely creative in her approach. She added remarkable value to our bottom line and our online presence, a true community builder and an invaluable asset.

Glenn Jakins
Glenn Jakins
Inventor & Serial Entrepreneur, USA
Confidence to act

Jacqueline came to our session already having researched our company and created several optional plans. Instead of feeling intimidated, I felt excited, confident and ready to take action.

Cara Hollenbeck
General Manager, USA

Jacqueline has single-handedly increased my vision and confidence, leading directly to savings of thousands of dollars within the first few months.

Heath Armstrong
Heath Armstrong
Podcaster & Online Entrepreneur, USA
All-round credibility

Jacqueline is a phenomenal marketing strategist and content marketer. When you hire her you can expect creativity and a passion for the work. She uses her background in Psychology to significant advantage, you are truly dealing with a top performer.

Michael Mercer
Michael Mercer
Creative Director & Entrepreneur, USA

These come from a decade of strategy and consulting work. The judgment is the same one. What has changed is what I now direct.

“a solution in one phone call” Carolynn Ananian
“almost $20k extra revenue” Jason Zook
“stuck for two months or two days” Primoz Bozic
“excited, confident and ready to act” Cara Hollenbeck
“concrete suggestions I could actually take” Sarah Van Loon
“savings of thousands of dollars” Heath Armstrong
“the difference is night and day” Naveen Dittakavi
“a true community builder” Glenn Jakins
“truly dealing with a top performer” Michael Mercer
“a solution in one phone call” Carolynn Ananian
“almost $20k extra revenue” Jason Zook
“stuck for two months or two days” Primoz Bozic
“excited, confident and ready to act” Cara Hollenbeck
“concrete suggestions I could actually take” Sarah Van Loon
“savings of thousands of dollars” Heath Armstrong
“the difference is night and day” Naveen Dittakavi
“a true community builder” Glenn Jakins
“truly dealing with a top performer” Michael Mercer
What goes back

Every session booked puts three indigenous trees in the ground through Greenpop, in your name, your company's name, or anonymously. Your call.

People raise the seedlingsPeople plant themTrees hold soilBirds and insects feedThe ground feeds peopleWhat is left compostsUrban harvestsSoup kitchensThen it starts again

There are human hands on it the whole way round. The trees hold the soil, feed birds and insects, and feed the fungal networks underneath that nobody photographs. What grows there feeds people. What people do not eat goes to compost through Ladles of Love's Feed the Soil programme, back into urban harvests, and on into Cape Town soup kitchens, where people cook it and people eat it.

I have been planting trees for years, along the Garden Route and at Greenpop Reforest Fest. This is not a campaign. It is something I was already doing, brought inside the business instead of kept beside it.

It is not an offset. Three trees do not cancel a data centre. Using these tools has a real cost, from the power and the water a data centre draws to the people whose work keeps it running, and I am one of the people using them. Putting something back does not make the transaction clean. It makes the cost visible rather than invisible, and it puts something back. That is the honest limit of it.

Read the whole of it

Before you book

The questions people ask first

What happens if the guarantee applies?

You email me within seven days and say the session did not give you a specific practical action you could take. I refund you in full and I do not ask you to justify it. There is no version of this where you argue with me about it.

I can offer this because of what my clients consistently say: the value shows up inside one conversation, not months later. If that stops being true I will stop offering it.

I don't know anything about AI. Is this too early for me?

It is exactly the right time. You do not need to know which tool you want, or whether AI is even the answer. You need to know your own business. I bring the knowledge of what is now possible.

What actually happens in the ninety minutes?

We start with your situation, not with technology. What you are trying to achieve, where the hours and the knowledge are leaking, what you already have. Then we look at what is newly possible, and just as importantly where human judgment and relationship need to stay central.

You prepare nothing. Come with the thing that is on your mind.

Are you going to sell me a big implementation project?

No. The Session ends with a written recommendation, not a proposal. If something worth building surfaces, the plan is specific enough to hand to any builder you like. Grow Brave Studios is one option and I will say so plainly, but often the honest answer is that you do not need to build anything at all.

Your testimonials are about marketing, not AI. Why trust you on this?

A fair question. Those testimonials are about my thinking, strategy and consulting: the judgment of cutting through noise and finding the real problem. That is the same faculty this work runs on. What has changed is what I now direct. I direct AI daily to research, synthesize, organize knowledge and ship things that used to need a whole team, across several businesses, on my own.

Do you have formal AI training, or is this just experience?

Both. Alongside daily hands-on use, I completed OutSkill's 3-Day Generative AI Bootcamp, and you can view my certificate here.

Formal training is only part of the picture. The real qualification is a decade of judgment work applied daily to AI since it became genuinely useful.

Is this for individuals or organisations?

My work is aimed at one-person and small businesses: founders, consultants, independent professionals and small teams. Larger organisations do book me, and the format is the same, but everything on this page is written for the person who is doing most of it themselves.

What does “recognised by Marie Forleo, Ramit Sethi and Mark Manson” mean?

In 2012, I was selected from nearly 400 entries as one of 10 winners of a full Marie Forleo B-School scholarship.

In 2015, I won Ramit Sethi's $1,000 Pitch Contest. “Jacqueline's pitch was the best, hands down,” Ramit wrote. “She built a website and took the time to write a mouth-watering pitch. Sold.”

In 2019, I was one of 16 applicants selected from more than 300 to advance to the second phase of Mark Manson's hiring process. In his private correspondence with me, he described my application as “incredibly impressive.”

Bring the thing that is on your mind.

Ninety minutes. $250, or R2,500 for South African clients. You leave with at least one specific practical action you can take, or you do not pay.

Loading the calendar. If it does not appear, book directly here or email me.

Every session booked plants three indigenous trees in Southern Africa, in your name if you want it.
Read what we put back

90 minutes$250 / R2,500
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