Hi, I'm Preston.
I run a small consultancy called Insights In Action. We help organizations get past their biggest operational challenges.
Why I started Insights In Action
I'd wanted my own company for a long time. What finally did it was a boss who was making decisions I didn't think were in our customers' interest. So I went and started Insights In Action, and now we help a lot of customers do great things.
I've done this work for nearly two decades, as a consultant to more than 200 organizations across banking, manufacturing, retail, food service and more. I led the largest business intelligence team at Amazon. My master's degree is in instructional design.
I believe anybody can run a business with the right guidance and support.
I live in the Salt Lake City area with my family and our dog, and I enjoy gardening.
Who I work with
The organizations I work with usually have between 10 and 500 employees. They tend to call when they feel they've tried everything else and want an expert opinion on how to proceed.
Most organizations aren't broken; they're just focused on the wrong problems. So the work starts with finding the Pace Point: the one thing that sets how fast the rest of the business can move.
How we work
FOCUS Framework
We use the FOCUS Framework to find the one problem worth solving first, so the effort goes where it makes the most difference.
- Find. We start by locating the Pace Point, the one thing that sets how fast the rest of your business can move.
- Optimize. Before adding resources, we extract every unit of performance from your existing system.
- Coordinate. Every team, tool, and workflow is reoriented to support — not starve — the optimized thing.
- Upgrade. With the Pace Point removed, we redirect the newly unlocked capacity toward your highest-value growth opportunities.
- Strategize. We build the repeating loop that finds the next Pace Point, so improvement becomes a permanent operating mode, not a one-time project.
Operational Physics
Organizations behave like physical systems: they have laws, patterns, and points of maximum leverage. Understanding those patterns lets us make precise interventions instead of broad ones. It's why our fixes stick.
Where AI fits
AI isn't always the right answer. Over the last five or six years I've used nearly 100 AI tools, worked out which ones are worth it, and built AI agents for customers. I'd like more people to see what AI can do for their organizations.
What you can expect
You'll know exactly what we're doing and why
No black-box consulting. Every diagnosis, recommendation, and AI deployment comes with a plain-language explanation.
We measure what changes
Every engagement defines success before it starts. If the Pace Point doesn't move, we haven't done our job.
We work inside your team, not above it
Our goal is to build your internal capability while solving the immediate problem, so you're not dependent on us forever.
The book
My first book, The Pace Point, is in the final stages of publication. Join the newsletter to hear when it's out.
The show
On The Insights in Action Show, real business owners share the lessons they've learned to help the next generation of owners make the move, or get past whatever they're stuck on.
Coming soon.